Day #46 - Rear Window

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So right off the bat I'm thinking, I dunnoooo, I'm just not a big Hitchcock fan ....I don't think I'm gonna liiiiike this....but I looooove Jimmy Stewart, right? So I HAVE to give it a whirl, right? Right.

...and voila! I loved it :) Honestly I did not know how this movie was going to end until the very last minutes and I was really surprised! It's so exciting when that happens because movies tend to be fairly predictable and formulaic - I found Rear Window to be unlike any movie I've seen. I loved that the movie never left the set of the apartments - and that everything you saw was through the eyes of Jimmy Stewart. As the documentary helped me to see, Hitchcock set up the movie so that as a viewer, you saw something happen in another apartment, then you cut to Jimmy Stewart's reaction and you can't help but react as he does. So you actually follow the mystery of the movie right along with him....except for that little tidbit of info that the viewer gets that he does not! I won't ruin it :)

Rear Window is about L.B. Jeffries (Stewart), a photographer who is bound to his wheelchair after suffering a broken leg. Because he isn't able to get out and about on his own, he spends most of his time staring out his apartment window, spying on his neighbors' activities. One night, he sees some suspicious activity at the apartment across the way, where a man has been caring for his invalid wife. He starts to suspect that the man murdered his wife, and as the next couple of days go on, he sees more and more to lead him to believe his theory is true. His girlfriend Lisa, played by the beautiful Grace Kelly, at first thinks that his imagination has run wild - that is, until she sees some of the suspicious behavior for herself. By the end of the movie, Jeffries, Lisa, and Jeffries' nurse Stella are all working together to solve the mystery. As this story moves along, we also get a glimpse into the lives of some of Jeffries' other neighbors, adding some depth the the movie.

As usual, I adored Jimmy Stewart....he's just a man after my heart, I love him so much :) I love that every line he delivers feels like he's doing an impression of himself. This is the first movie I have seen of his in color so that was nice - he has blue eyes!

Day #35 - Chinatown

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Okay, so I know I was supposed to love this movie - I mean, it's a classic, right? Either I missed something entirely or it just wasn't my type of thing, but I didn't care for this movie at all. In fact, about 2 hours in, I asked Chris when the torture was going to end and checked the timer.

Here's the thing about mysteries. I like a good mystery, I really do - but I have to feel confident that as the movie goes along I am getting enough clues to understand the solution once it's revealed to me. I have to feel like, okay, I have all the pieces except for a couple....but what I really hate are mysteries where I feel like I'm not getting any of the information and so when the solution comes it will mean nothing to me. Chinatown was in the middle of these two dilemmas. The Usual Suspects is a perfect example of the first type of mystery whereas Mulholland Drive is a perfect example of the second. With Chinatown, I was pretty confused for most of the movie and when the end came, it was really interesting, but the journey was frustrating for me. I really just didn't care at all by the time the movie ended.

Chinatown was a 1974 Roman Polanski directed movie starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway, neither of which I liked. I know, shoot me. What was the big deal? Roger Ebert just raaaaved about Nicholson but it escapes me. IMDB calls it "neo-noir" while little peon me just thinks it's film-noir...what is the difference? I don't know. I actually liked the story behind the movie more after reading about it on Wikipedia after - Jack Nicholson's character is based on William Mulholland and the story in Chinatown is based on the real life water wars that came about as water from the fields/farms outside of LA were piped in to provide water to the valley. Maybe I should have read this BEFORE the movie but alas....I did not. Let me know your thoughts, if you have seen it. The poster is pretty awesome though :)