Day #68 - Wuthering Heights

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Heeeeeey Laurence Olivier :)

Wuthering Heights - ah, is this a romance? drama? tragedy? all of the above? What a GREAT movie - I really enjoyed it. Another 1939 classic, Wuthering Heights lost the Academy Award to Gone with the Wind, and I think, rightly so - but that being said, it was a fantastic movie. This was my first Laurence Olivier experience and OOH LA LA, what a man. Very handsome. Merle Oberon played Kathy and I didn't care for her much - she was alright, neither here nor there. You know who I really liked in it? The servant - Isabella, played by Geraldine Fitzgerald. She and Olivier were both nominated for Oscars but did not win. Wuthering Heights was directed by William Wyler.

This story revolves around the relationship of Heathcliff (Olivier) and Kathy (Oberon). When Kathy and her brother are kids, their Father brings home an boy from town - he acts as one of their servants but he and Kathy become really close friends. When their Father dies, Kathy's brother treats Heathcliff very poorly, and as Heathcliff and Kathy fall in love, they know they are forbidden to be together. Though Kathy loves Heathcliff, I think she was really tempted by the rich life of her neighbors and often used it against Heathcliff, knowing he could not give her that. One day, she meets her neighbor Edgar and as time passes he falls in love with her, proposing marriage. Kathy is forever torn - Heathcliff is her real love but Edgar could give her money and a lavish lifestlye. Eventually she chooses Edgar, and even after Heathcliff leaves for America and returns with money and status, even purchasing Wuthering Heights, she cannot be with him. Heathcliff marries Edgar's sister, not out of love, but out of a desire to be close to Kathy - he leads a miserable life. When Kathy becomes ill, he asks her to haunt him, to drive him mad - just not to leave him alone - and when she dies, she does haunt him until the day he joins her.

The only problem I had with this movie was that Heathcliff and Kathy were kind of unlikable - Kathy was in love with Heathcliff but kept choosing Edgar - what?! She wasn't in love with Edgar so really it just made her superficial. Heathcliff was passionate and brooding but not altogether a nice man - so in the end, I loved the movie but definitely want to learn more about the characters to see what I was missing.

Day #66 - 500 Days of Summer

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I have many different feelings about this movie. I just got back from seeing it - I had really high expectations and I was a bit disappointed. Two things I really liked about it - first of all, the story was REAL. It wasn't froo froo and full of happy endings and perfect situations and dialogue. Secondly, I knew going in I was going to love Zooey Deschanel, I already did - and sure enough, she was SO cute. That being said, I didn't care for the guy AT ALL - Joseph Gordon-Levitt. He just didn't make me care about him, I found him to not have much charisma or anything worth my attention. I know it's harsh, but hey - it's my blog :)

500 Days of Summer is about a guy, Tom, who meets Summer, a girl who works in his office. In a nutshell, he is a believer of love and relationships - she, however, does not believe that love exists. She prefers independence and freedom. As they begin their relationship, she tells him she doesn't want anything serious - he says OK, but you know he will try for that anyway. The movie actually starts by showing her breaking up with him, and the remainder of the movie takes you through the 500 days of Tom's life after the day he first met Summer. I've already talked about the actors and the story - but let me say about the style - it's very unique. I appreciate its originality but what on EARTH was going on with the mini coreographed dance in the middle of the movie? OH my goodness, no.

I'm going to label this as Romance - NOT Romantic Comedy....it's more of a Romanti Drama but I don't have that as a category ;)

Day #62 - The Time Traveler's Wife

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Everything I know about time travel I learned from Back to the Future - if you go back in time, don't run into yourself. If you change something in the past, it WILL affect the future. If you want to visit 1985, just punch it into the Delorian. 88 mph and a flux capacitor will get you there. At least with Back to the Future all of the questions were answered - you knew how to time travel and how to control it. I get really annoyed when movies (and TV shows - LOST anyone?) try to cover time travel and it makes NO SENSE. The Time Traveler's Wife was a nice love story and it certainly helped that Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana were the stars because I love them both - that being said, the more I think about the story, the more questions I generate.

*Spoilers*

SO - he time travels....and he can't control when he leaves. He goes to the same places a lot so can he control where he goes? He finds out from a doctor that he has a genetic anomaly....but then there seems to be no more tests as to how to fix it or how he can control it. They have a child who can time travel yet she can control it. SO this begs the question, why did she not teach him? Especially when they find out he's going to die there is still no attempt at trying to fix it. He asks his daughter ONCE how she controls leaving and she says she sings...so they sing together and he goes anyway. Is that really the only attempt?

I believe that if you are going to incorporate time travel into your story, you need to answer all of these questions for people like me. If you are going to write it in willy-nilly, then use another idea. Like with LOST - Good Lord, does anyone know what's going on? There are SO many questions with the time travel aspect that it's just frustrating.

So even though I seem very irritated, it is actually an enjoyable movie if you can go in knowing you won't get all your questions answered - I'm so biased because I love Rachel McAdams - she is so great!

Day #58 - Love in the Afternoon

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Another random choice :) - this one from Audrey Hepburn day on TCM! Love in the Afternoon was a cute but strange movie. I think I would have liked it more if I had been even remotely convinced at the romance between Audrey Hepburn and Gary Cooper. He was much too serious and just seemed SO much older than her...there wasn't much chemistry, I don't know...has anyone else out there seen it? Julia? I did like it though, it was a cute story. Let me take a few steps back...

Audrey Hepburn plays Arianne, the daughter of a Parisian detective who is hired by men to spy on their wives when they suspect them of cheating. As a result, his house is full of files and pictures that Arianne loves to read through. One night, she overhears one of her father's clients say he is going to kill the man sleeping with his wife - Frank Flanagan, an American playboy and womanizer. Arianne rushes out to warn him, even though she had never met him before. She saves Frank from getting shot and finds herself meeting him the following day. Over the course of the next few weeks while Frank is in Paris, Arianne sees him in the afternoons as she cant' get away from her father in the evenings. She spins this whole tale of herself to Frank, leading him to believe she is also out with other people a lot and is no more attached to him than he is to her....however, as time goes on, they both know they are starting to fall in love! When Frank finds out who Arianne really is, a detetive daughter who lives at home and spends her time with only ONE man, he leaves, trying to save her from his lifestyle.....but can he really leave? Of course not! We all know how this turns out :)

Gary Cooper to me is SOOO Christopher Plummer. That's all I can think about when I see him. I much prefer Gary Cooper in High Noon than in this kind of romantic role. He and Audrey separately are fantastic but together.....not so much. Billy Wilder co-wrote and directed this movie and really wanted Cary Grant to be in it, but he said no. I am wondering if Cary Grant had issues with Audrey...he never did a movie with her and was offered one more than once. This, by the way, is my SIXTH Billy Wilder movie, can you believe it?!

Day #27 - Sabrina

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Sabrina is a 1954 movie directed by Billy Wilder and starring Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn and William Holden. This is my second Billy Wilder AND William Holden movie of the challenge after Sunset Boulevard - it's also my second Audrey Hepburn movie after Funny Face. Random comment - when I was watching The Holiday the other day, I was listening to the commentary and the director was constantly talking about Billy Wilder which made me really curious about him. So I looked him up on IMDB and then I just felt ridiculous for not knowing how renowned of a director he was. 21 Oscar nominations, including nominations for Director, Writer and Best Picture - among those were 6 wins. I'm hoping to pick up Stalag 17 and The Apartment soon...maybe Double Indemnity.

Anyhoo - (my second paragraphs always start with "anyhoo"...I need a new format!) - Sabrina was so cute!! I really, really liked it. William Holden was much better looking than I remembered him being in Sunset Boulevard and I found Humphrey Bogart to be really charming! Audrey Hepburn was OF COURSE cuter than anything ever - it was only her second movie since Roman Holiday. I just love her. Everything she does is adorable, except for in Funny Face, which was just not cool. Romance movies were so different then - now, writers and directors really don't hold anything back. It's kind of nice to see it much more subdued.

A bit of trivia - Audrey Hepburn wore Givenchy for most of the movie and actually hand picked her outfits from his collection. This was the beginning of a lifelong collaboration between them. Also, Audrey Hepburn and William Holden fell in love during the filming of Sabrina - but apparently she broke it off after learning he couldn't have children. Poor guy.