The bad and the beautiful.

Last week I saw one of the worst films I have ever seen and.... well, probably not one of the best but certainly a great film. "Only God forgives" is a dreadful film. I was expecting something good from the director and his star of "Drive", Ryan Hoskins, but it wasn't to be. It had nothing going for it unless you like heaps of violence of the nastiest kind - eye-gouging, sword eviscerating, guns galore etc. Left halfway through and don't know why I waited so long. On the way out I said to the usherette "Can I have my money back please?" She said that many people had left the film early in the past week; some had come to see Christin Scott Thomas believing a film with her in it must be good. Not so. She played the part of a criminal mother of two sons one of whom is killed.... But it doesn't matter because the story was just plain uninteresting, slow and boring.
The other film was one of Carl Dreyer's early films, a silent one in fact: "The Passion of Joan of Arc". Piano accompaniment with it. A slow-burning film culminating in a death scene that made one shiver with dread. The film concentrated on facial expressions at the trial of Joan of Arc. Most of the action took place in a single room. There was little dialogue but it wasn't needed, the expressions said it all.
I don't think it's as good as "Day of Wrath" which I saw on Film 4 a few months ago but compared to "Only God Forgives" it was masterly.

Robert Preston

Sitting here musing, the other night, over why many people think Berg's violin concerto is wonderful and yet I find it pretty awful, I suddenly wanted to hear Robert Preston singing "I won't send your roses". So I found it on You tube and lay back in exstasy to listen to it.
What a wonderful interpreter of some popular songs he was; not having a great singing voice like Sinatra he gave them the colour of sentiment, maybe some sentimentality.
What a fine actor too! Never a star because, I suppose, he didn't have the looks they wanted for heart-throbs. But while he was no Cary Grant or Gregory Peck he could play the sort of roles in which a guy from a small town almost makes it to the top. The mention of Gregory Peck brings to mind a quintessential role of Preston's: "The Macomber Affair", taken from Hemingway's great short story "The Short and Happy Life of Francis Macomber, he played the part of Macomber whose marriage was falling apart and whose courage was not what he felt it should have been. There was Greg, The White Hunter, for his wife to compare him with. So Robert Preston has to be the guy you put down, the failure who will never attain the heights where he can feel proud. And, of course, he finds the courage to take on a charging bull, standing and shooting but not running, not stepping aside but meeting the creature head on. He could do that sort of part better than anyone in Hollywood.
But he could also do comedy. "The Music Man" he had played on Broadway but when it came to the film the producer wanted Cary Grant. Grant said: "If you don't let Robert play the part I won't even go and see it."
Looking up Hemingway on the web I came across a story by him of only six words: "For Sale: Baby Shoes; never worn."