1956: Written on the Wind (Douglas Sirk)

1956: Written on the Wind (Douglas Sirk)
After I first watched this, I wrote to my cinephile friends and told them that I felt it, more than anything else I had ever seen, influenced David Lynch's use of color and some of his more sentimental tendencies.  At the time, I was already a huge Lynch fan, but this was the first Sirk film that completely blew me away.


So many things work so well for me in this one -- the colors, the music, the production design, the camera movements, the acting, the locations, and the story.  It's one of these rare film experiences where I'm hooked from the first frame, and then Sirk only grabs hold of me more as the story goes on.  


There's an epic feeling at work (even though the film is only about 100 minutes long), and the tragedy is pitched at an extremely high level. But what really gets me is the incredible humanity Sirk is able to express.  And that he does it, in spite of the fact that he's working in an "exaggerated realm", that of melodrama.  


I can't remember ever liking Rock Hudson more.  Nor can I remember seeing a tragic view of friendship and look at the South that feel any more real, truthful, and penetrating.  I can't recommend this one enough.  To my eyes, it's a staggering artistic achievement, incredibly ambitious and almost flawlessly executed.  

Other contenders for 1956: A year where there are a number of things I still need to see.  These include:  Vincente Minnelli's Lust for Life, Alfred Hitchcock's The Wrong Man, Alain Resnais' Toute la memoire du monde, George Stevens' Giant, Fred Wilcox's Forbidden Planet, Orson Welles' The Fountain of Youth, George Cukor's Bhowani Junction, Satyajit Ray's Aparajito, and Kon Ichikawa's The Burmese Harp.  For some reason, I've yet to fully connect with John Ford's The Searchers.  I'll keep revisiting it though, and hopefully one day it will have the impact on me that it's had on so many others.  I really like the following films from this year: Jacques Tourneur's Nightfall, Fritz Lang's While the City Sleeps, Don Siegel's Invasion of the Body Snatchers,  and Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much.  I love Roger Vadim's And God Created Woman, Budd Boetticher's Seven Men from Now, Kenji Mizoguchi's Street of Shame, Robert Bresson's A Man Escaped, and Federico Fellini's Nights of Cabiria.  And my closest runner-up is one of my favorite noirs of all time, Stanley Kubrick's The Killing.


2/26/11 I watched Vincente Minnelli's Lust for Life.  It has some strong, emotional moments, and I'm always drawn to tales of artists. Douglas is wholly convincing, and Van Gogh's commitment and struggle are awe-inspiring.   The end doesn't necessarily deliver, but all in all, an extremely solid outing.  


2/28/11 I watched Alfred Hitchcock's The Wrong Man.  This one has a major reputation, and is sometimes lumped in with the roll he's about to begin, including Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho, and The Birds. But this austere film never really worked for me.  It was certainly well-made and interesting as a departure for Hitch.   However, it lacks his greatest quality, his ability to entertain, and at times, like the coda, it's just downright silly.


3/3/11 I watched Fred Wilcox's Forbidden Planet.  A real head trip of a film.  Well-conceived sci-fi with thoughts and effects that still hold up. Not the kind of film I really go for, but one of the best of its kind that I've seen.  


3/19/11 I watched Kon Ichikawa's The Burmese Harp.  A masterful film.  That is one that is beautifully filmed with masterpiece ambitions, however one that always felt forced and slightly disconnected from me. Ichikawa has a great eye, and some of the camerawork is unusually expressive.  Also the non-linear structure feels incredibly modern.  And there's a certain poetry to much of it.  At the end of the day though, I never fully was in it.  


3/11/11 I watched George Stevens' Giant.  Raw and poignant but at times also heavy-handed  and corny.  An interesting epic, but one that also feels only half-formed.  Dean hints that he might have had a long, extremely interesting career, but Hudson is not as strong as he usually is.  


3/24/11 I watched Henri-Georges Clouzot's The Mystery of Picasso. It's a somewhat interesting look at the great Picasso's process.  But I wish, like Picasso says about his own work in the film, that the film went deeper.  Clouzot's process is repetitive and little engaging after awhile.


10/27/11 I watched Yasujiro Ozu's Early Spring.  Great by most people's standards but feels a little second-tier for Ozu probably because he was striving to do something somewhat topical.  

7/27/14 I watched Mark Robson's The Harder They Fall.  Entertaining enough and of interest for how dark it stays throughout.  I cannot remember Schrader's exact differentiations but I have to guess this one falls into the last nihilistic noir grouping.  At times a little repetitive and lacking significant plot surprises but worth one look at some point.  

12/28/15 I watched Satyajit Ray's Aparajito.  Not as affecting as Pather Panchali but still full of Ray's warmth and magical touches such as his handling of Apu's father walking back up the steps.  I just found it straining a little at times whereas Pather felt more effortlessly affecting.  

10/28/18 I watched Frank Tashlin's Hollywood or Bust.  Freewheeling Tashlin is entertaining and fun when the mood is for that.

4/6/20 I watched Jacques Rozier's Rentree des classes.  It is broad but an early New Wave film that captures the youth, playfulness and naturalism that would become key identifiers of the movement's initial work.  

4/14/20 I watched Jacques Rivette's Le Coup du berger.  Interesting to see as a very early film of the Nouvelle Vague.  But it does not feel particularly like Rivette or even stylistically very much like what the movement would become.  

10/27/21 I watched Douglas Sirk's There's Always Tomorrow.  It's incredible to see Sirk working in black-and-white the same year he'd make one of the most color-forward films in history (Written on the Wind).  Sirk takes the leads from Double Indemnity and substitutes extramarital romance for murder.  In doing so, he is able to create the same level of suspense found in the best noirs and achieve something even more emotionally damaging as it all feels more rooted in reality - kids, family, profession.