What I have been watching
Apr. 11th, 2019 10:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scripsiI’m still on a George Sanders trip. A lot of his movies can be found on Youtube, which is nice, even if the quality isn’t always very good.
The Moon and Sixpence is a 1942 movie based on a 1919 book by Somerset Maugham, which in turn is loosely based on Paul Gauguin's life. I’m going to spoil you now because I really don’t think you should see this movie unprepared. I have a lot of feels about it, and most of them are not good.
It takes place in the late 19th century and George Sanders plays a middle-aged stockbroker, Charles Strickland. He’s considered a bore, but one day he abandons his wife and children and moves to Paris. The assumption is that he was run away with a woman, but it turns out he has done it so he can become an artist. He struggles for a few years- his poverty is partly because he refuses to sell any of his paintings, despite being a brilliant artist. When he becomes dangerously ill he is taken in by a fellow painter who is a mediocre artist, but a good human being, and his very reluctant wife Blanche. When Strickland regains his health, the Blanche leaves her husband for him. Sometime later he throws her out, and she kills herself. Eventually, Strickland moves to Tahiti, where he marries a native 14-year old girl, Ata. The marriage is actually happy, but then he gets leprosy and dies.
So. It’s not a bad movie, per ce. The director made the somewhat odd choice of having an author who knows Strickland narrate which means a large part of the movie is the narrator speak with other people who have met Strickland, or with a voice-over while the actors act out what the narrator says. I don’t think it’s a good choice, as several scenes are only related to us, like Strickland breaking up with Blanche, her death, and also later his death, which removes you from the story. The copy in youtube is not very good, but it seems several kinds of film was used to help convey different feelings- grainy sepia in London and Paris, clearer black-white for Tahiti, and the last sequence, when we are finally allowed to see Strickland's paintings, in vivid colours, which I’m sure would have been very effective.
George Sander is really, really good in this movie. As so much of his story has a voice-over you really get to see how well he handled his body-language to convey feelings. And his portrayal of a man who is consumed by the need to paint is very effective indeed. At this point in his career, he was still a rising star and hadn’t yet become typecast as charming manipulative villains. He’s not the least charming here. In fact, he has no redeeming features at all, if one doesn’t count his creative genius. And perhaps his honesty. Strickland doesn’t lie and manipulate; throughout the story, he is completely open with his intentions, and the people who get hurt by him does so because they choose to get involved with him despite his warnings.
And with that, we come to the movies many problems, which rendered it one of the most upsetting and revolting movies I have ever seen. I agree that this kind of, invariably male, creative genius can be very much like Strickland. Men who think they are so good that they can behave any way they want. A more non-toxic example is the young man I went to art school with who stole as much clay he could carry from the school, because “he needed it to create” Blithely unconcerned that we were all in this school because of our artistic prowess, and he didn’t have the right for more supplies than any of us. And yes, he was very, very good. He still didn’t have any God-given right to provide himself with what he needed to the cost of others.
But, Strickland Is also deeply misogynist. Throughout the movie, he spews lines about women’s lack of intelligence, their inferiority, how they are like dogs and loves you more when you beat them, etc. He despises his first wife and Blanche because they want things from him, and his proposal to Ata is literally him telling her he will beat her, and she responding with an of course, how else will I know you love me. Now, this behaviour is (mostly) deeply disapproved of by the other characters, and it wasn’t seen as OK by the audience of 1942- there was a lot of protest from women over this portrayal. But though Strickland’s contempt is frowned upon by the other characters, it’s never discussed WHY his first wife and Blanche need something from him. We are in a Victorian setting, a time where women desperately needed a man’s money and social standing to have any of her own. His first wife divorced him, but a divorced woman was a social pariah in Victorian society, even if she was without fault. Blanche, we learn, has already been seduced and abandoned before her marriage, and it isn’t exactly unusual for people to do the same emotional mistake over and over. Especially as women for centuries, and which this move spells out in no uncertain way, have been socialized into thinking a real man is indifferent and cruel, and it’s impossible for her to love a kind and good-hearted man. Also, Strickland is played by George Sander who definitely was very handsome and attractive.
And then we have Ata. As a marriage between a girl of 14 and a man about 50 can’t be anything than a case of statutory rape and complete ickiness, I can at least say we don’t also have to deal with a desperately unhappy child bride too. (Gauguin was even worse- he made a child of 13 pregnant.) The marriage is initiated because an older relative of Ata notices the girl’s infatuation with Strickland, and it’s clear the wedding night is initiated by her. And despite Strickland’s warning of beating her, there is absolutely no indication he actually does. He only touches her once on screen, and then it’s to very tenderly washing blood from her face. He also, eventually, admits that he loves her. BUT, Ata is completely subservient to him. She gives everything and asks for nothing; she provides him with a house and an income so he can paint. When he contracts leprosy she stays and nurses him, giving up their child, which she clearly loves deeply, to do so. Nursing him also makes her a social outcast, and in the end also without a home, as she, following Strickland’s last wish, burns the house filled with his paintings. I really can’t express how much I disliked Ata’s story. Also, to make it worse, wife beating as a form of showing love is also expressed by her older relative who happily reminisces over her first husband who beat her black and blue and who she still misses.
(It may be worth noting that the sleaziness of a grown man with a teenager didn’t spill over into real life. Sanders was 36 and Elena Guarda who played Ata 16 when the movie was made and she remembered him as kind and paternal, giving her useful hints on acting.)
And, of course, we have the matter of the natives of Tahiti. I guess a plus is that they mostly are not played by white actors, which is always a surprise in a 1940’s movie. And I don’t know anything about the culture of Tahiti to know how well it’s depicted. But the Tahitians is clearly depicted as a happier simpler people, living their lives in serenity with nature.
A very mixed bag, in other words. It was an interesting movie, if repulsive and I think it can be worth watching as a starting point n a discussion on misogyny and the still perpetuated myth that women can only love a man who treats her badly.
The Foreign Correspondent is a Hitchcock movie from 1940 about an American journalist who goes to Europe to report, just before WWII breaks out. Watching it nearly 80 years later you have seen it before; using a doppelganger to hide a kidnapping, the car race, villains trying to get to the hero disguised as police officers, the kind philanthropist who is really a villain, fleeing from a room by climbing out of the window and int another room, fleeing a room by jumping out of a window and landing safely on a awning. All so familiar, but it was probably where it happened first. All in all a good product of its time, with a very strong message for the USA to enter the war. George Sanders is unusually not a villain, but second hero, ie the one who doesn’t get the girl.
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir I have been recommended this movie so many times, but as I don’t much care about Rex Harrison I have avoided it. Of course, I liked it very much. A young and pretty widow moves into a house haunted by its late owner, a sea captain. Instead of being afraid of the ghost Mrs. Muis strikes up a friendship with him, and they fall in love. But then she meets a living man, a charming, if a somewhat sleazy man, played with flair by George Sanders. Gene Tierney was adorable as Mrs. Muir and for the first time ever I could see the sexiness of Rex Harrison as Captain Daniel. Definitely worth a watch.
I also had a sense of double-vision when I watched it- I knew the story sooo well, despite knowing I hadn’t seen it before. But apparently there were a TV-series from the early 1970’s, so I suspect I must have seen it as a child.
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, season 2. So I was wrong with Nick being Lucifer, but I wasn’t completely off the mark as he had been told by Lucifer to keep an eye and help Sabrina. It was, of course, inevitable for Nick to sacrifice himself then. Overall I liked season 2 better, and it was more even. Sabrina was given the opportunity to grow up a little. I liked how Sabina’s human friends were given more room. I thought Susie transition into Theo was nicely handed. I enjoyed Ambrose being the series damsel in distress. I really liked Prudence longing to be accepted and loved by her father, and her struggle with that longing as it’s more and more revealed what a completely shitty human being he is. I like how Hilda and Zelda’s relationship evolved. And Hilda’s boyfriend was just adorable. I enjoyed Madame Satan breaking free and becoming her own agent. I’m not sure about Ambrose and Prudence morphing into a couple. Luke was a boring character and Ambrose is stated as pansexual in the first season, but I don’t particularly want Ambrose and Prudence as a couple, even if I really liked their interactions if you know what I mean. The themes of misogyny patriarchy and the evilness of Father Blackwood are rather heavy-handed. On the other hand, perhaps it needs to be super visible as these are structures we live with, and a more subtle approach not have been noticed.
I already know two more seasons are planned, but I thought it could have ended quite naturally here. The only thing left hanging was Father Blackwood’s escape, but with Ambrose and Prudence after him, it’s easy to imagine they will catch up with him. But I’m not sorry there will be more.
Also, with all the pop culture references the show indulges in, it was only fitting that Dorian Grey’s portrait was based (or perhaps really was the actual prop) on the one used in the 1945 movie version of The Portrait of Dorian Grey. And I was not the slightest surprised when the sculpture at the magic school was destroyed, as they were being sued by The Church of Satan over it.
I liked season 2 of The OA better than season 1 as well. I generally like the trope “parallel universes”, and I thought it was nicely handled. It’s still a very, very odd show, but also interesting and well-acted. I haven’t seen Brit Marling n anything else, so I don't know her range, but Jason Isaacs is superb, as usual. He is always good as villains, of course, but Hap’s genuine believe he is good and what he is doing will be for the benefit of humanity, makes him really scary. Because it justifies abduction, imprisonment, torture, and murder. And now he actually have had sex, and realised his obsession for Prairie is love (if extremely one-sided), I really don’t like how the series ended. I really hope we get more! I also liked the addition of PI Karim. He and Prairie/Nina had such nice chemistry, and I wonder if he really is “the brother” mentioned in passing that she claims she never had. So, still lot of questions and the odd plot hole, but good anyway.
The Moon and Sixpence is a 1942 movie based on a 1919 book by Somerset Maugham, which in turn is loosely based on Paul Gauguin's life. I’m going to spoil you now because I really don’t think you should see this movie unprepared. I have a lot of feels about it, and most of them are not good.
It takes place in the late 19th century and George Sanders plays a middle-aged stockbroker, Charles Strickland. He’s considered a bore, but one day he abandons his wife and children and moves to Paris. The assumption is that he was run away with a woman, but it turns out he has done it so he can become an artist. He struggles for a few years- his poverty is partly because he refuses to sell any of his paintings, despite being a brilliant artist. When he becomes dangerously ill he is taken in by a fellow painter who is a mediocre artist, but a good human being, and his very reluctant wife Blanche. When Strickland regains his health, the Blanche leaves her husband for him. Sometime later he throws her out, and she kills herself. Eventually, Strickland moves to Tahiti, where he marries a native 14-year old girl, Ata. The marriage is actually happy, but then he gets leprosy and dies.
So. It’s not a bad movie, per ce. The director made the somewhat odd choice of having an author who knows Strickland narrate which means a large part of the movie is the narrator speak with other people who have met Strickland, or with a voice-over while the actors act out what the narrator says. I don’t think it’s a good choice, as several scenes are only related to us, like Strickland breaking up with Blanche, her death, and also later his death, which removes you from the story. The copy in youtube is not very good, but it seems several kinds of film was used to help convey different feelings- grainy sepia in London and Paris, clearer black-white for Tahiti, and the last sequence, when we are finally allowed to see Strickland's paintings, in vivid colours, which I’m sure would have been very effective.
George Sander is really, really good in this movie. As so much of his story has a voice-over you really get to see how well he handled his body-language to convey feelings. And his portrayal of a man who is consumed by the need to paint is very effective indeed. At this point in his career, he was still a rising star and hadn’t yet become typecast as charming manipulative villains. He’s not the least charming here. In fact, he has no redeeming features at all, if one doesn’t count his creative genius. And perhaps his honesty. Strickland doesn’t lie and manipulate; throughout the story, he is completely open with his intentions, and the people who get hurt by him does so because they choose to get involved with him despite his warnings.
And with that, we come to the movies many problems, which rendered it one of the most upsetting and revolting movies I have ever seen. I agree that this kind of, invariably male, creative genius can be very much like Strickland. Men who think they are so good that they can behave any way they want. A more non-toxic example is the young man I went to art school with who stole as much clay he could carry from the school, because “he needed it to create” Blithely unconcerned that we were all in this school because of our artistic prowess, and he didn’t have the right for more supplies than any of us. And yes, he was very, very good. He still didn’t have any God-given right to provide himself with what he needed to the cost of others.
But, Strickland Is also deeply misogynist. Throughout the movie, he spews lines about women’s lack of intelligence, their inferiority, how they are like dogs and loves you more when you beat them, etc. He despises his first wife and Blanche because they want things from him, and his proposal to Ata is literally him telling her he will beat her, and she responding with an of course, how else will I know you love me. Now, this behaviour is (mostly) deeply disapproved of by the other characters, and it wasn’t seen as OK by the audience of 1942- there was a lot of protest from women over this portrayal. But though Strickland’s contempt is frowned upon by the other characters, it’s never discussed WHY his first wife and Blanche need something from him. We are in a Victorian setting, a time where women desperately needed a man’s money and social standing to have any of her own. His first wife divorced him, but a divorced woman was a social pariah in Victorian society, even if she was without fault. Blanche, we learn, has already been seduced and abandoned before her marriage, and it isn’t exactly unusual for people to do the same emotional mistake over and over. Especially as women for centuries, and which this move spells out in no uncertain way, have been socialized into thinking a real man is indifferent and cruel, and it’s impossible for her to love a kind and good-hearted man. Also, Strickland is played by George Sander who definitely was very handsome and attractive.
And then we have Ata. As a marriage between a girl of 14 and a man about 50 can’t be anything than a case of statutory rape and complete ickiness, I can at least say we don’t also have to deal with a desperately unhappy child bride too. (Gauguin was even worse- he made a child of 13 pregnant.) The marriage is initiated because an older relative of Ata notices the girl’s infatuation with Strickland, and it’s clear the wedding night is initiated by her. And despite Strickland’s warning of beating her, there is absolutely no indication he actually does. He only touches her once on screen, and then it’s to very tenderly washing blood from her face. He also, eventually, admits that he loves her. BUT, Ata is completely subservient to him. She gives everything and asks for nothing; she provides him with a house and an income so he can paint. When he contracts leprosy she stays and nurses him, giving up their child, which she clearly loves deeply, to do so. Nursing him also makes her a social outcast, and in the end also without a home, as she, following Strickland’s last wish, burns the house filled with his paintings. I really can’t express how much I disliked Ata’s story. Also, to make it worse, wife beating as a form of showing love is also expressed by her older relative who happily reminisces over her first husband who beat her black and blue and who she still misses.
(It may be worth noting that the sleaziness of a grown man with a teenager didn’t spill over into real life. Sanders was 36 and Elena Guarda who played Ata 16 when the movie was made and she remembered him as kind and paternal, giving her useful hints on acting.)
And, of course, we have the matter of the natives of Tahiti. I guess a plus is that they mostly are not played by white actors, which is always a surprise in a 1940’s movie. And I don’t know anything about the culture of Tahiti to know how well it’s depicted. But the Tahitians is clearly depicted as a happier simpler people, living their lives in serenity with nature.
A very mixed bag, in other words. It was an interesting movie, if repulsive and I think it can be worth watching as a starting point n a discussion on misogyny and the still perpetuated myth that women can only love a man who treats her badly.
The Foreign Correspondent is a Hitchcock movie from 1940 about an American journalist who goes to Europe to report, just before WWII breaks out. Watching it nearly 80 years later you have seen it before; using a doppelganger to hide a kidnapping, the car race, villains trying to get to the hero disguised as police officers, the kind philanthropist who is really a villain, fleeing from a room by climbing out of the window and int another room, fleeing a room by jumping out of a window and landing safely on a awning. All so familiar, but it was probably where it happened first. All in all a good product of its time, with a very strong message for the USA to enter the war. George Sanders is unusually not a villain, but second hero, ie the one who doesn’t get the girl.
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir I have been recommended this movie so many times, but as I don’t much care about Rex Harrison I have avoided it. Of course, I liked it very much. A young and pretty widow moves into a house haunted by its late owner, a sea captain. Instead of being afraid of the ghost Mrs. Muis strikes up a friendship with him, and they fall in love. But then she meets a living man, a charming, if a somewhat sleazy man, played with flair by George Sanders. Gene Tierney was adorable as Mrs. Muir and for the first time ever I could see the sexiness of Rex Harrison as Captain Daniel. Definitely worth a watch.
I also had a sense of double-vision when I watched it- I knew the story sooo well, despite knowing I hadn’t seen it before. But apparently there were a TV-series from the early 1970’s, so I suspect I must have seen it as a child.
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, season 2. So I was wrong with Nick being Lucifer, but I wasn’t completely off the mark as he had been told by Lucifer to keep an eye and help Sabrina. It was, of course, inevitable for Nick to sacrifice himself then. Overall I liked season 2 better, and it was more even. Sabrina was given the opportunity to grow up a little. I liked how Sabina’s human friends were given more room. I thought Susie transition into Theo was nicely handed. I enjoyed Ambrose being the series damsel in distress. I really liked Prudence longing to be accepted and loved by her father, and her struggle with that longing as it’s more and more revealed what a completely shitty human being he is. I like how Hilda and Zelda’s relationship evolved. And Hilda’s boyfriend was just adorable. I enjoyed Madame Satan breaking free and becoming her own agent. I’m not sure about Ambrose and Prudence morphing into a couple. Luke was a boring character and Ambrose is stated as pansexual in the first season, but I don’t particularly want Ambrose and Prudence as a couple, even if I really liked their interactions if you know what I mean. The themes of misogyny patriarchy and the evilness of Father Blackwood are rather heavy-handed. On the other hand, perhaps it needs to be super visible as these are structures we live with, and a more subtle approach not have been noticed.
I already know two more seasons are planned, but I thought it could have ended quite naturally here. The only thing left hanging was Father Blackwood’s escape, but with Ambrose and Prudence after him, it’s easy to imagine they will catch up with him. But I’m not sorry there will be more.
Also, with all the pop culture references the show indulges in, it was only fitting that Dorian Grey’s portrait was based (or perhaps really was the actual prop) on the one used in the 1945 movie version of The Portrait of Dorian Grey. And I was not the slightest surprised when the sculpture at the magic school was destroyed, as they were being sued by The Church of Satan over it.
I liked season 2 of The OA better than season 1 as well. I generally like the trope “parallel universes”, and I thought it was nicely handled. It’s still a very, very odd show, but also interesting and well-acted. I haven’t seen Brit Marling n anything else, so I don't know her range, but Jason Isaacs is superb, as usual. He is always good as villains, of course, but Hap’s genuine believe he is good and what he is doing will be for the benefit of humanity, makes him really scary. Because it justifies abduction, imprisonment, torture, and murder. And now he actually have had sex, and realised his obsession for Prairie is love (if extremely one-sided), I really don’t like how the series ended. I really hope we get more! I also liked the addition of PI Karim. He and Prairie/Nina had such nice chemistry, and I wonder if he really is “the brother” mentioned in passing that she claims she never had. So, still lot of questions and the odd plot hole, but good anyway.
no subject
Date: 2019-04-11 09:15 am (UTC)More Sabrina, already? I can remember when I couldn't wait for things; now I'm like "something more for the to-watch list? Already?"
no subject
Date: 2019-04-11 10:27 am (UTC)Yes, already. :) I mostly keep up with my shows, but then I usually watch several shows at the same time, so I alternate, and new shows just get mixed up in it by the by. But we did watch Sabrina whole over the weekend...
no subject
Date: 2019-04-11 10:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-04-11 02:51 pm (UTC)I <3 The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. It's the only time Rex Harrison ever overcame his curse of looking (to me personally) like Henry Higgins dressed up in a silly costume.
no subject
Date: 2019-04-15 12:20 pm (UTC)It's the only time Rex Harrison ever overcame his curse of looking (to me personally) like Henry Higgins dressed up in a silly costume.
Very well put!
no subject
Date: 2019-04-11 04:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-04-15 11:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-04-11 10:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-04-15 12:23 pm (UTC)