Johnny Simmons

My favourite post this week comes courtesy of Blake (Bitchin’ Film Reviews) puts forth a fine argument as to why superhero films are the new romantic comedies. I like his argument even more because he touches on two films Friends with Benefits and Captain America which I had issues with despite the positive reviews.
    
I don’t really love Polanski’s The Pianist but Stevee (Cinematic Paradox) LOVES it. No, I don’t think the film is poor – it’s rather good, but I never managed to appreciate it as vociferously as everyone did, and I always resented it because I felt the story behind it was more wholly loved than the film itself.
      
Nick is relentless at coming up with the strangest ideas for a post and this top ten is a winner. Has anyone seen the trailer for The Whistleblower (the film which will net Rachel Weisz her second Oscar nomination)? Over at Anomalous Material he imagines ten actors saying a line from the film. # 5 is the best. Seriously.

Luke (Journalistic Skepticism) doesn’t like Mulholland Drive. I don’t feel much for the film either way; although I know Castor loves it. It just sort of sits there for me...anyone care to make an argument for me to watch it again?

Eponymous The Flick Chick lists her five favourite body-switching films. She unfortunately doesn’t have the Lindsay/Jamie switch of Freaky Friday. But, she’s never seen it (and #1 and #2 are golden).

         
The summer movie season is coming to a close, and not fast enough for me. Maybe the rest of the year will be as underwhelming, but I’m hoping the string of disappointments this year is just because the fall season has reached. Ruth (FlixChatter) lists her five favourite summer blockubsters, so I guess her summer has been going better that mine

And to close, who isn’t anticipating Soderbergh’s Contagion. I haven’t keeping track of the behind-the-scenes rambling of most films, opting to be surprised so I didn’t realise Jude was in until Paolo started talking about the new posters over at The Film Experience. I’ve avoided the trailer, and the IMDB page. It’s like a Talented Mr. Ripley reunion...but for Cate. Sigh.

I don't usually watch trailers but could I honestly resist Vanessa Redgrave? No, I could not. Sure, the Shakespearean roots are not obvious but I never really did like Coriolanus much I'm just excited to see VANESSA REDGRAVE. And Ralph.

“There is something peaceful and quiet about Howards End, starting with Vanessa’s haunting walk and introduction. To me, it feels like the essence of the British countryside, of elegance and that high class feeling that Brits always put in their period films. Howards End is, to me, James Ivory’s greatest achievement, such a delicate film, but with such power of acting and fascinating plot.”

Like him, I think of Howards End as the best work from the Merchant Ivory team, and like him I think of its beginning with Vanessa Redgrave soon after I hear the name. Howards End opens with a picturesque image of a woman walking through a green field near the eponymous Howards End. She, too, is clad in green, and though we don’t know it as yet this woman is the patron saint of Howards End (the film and the place). And though it opens with that image of Miss Redgrave, the story begins just after. An engagement impulsively arises and is broken just as swiftly. A bumbling aunt makes her way to a far off cottage, mistaken identities arise and harsh words ensue – and all this within the first ten minutes only. Yet, remove this preamble and Howards End is no worse (or admittedly, no better) for it. Even though I was drawn to Howards End on first viewing, it took a few more for me to appreciate the importance of this prologue and a few more for me to fully grasp the significance of Redgrave’s sombre walk through the field. And yet, the film isn’t really about Mrs. Wilcox. Like Forster’s original novel, it’s a story of class division in early 20th century England. There are the middle class Schlegels – booklovers and idealistically (if pedantically) good, the upper-class Wilcoxes – sometimes brittle and unrelenting but more than just caricatures and the lower class Basts – there are only two, but they’re just as important. Howards End takes a look at the unlikely clash between these three different groups, and though it’s not a particularly subtle message (Forster’s novel is almost a complete allegory) it’s a pertinent one.

“It’s impossible to watch this movie and avoid being haunted by the image of Vanessa Redgrave walking along a vast path of grass. The ethereal nature of this scene sets a strange mood over a film that so unsentimentally examines the clash of social classes and the creation of what was supposed to become modern England. Emma Thompson and Helena Bonham Carter (both subtly extraordinary) play sisters who come to represent different schools of thought at the beginning of the twentieth century. Anthony Hopkins and Samuel West are their male counterparts who also become symbols for the underlying themes E.M. Forster addressed in his brilliant novel. The miracle in the movie though is watching these symbols become human and witnessing how the film works as a wonderful political study and as an involving, intense emotional drama. Few movies master with such ease the dichotomy that exists between mind and heart; which can be fierce enemies or intimate friends.”

“Battling through the myth that Merchant Ivory films are overlong and overwrought, Howards End combines the immense talents of its cast, particularly the always-lovely Emma Thompson and the startlingly beautiful Helena Bonham Carter, with an impossibly elegant backdrop. It’s a gorgeous costume drama that never looks down on its audience, and Thompson’s performance is mannered loveliness.”

“Howards End is the second masterpiece from the Merchant-Ivory team (E/N masterpiece #1, masterpiece #3], working at the height of their creativity. Anyone expecting the dreamy romanticism of their first masterpiece, A Room With A View, may be surprised at the complexity, subtlety and maturity of this drama. The luminous Emma Thompson, passionate Helena Bonham-Carter, and powerhouse Anthony Hopkins headline this tale of a country house, its meaning in the lives of its inhabitants, and its role in a series of misunderstandings that bring belated contentment to some, and ruin to others.

Gorgeous to look at, a dream to listen to, top-notch in all departments, this is intelligent film making at its best. Compelling and entertaining, it faithfully paints a tapestry of Forster's themes of love, class, family tradition, infidelity, and the yearning of artistic fulfillment. Vanessa Redgrave's supporting turn is but one of the film's many outstanding performances. I am also haunted by the symbolic image of a poor hanger-on literally crushed by his literary hopes and dreams. Howards End would sit proudly at the top of anyone's list of favorite films.”

So it's been solved, my banner is from Howards End...a movie that I adore. Every time I watch I see something new, and it's only now I realised how much Ivory uses nature to bring out his characters. Howards End features one of the most beauteous openings I can recall as Ms. Redgrave saunters through the grass looking resplendent as ever. Isn't she lovely?
       
What shots do you recall from Howards End?