The Way We Were

directed by Sydney Pollack (1973)

A Valentine's Day viewpoint.

I always dismissed this because I thought it was a sappy romance, mostly because of the super over the top sentimental theme song by Streisand and Marvin Hamlisch - misty water coloured mammaries, gooshing the milk of nostalgia.  It's a great song if you can accommodate the melodramatic melancholia - it won the Academy Award for best song - but the movie is better.  It's sincerely emotional too, but it's trying way harder to be something meaningful rather than simply emotionally evocative.

It spans a number of interesting periods in American history, and is full of lefty, pinko, pedantic scenes that explain and broadly outline the political stances popular at the time it was made - at least those among the dirty commie cultural arbiters in Hollywood - the peace movement, feminism, social justice etc.  Mostly it's done through arguments between Streisand and Redford.  She's starts out a poor, but smart kid, working her way through Harvard on an activist/journalist trip, and he's a wannabe writer who's making his bones.  He's intrigued by her, and she wants him baaad.   She's got a chip on her shoulder over class and has resentment for his pretty boy privilege though, so there's obstacles to their coupling.

I really enjoyed it and I didn't expect that I would. Sydney Pollack is known for making quality flicks though, so I perked up when I saw he was the director.  It's still rich white people problems though.  Really it's a relationship flick, but it aims higher than the majority of what you'll find in the romance genre.  It's steeped in the issues and politics of its time eg. the McCarthy bullshit, and will seem silly and dated in some aspects, but it's a superb document of that era and the viewpoint filter it applies to the immediate past.  I totally appreciate when "issues" are addressed in a plot - it makes a story so much more interesting.

Pollack, Streisand, and Redford

Robert Redford reminds me of Brad Pitt so much in the scenes where he's drunk and Streisand takes him home.  I thought it was such a sign of the times that she'd take advantage of his inebriated state to seduce him, well actually she just crawled into bed with his passed out form and engaged his automatic hump instincts. Wtf eh? Women's lib was in full force in 1973, but she couldn't directly pursue him because that would be too too slutty I guess.

trailer

deleted scenes

whole movie - youtube

RIP Mr. Hamlisch!  You made good musics.

Assassination Tango

directed by Robert Duvall (2002)

This movie was weird and it made me feel weird too. It's about a hitman who takes up tango dancing and romancing while he's stuck in Buenos Aires waiting on an opportunity to wack a former General.   I think Duvall wrote it for Robert De Niro and De Niro wouldn't do it so, Duvall had to step in, because it's like Duvall is doing a De Niro pastiche. It's truly an unwieldy combo of tango dance romantic fluff with a side of improbable hitman drama/action and I think either of the plots probably would have worked better independently. I found the dancing stuff was better developed, but maybe the hitman plot was what got the flick its finding.  On a story level, it was hard to buy that it would be difficult to find someone in Argentina who could manage a murder job.  And was it just me, or was Duvall taking credit for assassinations down south, saying that Ortega wouldn't still be around if he'd been on the job?

The action is pretty good aside from the, yeah this would really happen, snark! aspect though.

Now for the weird...

I felt uncomfortable about the relationship he had with the daughter of his girlfriend.  He obviously loved the little girl; their relationship was really sweet with him teaching her to dance and the general interactions made me feel aw...but there were also times when I got yucko feelings, like something is wrong here and I was dreading worse to come, saying to Joe, I hope there isn't a child abuse angle Duval's working.  I had to question my reaction.  Was I twigging to something that wasn't there?  He wasn't shown molesting the girl, and not even sure that was implied, but he for sure had terrible boundaries.  He talked about how she was better than a daughter, and that he loved her more than the mom?  I can't understand ever thinking it would be right to tell a kid that. Oh yeah, btw, your mother?  I don't really love her, it's you I love.  The feeling is understandable; romantic attachments often wither, but parental ones, not so much.  Still, that aspect felt like a real miscue, or that it was alluding to a situation that WAS abusive that wasn't developed properly. Or maybe that was the point?  His character was really selfish in all his interactions, totally self serving and it's with people like the hitman, where kids are getting exploited and abused, and generally nobody notices.  Or even worse when people do notice somethings up, they just ignore the problem.  Somebody else's business!  I feel like I'm reading too much into a small part of a character study story;  it's just that the stuff with the kid felt OFF and I don't know why, or to what purpose.  Probably the shittiness with the little girl was more to do with him being a selfish guy who only operates out of self interest. I mean, a decent guy would never put a child in a position where they could get revenge murdered, let alone lay a heavy trip on them that their mom's partner loves them more than their mom.  In any case, I didn't like the development of that subplot, and I thought the hitman was a tool.  I guess you'd have to be a tool to be a hitman  to begin with though.

Luciana Pedraza, the tango dancer he sparks on, is Duvall's actual wife and she's 42 years younger than him and a professional dancer.

When I found that out, it made me wonder, was this whole flick an ego massage to justify the massive age difference between them? To maybe silence charges of of dirty old man! What?  Hey man, who doesn't love dancing?  Life IS a dance! And besides, age ain't nothing but a number? Massive age differences don't have to translate as  incestous or inappropriate!!  On one level, yeah that's true.  Of course people should be with who they love. Yet I still feel conflicted, because I really did get squicked feelings from the flick.  I have to admit, even if it makes me a judgemental, uncool,  not liberal enough moral relativist, I think it's problematic when there are vast discrepancies between partners, whether they be of age, wealth, class, or even level of attractiveness.  Yeah, it's simple and silly to want people to have equity in all areas, but on a basic fundamental level, that feels right too.  It seems a bit sad to me when people get together, and there are great imbalances between them, because on an inherent sense of fair play, it seems likely someone is giving more.  Perhaps that's too literal a way to think of things.  Relationships do not operate with balance sheets after all.

All told it wasn't super great, but it wasn't super awful either.  Some of it made me uncomfortable, but it did make me think about and clarify my position on some important issues, for sure.  And the dancing and musics are great.  I say, if you're into dancing and gunfights, and don't mind some disjointedness,   put this one on and get ready to Taaaango!!

Duvall's dance moves

more dancing (spoilers)

trailer

Emma

directed by Douglas McGrath (1996)

I found it hard to care very much about this one.  The nuanced relations of class and romance were pretty boring.  I think I liked it better as Clueless.

Before Sunset

poster design Joshua Hooper

directed by Richard Linklater (2004)

I found this to be a completely unnecessary sequel.  I didn't need to know what happened to the couple in the first flick. Before Sunrise was a lovely romantic story,  showing the spark and birth of a relationship, and I was happy imagining a future where they ended up happily ever after.

Instead there's this business, and remember, movies is business first and art second, mostly always.  There must have been enough people saying hey what happened to that couple anyhow? to get this funded right?  It's not terrible - it's got some pretty choice scenes and dialogue - but I just didn't care about the evolution of their relationship.  I liked seeing Paris, but thats merely the pretty backdrop for the jibberjabber where they do a show and tell of the baggage and compromises they've accumulated through the years.  Hohum.  Actually, I was surprised how much older Ethan Hawke looked, since I watched the movies back to back.  That was probably a mistake because I was satisfied with the first flick, and the sequel negated the good romantic glow that I got after watching their initial love connection.  They were poised at the beginning of a beautiful friendship, and learning what happened to them after that wasn't nearly as interesting or compelling as I thought it would be.

It reminded me of Woody Allen, except it wasn't funny.

I think I would have liked a sequel more along the lines of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.  Give me some DRAMA baby!  This was kinda boring.

Before Sunrise

directed by Richard Linkletter (1995)

I haven't watched this since I saw it when it was first released.   It holds up really well because it's a very simple story.  Boy meets girl on a train and they spend a day together.  It's a relationship compressed down to its essentials and you get to see them gradually fall in love while having dialogues on everything from their past relationship mishaps to what love is and what gives meaning to life. And that's it, not much else happens. They wander around Vienna which makes for some beautful backdrops, in the space they've carved out for togetherness, seperate from their day to day existence, and it's magical romantical.

Julie Delpy is a beauty, and Ethan Hawke is a good looking man, but they're both a little unkempt and regular folk looking too.  They're not super made up perfect looking movie stars and that makes what happens more believable.   Just two strangers on a train taking the chance to be vulnerable enough to fall for each other. 

I love this scene near the beginning when they're at a record store in the listening booth, it's deliciously awkward.

but the movie's strength is the dialogue...actually that's the whole movie. 

I also liked this version of a Daniel Johnston song which plays over the credits.  It's a lovely cover.