All That Heaven Allows (1955), dir. Douglas Sirk
We finished Day 1 of Summer Under the Stars 2020 with a Douglas Sirk film and we are starting Day 2 with a Douglas Sirk film. And I think many people consider All That Heaven Allows THE Douglas Sirk film. It is weird that I have not seen it before today, but if there was any unconscious worry in my mind that it would not match the expectations I set for it, it was for nothing, because the film is incredible.
The thing that first comes to mind when it comes to this film is probably the cinematography, the production design, and the costumes, and how gorgeous all of it is. I admit, I am so obsessed with the look of All That Heaven Allows I cannot even put it into words. I think everything should be clear to anyone who has seen even a frame from the movie. The autumnal atmosphere is so beautiful (I am serious) it made my heart ache. And I’m guessing the colour theorists must have had a field day with this one.
But something that I think deserves more credit is the screenplay. Not only are we presented with this touching, human and compassionate story, it is also very clever, maybe more than one might think. There are just so many little moments, callbacks that illustrate this incredibly profound and, at the same time, such we can all find ourselves in, revelations.
Rock Hudson was the perfect choice for his role here, he is unbelievably handsome and charming but also brings some bittersweet note to every moment he is on the screen. Jane Wyman is equally good and the way both of them carry on in this film makes it pretty clear from the very beginning that we are not watching an uplifting love story. And that just makes watching all of that beauty more complex and engaging. And what can I say, I am a sucker for a tearjerker that is actually good.
As far as actors go, I also really enjoyed Gloria Talbott as The Daughter. She is the intellectual of the family, and while know-it-all girls appeared in movies before, she has actual academic background and her tangents are pretty amusing to anyone who interacted with people like that in real life. But there is also some darkness to her (clearly, there is darkness to everything in this movie). She reminded me, maybe mostly because of her look, of Virginie Ledoyen in François Ozon’s 8 femmes and made me think of how close the aesthetics of the both films are.
Despite the beautiful melancholy of All That Heaven Allows, I am glad it is not, in the end, hopeless (is this a spoiler?). The theme of the movie is that we all deserve happiness – we as the viewers do, too.
The Mirror Crack’d (1980), dir. Guy Hamilton
The Mirror Crack’d is an Agatha Christie adaptation and the most important part of it is that ANGELA LANSBURY PLAYS MISS MARPLE! I could not believe it, I somehow missed this information before watching and when the film began with a movie-within-a-movie watched by a group of townspeople and Angela Lansbury guesses the killer, I thought it was just the greatest cameo of all time. But this came out four years before Murder, She Wrote started. Anyway, the very beginning of this movie was so exciting, so my hopes were high.
Too bad film quickly becomes pretty dull and starts dragging on. I am not even completely sure why. It is a shame because it had the potential to be truly wacky and iconic. I mean, Elizabeth Taylor is in this movie (and she wears an absolutely ridiculous flower cap). Tony Curtis is in this movie (but he is on the screen for what me seemed like twenty seconds). And honestly, the brightest and most incredible part of this whole mess for me was Kim Novak who not only looks incredible, but also gives the most bananas performance that I am going to think about for a long time.
But there are also two incredibly tragic things about The Mirror Crack’d. First of all, Rock Hudson would be dead in five years and in this film he still looks great and healthy so it’s scary to think about how quickly AIDS destroyed his body. The second thing is (a SPOILER, I guess) that, the plot is obviously not just inspired by but a straight-up retold Gene Tierney story of what happened to her baby. I have mixed feelings on the ethics of that fact.
Swingin' at the Seance 