I'm beginning to run out of steam on this effort to watch as many as possible of the movies saved on our DVR before it goes back to AT&T. I told my wife the other day that we are at risk of becoming couch potatoes. But here are three from the past three weeks or so that are worth mentioning.
All About Eve (1950)
I knew that this was a famous movie, but other than that I didn't know anything at all about it. I was expecting some sort of romantic comedy thing–mysterious and capricious Eve, steady and befuddled Adam, maybe, or something along those lines. Well, it's not that at all. It's a study of female competition, of a young woman's attempt to push aside an older one. Bette Davis plays Margot Channing, an aging actress. Anne Baxter plays the Eve of the title, who first appears as Margot's star-struck worshipper, then gradually shows her true and predatory colors.
I can't say it offers any profound insights, although it probably gets studied, and maybe condemned, in feminist circles. But for the rest of us, it's just a very well-crafted piece of drama, with a witty and literate script and really good acting. I don't think it will give away too much if you watch this clip, a bit which occurs when Margot is beginning to figure out what Eve is up to. Marilyn Monroe has a small but memorable part. A bit after this scene she has one of the funniest lines in the movie.
Grand Illusion (1937)
Well, this is a classic, as you probably know, and therefore something anybody with a more than casual interest in cinema should see. But I don't mean to sound as if I'm telling you to eat your vegetables; you'll enjoy it. I had seen it once years before, and although I'd forgotten all the details, I did remember being touched by its picture of a privileged order with a genuine tradition of high honor being swept away by the modern world. But it's more than that; I mean, it's not a sociological study. And it's even better than I remembered. While looking for a suitable clip on YouTube, I ran across this 4-minute video review by a New York Times critic, which is pretty much on target (even though, this being the NYT, it dwells on a bit of cross-dressing which is really not important to the plot).
Wings of Desire (1987)
I guess most people who would be interested in this have seen it and know whether they like it or not. But in case you don't: it's by the German director Wim Wenders and is about an angel who wants to become human, who's attracted by material reality in general and especially, of course, to women. Not surprisingly, the theology of that is pretty messed up, as is indicated by the fact that the first part is in black and white, and color only begins to appear when the angel contemplates the beautiful trapeze artist he's falling in love with. But that whole first half or so, which for a substantial length of time consists only of this angel and a companion (associate?) moving about the world, describing it to each other, touching people gently, is one of the most beautiful bits of cinema I've ever seen. I'd be happy to watch it again right now. I had seen this one, too, closer to fifteen than to thirty years ago, as with Grand Illusion, and had similarly forgotten most of it.
Here's a clip that will give you the flavor of that opening section, if you haven't seen it. The man with the scarf, the first face you see in the clip, is the angel. The voices are the thoughts of the people he sees. He is invisible to them. Oh wait, embedding is disabled for this clip, so follow this link.
Wings of Desire is the English-language title. The director's title is Der Himmel über Berlin, or The Heavens over Berlin.
Light On Dark Water 
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