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What I have been watching
Apr. 11th, 2019 10:33 amI’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.
( Cut for length )
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. ( Spoilers )
I liked season 2 of The OA better than season 1 as well. ( Spoilers )
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.
( Cut for length )
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. ( Spoilers )
I liked season 2 of The OA better than season 1 as well. ( Spoilers )
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