So for me the month of May started at the last day of the TCM Classic Film Festival (you can see my coverage of that festival here at YAM Magazine). On that last day I saw one new-to-me film (Night Flight) and one of my all time favorites (West Side Story). What a great way to start the month! I saw less films this month than the other months in 2011 (you can see all those posts here), but I did manage to finally see all 123 film in the combined AFI 100 Years. . .100 Movies lists (the last two I needed to see were The Grapes of Wrath and Intolerance). I did A LOT of subbing towards the end of the month and I also MOVED TO SAN FRANCISCO. Yes, my friends, I am back in the big city. I love it here. My grad school starts up on the 20th, so my film watching will probably decline a little. But I do have big plans to see classic films on the big screen often at the Castro Theatre and I’ll actually be able to see all kinds of new releases. So this is great. The one downside: no. more. TCM. or DVR. This is going to be tough. I love TCM so much. I will miss that channel. I’ll probably go through withdrawal. But enough sadness, on to the 101 new-to-me films I did manage to watch in May.
- Night Flight (TCM Classic Film Festival)
- Swing Your Lady
- The Gay Sisters
- The Heavenly Body
- Close To My Heart
- Night Into Morning
- A Life of Her Own
- The Man Who Played God (1932)
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)
- Night People
- The Wrong Man (1956)
- Dark Journey
- Dear Heart
- Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941)
- The Teahouse of the August Moon
- The World Changes
- The Kennel Murder Case
- The Man With Two Faces
- Midnight
- The Nun’s Story
- Stepping Out (1991)
- Broadway Serenade
- Wild Orchids
- Room For One More
- Bathing Beauty
- Treasure Island (1934)
- How To Steal A Million
- Flesh (1932)
- Wild Boys of the Road
- Knock On Any Door
- Beyond The Rocks
- I Remember Mama
- The Young Rajah
- The Conquering Power
- Judgement at Nuremberg
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921)
- So Big (1953)
- Of Human Hearts
- Lured
- H.M. Pulham, Esq.
- The Sisters
- Confessions of a Nazi Spy
- The Roaring Twenties
- The Rocking Horse Winner
- The Demi-Paradise (aka Adventure for Two)
- Murder, She Said
- The Killing Fields
- The Conqueror
- Trade Winds
- The Woman on the Beach
- The Little Minister (1934)
- Break of Hearts
- A Woman Rebels
- Quality Street (1937)
- Little Women (1933)
- Neptune’s Daughter (1949)
- Pagan Love Song
- 49th Parallel (aka The Invaders)
- In This Our Life
- Lydia
- This Is The Night
- The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
- The Garden of Eden (1928)
- Wings of the Morning (1937)
- That Certain Woman
- The Mad Miss Manton
- Young Mr. Lincoln
- The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
- Viva Las Vegas
- Strange Interlude
- Woman Wanted (1935)
- Let Us Live
- The Day They Robbed the Bank of England
- Cairo
- The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)
- Where Danger Lives
- Bell, Book and Candle
- Side Street (1950)
- Cat People (1942)
- The Curse of the Cat People
- Johnny Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
- Dangerous When Wet
- His Kind of Woman
- All Fall Down
- My Brilliant Career
- Ordet
- Awakenings
- Intolerance: Love’s Struggle Throughout the Ages
- My Sister Eileen (1955)
- Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam (The Golem)
- Tickle Me
- My Sister Eileen (1942)
- The Doorway To Hell
- Midnight In Paris
- Paris When It Sizzles
- New York, New York
- The Year of Living Dangerously
- Bird of Paradise (1932)
- Julia Misbehaves
- Detective Story
- What Price Hollywood?
1900s: 0
1910s: 1
1920s: 7
1930s: 35
1940s: 22
1950s: 19
1960s: 10
1970s: 2
1980s: 2
1990s: 2
2000s: 0
2010s: 1
Though I watched less films this month than the previous months in the year, I saw so many great films it made it really difficult to pick just five favorites. I went through several stages and revisions. Eventually I wound up with this list, which quite surprisingly has no films from the 1930s in it (though I do want to point out I saw several really fabulous films from the 1930s this month and even reviewed three of them for YAM Magazine).
Dear Heart, 1964 (dir. Delbert Mann)
I DVR’d this while I was at the TCM Classic Film Festival and I’m really glad I did. I really love Glenn Ford (he’s a man’s man) in his film noir and westerns, so it was nice to see him in a romantic lead; he’s actually quite charming. Geraldine Page has got to be one of the most talented women Hollywood ever had, though she’s largely forgotten now. She was nominated for Best Supporting Actress four times and Best Actress four times, winning for her last nomination. But even in the roles she wasn’t nominated for she is fabulous. Dear Heart takes place over a few days in a hotel in New York City where Postmaster Evie (Page) is attending a convention. She meets womanizer Harry (Ford), who has recently gotten engaged to Phyllis (Angela Lansbury) to prove he is mature. Harry is a travelling salesman and thinks Phyllis has a young son, but it turns out he is in college and a hippie, with an equally counter-culture girlfriend (Michael Anderson, Jr. and Joanna Crawford). As always, chaos ensues. What I loved so much about the film was how sweet and tender and natural the relationship between Evie and Harry was. Also, Evie kind of reminded me of Poppy (Sally Hawkins) in Mike Leigh’s 2008 film Happy-Go-Lucky. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this film inspired him a little.
Judgement at Nuremberg, 1961 (dir. Stanley Kramer)
I might be writing an Oscar Vault Monday on this film soonish. I’m still kind of letting it sink in. This is definitely one of the greatest ensemble casts ever in one of the greatest courtroom films ever made. Stanley Kramer was one hell of a director and this may well be his masterpiece. The cast includes: Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Maximilian Schell, Werner Klemperer, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, William Shatner and Montgomery Clift. Everyone in the film is amazing, but Schell, Garland and Clift shine the brightest. I’ll definitely be writing more on this film later on in the year.
The Grapes of Wrath, 1940 (dir. John Ford)
This is another film I will probably be writing an Oscar Vault Monday post on sometime in the near future. I cannot believe I’d never seen this before. What a powerful film, and virtually perfectly filmed; there isn’t shot in film that cannot be turned into an exquisite still photograph. I know there are some detractors of this film that think it didn’t capture the era honestly. But I’m not 100% that was the point. Maybe it was overly dramatic and poetic. It’s art; it’s allowed to do that. Regardless, there’s no denying that Gregg Toland’s cinematography in this film is some of the finest Hollywood ever achieved. Henry Fonda also gives a heartrending performance as Tom Joad. I actually saw six or seven Henry Fonda films in May and I have to say he is really growing on me as an actor. This may well be his best performance, though.
Bell, Book and Candle, 1958 (dir. Richard Quine)
Kim. Novak. That is all. No, but really, she plays Gillian Holroyd a Greenwich Village dwelling witch (and basically a beatnik), who falls for her ordinary neighbor, publisher Shep Henderson (Jimmy Stewart). Also rounding out the cast are Jack Lemmon as Gillian’s warlock brother, Elsa Lanchester as Gillian’s aunt, Janice Rule as Shep’s fiance and Gillian’s old college rival and Ernie Kovacs as an author researching witches in New York City. Lanchester and Lemmon are a hoot in their roles and Stewart is as charming as ever. But it’s Kim Novak who really makes this film work. Her performance in this film may well be one of the sexiest things I have ever seen.
Midnight In Paris, 2011 (dir. Woody Allen)
As you all should remember I finished watching all 42 of Woody Allen’s feature films leading up to the release of his 43rd (and hosted a blogathon). Well, on Saturday I finally got to see Midnight In Paris and I was not disappointed. Not only is this the best film Allen has made in the last ten years or so, it’s one of the best films he’s ever made. Period. The entire cast (Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Kurt Fuller, Mimi Kennedy, Michael Sheen, Nina Arianda, Carla Bruni, Yves Heck, Alison Pill, Corey Stoll, Tom Hiddleston, Kathy Bates, Marion Cotillard, Marcial Di Fonzo Bo, Adrien Brody, and Adrien de Van) is amazing. I don’t want to spoil the film too much, but I will say that the role played by Corey Stoll is probably my favorite. Also Owen Wilson was surprisingly good. He played the role that would have been Allen’s when he was younger, but instead of trying to play it like Allen, he played it like Owen Wilson. And it worked, because when Wilson has a good script and a good role (usually this happens in Wes Anderson films), he is good. Well, he was good and charming and perfectly cast, really. I will more than likely be seeing this in theaters again soon. And will most definitely be buying it when it comes out on DVD. I also have high hopes for this film come Oscar time, I just hope it didn’t come out too early in the year for the Academy to remember it.
So that was May for me. How was your month? See anything really good? Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life opens here in San Francisco on Friday so I will be seeing that soon! There are only really a handful of June 2011 releases I am looking forward to seeing, but now that I’m here in the Bay Area again I’ll actually get to see them. How exciting is that!? See you next month and until then, you keep watching and I’ll keep watching and maybe we’ll discover some more gems.
