Two Movies

SECONDHAND LIONS, 2003
The lighting is dim and mellow as it plays throughout the shadowy, beautifully disheveled old farm house that two ancient brothers own, and as it illuminates the hard-scrabble vistas of the rural-Texas setting where large 1950s vehicles bounce along dusty dirt roads.. In this coming-of-age saga Haley Joel Osment plays a boy left at the Texas ranch of eccentric uncles (the brothers) Michael Caine and Robert Duvall. Duvall is in his element. Michael Caine less so, The uncles regale Osment with amazing tales of their past, which include adventures in the French Foreign Legion and saving a princess from slave traders and an Arab sheik. Yearning for the old days of adventure, they acquire and intend to shoot for sport an old lion, but the decrepitude of the lion gives them pause, as does the boy’s rapport with her. The movie kept my attention throughout, although the clarity and maturity of the Osment character seemed unlikely.


DINNER FOR SCHMUCKS, 2010,

This “screwball comedy” film is the American adaptation of the French film, (The Dinner of Cretins). Steve Carell is extremely convincing as an idiot-savant who is too dim to know that he’s being used as a promotional gimmick for the so-star’s corporate ambitions. He makes wonderful dioramas, with dead mice impersonating characters in famous paintings. Carell miraculously maintains the characterization of his zany but pure-hearted role. Paul Rudd is the corporate guy, and didn’t interest me as much. Perhaps due to its French inspiration, there are sex themes that push the envelope a bit. As much by what it includes as by what it leaves out, the film brings up a question about movies and monogamy. Rudd’s art-curator girlfriend is wooed by an artist with animal magnetism whom she represents. Does one have to end up with the girl, or can they both share her?

THE LOVE PARADE, 1929

This musical comedy starring Jeanette MacDonald as the Queen of Silvania and Maurice Chevalier as the count whom she marries, plays on the war of the sexes. He is less than thrilled over his marital obligation to be docile, and obedient to the queen. At various moments he displays righteous indignation, charm, tenderness, and trickery. The musical performance, although the first feature film for MacDonald, establishes her in the operetta genre with which she would always be associated. I enjoyed the fragile look of the film--like thin paper stretched over a frame, but starting to crack and fall apart. The sound is similarly crackly and thin. Through age, perhaps, the film glows like a ghost in the night. The music works despite the limitations of Chevalier’s voice. Hollywood of this era was fixated on European royalty, into which it stirs baudy, sexy routines from American vaudeville. It’s entertaining to see how these qualities blend and go toward defining romantic popular music and exuberant musical comedy of later years. The stage sets are astoundingly opulent, and I wonder how much of them were simply painted. Hard to tell. This the first talking picture by director Ernst Lubitsch, and it won some awards, including being nominated for six Oscars.

LOST HORIZON, 1932

What an unusual movie! Ronald Coleman is a British Foreign Secretary, who gets shanghaied from Shanghai with a party of British types. The plane which carries them crash lands near the legendary, fabled Shangri La, whence a greeting party has meanwhile been dispatched. The physical film, which had been damaged and restored, feels as much a rarified treasure as Shangri La itself. The plot is set in the Himalayas, near Tibet. It is permeated by an intense feeling of cold, isolation and altitude. Shangri La is like an oasis in this hostile environment, its mild weather resulting from high protective mountain ranges. Despite a lack of amenities like public plumbing, its gleaming white buildings resemble something from a World’s Fair. Shangri La turns out to be a stand-in for the liberal tradition of the West. No one struggles. There is no money, only exchange. People can live for centuries. It is polite to give up your wife to someone who wants her badly (of course, seen from a male perspective). It is prescient of modern times, and talks about similar social ills, including greed and environmental destruction, to those which plague us now. Coleman's worldly career happened despite his deep longing for a better world. The books he has written about his utopian dreams have been read by some at Shangri La. They include the girl and the founder, who are convinced that he belongs there. The party from the plane, including Coleman, react in different ways to the possibility of “escape.”