Poll Results: guess which director won :)

I wonder if my readers received any kind of pressure from Team Hitchcock.

"Hitchcock is going to win this one, hands down. His style was so unique, that most of his films wouldn't even need to have his name on them to recognize who the director was." 

So next time you need to bet on something, ask Emm. She wrote that comment right after I opened the poll.
First of all, THANKS, this is the first time a poll in my site has so many votes (34). About the results: I really thought that John Ford, John Huston and David Lean would get at least one vote, but no, but no. George Cukor and Ernst Lubitsch beat Howard Hawks by just one vote. Capra's delightful movies and style almost tied him with master Billy Wilder, but remained third. There was a point were Wilder and Hitch were very close in popularity, but then Hitch took off unbeatably, reaching the 38% of the votes.

So the guy Miss Bergman is pointing won this one...

...and he want to thank all his supporters....

...with a (very creepy) dinner.

Day 16- Favorite director

This survey is terribly mean. First asking for my favorite movie from my favorite actor and actress. I thought that one was complicated, but then it wanted me to pick my favorite movie. No kidding. And now asks for my favorite director. Why don't you better ask if I prefer my mom or my dad?

Anyway. Let's see.

Hitch sick and tired of being called a genius.

Uhm, Hitchcok got me interested in Classic Hollywood. You know that. When I want to see a good film, there's a lot of chances I choose one of his films. He's a genius. Uhm, you knew that too. He's one of my favorite directors because he combines romance, suspense, comedy, drama perfectly. Because I forget everything when I see his movies. Because he had amazing writers, actors, artists and musicians working for him. Because I've seen around 30 films from him and almost loved them all (there's nothing to do, "The Paradine Case" was boring). Because he loved to surprise the public and I love when directors love to surprise me. I love Hitch (just yesterday I re-watched "The lady vanishes"...what a terrific film. I *adore* Michael Redgrave.)

Billy.

But I also like very very very much Billy Wilder. You little guy with an accent and glasses you. I have an accent too, but not your talent (or your glasses). Wilder is one of the directors whose films I can order in a top 10, without including great movies like "Stalag 17", "The Major and the Minor" or "Irma la Douce".  Haven't I said enough? Well, he was a genius too.

Joseph imagining how delightful would be to hit Liz with a vase. 

But I can leave out one of the greatest directors AND writers ever, Mr. Joseph L. Mankiewicz. I mean, the guy directed his movies and wrote his scripts ALONE. "A letter to three wives" blew my mind. The flashbacks are great, the performers give the best of themselves, the situations are so well developed. And what about "People will talk", "Sleuth", "No way out", "Suddenly last summer", "The barefoot contessa", "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" and, for heaven's sake, "All About Eve"?! Not to mention that he almost die shooting the never- ending "Cleopatra", the movie about he 'didn't talk'. 

These guys are geniuses. I can name a few more: William Wyler, David Lean, Frank Capra, Ernst Lubitsch,  George Cukor, John Ford, Leo McCarey, but what would be the point? This survey is mean.

My Top 10 Billy Wilder movies

Arrived from work like an hour and a half ago, ate something, came to see what my fellow bloggers had posted, and noticed that today is Mr. Wilder's birthday. So, here's my ranking of his movies (as director), with a particular order for a change and some random thoughts:

#10.- Some like it hot: funny, the guys are terrific, Monroe is charming, classic ending. Billy had some problems with Marilyn (or, as he said, Monroe had problems with Monroe) and some days she couldn't say a simple line like "It's me, Sugar". Anyway, he said that she had a great timing in her good days. 

#9.- A Foreign Affair: Dietrich owns this film, has some great moments, the one I'm embedding is one of them. Read somewhere that Jean Arthur had 'diva behavior' during this film, argued with Wilder and at the end apologized. The master was right. 

#8.- Love in the afternoon: Ah, if only Gary had been younger...anyway, good film, Audrey is great as always and Chevalier has a solid performance. Fell in love with the song "Fascination". Terrific ending. 

#7.- The lost weekend: Here I thought: "What a great actor is Ray Milland". The scene I remember the most is when he's trying to sell his typewriter, and everything is closed. Drinking is a bad habit. 

# 6.- Double Indemnity: Witty dialog, interesting racconto, one of the first films I saw starring Stanwyck. What can I say? A classic.

#5.- Sabrina: Ah, if only Bogie had been younger...I enjoy this film very much, has so many unforgettable parts: Audrey trynig to kill herself, Audrey in Paris trying to cook (It is all in the wrist), the letter reading scene in the kitchen ('that's good, that's bad', remember?)  Audrey coming back all dressed up, the dance in the tennis court, the line "Democracy can be a wickedly unfair thing Sabrina. Nobody poor was ever called democratic for marrying somebody rich."...I could go on forever...Anyway, I'm embedding "La vie en rose" because it's lovely...

#4 Sunset Boulevard: This movie introduced me William Holden and Gloria Swanson. I remember that awful monkey, the great narration in off, the camera shot from inside the pool, Norma's visit to the studios, the ending...

#3.- Avanti: Jack Lemmon and Billy Wilder were a great team. This is a terrific movie, with great jokes, a nice (and adulterous) relationship, Juliet Mills is so funny and her performance smooth, you learn how to say "excuse me" and "come in" in Italian. Oh, has lovely music too.

#2.- Witness for the Prosecution: Aaaaaaah, they fooled me. How difficult must be to maintain the Agatha Christie's suspense effect. Wilder did. Laughton and Marlene...they give an acting class. 

#1.- The apartment: this is kind the perfect movie. Excellent. Lovely. Jack Lemmon waiting outside in the cold, tired, because he lended his apartment to some lovers. Jack in love with Shirley McLaine. Shirley in despair. Noodles in a tennis racket. You know.

Coming around again...

...after committing one of the most terrible sins in blogging: not posting in ages (well, it was like a week and a half). Let me start by telling you that —just like Regina Lampert said—I'm not a lady of leisure anymore. I got that good journalism internship offer that I told you about, so I'll be very busy from 9.30 am to 19 pm starting tomorrow and ending in September.

So this is gonna be the last long post that you read in my blog in months (I've planned to answer a survey that will provide me an easy to make post per day for a month). And this last long post it's gonna be very random, since I'm gonna try to cover all the things I didn't wrote about last week. So fasten your seat belts, it's gonna be a bumpy post.

Finished "The secret lives of a princess" by James Spada and I tell you, I wouldn't trade my life for Grace's. I mean, she had an awful family, her father was obsessed with success but never said something nice about her little girl, even when she won an Oscar; her sisters were abusive when she was a kid, and her mother sold stories about Grace to the press! Had lots of famous lovers but couldn't settle down with any of them, mainly because of her family opposition. Loved to act, was great at it, but her studio (when it didn't lend her to others) just gave her stupid parts. Then she marries the Prince —who had a list of possible Hollywood actresses to wed just to improve Monaco image— in a ceremony paid by MGM. She has to suffer all the archaic customs of the palace, but she was prohibited to make another movie, even when Hitch offered a role in "Marnie". The only escape she found was raising her kids the better she could, but the girls turn out to be rebels and had dissipated lives. AND then she died in a car accident. So, no thanks, poor Grace.

This knowledge increased my inner debate about whether is good or not to classic film fans to investigate the private lives of performers and directors. I mean, sometimes you really loved someone's work, but then you read something bad about their behavior, something sad about their lives, or you realize that they beliefs are very very different to your own, and then what was more important —the films— are kind of overshadow to your eyes by this knowledge. Anyway, it doesn't happen to me frequently, one of my cases is Norma Shearer (I've been avoiding watching more of her movies) because I read somewhere that she got the parts mostly because she was married to Irving Thalberg.  And of course, it does happen the other way around, for example, I appreciate the work of Myrna Loy even more since I learned about her fight for human rights. 

Anyway, been reading "People will talk" by John Kobal, and I want to read more of his work. It's like any of us, classic movie lovers, have had the opportunity to sit down and chat with the stars. Loved his interviews with Gloria Swanson, Ingrid Bergman, Mae West and other famous actresses and professionals related to movies. Loved the way he describes the way the stars treated him (like Marlene Dietrich putting him up in her hotel room, since he had traveled a long distance and didn't have a place to stay). Or the way the stars of silent films described their work, so vividly...If you find this book, buy it, I'm loving it.

Well I saw a lot of movies in May, I talk about the most of them in previous mini-reviews. But the last two weeks a saw three great films:

a) I remember mama: Irene Dunne was a great actress. When you see her in this film, you forget who she is, you forget the other roles she played, because she really is the Norwegian immigrant mother. There are some scenes that break your heart, especially when she goes to visit her little girl at the hospital.

b) Witness for the prosecution: I love Billy Wilder, I just had forgotten how much I loved him. My Film Review teacher always said that we should avoid treating the subjects as masters, but he was one. Laughton was terrific, Marlene was terrific, Tyrone Power was great, and Agatha Christie did it again.

c) Three Comrades: Maybe the movie written by Francis Scott Fitzgerald is the weakest of the three, but I liked it very much. Saw it last night and I couldn't sleep well. Saw the scenes over and over in my mind. Robert Taylor is #7 in my top 25 favorite classic actors (someday I'm gonna update and translate that post), and I don't care if his characters are pretty much the same in every movie I've seen him in, I always enjoy his presence on screen. I just had seen Margaret Sullavan in the "Shop around the corner" but her performance is really heartbreaking, her character seem so defenseless, but at the same time strong minded and generous. 

Well, I can't write more, because we're too many in this house using one computer, but let me finish this post with this picture I captured from "Stardust, the Bette Davis story" I saw today. Don't you think that the classic stars can look even more modern than modern actors? I want to see this picture in the next Everlast campaign :) 

Well, see ya tomorrow with the first post of this meme.