Thursday, November 15, 2018

Thursday Movie Picks - Museum

Written as part of the weekly blogathon series hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves. Come along for the ride by picking three movies that fit the week's theme and writing a bit about them!

I have always loved museums. There's so much to see and so much to learn, and I love learning. Trying to pick movies for this week, though, proved to be a bit harder than I expected. Despite the fact that museums are GREAT settings for a movie (so much to see, and such pretty, interesting settings!), there aren't a lot of movies about, or at least set largely in, museums. That said, there are some with very memorable scenes set in museums, so that's what I based my picking around.

Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958) Poor John "Scottie" Ferguson. After a terrible accident on the job left him with horrible acrophobia and vertigo, he's let go from the police force, and he's having trouble getting over his fear. But an acquaintance, Gavin Elster, hires him to do some private investigating work: Trail his wife, Madeleine, who has been increasingly moody and obsessed with death (mostly her own). This leads to some memorable, mostly silent trips around San Francisco, including to the Legion of Honor Art Museum. A bit of a flop on release, it has since been named the greatest film ever made (in the 2012 Sight & Sound poll), and it's kinda hard to argue with that. This is one of Hitchcock's most beguiling films, with gorgeous cinematography and a hypnotic score by Bernard Herrmann (my pick for his best work). Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak give performances for the ages as the leads - particularly Novak, whose part is extraordinarily difficult and whose performance is hugely underrated. I got to see this on a 35mm print a couple of years ago and GOOD LORD is it gorgeous on the big screen. A haunting masterwork of obsession and PTSD, and a great mystery. I love everything about this movie, perhaps especially Barbara Bel Geddes's devoted Midge.

Dressed to Kill (Brian De Palma, 1980) In the opening sequence of this, perhaps De Palma's most overt Hitchcock homage in a career full of them, the great Angie Dickinson goes to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and follows/is followed by a mysterious stranger. Being a sexually frustrated housewife, she ends up in a cab with him and they have sex. But on her way home, while in the elevator, her throat gets slashed by a mysterious blonde woman, who is seen by high class escort Nancy Allen, who then becomes the killer's next target as well as the police's prime suspect. This sequence, largely without dialogue, is utterly mesmerizing and absolutely fantastic. If nothing else in the film quite lives up to it, at least it is a very well-done thriller, with some great cinematography and a winning performance by Nancy Allen. But it's Angie Dickinson's performance that you'll come away remembering. GOD she's good.

Ocean's 8 (Gary Ross, 2018) Debbie Ocean has just gotten out of jail, and has spent her entire sentence coming up with the perfect job: Stealing a priceless diamond off the neck of an attendee at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's annual gala. It's a film of modest pleasures, which is something of a disappointment after the starpowered fireworks of the George Clooney and Brad Pitt-led, Steven Soderbergh-directed Ocean's trilogy. But it is pleasurable all the same, mostly thanks to the chemistry of the ensemble cast, led by Sandra Bullock and Cate Blanchett, and with standout supporting performances by Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, and Awkwafina.

11 comments:

  1. I've only seen Vertigo from your picks and I'm embarrassed over how much I've forgotten about it. lol. It's only been a few years.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. WHAT?!? How could you ever forget that movie?!?

      Delete
  2. I'm in a weird place with Vertigo, I see its greatness and yet it isn't a Hitchcock film I can say I love. Jimmy Stewart's character even with his issues is a terrible man though I can't fault his performance and it is without question Kim Novak's best work. About the museum scene I loved when the Tales of the City miniseries paid tribute to it with Laura Linney's Mary Ann going there to sort out all her problems at the climax by staring at the same painting.

    I didn't love Dressed to Kill though it had its stylistic moments and yes Angie Dickinson is the one you remember.

    I liked rather than loved Oceans 8, it would have been better if they had made it a stand alone film rather than trying to echo the first trilogy.

    As another museum lover I ended up with a quartet of choices this week.

    Mysteries of the Wax Museum (1933)-Sculptor Ivan Igor (Lionel Atwill) and his partner, Joe Worth (Edwin Maxwell), run a famous wax museum in London. Joe burns down the place down for the insurance money leaving Igor trapped inside. Though terribly burned he survives. Decades pass and Ivan surfaces in New York as the curator of a new wax museum, boasting incredibly lifelike statues. When model Joan Gale (Monica Bannister) goes missing reporter Florence Dempsey (Glenda Farrell) follows the clues to Igor's museum, where she discovers a terrible secret. Remade with Vincent Price as House of Wax.

    One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing (1975)-Lord Southmere (Derek Nimmo) is being chased by a ring of Chinese spies pursuing him to gain possession of a secret microfilm he holding which reveals the formula for the mysterious Lotus X. While being chased through London’s Natural History Museum, Southmere hides the film in the bones of a Brontosaurus skeleton. When he’s captured it's up to his old nanny Hettie (Helen Hayes) and her hardy band of fellow nannies to find the film and keep it from the clutches of the evil Hnup Wan (Peter Ustinov). Pleasant Disney fare.

    The Hot Rock (1972)-Fresh out of the slammer John Dortmunder (Robert Redford) is approached by his brother-in-law Andy Kelp (George Segal) to steal a priceless diamond from the Brooklyn Museum and return it to the African nation it was originally taken from. Helped by an expert getaway man and an explosives wizard, they steal the gem with a little assistance from bombs, a faked car crash and dressing up as uniformed guards and doctors. However, almost as soon as they get their hands on the loot and prepare to transfer it to an African diplomat, they lose it. Breezy caper film with a light touch.

    How to Steal a Million (1966)-Cat burglar Simon Dermott (Peter O'Toole) is hired by the chic Nicole Bonnet (Audrey Hepburn) to steal the reproduction of a priceless sculpture made by her father Charles (Hugh Griffith) a master forger from to the Kléber-Lafayette Museum in Paris before it is examined and found to be a fake and ruins père Bonnet’s reputation. Comic complications and romance ensue.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't know that Vertigo is a film I LOVE so much as I am very much under its spell. It mesmerizes me every time I watch it, and haunts me whenever I'm not.

      I've never seen Mysteries of the Wax Museum, but I have seen the Vincent Price version, which is fun in that Vincent Price horror film way.

      I've not seen any of your other picks, but How To Steal A Million has been coming up on my Netflix streaming suggestions practically since I started, so I'll give in and watch it one of these days.

      Delete
  3. I've seen all your picks, but the top two are in need of a revisit as it's been a while. It is so clear that De Palma is infleunced by Hitchcock and he's a great filmaker in his own right.

    Oceans 8 was fun, but Widows is the better heist movie (the link is both films have women doing the heist)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Vertigo is ezcellent and I love James Stewart in a very different role for him. Kim Novak was great in the film and you felt so bad for Barbara Del Geddes as the woman who loves Stewart’s very flawed character. The colour green is so important and I am still trying to figure that out. That being said, it is not one of my favourite Hitchcock films. I love that you used this one. I remember when Dressed to Kill came out and the wish to not come out with what happens to Asngie Dickinson’s character since she was quite the star. I do want to see that one and your last pick as well. Some very good picks coming out this week

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. GOD Barbara Bel Geddes is SO GOOD in Vertigo. How can you not just want to take her in and hug her and tell her to get over this melancholy douchebag already?!?

      Delete
  5. Ocean's 8 had two things going for it - the outfits and Anne Hathaway. The rest was forgettable :(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Totally agree. Although I did like Awkwafina, too.

      Delete
  6. I don't even remember the museum bit in Vertigo, then again I did not like Vertigo.

    ReplyDelete