Posts from the ‘1957’ Category

Jun 3

Wild Strawberries

Movies about people re-evaluating their lives are a dime a dozen. There are countless films in which a key character takes to a road trip or some sort of life-altering experience and discovers some deep truth about him or her self that he or she otherwise would not have known. Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries is that sort of picture in many ways, but it’s also an engrossing, poignant and stunning story of making the discovering of the deep truth when it might be too late.

For Bergman, the idea to do such a picture came to him when he was driving from Stockholm to Dalama. He stopped where he was born and raised along the way and yearned for clearer memories from childhood. Wild Strawberries came from that yearning and presents the notion of peeking in to one’s childhood with clarity and beauty and strength.

Apr 14

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The Spirit of St. Louis

Billy Wilder and James Stewart team up for the 1957 biopic The Spirit of St. Louis. Based on the book by Charles Lindbergh which was, in turn, based on his experiences making his historical transatlantic flight, the film exceeded my expectations and was incredibly enchanting and charming. While I can’t claim to have had a lot of interest in the subject matter, I found myself very pleased with the movie by the final frame and had experienced a fun little surprise.

Stewart had heavily petitioned for the role of Lindbergh and actually lost out the first time he auditioned. According to some sources, he had been lobbying Warner Bros. for the part as early as 1954 when the project was first announced. When production began in 1955, the studio offered the part to John Kerr, but he turned it down. Stewart was 47 at the time and was finally cast after pressuring the studio. His age was a problem, as he was playing a 25-year-old version of Lindbergh and needed to look the part. With some dye and a little bit of makeup, the job was done and Stewart looked good enough.

Mar 19

Throne of Blood

Akira Kurosawa’s brilliant 1957 film Throne of Blood takes William Shakespeare’s Macbeth and sets it in feudal Japan with most interesting results. Often considered one of Kurosawa’s best and one of the best film adaptations of Macbeth, Throne of Blood is a chilling B&W epic with Noh staging and brilliant direction. Kurosawa was an admirer of Noh, the 14^th century form of Japanese musical theatre, and used many elements from it to stage his characters and build his scenes in his films. Throne of Blood uses Noh theatre influences clearly, even in the editing and in the characterizations.

Like many of Kurosawa’s movies, the plot may be as much about his life as it is about the Shakespeare play he uses as a source. Despite not having the play’s script to work off of, Kurosawa designed Throne of Blood by following the events very closely and using personal experiences and thoughts to draw in the details. His lead characters are more sympathetic than those found in the Shakespeare play, but they are not necessarily relatable. In Throne of Blood, motivations to do evil are explored and presented as a lesson to be learned.

Dec 27

An Affair to Remember

An Affair to Remember is a 1957 film directed by Leo McCarey. It is often considered one of the most romantic films of all time and is a remake of McCarey’s 1939 film Love Affair, which starred Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer. An Affair to Remember is almost identical to Love Affair on a shot-by-shot basis, as McCarey used the same screenplay for both films. That screenplay was written by Delmer Daves and Donald Ogden Stewart. The 1957 film was also boosted by the Henry Warren composition “An Affair to Remember (Our Love Affair)” which was the film’s popular theme song. The song appears in the film as sung by Vic Damone in the opening credits and is later sung by Deborah Kerr’s character in the film.

Deborah Kerr stars in An Affair to Remember as night club singer Terry McKay. She is on a luxury ocean liner when she meets Nickie Ferrante (Cary Grant), a well known playboy. The pair has dinner and have a conversation, but eventually decides it is best to go their separate ways, as each is attached to somebody else. After a series of mishaps and “accidents,” however, the pair decides that the pull of romance is far too strong and they agree to reunite after six months. Without spoiling the story completely, an incident occurs that creates complications for the reunion and doubt is cast as to the potential for a future relationship. As the story draws to a close, the importance of communication and the trappings of fate are drawn into play in a beautiful closing sequence of dialogue.

"Always make the audience suffer as much as possible." – Alfred Hitchcock

Posts from the ‘1957’ Category

Wild Strawberries

The Spirit of St. Louis

Throne of Blood

An Affair to Remember

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