Movies and much, much more
My movie reviews
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
The Ghost and Mrs Muir is one of the most romantically enchanting movies I’ve ever seen. I stumbled upon this DVD quite accidentally and was probably more attracted to it by the fact that it featured Rex Harrison. It turned out to be a real delight with unusual, but very compelling story line and really engaging characters.
This breathtaking thriller opens at the railroad station, where the audience sees only legs of the passengers hurrying to their trains and two different pairs of shoes, a pair of conservative ones and another pair of very loud white shoes, immediately catch your attention. The men in these shoes take adjacent seats on a train and the shoes bump against each other. They strike up a casual conversation which is gradually turning into a rather bizarre one.
I finally got a chance to watch again “Three days of the Condor” many, many years after I’ve seen it for the first time. I was captivated by this superb thriller again just as much as I’ve been all these years ago. It’s possible that I enjoyed it even more now, because of all those small details I’m sure I’ve missed before.
It is a rather nice comedy, though by no means a masterpiece. Even the credits are promising much, with young Paul Newman and Joan Woodward playing the main characters, Maurice Chevalier playing himself and Frank Sinatra singing a title song.
The movie starts very funny. Paul Newman’s voice is commenting on the opening of the Neumann Marcus’s store on the day of great sale. Scores of women are waiting outside the closed doors of the store waiting for the doors to open in the morning. Finally, the doors open and crowds of women are pouring into the store, the sound of stampede and bull roars on the background. The stage is set for the appearance of Sam, the character played by Joan Woodward, the Mata Hari of the fashion world, a rather masculine young woman in dark glasses sneaking around the windows of famous shops, making clandestine pictures. Between them and her photographic memory there is no problem with stealing designs of the best fashion houses, which is exactly Samantha’s forte in business. Paul Newman’s voice brands her a semi-virgin and indeed it does not seem she has a drop of feminine left in her.
The Chronicles of Narnia – The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
I’ve finally managed to watch ‘The Chronicles of Narnia – The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe” just as I wanted it, in the movie theater, as opposed to catching it up on DVD months later. Something told me this movie needed a big screen along with the powerful emotion of being among the audience. The TV screen is convenient, but it is not made for epic magical movies like this one ( I have to admit – I’ve read C.L.Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia in my early twenties and, unlike many other people who read it in a later age and did not care much for it, I loved it!).