"Life's parade at your fingertips."

Douglas Sirk's All That Heaven Allows (1955) is a film admired by many of the greats of contemporary cinema. For example Martin Scorsese features it in his fascinating Journey Through American Movies -- a series I recommend to anyone looking to increase your knowledge of American movies. Here and in several other films (see especially Magnificent Obsession) German émigré Sirk created a unique emotional vocabulary through a rigorous stylistic approach to color and framing. He knew how to get the most out of actors too. Jane Wyman's performance in All That Heaven Allows is one for the ages.

In a time where everything (it seems) is permissible the thematic elements of this picture may seem clichéd or just plain incomprehensible to modern viewers. That would be a shame. This movie must have exploded like a bomb in the consciousness of a generation of middle-class housewives, and if you allow it to transcend it's particular time and place it remains a devastatingly effective viewing experience. Except for the "Hollywood ending" it's perfect. A more appropriate final scene would have been the one below, which concludes with a shot of such emotional power it made my jaw drop as I watched it last night.

The End of Growth (our luck is running out)

My response to this TED talk by economist Robert Gordon? Precisely.




via Rod Dreher

A pro-life story

The other day Rod Dreher wrote: "Argument has its place, but story is what truly moves the hearts and minds of men." An example . . .

Mapping a shot

Here's a very cool visualization of Steadicam shots from the first five feature films of American director Paul Thomas Anderson. The film geeks out there will enjoy this.

Back at you, Dick

Yesterday on Meet the Press Gen. David Petraeus argued against the "enhanced interrogation techniques" a/k/a torture that continue to be defended by the former Vice President. Not only defended, but bragged about. The commander of CENTCOM went on to advocate abiding by the Geneva Conventions and closing Gitmo. I suppose the good general will now be accused of being soft on terrorists. I can hear it now. What kind of a name is Petraeus anyway? Sounds foreign. Maybe he's not a REAL American.

Here's the tape.

Receiving the Word with great joy in Malawi

The books they're holding are Bibles. . .



Read the story behind the video here.

ROTFL

HT: Current

Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten by Arvo Pärt

32 hours in Haiti

A time to laugh

It's been a week of serious topics here at Frightfully Pleased. But as a certain margarita-swilling troubodour has reminded us -- "if we couldn't laugh we'd all go insane." On that note let's end the work week with some classic comedy from Some Like It Hot starring Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe.

Here's the final scene, which features possibly the best punchline in the history of film comedies.


Some Like It Hot (1959, dir. Billy Wilder)

The blues makes it mo' better

"You'll shoot your eye out kid!"

One of my favorite memories from the holiday season just past is the night my wife and I and her parents who were visiting from Pennsylvania watched the movie A Christmas Story. We'd all seen it multiple times before, but we laughed as hard as ever at the holiday hijinks involving Ralphie, Flick, the old man, Scut Farkas, the leg lamp and Chinese turkey. I'm not saying director Bob Clark was one of our great American directors (among his many other credits are Porky's, Porky's 2 and Karate Dog) but ACS is a terrific piece of work. It seems to have been one of those happy accidents that took on a life of its own. Much of the credit has to go to writer Jean Shepherd, whose voice-over is the glue that holds the entire contraption together. While the story is set in the 40's the movie has a 70's quality to it that gives it an odd timeless quality. Whatever, it works. Perfectly.

A Christmas Story is set in Hammond, Indiana, and plays like an ode to the Midwest, but the house used for the Parker's home was in Cleveland. Recently, a guy named Brian Jones bought the house on eBay, restored it to the way it looked in the film, and turned it into a museum. As if one needed another reason to visit Cleveland! Here's a short documentary on the grand opening:



Don't forget to drink your Ovaltine. . .

The miracle in Raleigh

Going into overtime yesterday in their game against North Carolina State the Florida Gators were a dismal 1 for 22 from the 3-point line. The futility continued until Kenny Boynton made an off-balance three with 14 seconds to go to cut the Wolfpack lead to 2. Then with 2.6 seconds left this amazing finish. . .

U2's eschatological anthem

Shhh! It's a conspiracy.

Apologies to Spielberg and Williams . . .

but this is a well done spoof!

Looking for something to do on Oct. 31?

As far as I know this isn't a joke.

That 70's show

Job 37 in HD

He loads the thick cloud with moisture;
the clouds scatter his lightning.
They turn around and around by his guidance,
to accomplish all that he commands them
on the face of the habitable world.

This is a timelapse video of the remnants of Typhoon Nangka over Victoria Harbour, 7am to 9pm.

Sometimes sarcasm says it best