Friday, 11 May 2012

Lovely Rita

Screenshot of Rita Hayworth as Gilda performin...
Screenshot of Rita Hayworth as Gilda performing "Put The Blame On Mame" in the trailer for the film Gilda. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Screenshot of Rita Hayworth as Gilda in the tr...
Screenshot of Rita Hayworth as Gilda in the trailer for the film Gilda (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Screenshot of Glenn Ford and Rita Hayworth as ...
Screenshot of Glenn Ford and Rita Hayworth as Gilda in the trailer for the film Gilda (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Film night on May 4th (and May the fourth be with you film fans). Arthur turned up at the Rialto's entrance with some bad news: He had been unable to buy the usual huge Melton Mowbray pie but he had substituted some smaller ones to go with our beer and films so all was not lost.

Spoilers below

The programme he suggested continued the recent theme of an opening black and white "classic" followed by another in the "Woody Allen retrospective" series. In this case the programme opened with Gilda and the second feature was Husbands and Wives.

I liked Gilda more than Arthur did despite it being his suggestion. It stars Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford and was directed in 1946 by Charles Vidor. Personally I found it fascinating and enjoyable although the leading characters were both very flawed. Sadly Rita's singing is dubbed (by Anita Ellis) although you wouldn't know it from her clever lip-synching. She gives a great performance in every other respect though from the dancing to the slapping around of "Johnny Farrell" Glenn Ford's crooked gambler character which allegedly was so real that it loosened two of Ford's teeth. The plot has Argentine casino owner George Macready hiring Johnny after seeing his skills with crooked dice elsewhere. Johnny thrives as casino manager but Macready (as bag guy Bailin Mundson) soon realises that his new wife and Johnny have a history. The relationship between Gilda and Johnny is the key element and it is fiery indeed as she does everything to provoke him and he exacts his revenge by marrying her and effectively imprisoning her. The film stands or falls on the watchability of these two rather unpleasant characters and their portrayal. In my opinion it succeeds with two mesmerising performances.






The Woody was again not one I would put in my top ten, however I was grateful to get another chance
Woody Allen at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival ...
Woody Allen at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival premiere of his film Whatever Works. The photographer dedicates this portrait to Wikipedia editor Alansohn, for amazing article contributions, vandal-fighting, development of the project and for outstanding community skills. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
to see it. Made in 1992 it stars Woody himself (not always a good thing) as well as Mia Farrow, Judy Davis, Juliet Lewis, Liam Neeson and Sidney Pollack. I enjoyed seeing Ms Farrow again and being reminded that she was a fine actress. Hopefully we will see more of her if the Woody retrospective continues. This is not typical Woody in many ways although allegedly he considers it one of his best. In particular it is atypical in that it goes against the then norms of film making by cutting in odd places and much use of hand-held camera. We are very familiar with hand-held and loose-head camera work these days to underline action and violence and we are also familiar (if not sick to death of) "mockumentaries". In 1992 the pseudo-documentary format and the use of "shaky" camera work were innovative and perhaps interesting, which is not to say it wasn't still a rather irritating thing to watch, particularly in the opening scenes. At times the camera is focused, not on the speaking character, but on some intervening inanimate object. If the idea is to unsettle us in the way that the married couples are unsettled then the thematic match may be justified, it just isn't very pleasant. For once we may thank a studio (Columbia TriStar) for interfering in an artistic decision: Woody wanted to shoot on 16mm which would have made it grainy as well as shaky.


Soon-Yi Previn and Woody Allen at the 2009 Tri...
Soon-Yi Previn and Woody Allen at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival premiere of Whatever Works. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Of course the match between theme and real-life made for an unusually good domestic box-office for Allen. The studio cashed in on the public's prurient curiosity about the Allen/Farrow homelife, giving the film a bigger release than normal for Allen's low-budget  annual films and it seems the decision was justified financially, if not artistically. The misconception that the film is autobiographical is understandable until one realises that Farrow was originally cast in the Judy Davis role, nevertheless it is hard not to speculate on how much events in the writer/director's own life informed the artistic choices in this films production. An intriguing part of the Allen canon and one which I was very interested to view again but not, in my opinion among his best despite his own feelings on the subject.
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