so there are many films I’ve seen more than five times, mainly classics — Citizen Kane, The Shining, The Big Sleep, Casablanca, Jaws, The Shining, Metropolis, Gone with the Wind, The Godfather I & II, The Seventh Seal, The Wizard of Oz, Fanny and Alexander…
A truly great film yields something new every time you watch it. Among the things I’ve noticed in most recent viewings:
In Citizen Kane, one of the most iconic characters, the loyal Mr. Bernstein (Everett Sloan), makes what I suspect is an oblique comment on the anti-semitism rife in the early 20th century. Most people remember him from the moment when he reminisces about a lost love he glimpsed only once on the Statin Island ferry. (“a white dress she wore…“). Every time I watch that scene I’m struck by how Sloan says the investigating reporter’s (William Alland) name. “Well, you’re pretty young Mr… Mr. Thompson…” The slightly skeptical emphasis makes me wonder if Bernstein is commenting on his supicion that Thompson is the anglicized version of a Jewish name.
In The Big Sleep, director Howard Hawks mercifully shot veteran actor Charles Waldron from behind when he had to utter one of the script’s more purple lines, General Sternwood’s comment on orchids. “Nasty things. Their flesh is too much like the flesh of men. Their perfume has the rotten sweetness of corruption.” (I blame Faulkner, who worked as a screenwriter on this film.)
In The Godfather I & II, the matriarch, Mrs. Corleone, is often thought of as the saintly moral center of the family. She has plainly been a good, affectionate mother to her sons, even the adopted Tom Hagan, but her treatment of her daughter, Connie, borders on uncaring. Especially revealing is a scene at the dinner table, (warning — the N word is used) where Mrs. Corleone is shot from the back as a sort of dark, looming presence. Connie’s abusive husband tells Connie to shut up and Sonny, the only family member willing to protect his little sister, tells him, “Don’t you ever tell her to shut up, you got that?” Mrs. Corleone raises one hand and says coolly, “Don’t interfere.”
SPOILER
Finally, as a bonus, I’ll point out something often missed in V for Vendetta, which has long been a guilty pleasure of mine. In the wonderfully edited dominoes falling scene, as Finch talks about what he sees happening. there is a glimpse of his and Evie’s future. In this video it’s at the 2.46 mark. Evie, with her hair grown out, is arranging a vase of Scarlet Carsons, and Finch can be seen as a reflection in the mirror behind her, sipping a drink.
Bonus trivia: As someone who read the original V for Vendetta comic when it was serialized in Warrior Magazine I can tell you that in the graphic novel, Finch gets his “feeling” by visiting Larkhill while under the influence of LSD.
Pam Troy 