Sonic Youth and the Feelies vs. A Giant Hole of Suck
Photo of the Day, November 23, 2009: Stark
Why Does the Wilbur Theatre Suck? Better Rock Shows in 5 Steps
Where Should You Eat? A Fast Food Flowchart
Democratic Primary Debate at WGBH: Transcript Time!
Great Romances IV
Friday, Feb. 6th -- Saturday, February 14th
Brattle Theater, 40 Brattle St. Cambridge
more information
True, there is no Saint Valentine, and the feast of saints Cyril and Methodius just doesn't have the same ring. But there will always be Paris, and in Cambridge there's always the Brattle, and in February it doesn't matter if you're in love or just love going to the movies.
Tonight marks the first night of the Brattle's fourth annual Great Romances series. The list of great romantic films could begin and end with Casablanca, but, thankfully, the programmers at the Brattle are far more inventive than Bostonist, and this year's installment is no less appealing than years past. If anything, the program is better, trading the saccharine Science of Sleep and Amelie for the seductive, noirish Bound, and Jon Waters' endearingly odd Cry Baby.
Of course, there are still plenty of classic romances and Cary Grant films. For the second year, the Brattle is screening Howard Hawk's His Girl Friday, this year as part of a double-feature with Leo McCarey's The Awful Truth. Both films are about falling back in love with the person you hate the most, and the amazingly quick Awful Truth revels in exploiting the concept. Grant and Irene Dunne's on-screen combativeness is equally playful and cold-blooded, with dialogue as meant to scald as it is to charm.
That the centerpiece of Great Romances remains Casablanca is a given, and, really, who'd want it any other way? There are so many different love stories in Casablanca, so many different couplings and causes to demand passion and devotion, so many rich minor characters filling up every corner of Rick's. Peter Lorre is never as cloyingly desperate as he is here, nor Sydney Greenstreet as monumental, and there probably has never been a better realized one-note than Leonid Kinskey's Sascha.
Casablanca is "As Time Goes By," the song that captures everything and nothing at all. The way Bogart looks at Bergman when it plays is a movie itself, a love letter with bitterness. The hard-boiled exterior of The Maltese Falcon melts away, if only for a minute, but a minute is all it takes for Dooley Wilson's voice to seep in.
Casablanca is the kind of movie that stays with you, and the type of movie that leaves you in your seat wanting more. Those of us that stay have Bugs Bunny.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Post a comment (Comment Policy)