....New Plans!

.....as you all have noticed, my movie watching has dwindled considerably. With the holidays just around the corner I have found it difficult to keep up with movies while painting and keeping Mootinis running! Crazy times but good times :) So be patient and I'll do my best - my revised goal is to make it to 100 movies total! I'm really excited because once I reach 100 movies I'm going to make a nice big juicy post about all my favorites along the way - people and movies who surprised me (Spencer Tracy)....and those that were exactly what I hoped for (Jimmy Stewart) :) It's going to be a lot of fun. Number 84 will be Arsenic and Old Lace. At that point I need to take a serious look at my list and make sure the remaining 16 movies are MUST SEES. So help me out if you have any ideas!!

Day #83 - Gigi

IMDB Link-

Yesterday I watched Gigi - going in with no expectations I came out feeling fine about it...just fine. Not crazy one way or another. The story has been told so many times it's hard to be too moved by it - basically any story of a girl who is in love with an older man but doesn't catch his attention until she is all made over. Think My Fair Lady - in Paris.

Leslie Caron plays Gigi, a young French girl who is raised by her Grandmother and her Aunt, a high-mannered and elegant woman who never married but has plenty of lessons and knowledge to impart on Gigi, namely, how to properly walk, sit, talk and eat. Gigi of course is beautiful but sloppy - she runs everywhere, plops in her seat, and tells it like it is. Louis Jordan plays Gaston, a rich bachelor whose exploits land him in the daily news pretty consistently. Finding the rich life and its women and company a bore, Gaston finds company in Gigi and her Grandmother. After spending a weekend away with Gigi - Gaston and Gigi still see each other as just friends.....but at the same time, Gigi's Grandmother and Aunt see a huge opportunity to bring them together. When the idea is presented to Gaston, he at first is appalled - after all, Gigi is just a baby! After a bit though, he realizes that he is actually in love with her....and well, the rest you can fill in.

I didn't know that Gigi was going to be a musical - and it was a strange kind of musical to me. The songs were more talking than singing. It was the first Lerner/Loewe musical since My Fair Lady, so ....I must not be a big fan of them because most of you know how I feel about My Fair Lady...Audrey or not. Maurice Chevalier narrates the piece and has the same kind of talking/singing. He's very handsome though and I love his accent. I read that he actually acted with a stronger accent than what he had in real life and that he was a real penny pincher. Anyhoo, the thing about musicals is that I don't actually like them very much. It's strange though because The Sound of Music is arguably my favorite movie of all time - but yet when I see OTHER musicals I don't like them!! This one felt very Mary Poppins'y, just in the sense of it's color and feel. Why were movies so oversaturated?? So essentially, it was a cute movie but I would recommend others is this is the feel you are going for :)

Gigi won many Academy Awards in 1958 - Best Picture, Best Writing, Best Score, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Director, Best Film Editing and Best Song. WHEW! 9 wins overall. That surprises me a bit.

Day #82 - Harvey

IMDB Link

Harvey, I wanted to like you. I really did. ....but you know, I didn't. In fact, I was over you about an hour in. This one was hard for me - I love, love, love Jimmy Stewart so I figured as long as he was in it I was good to go. Just seeing him at the opening of the movie made me smile and laugh. What really drove me crazy, and I mean CRAZY, about this movie was Josephine Hull who played Veta, Elwood Dowd's (Jimmy Stewart's) sister. I'm sorry, but I found her to be SO annoying - her constant whining and crying and fretting about drove me mad. It certainly didn't help that she had such a big part in the movie. ....interestingly enough, she won an Academy Award for her role. Honestly, with some of these old movies I really wonder what the Academy was thinking.....harsh, I know.

Harvey is the story of Elwood P. Dowd. Elwood lives with his sister and her daughter, Myrtle May, in the house he used to share with his mother before she passed. All would be well except that Elwood has a best friend who has created a lot of problems for Veta and Myrtle - this best friend just happens to be Harvey - and Harvey happens to be a 6 foot 3 1/2 inch rabbit. Along the way we learn that Harvey came about just after Elwood's mother passed, and we as the audience should assume that this is how he dealt with the trauma of the loss. He befriends everyone he knows and spends most of his time with Harvey, drinking at the local bar. When he introduces Harvey to a group of socialites dining with his sister and niece, they are so embarassed that they decide to commit him to the local institution. When they take Elwood there, a huge mix-up occurs which ends Veta in the institution and Elwood out of it! Once they figure out the mistake, Elwood is gone and they set out to find him. The thing about Elwood is that even though he sees Harvey, he is such a good man that the doctors and nurse at the institution really start to care for him. In fact, by the end of the movie, the head doctor is convinced that he also sees Harvey. Veta stays dedicated to committing Elwood until the end, when she realizes that even though he has some issues, he is far more pleasant as is than if she were to change him through medication. Thus, a happy ending.

Harvey was based on a Pulitzer-Prize winning book and Jimmy Stewart also portrayed Elwood P. Dowd on Broadway. I believe Josephine Hull was also part of the Broadway cast, oh joy. In the film, Elwood refers to Harvey as a "pooka", which basically means that he is an apparition which usually takes the form of a large animal, in this case, a rabbit. Although the only other person to see Harvey is the doctor, I think as the audience we are not led to believe that he for sure does or does not exist....it's an interesting way to tell a story.

Word has it that Steven Spielberg is remaking this movie in 2010 - the latest rumor is that Robert Downey, Jr. will play Elwood P. Dowd. I don't think he looks or acts much like Jimmy Stewart - I think Tom Hanks would be a good choice - but I don't put anything past Robert Downey Jr.....he's extremely talented.