5 minute read
The Fix From Fix
February 2021 The Valentine Fix From Fix
A round up and review of some star crossed classics.
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— McCartney Fix, Co-News Editor
Dir. Michael Curtiz
It is strange to think about Casablanca in any way other than saying, “duh, it is Casablanca”. Often films accumulate such an impact on popular culture, and find such success in scholarship and academia, that talking about them as ‘movies’ is weird! But yes, Casablanca continues to be one of the best, no matter its enormous popularity and influence. It is a ravishing studio-backlot wartime romance that practically leaps off the screen with the help of Bogart’s existential pain rendered physical and Bergman’s angelic close-ups. If this movie were made today, it would be a plodding 2 hours and twenty minutes of clumsy set-up and obvious screenwriting. Casablanca was initially not intended to be a critically renowned masterwork to which all future romances were compared, it was a contractually obligated studio piece, in the vein of any other dime a dozen tragic romance the early post silent era of cinema pumped out. In the hands of Michael Curtiz, however, its simple premise is made truly transformative, playing brilliantly off of the deceptive simplicity of its premise. A man loves and then loses a woman, becoming an emotional recluse until she re-enters his life, years later, fates intertwined on a scale broader now than a simple romance; it would be laughably cliche if its tantalizing promise wasn’t so expertly executed upon. For a film of its day, the script remains tight, only occasionally falling victim to the retrospective parodies of its most iconic turns of phrase. 78 years of riffing on “here is looking at you kid” and “we will always have Paris” makes it difficult not to roll one’s eyes upon hearing them, particularly with how much they are used throughout the film, but when deployed tactfully, and with their fullest emotional weight, Curtiz lands a gut punch. The conclusion, when experienced blind, is a treat, one of the finest conclusory sequences ever put to film, the reels bleed with emotion as Bogart and Bergman put a tortured face to the poetry they perform, left only with questions of what could have been, and those fateful memories of Paris.
Photo sourced from Alternate Movie Posters
A gorgeous, black and white alternative poster depicting the final gazed shared between the lovers
Dir. Nick Cassavetes Dir. Ang Lee
Photo sourced from Pintrest An alternative poster for the 2004 An alternative poster for the 2005 romance,starring Ryan Gosling depicting the beautiful landscape
The Notebook seems to attract a lot of negative attention, predominantly from people who wish to be seen publicly bashing romantic films for the purpose of their own image. The Internet does not care if you like romantic films or not. Films are much like music, you watch whatever suits you due to the way it makes you feel. I was in conflict over watching this as I had read the book several times and it is one of my favorites. I think Nick Cassavetes did an amazing job of directing this as having read the book, and I can see that it would not have been an easy transition into film. The story is captivating from the onset. Both main characters are very loveable, and as their story and lives unfold you begin to know them more and more. The locations and scenery are amazing, a perfect match for the source material, Nicholas Sparks was done proud here. Gosling and McAdams punch up the depth of the screenplays material, lending it a weight and angst few if any other performers could eek out. To be able to so shamelessly praise the technical aspects of a schlocky romance advertised on the back of its lead stars’ eminent attractiveness was an unexpected, if welcome, surprise. Its cinematography is solid throughout, providing a cinematic playground for the actors to frolic through, while providing ample opportunities for attractive people to be attractive. Our initial obsession with such a film may have been surface level and vapid, but the product itself avoids such pitfalls, while providing a needed reminder that even pretty people lose lovers.
Photo sourced from Pinterest
There’s a palpable, tragic loneliness, permeating from every facet of Ang Lee’s impeccable portrait of repressed love and sexuality in an un-accepting world, “Brokeback Mountain”. The deceptively simple tale of two homosexual men who find solace in each others conversation and intimacy only when periodically returning to the titular mountain acts as much more than a simple love story. Even in its most intimate, explosive moments, there still seems to be a longing shared between our two lovers Jack and Ennis, as if they both believe their romance, truer than any they have experience with the opposite sex, to be wrong. Those urges are still felt and succumbed to every time, as put so poignantly by Jack, “I don’t know how to quit you”. He wants a quiet domestic life, often speaking of a blissful ranching existence, a fanciful anecdote of what could be. Every time, however, Ennis is reminded of the harsh reality of life when remembering a gay couple murdered by his hometowns local folk. Such trauma, permeating his life, haunts him bitterly, leaving him a repressed husk living a lie and subsisting on memories, after his wife leaves him and any attempt at a fresh start is swiftly dashed. When Ennis receives the call that Jack had died he visits Jack’s childhood home and finds in it those two old pieces of his clothing stained with blood, and bitter memories of those gay lovers from his hometown. Was Jack met with the same fate, as a momentary flash may lead us to believe, or is it only Ennis imagining it in the way his father “made sure me and my brother saw it.”..
