Tag: Films from 1948

Reel 90: At the Ballet

One of the tough things about films that are focused on a specific, rather niche topic is that the creators have to find a way to turn the audience into feeling as though they’re experts in the field without being such an information dump that they lose track of the story itself.

In some cases you have a character who’s somehow naive and asks questions, acting as a kind of audience surrogate. Other directors are more subtle, leaking out little bits of information at a time as the viewer needs it.

In the cases of today’s films, you’re mostly thrown into the deep end of the pool and need to suss it out yourself. Mostly, anyway. And the topic here is the ballet, specifically the machinations that go on backstage.

We open up with 1948’s THE RED SHOES, directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. This is a directing team that handles films with a fantasy element quite adroitly, and while Sean and I disagree with each other about the handling of one segment of the film, it doesn’t dampen your enjoyment either way.

From 1948 we move to the 21st Century, for THE COMPANY, a 2003 film directed by Robert Altman. As usual for Altman, you’re dropped directly into the chaos but once you’ve acclimated to the pace, he tells a compelling story without actually having a lot of story to tell.

 

COMING ATTRACTIONS:

In our next episode, Humphrey Bogart joins the Resistance. We begin with CASABLANCA, which we could have easily spent the entire episode reviewing. Fortunately for you we showed some restraint and moved on to TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT, which takes a very different tack on the subject. Join us, won’t you?

Reel 74: The Wages of Greed

Sure, Gordon Gekko told us all that greed, for lack of a better term, is good. And that film sometimes takes the blame for a bunch of unfortunate things that took place in the 1990s.

But there are films out there which note that there’s a darker side to greed (and, to be fair, Wall Street also carries that message; it’s just that people kind of overlooked that part). And in this episode, we look at a pair of films which are years apart from a production standpoint, but whose characters are more or less contemporaneous.

We start with The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), starring Humphrey Bogart, Tim Holt, and Walter Huston and directed by Walter Huston. Anjelica Huston isn’t in this one because she wasn’t born until 1951, I guess. The trio star as three down-and-out Americans who pursue gold in a remote mine in which others have given up hope. They face all kinds of hardships moving to and from the mine, and there are plenty of adventures in between.

From there we go to another film set at about the same time, but on this side of the US/Mexico border, in the American southwest. There Will Be Blood (2007), directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, stars Daniel Day-Lewis as a man who is determined to amass as much as he can, but it’s far too late when he realizes the price he pays for his success.

Both of these films also have the distinction of being source material for memes and pop culture gags. With Sierra Madre, of course, it’s assorted variations on whether or not any stinkin’ badges are necessary, and in Blood it’s the phrase “I drink your milkshake.” In both cases I’d be willing to bet all the money in my pockets (nearly 80 CENTS, friend) that most people don’t know the source material for either of them.

Finally, before I set you free to listen to the episode (because of course you’ve been riveted to this poetry I’ve been cranking out so far), I offer you this bit of music that we talked about during Part 2:


Yes, I will expect you to send me Thank You notes for bringing this music into your life.

COMING ATTRACTIONS: 

Next time, we stick with the Old West with a pair of films that use that genre as an allegory for anti-Capitalist messages. (What?) Don’t worry; it’ll make a lot of sense before we’re through. First we’ll see McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971), followed by The Claim (2000). Join us, won’t you?