Kubrick: Rewinding and Reevaluating ~ Part 1
I have quite a history with Stanley Kubrick's final film, Eyes Wide Shut, an adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's 1926 erotic psychological novel Traumnovelle. The first time I viewed it I was a fourteen year old kid with puberty coursing through my veins, watching it late at night with a church friend of mine and his slightly older sister. You, dear reader, might think this would have been rather awkward considering our ages, butβ¦
"Go ahead. Go ahead and marry her, you one-balled bastard!"
The 1990's Christmas warm blanket that never ages. It's a completely inconceivable, improbable concept that is also somehow a pitch perfect romance as well as a pitch perfect situational comedy which somehow also nails the most prevalent theme of so many Christmas movies which is family.
How you can you not fall in love with this family? Lucy does. We all do. And I do all over again every single Christmas.
This absolutely charming slice of Christmas romance is owed all to Robert Mitchum feeling the need for weed πΏ
Looking to rehab his onscreen persona after a 60 day prison sentence for possessing marijuana in early 1949, Mitchum was encouraged to take this role, a role he normally steered away from - because RKO knew that the women who regularly saw his films before said Mary Jane conviction would not be able to resist him playing a man who feedsβ¦
"Is your war finally over?"
I kept holding my breath for what felt like an eternity...
The way Takashi Yamazaki crafts the extended opening scene of the first live action Japanese Godzilla film in seven years in its look, its sound, its heavy emotion, its brilliant production design already on full display and maybe most importantly, the way it's written, had me gripping my 8 year old boy's arm like he should've been doing to me.
In fact, that wasβ¦
Maria Schneider:
"I should have called my agent or had my lawyer come to the set because you can't force someone to do something that isn't in the script, but at the time, I didn't know that. Marlon said to me: 'Maria, don't worry, it's just a movie,' but during the scene, even though what Marlon was doing wasn't real, I was crying real tears. I felt humiliated and to be honest, I felt a little raped, both by Marlonβ¦
The greatest trick Kevin Spacey ever pulled was convincing the world he was a decent human being.
