WRITTEN ON THE WIND

 

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{ imdb// wiki // netflix }

 

I didn’t expect to like this one. Somehow, Douglas Sirk’s movies don’t work for me. I think they are mostly oversaturated melodramas, quite boring at times, but gorgeously expressive and nice to look at. But this one was slightly different… 

Everything I dislike about his movies, pop-trashy component and over the top feel to it, very bland at times and somehow pretentious script and lines, that’s all in there. Still, it works… It did make me roll my eyes occasionally, but it got to me. The best strategy is to just surrender and enjoy it.

 

 

Whenever I’m waffling about a movie I consult Mr Ebert.
And as per usual, he nailed it…

“To appreciate a film like “Written on the Wind” probably takes more sophistication than to understand one of Ingmar Bergman's masterpieces, because his themes are visible and underlined, while with Sirk, the style conceals the message. His interiors are wildly over the top, and his exteriors are phony. He wants you to notice the artifice, to see that he's not using realism but an exaggerated Hollywood studio style…

Films like this are both above and below middle-brow taste. If you only see the surface, it's trashy soap opera. If you can see the style, the absurdity, the exaggeration and the satirical humor, it's subversive of all the 1950s dramas that handled such material solemnly…

To appreciate the trashiness of “Written on the Wind” is not to condescend to it. To a greater degree than we realize, our lives and decisions are formed by pop cliches and conventions. Films that exaggerate our fantasies help us to see them--to be amused by them, and by ourselves. They clear the air.”

 

 

The storyline is so ridiculous, especially when you try to squeeze it in a few sentences. So I’m just gonna close my eyes, paste the words from Netflix,
and move on.

 

Self-pitying Texas oil millionaire Kyle Hadley (Robert Stack) tries to cure his alcoholic ills by stealing the virtuous Lucy Moore (Lauren Bacall) from best friend Mitch Wayne (Rock Hudson). When Kyle learns he may be sterile and Lucy becomes pregnant, her green-eyed sister-in-law (Dorothy Malone) stirs up trouble by intimating that Mitch may be the father. The resulting whirlpool of searing emotions leads to disaster in this Oscar-winning drama.

 

 

Btw, kudos to miss Dorothy Malone, who won an Oscar for this one and annoyed the hell outta me. I’m still not sure if that was part of her role, or just the way she acts.

 

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BELOVED INFIDEL

 

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{ imdb / wiki / book }

I liked the movie.
Not enough to recommend it, but enough to document those nice
costumes, beautiful Deborah Kerr and her hats, and nice scenery.
I guess, this film could entertain all of you girls who truly love old
movies and appreciate how amaaazingly dated and overacted they
may seem at times.

Beloved Infidel is based on the memoirs of Hollywood columnist Sheilah Graham, specifically her three year long affair with the famous writer, F.
Scott Fitzgerald.

In 1936,  she leaves her noble British fiancé and travels from England, to New York., soon finds a
job at the Daily Mirror and becomes successful, writing a gossip column about the Hollywood stars.

(have I mentioned her hats and turbans? I love her costumes in this movie. That’s a good enough
reason for watching it. Deborah Kerr and her clothes… and Gregory Peck.)

(you can add her car, her home and the greenery
on the ‘terrace with the most beautiful view’ to that list)

When Sheilah meets the decadent writer F. Scott Fitzgerald
played by Mr Peck, they immediately fall in love.

She soon discovers that Scott has a wife, Zelda, that is in asylum, and also a daughter at a boarding school.
He is acknowledged and influential, but the money is tight and he’s struggling.

#livinglavidaloca

 

Ahhh…. good old beach scenes.
I appreciate the juxtaposition – drama at the beach.
It works so well with these movies.

“You write beautiful prose Scott, but we can not photograph adjectives.”

After this scene (first pic in a row, where his screenplay got rejected),
there is a series of drunk and embarrassing moments for Mr Fitzgerald, and also equally embarrassing and naive drunk scenes (that I didn’t include, so you have to trust me on that one). And of course, their relationship will be affected by his drinking problem.

I just looove this part of the movie (they decided to reconsolidate and move out of the town for a little while).
It looks really good, with a lot of beach scenes, beautiful Malibu beach house, and all that jazz.

He decided to use that rejection and the anger, and starts writing The Love of the Last Tycoon,
his last (unfinished) novel.

(please, do notice a lovely, little heart sticker on their mailbox)

But then another rejection…

I’m trying to keep this post clean of bad drunk scenes (because I’m like that).
I love Mr Peck too much to document those. But in case you were wondering how it all looks –
let me just illustrate it with one picture.

Moving on…

See, that’s the thing (with those drunk scenes).
This part of the movie is believable. He’s angry, drunk and violent. There’s no need for the gimmicky stuff. Yes, I know this scene is the crescendo, but still… Mr Peck can do just fine without it. I blame the director.

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