The Ruby Throated Sparrow

Token of me by 17 feelings | Natalea on Flickr.

This/Whisperer’s Place. by Gray Summers on Flickr.

Andy Warhol by Richard Avedon.

(Source: papertissue)

“You’re tearing me apart!”

-James Dean as Jim Stark in Rebel Without a Cause

Black and white movie still of the day

Black and white movie still of the day: Hud

There are some who consider cool youthful rebellion to be donning a leather jacket, turning up music louder than medically recommended and ineffectively trying to emulate the tortured complexity of James Dean. Then there are those who are effortlessly cool, those who can sneeze and make it look like a statement. These, my friends, are the ones who become icons.

Case in point: Paul Newman as the titular character in Hud, a great example of the perfect marriage between character and actor. Hud, as Newman plays him, is good looking, well aware of it, devoid of morals or scruples, and with little to no purpose in life other than drinking, fighting and leaping out of married women’s windows as soon as their husbands’ cars pull up the drive. Sure, any good looking hunk of junk could probably have played Hud and made him horrible, but Newman adds a level of complexity with just his presence. It’s probably because we all admit we’d like to jump his bones even though he’s a horrible human being. Watch the two scenes where he tries to seduce Patricia Neal’s world-weary housekeeper—he’s able to emit more raw sexuality grinning over the top of a daisy than most other men do when they’re completely naked.

By all accounts, Newman was a bit frustrated with the fact that Hud became a rebellious icon rather than a loathsome antagonist, but that was really his gift. His entire career was dappled with roles that played upon the audience’s gut reaction to immediately root for him because of his good looks and charm, juxtaposing those qualities against the framework of incredibly damaged individuals. To make someone alluring and repellent at the same time is no small feat, and that was his magic.

Black and white movie still of the day: The Big Heat

This noir classic recently made the rounds at Film Forum in New York City while I was there and I made an effort to go see it—I’d sort of half watched it before and hadn’t really appreciated it fully. Plus, any chance I get to go see something from before 1970 on the big screen is a chance I am going to barrel toward headlong. 

And boy, I’m glad I did. It was cool, it was sexy, it had twists coming left and right, hot coffee coming out of left field (watch it, you’ll understand), it was exciting, it was scary, it had the best bad guy (Lee Marvin, can’t beat ‘im) and the slinkiest femme fatale of them all, Gloria Grahame. I’m not sure who else could have played her role—as gangster’s moll Debby Marsh she is sensual, vain, droll, poignant and vengeful all at once. Check out their action in the mirror above. You know you want to watch it. 

Black and white movie still of the day: On the Waterfront

What always gets me about this film is how a movie can be set in the docks of Hoboken, New Jersey, have a plot that consists of the betrayals and choices surrounding a corrupt dockworker’s union and yet be one of the most lyrical, tender and beautiful works of art ever to be set to celluloid.

It’s difficult for me to choose which of Brando’s works I love the best but it’s tough to convince me that he is not at his finest here. In this film he is at once conflicted, tough, gentle and simple—not stupid. It is difficult for an obviously intelligent actor to convincingly portray someone of inferior intellect without seeming condescending, but every choice Brando makes in this film seems as natural as the glove he fits on his hand in one famous scene opposite Eva Marie Saint. This movie is delicate and heartbreaking—if you think you already know the “Contendah” scene, you don’t. Give it a watch. 

Black and white movie still of the day: To Have and Have Not

To Have and Have Not, in addition to being an extremely fun escapist adventure, plays like a master’s course on onscreen chemistry. Check out the above eye action between Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart—it’s such fun to see an individual as independent and clearly strong as Bogart completely bowled over by Bacall’s presence. You get the sense that he truly respected her.

The best enduring onscreen (and offscreen, for that matter) couples are the ones in which there is clearly an equality between the two: a similarity in intelligence, independence and spirit. Think Hepburn and Tracy, Loy and Powell, Grant and Kerr. But with Bogart and Bacall it was something extra special. He was the epitome of the gruff, strong alpha male. No one was tougher than Bogart…except Bacall. I highly recommend checking out any of the movies they made together. To Have and Have Not and The Big Sleep are my personal favorites. 

Black and white movie still of the day: Hitchcock’s Notorious

This is my favorite movie of all time. Last year I was looking through the newspaper and saw that Notorious was being shown at our gigantic movie theater near the park. Friends, I cannot express the flood of emotions that blew over me as I contemplated seeing this film on the big screen. It was something along the lines of being presented with forty-two gallons of Haagen Dasz coffee ice cream and being told that eating it would prolong my life. It was like being invited to go on a motorcycle trip with Steve McQueen. It was like finding out that Ray Lamontagne’s next album would be titled Songs for Bailey, Who is Hot. 

…and then I found out that it was, in fact, the Biggie biopic. Folks, if ever there has been an FML moment, that was it.

Black and white movie still of the day: Jean-Pierre Leaud as Antoine Doinel in Truffaut’s masterpiece The 400 Blows. 

Watching this movie for the first time was one of the most profound cinematic experiences of my life. It has one of the best endings of any film—I discuss this over in my movie blog: http://www.baileymovieblog.blogspot.com/

A bonus for those of you who want to check this film out—rent the DVD and watch the special features. It has Leaud’s audition interview which is as joyful and exuberant as his performance in the movie itself. Perhaps the reason why he came over so searingly on the screen was because he was really not too far removed from the character (or Truffaut, for that matter).