Escape into film...

Watched an old classic last night I had never seen before. Humphrey Bogart and Ava Gardner in The Barefoot Contessa. I love watching old movies now and then but they surely were made differently weren't they? I wanted to turn it off probably a fifth of the way into it. This movie was self indulgent, over acted, and terribly slow moving. But in the end I gave it a chance and now the movie is growing on me. Perhaps our modern minds are not able to deal with a meandering pace or long dialogue. I was forced to be patient. And that is not such a bad thing.



This film was made in 1954, ten years before I was born. I always wonder...where was I? How can this be...this whole world of things going on...movie stars being made...before I was even a thought inside my mother's head. And then I look at everyone in the movie and imagine how they aged and how most of them are gone. It is an eerie but comforting feeling that these people are forever captured on film. But that life goes on. And now I am becoming as long winded as this movie was!



Here are some observations about this movie as well as old movies in general:



* Humphrey Bogart is one goofy looking guy. How did he get all the babes! Actually he looks every bit like the Bugs Bunny cartoon caricatures I saw as a kid.



* They sure did drink and smoke back then. In most old movies that is what they are doing in between action...drinking or smoking. In this movie Ava didn't smoke and talked about herself as a freak for not doing so. I wonder how many of these people died of lung cancer.



* Women back then would be considered fat now. What did they say about Marilyn Monroe? That she was a size ten. For movie stars now...that would be grounds for dismissal and ridicule. How did we get to wanting everyone to look like stick figures?



* I loved the women's make up back then. The red lips, the arched eyebrows. So glamorous!



* Being a movie star back then was more than it is now. Now we make stars out of people who post youtube movies. Everyone has their five minutes of fame nowadays. But back then...audiences depended upon the entertainment industry more. They demanded bigger than life stars.



What are your thoughts?



I also watched french film called "Amelie" This is a movie I wish to buy so I can keep it. It is a delightful feel good movie...so much so that you don't even mind reading the subtitles!



I find myself relating to this character both in the mischief she causes and in her girlish fantasies.

Here are some wonderful quotes from the movie:

Narrator: Amélie still seeks solitude. She amuses herself with silly questions about the world below, such as "How many people are having an orgasm right now?" Amélie: Fifteen.

Raymond Dufayel aka Glass Man: You mean she would rather imagine herself relating to an absent person than build relationships with those around her?

Hipolito (The Writer): We pass the time of day to forget how time passes.

Narrator: With a prompter in every cellar window whispering comebacks, shy people would have the last laugh.

Bretodeau, The Box Man: Time's funny. When you're a kid, it passes slowly, and next thing you're fifty and your childhood fits into a rusty little box.

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So yes you should rent this movie. It makes me happy every time I see it. It is good for the soul.

And now I must dissapear into that realm called real life...