Garbo and (her) silents

Silent films have a particular language of their own. It’s a language that I don’t always like. Having seen some of the acknowledged exponents of the period (“Greed”, “The Crowd”, “Metropolis”, etc.) I have only truly enjoyed one film – “A Woman of Affairs” with Greta Garbo, made in 1928 and one of her last silent films. I had the luck of catching it about six weeks ago.

In it she plays a woman prevented from marrying the love of her life, decides to have some fun, and proceeds to marry the guy her brother seems to be interested in, who then mysteriously kills himself on their wedding night. After this she is ostracised by polite society, who blame her… Despite the potential for disaster from this plotline the film is very well constructed, with strong performances from the leads, especially Garbo here during her “femme fatale” phase.

It wasn’t my first Garbo silent – I have the DVD collection with “Flesh and the Devil”, “The Temptress” and “Mysterious Woman”, but except for the first 30 minutes or so of “Flesh…” they were all quite uninteresting. However, they made quite clear to me why she was such a huge star during the 1920’s and 1930’s. Comparing her with all her co-stars, she emanates an effective quietness. With her less is definitely more. She almost seems out of place. Later, this would turn again in one of her best performances, in “Camille”. She is far more modern than most people are aware, and far from being a symbol of a bygone era, she should be recognised as someone who changed the art of screen acting.

I wish more of her silents were available, especially “A Woman of Affairs”. I probably won’t like them, but I really want to see them – and who knows, I might even fall in love with another.

Norma Shearer and The Divorcee (1930)

I think I first heard of Norma Shearer many moons ago when I watched “When the Lion Roars” the magnificent documentary on the history of MGM which is still due for a DVD release. My impression from it was that she got lucky because her husband was the head of production of the studio and I never gave her much thought. As her films have become available on the shinny discs I had my chance of cementing this opinion: “The Women”, “Marie Antoinette” and “Romeo and Juliet”, some of her most celebrated films, failed to produce any lasting impact on me and occasionally I almost couldn’t bear her.

Then I bought the “Forbidden Hollywood vol.2” DVD box. This box contains two of Norma’s most famous films: “A Free Soul” and “The Divorcee”, for which she won her best actress Oscar. While the former didn’t succeed in changing my views (I was quite bored by it) the latter was absolutely astonishing. Where had Norma hidden this talent in her other performances?

“The Divorcee” is the story of a happily married woman who founds out that her husband has cheated on her and decided to give him a bit of his own medicine. And of course when he does it, it was something of no consequence, when she does it it’s a most serious outrage against the good order of things – she should have bear it with a sad look. So they divorce and she decides that staying sad at home is not really for her…

The whole issue of the double standard is presented in a very modern way and Norma Shearer was to me a revelation in this film. Even her constipated leading man (who has an acting style out of the early 1920’s and is unbearable in “Red Head Woman”) was acceptable. The only fault I can find with the film was the subplot with the car accident and the duty marriage that arises from that. All in all, a wonderful Pre-code and I will be looking for more of her films in the future – there might be another gem in their midst.

The Vortex and some other 1177 minutes of Noel Coward

As a birthday present, I treated myself to Peter Hall's production of Noël Coward's "The Vortex". First performed in 1924 it shocked at the time with references to toy boys and drugs. I read the play many moons ago and wasn't much impressed, but I never refuse an opportunity to see Coward, especially in the hands of a good director. And much to my surprised I found layers that I did not expect. The hint from the text that Nicky is mixed with drugs because he can't face his homosexuality was painfully evident in Dan Stevens' face. He gave a performance of someone who feels he's starting to waste his life but can't do anything to prevent it. But I think that the biggest revelation was the suggestion that Phoebe Nicholls character's friendship and loyalty to Florence may be hidding something else.

Dan Stevens was a pleasant surprise (saw him in "Hayfever" last year and wasn't very convinced). The same goes for Felicity Kendall (I spent most of "Amy's View" thinking what Judi Dench's performance might have been and her "Fallen Angels" did not impress a few years ago). Peter Hall lead the play and its cast very well, avoiding that any of them fall into the usually trappings of playing Coward. No winks to the audience, no excessive mannerisms. Just a play which can still shock.

Still on the subject of Coward, a recent voucher was translated into the 1177 minutes long (over 19h!), 7 DVD collection of his plays and short stories as done by the BBC. I still have many many hours to go but could not resist "Private Lives" with Penelope Keith. Every inch what I imagined and more, it was an hour and half of near-perfection.

Richard Widmark (1914-2008)

I never really liked him as an actor, but there are always exceptions: "Pickup on South Street" is a masterpiece and he's phenomenal in it.

The Importance of Being Earnest

On saturday went with a friend to the theatre. She was visiting London and we had arranged to see Oscar Wilde's Earnest at the Vaudeville Theatre. We are both fans of the play, and I am quite a big fan of Penelope Keith and after the BBC new version of "Sense and Sensibility" I can say the same about Daisy Haggard. Despite all this nothing had prepared us for such a great night out... in one word it was perfect!

Peter Gill's production (the fourth I saw of his) was spot on, playing the artificial of the play as if it was natural, magnificently suggesting a gay subtext but without damaging the core of the text. All actors were stupendous - even Miss Prism and the reverend, which I can't stand as characters, were charming and engaging. The actors playing Jack and Algernon were very funny, aided by the fact that they could indeed be brothers and had great chemistry together. Penelope Keith was fantastic and the more I see her doing comedy, the more I want to see her "Amanda" from the BBC production of "Private Lives" (pity she said no more Coward until "Waiting in the Wings"). But the star was Gwendoleen - and the best line was the excited "Jack" she utters when Jack as Ernest asks her what she thinks of the name. Her reaction was priceless.

I might just see this again... it really was marvellous.

Real Life... and Bette Davis in glorious Black and White

Since December, my life has been a bit uncertain, shall we say a bit blurry... however things seem to be falling into place and all going well in a week or so, all indefinition will be gone and I will probably breath deeply and look forward to peace and quiet. And I also will be looking forward to this - which will come out very very soon. Only seen "The Old Maid", "In This Our Life" and "The Great Lie" but can't wait to see the others, especially "All This, and Heaven Too"...

The Garden of Allah (1936)

“The Garden of Allah” is a run of the mill melodrama, which tells the love story between a devout French heiress and a runaway monk. As usual in such cases there is a third person in the relationship, God. The predictable ending arrives after around 80 minutes. I neither care for such stories nor can relate to these characters, being neither religious nor a believer in the afterlife. This would usually have killed my interest in the film very early on. However, this particular film is a peculiar piece. Although it’s dull and towards the end I couldn’t sustain it much longer, it had two marvellous things which kept me going: Marlene Dietrich and the cinematography.

Marlene in the thirties is a recent interest of mine. I always loved her trilogy of films for Hitchcock and Wilder and a couple of her later performances, but had little interest in her earlier work, except for “Angel” (Lubitsch, 1937). That changed a few months ago when I watched “Shanghai Express”. And in this film you can’t take your eyes out of her. She’s mesmerizing, so beautiful, so out of this world and a lot of it has to do with how she was shot – which takes me to the cinematography…

This was one of the first three strip Technicolor feature films, and the one that convinced Hollywood that it was not another silly fashion. The film looks absolutely gorgeous, even with some dodgy matte paintings here and there. And I think a lot of it has to do with the way it was lit – to me it was if it had been lit for black and white but shot in colour. Whatever they did made it into one of the most beautiful films ever shot, in my opinion.

As for the rest, Basil Rathbone and Joseph Schildkraut (as Batouch, the obviously gay guide) are quite good, but Charles Boyer really can’t act – or at least I haven’t seen any proof of that. And then there’s Max Steiner’s music… I love Max’s music, I really do, but here he allowed himself to get carried away – there’s simply too much loud music, often almost muting the dialogue. In short, these weak points and its religious themes and perspectives ware too much for me and despite the obvious beauty of the film (and Marlene), I doubt I shall watch this again any time soon, if ever.