Wistful Thinking
I’m a sucker for anything slightly nostalgic or sentimental, and lately it seems that there’s been a growing trend towards looking to a glorified past rather than what is now generally predicted to be a pretty bleak future. I suppose it’s quite a predictable reaction to current events, but I can’t help myself when it comes to reminiscing on times that I never could have witnessed other than through movies, music, photographs and literature. Of course this is exacerbated by the fact that I’m now working in a cinema which is a lonely relic from the 1950′s.
‘The Artist’ started my holiday season off with a sentimental jolt. It’s a lovely film making very clever use of visual and sound effects, and the cast is superbly expressive and evocative of a bygone Hollywood era (the dog was especially brilliant, which in no way is meant as a dig at his human counterparts). On a side note, Paul Merton recently made a series called ‘Paul Merton’s Birth of Hollywood’, which is a great comprehensive introduction to film history.
Another thing high up on my to-do list is to have a Humphrey Bogart movie night. I went to a screening of ‘Casablanca’ a few months ago organised by Film Fatale at the Sugar Club in Dublin; it was an enchanting night filled with live music, plenty of ‘Humphrey’ cocktails, beautiful vintage costumes and of course the screening of this classic movie.
The above clip of Bogart and Lauren Bacall in ‘To Have and Have Not’ (1944) is just about the sexiest film scene ever. And I find it incredibly hard to believe Bacall was only 19 at the time of filming.
If you too are in a sentimental mood all of a sudden and want to have a old school movie night, here’s a handy list of 22 Hitchcock movies available for free online. They may not be his heavy hitters, but there’s some gems in there.
Wit + Delight At the Movies with Woody Allen
Of course I can’t avoid mentioning Woody Allen in a post about cinema and nostalgia. Enjoying another surge in popularity due to the success of ‘Midnight in Paris’, Allen is an icon when it comes to wistful movies about times and places that are inaccessible apart from through the cinematic experience (think ‘The Purple Rose of Cairo’ and ‘Radio Days’). Kate Arends of Wit + Delight compiled a playlist of songs from Allen’s soundtracks. I have been listening to it non-stop over the past month.
And finally I leave you with some movie stills turned into gifs by Gustaf Mantel, who’s tumblr ‘If We Don’t, Remember Me’ is dedicated to showcasing his short animated loops of movie scenes. The title is a reference to the 1955 film noir ‘Kiss Me Deadly’.
They sure don’t make ‘em like they used to.
“I would like all at once: to be your wife … and to amuse me like a prostitute.” La dolce vita (1960)
“You could use a cup of my famous java.” Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (1982)
“Enough of symbolism and these escapist themes of purity and innocence.” 8½ (1963)
