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dangermousieIn honor of my new background, I've decided to rewatch a movie I've seen and loved years ago: the film noir classic, Gilda, starring Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford. First off, yes it held up really well. I love it just as much as I did back then. And second, what a pleasure to have a movie that is intelligent. You forget the pleasure of complex characters, of zingy dialogue, of twisty plots. Great cinematography and score. Also, Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford just burn up the screen. Sigh....
The plot (for those who care): The Narrator, Johnny (Glenn Ford) is a former soldier in Buenos Aires. He gets a job working for the mysterious and cold Ballin Mundsen, to whom he gives unremitting loyalty. That is until Ballin shows back from a trip with a brand-new wife, Gilda (Rita Hayworth) and entrusts the task of minding her to Johnny. Of course, he doesn't know that Johnny and Gilda are former lovers (he walked out on her for reasons unspecified). Johnny and Gilda are caught in a really complicated mix of hate and desire and betrayal. And it gets even messier from there.
This movie has all the noir tropes: a shadowy, wise-cracking narrator in thrall to a woman, a mysterious, "no-good" dame, shady secondary characters, more twists than a pretzel and moody lighting. But it's a heck of a lot more that that. It's the love story, twisted, dysfunctional, equally full of hate and passion, that keeps bringing me back. Both Gilda and Johnny are damaged almost beyond repair, in part because of what they do to each other. They are cruel, and cynical, and torment themselves as much as they do each other. In fact, they try to inflict a universe on hurt on the other just to 'get even' for the pain the other inflicts, and to prove to themselves they don't care, though even a blind person can see they do. They can't help but love each other no matter what. Throw in Johnny's loyalty to Ballin Mundsen (some observers see a bisexual thing there. I have no opinion one way or another, but I can see how one can read it that way), and all the past between them, and we get a glorious, severely painful mess of a relationship of two brittle and broken people. Just my kind of movie...
The highlights are Gilda's famous "striptease," Gilda slapping Johnny so hard I am surprised her hand doesn't break, Johnny sitting defeated near the end, Johnny and Gilda at the masked ball etc etc etc...
And contrary to a lot of people, I love the ending. It seems to fit to me. Maybe I am not cynical enough.
Some picspam:
My new background:
I have a girl-crush on Rita:
I love the fact that he looks at her but she looks at the camera:
Love 40s fashion:
The 2 seconds they are not wallowing in inflicting or recieving pain:
Gilda with her signature smirk:
Mmmmmm:
Masked ball:
This promo pose cracks me up:
The plot (for those who care): The Narrator, Johnny (Glenn Ford) is a former soldier in Buenos Aires. He gets a job working for the mysterious and cold Ballin Mundsen, to whom he gives unremitting loyalty. That is until Ballin shows back from a trip with a brand-new wife, Gilda (Rita Hayworth) and entrusts the task of minding her to Johnny. Of course, he doesn't know that Johnny and Gilda are former lovers (he walked out on her for reasons unspecified). Johnny and Gilda are caught in a really complicated mix of hate and desire and betrayal. And it gets even messier from there.
This movie has all the noir tropes: a shadowy, wise-cracking narrator in thrall to a woman, a mysterious, "no-good" dame, shady secondary characters, more twists than a pretzel and moody lighting. But it's a heck of a lot more that that. It's the love story, twisted, dysfunctional, equally full of hate and passion, that keeps bringing me back. Both Gilda and Johnny are damaged almost beyond repair, in part because of what they do to each other. They are cruel, and cynical, and torment themselves as much as they do each other. In fact, they try to inflict a universe on hurt on the other just to 'get even' for the pain the other inflicts, and to prove to themselves they don't care, though even a blind person can see they do. They can't help but love each other no matter what. Throw in Johnny's loyalty to Ballin Mundsen (some observers see a bisexual thing there. I have no opinion one way or another, but I can see how one can read it that way), and all the past between them, and we get a glorious, severely painful mess of a relationship of two brittle and broken people. Just my kind of movie...
The highlights are Gilda's famous "striptease," Gilda slapping Johnny so hard I am surprised her hand doesn't break, Johnny sitting defeated near the end, Johnny and Gilda at the masked ball etc etc etc...
And contrary to a lot of people, I love the ending. It seems to fit to me. Maybe I am not cynical enough.
Some picspam:
My new background:
I have a girl-crush on Rita:
I love the fact that he looks at her but she looks at the camera:
Love 40s fashion:
The 2 seconds they are not wallowing in inflicting or recieving pain:
Gilda with her signature smirk:
Mmmmmm:
Masked ball:
This promo pose cracks me up:
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no subject
Date: 2005-09-08 12:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-08 01:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-08 03:12 am (UTC)am always half-paranoid that everyone on my flist is looking at these and going "oh, her! She's insane. Not in a good way."
Not at all. You're one of my favorites on my flist, mostly because even if I have absolutely nothing to comment, I know your posts will always be interesting, and often quite illuminating, like this one. Thanks for sharing!
*goes off to add Gilda to Netflix*
no subject
Date: 2005-09-08 04:26 am (UTC)And yes, Gilda is a lot of fun...especially if you like tough and dysfunctional like I do :)
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Date: 2005-09-08 02:23 am (UTC)Rita Hayworth is lovely.
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Date: 2005-09-08 04:27 am (UTC)Yes, I think RH was gorgeous...I've seen a number of her movies and have always been struck by her.
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Date: 2005-09-08 05:29 am (UTC)And I will be eternally grateful to you for getting me to watch Bollywood once more after I had stopped because they don't show them on TV in the States. (Channel Four in England used to have them on late nights and I first discovered them there - though they had some terrible '70s ones that really freaked me out. Sadly I don't remember the titles and now I cannot ever order any '70s Bollywood films from netflix for fear I'll get one of them).
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Date: 2005-09-08 02:20 pm (UTC)Oh yes. I also decided I want the slinky black dress (though perhaps not to strip it off).
Yes, 70 BW isn't really the best thing. I found that 60s-50s are interesting sometimes, and they get interesting again after 1995 or so, but in between it's mostly wasteland.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-08 05:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-08 05:50 pm (UTC)