Post by klep on Mar 16, 2020 6:47:14 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 3/16: Charade
HEIST WEEK!
How do we decide who we can trust? If we're lucky, the person in question has some kind of track record - either some record of their past actions or people we can talk to who can inform our ideas about the person's integrity. But what do we do when we don't have that?
Sometimes people spin us a convincing story - one that seems to fit all the pieces together. Hamilton Bartholomew (Walter Matthau) does this for Regina (Audrey Hepburn) when he first sees her. They meet in the American Embassy - which carries its own credibility - and he tells her a tale about the evil men after her dead husband's money and as a consequence her. He's fortunately helped by the shiftiness of those men, whom Regina first saw at her husband's memorial.
But that's another way we decide who to trust - we make snap judgements about these things based on the way people act when we first meet them. And that's how Regina decides to trust Peter - something about him just make her believe he's trustworthy. It probably doesn't hurt that she's obviously attracted to him.
And she keeps trusting him no matter how many times she learns he's been lying. Even as the bodies start to fall she never truly believes that he's the one responsible for the whole thing - until one of his aliases is written on the floor by a corpse. It's the only name they know him by after all, and everyone else they know with that name is dead.
Ah, but that's where the system breaks down, because Hamilton was playing her the whole time - giving her lies mixed with enough truth to keep her off the scent. Regina thought because he appeared to her in the right place and he told her a good story, he must be telling the truth. And if he was telling the truth than Peter/Alexander/Adam must be lying. But stories and setting can be contrived, and so was Hamilton. Regina's instincts about Peter/Alexander/Adam were right all along. But even then he has one last rug to pull out from under her, only this time to reveal he's the kind of person she somehow knew he was all along.
But do they get a happy ending? Well, you'll just have to trust them.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 3/23: Pain and Glory
2019 CATCH-UP WEEK!
Before we leave 2019 behind entirely, we're going to take a moment to reflect on one of the films that made it such a special year for cinema. Next week we'll be covering Pedro Almodóvar's brilliant new Pain and Glory. Drawing on his own life, it features Antonio Banderas as an aging director plagued by pain and regrets reflects on his life. Please join us next week for our discussion of this beautiful film, available for rent in the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 3/17: The Invisible Man (2019)
Leigh Whannell's new adaptation of The Invisible Man concludes the pairing with another film about an abusive man who uses his fantastic technology for the sole purpose of gaslighting his ex. Join us next week for our discussion of this film, still in theaters.
HEIST WEEK!
How do we decide who we can trust? If we're lucky, the person in question has some kind of track record - either some record of their past actions or people we can talk to who can inform our ideas about the person's integrity. But what do we do when we don't have that?
Sometimes people spin us a convincing story - one that seems to fit all the pieces together. Hamilton Bartholomew (Walter Matthau) does this for Regina (Audrey Hepburn) when he first sees her. They meet in the American Embassy - which carries its own credibility - and he tells her a tale about the evil men after her dead husband's money and as a consequence her. He's fortunately helped by the shiftiness of those men, whom Regina first saw at her husband's memorial.
But that's another way we decide who to trust - we make snap judgements about these things based on the way people act when we first meet them. And that's how Regina decides to trust Peter - something about him just make her believe he's trustworthy. It probably doesn't hurt that she's obviously attracted to him.
And she keeps trusting him no matter how many times she learns he's been lying. Even as the bodies start to fall she never truly believes that he's the one responsible for the whole thing - until one of his aliases is written on the floor by a corpse. It's the only name they know him by after all, and everyone else they know with that name is dead.
Ah, but that's where the system breaks down, because Hamilton was playing her the whole time - giving her lies mixed with enough truth to keep her off the scent. Regina thought because he appeared to her in the right place and he told her a good story, he must be telling the truth. And if he was telling the truth than Peter/Alexander/Adam must be lying. But stories and setting can be contrived, and so was Hamilton. Regina's instincts about Peter/Alexander/Adam were right all along. But even then he has one last rug to pull out from under her, only this time to reveal he's the kind of person she somehow knew he was all along.
But do they get a happy ending? Well, you'll just have to trust them.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 3/23: Pain and Glory
2019 CATCH-UP WEEK!
Before we leave 2019 behind entirely, we're going to take a moment to reflect on one of the films that made it such a special year for cinema. Next week we'll be covering Pedro Almodóvar's brilliant new Pain and Glory. Drawing on his own life, it features Antonio Banderas as an aging director plagued by pain and regrets reflects on his life. Please join us next week for our discussion of this beautiful film, available for rent in the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 3/17: The Invisible Man (2019)
Leigh Whannell's new adaptation of The Invisible Man concludes the pairing with another film about an abusive man who uses his fantastic technology for the sole purpose of gaslighting his ex. Join us next week for our discussion of this film, still in theaters.