If you're looking for a mid-week movie, may I recommend:
"Easy Living," from 1937, by Preston Sturges.
Bear with me.
A tyrannical banker is just about fed up with his ne'er-do-well son, and he evicts that son. Moments later, he discovers that his ungrateful wife has spent over $50,000 on a fur coat, and, in retaliation, he crazily tosses the coat from his penthouse window--and it lands on a cute young desk worker who has been wandering down the sidewalk.
Is this premise instantly more bizarre and engaging than, say, "The Wife"? "Bohemian Rhapsody"? "A Star Is Born"? Admit it. And the plot thickens.
The young desk worker goes around trying to find the owner of the coat that has fallen from the sky, and she bumps into the tyrannical banker. "You've ruined my hat!" she says, pointing to the feather that wilted when it was clobbered by the falling coat.
Still insane, the giddy banker sweeps up the woman and takes her to a hat store. "Keep the coat!" he says. "Find the finest hat for this young lady!" (Preston Sturges was interested in--among other things--merrily indicting the lunacy of capitalism and consumerism.)
A hat emerges, but there's collateral damage: The hat-maker has become convinced that the young lady must be having an affair with the famous banker. For what other reason would the banker be buying this hat? News of the faux-affair spreads far and wide, and in escalating moments of chaos, the news ruins the banker's marriage, creates an international stock-market emergency, leads to the termination of the young lady's job, leads to the young lady's getting rehoused in a fabulous luxury apartment, leads to a re-calibration of just about every major relationship introduced in the movie.
Sturges writes with glee, and his story is memorable precisely because it does *not* seem to follow any formulae. The thesis seems to be: Life is random and wacky. At the same time, Sturges has enough investment in his two major characters to allow us to see them changing and growing over time. In particular, the young lady learns a bit about the arbitrariness of the world, finds her voice as a trooper amidst chaos, and even attaches her lonely heart to a gentleman who will give her the happy future she deserves. (The gentleman is maybe not someone you anticipate swooping in to help save the day.)
It's not news to say that Preston Sturges was incredibly talented; if no longer a household name, he still carries weight in the film world. But I write to urge you to look beyond the bland, familiar options that the Golden Globes have presented to you. Classics are classics for a reason. You might find yourself shocked to observe the wit, sophistication, and sexiness that film writers could generate in the 1930s. And you might think, and think, and think about Jean Arthur (brilliant starlet who made herself ill with stage fright, scene after scene) for days after having seen the film.
Just a thought.....
"Easy Living," from 1937, by Preston Sturges.
Bear with me.
A tyrannical banker is just about fed up with his ne'er-do-well son, and he evicts that son. Moments later, he discovers that his ungrateful wife has spent over $50,000 on a fur coat, and, in retaliation, he crazily tosses the coat from his penthouse window--and it lands on a cute young desk worker who has been wandering down the sidewalk.
Is this premise instantly more bizarre and engaging than, say, "The Wife"? "Bohemian Rhapsody"? "A Star Is Born"? Admit it. And the plot thickens.
The young desk worker goes around trying to find the owner of the coat that has fallen from the sky, and she bumps into the tyrannical banker. "You've ruined my hat!" she says, pointing to the feather that wilted when it was clobbered by the falling coat.
Still insane, the giddy banker sweeps up the woman and takes her to a hat store. "Keep the coat!" he says. "Find the finest hat for this young lady!" (Preston Sturges was interested in--among other things--merrily indicting the lunacy of capitalism and consumerism.)
A hat emerges, but there's collateral damage: The hat-maker has become convinced that the young lady must be having an affair with the famous banker. For what other reason would the banker be buying this hat? News of the faux-affair spreads far and wide, and in escalating moments of chaos, the news ruins the banker's marriage, creates an international stock-market emergency, leads to the termination of the young lady's job, leads to the young lady's getting rehoused in a fabulous luxury apartment, leads to a re-calibration of just about every major relationship introduced in the movie.
Sturges writes with glee, and his story is memorable precisely because it does *not* seem to follow any formulae. The thesis seems to be: Life is random and wacky. At the same time, Sturges has enough investment in his two major characters to allow us to see them changing and growing over time. In particular, the young lady learns a bit about the arbitrariness of the world, finds her voice as a trooper amidst chaos, and even attaches her lonely heart to a gentleman who will give her the happy future she deserves. (The gentleman is maybe not someone you anticipate swooping in to help save the day.)
It's not news to say that Preston Sturges was incredibly talented; if no longer a household name, he still carries weight in the film world. But I write to urge you to look beyond the bland, familiar options that the Golden Globes have presented to you. Classics are classics for a reason. You might find yourself shocked to observe the wit, sophistication, and sexiness that film writers could generate in the 1930s. And you might think, and think, and think about Jean Arthur (brilliant starlet who made herself ill with stage fright, scene after scene) for days after having seen the film.
Just a thought.....
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