So, last night I watched a movie with my mom, Can-Can (1960), starring Frank Sinatra, Shirley MacLaine, Louis Jourdan, and Maurice Chevalier. It was a very fun movie with some fantastic songs by Cole Porter. I liked it a good deal and was surprised that I'd never heard of it before!
Watching Louis Jourdan reminded me of something I've wanted to mention on my blog. Do you remember that post I wrote about Gigi and then I wound up deleting it? Well. I've realized since deleting it that I got a little carried away in the wrong direction when writing that post. You see, when I originally sat down to write it, I was not going to bash it and criticize it to pieces. I was going to (and I did a bit) discuss how interesting it is to dislike a movie and be fascinated by it at the same time. That's what Gigi does to me. I'm so immensely bothered by it but when I start to think about it, I find I can't stop and then I start wanting to rewatch it and get another opinion of it. The same thing happened to The Sheik. I hated it. But something about it intrigued me to the point where I bought it and did a little bit of research on it to appease my fascination. There's a very good chance this will happen with Gigi as well as I find myself wanting to watch certain scenes again.
Do any of you have movies that you have a sort of love/hate relationship for? (For lack of a better term, that is. Love/hate isn't exactly what I'm talking about but it's a simpler way to describe it.)
Can-Can gave me a somewhat similar reaction, although I wasn't quite so opposed to the plot. But Louis Jourdan's persona (at least, in the two movies I've seen of him) is so difficult for me to wrap my head around. On the one hand, he's gentle, sexy, soft-spoken, attractive, French. The way he kisses Shirley MacLaine is so tender and affectionate! Yet, at the same time, he's condescending and talks to her (and to Gigi) as if she's a little girl and doesn't know any better. He looks at her with such pity when she doesn't really need his pity. It drives me ca-razy! If you can recommend any Louis Jourdan movies where he plays a more likable character, please let me know. I really want to like him in a movie. I was rooting for him when I watched Can-Can but mostly because I liked his character better than Frank Sinatra's character.
I sort of have that "love-hate" relationship with "Vertigo". On the one hand, it's Hitchcock for crying out loud, and it is one of his best. I'm amazed at the mastery of the filmmaking, but at the same time, I despise the character that James Stewart plays, which ruins the movie for me. I want to love it, but . . . I just can't.
ReplyDelete...this is a relatively recent movie, but...'Pulp fiction' embodies everything I LOATHE about movies in the last 20 years or so... but, every time I see it on TV (in a somewhat edited state, of course), I get 'suckered in' watching it, just to see if it was as horrifically repulsive as I remembered it...and it never disappoints in its putridness...The 'backstory' to this, strangely enough, has an Orlando connection - I had a friend WAY back when (well, when 'PF' came out in theaters) who had a sister who worked at DisneyWorld...and he got us 'all-day passes' for the whole she-bang down there...so we ran thru DW, Epcot, MGM, all in one DAY...and at the end of it, we went to a midnight showing of 'PF'...I was pretty worn out, had a sinus headache, and was just ready to crash... but had to sit thru this freakfest... thus part of my hatred for the film was born...well, primarily it is due to the fact that it just isn't what I want to see in a film...period.
ReplyDeleteOK - there it is... as for 'real' movies, hmmm.... not sure off-hand...I'll let you know...of course, I've gone down in the past as saying that 'It Had to Be You' was not one of my fave GingerFilms, but...it's grown on me to the point that it's OK... so I'll have to get back to ya on it...
KIG, Sally!
VKMfanHuey
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