Friday, June 11, 2010

Cinema Betty

Though I mentioned it in my review, I find that it suits my mood to recommend, as a match for The Doubtful Marriage:
Pillow Talk (1959)


Rock Hudson, carrying off a certain vast type of RDD-ness, cloaks his pursuit of Doris Day in layers of subterfuge. They are forced by the Eisenhower administration to share a party line. On the phone he hates her, in person he loves her. Why the mixed signals, Rauward...erm...Rock? With not one Nikky but dozens clouding the romance could it ever be anything but a Doubtful Marriage?
Like our book, it ends with a fight in bed and implied future-tense conjugal relations!

Betty Debbie recommended a fantastic movie for Wedding Bells for Beatrice based on the denouement of the book. "We met at a dance, said the professor...I fell in love with you then and there! I have been waiting for you to fall in love with me. It seems that our fates are to be resolved on the dance floor." :
Shall We Dansu?(1996)
also Shall We Dance?


I first saw it during a cinema class in college. Oh I know that one, you're thinking. J-Lo and Richard Gere...No, no. Not the tacky American remake. This is the original Japanese version which is a wonderful character study about 'the healing powers of self-expression' or whatnot... Anyway, it has a wonderful cast and was fantastic enough for Hollywood to want to copy as closely as possible. In typical Hollywood fashion, they failed utterly. Put this one on your queue.

4 comments:

  1. Your eyes, your hair, beyond compare...

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  2. I had to google both Clint Walker and Pillow Talk. Oh...my...god...my life will not be the same now that I know who Rock Hudson is.
    To be honest, I did love the American version of "Shall We dance?" mainly because of the music and dancing- Oh the dancing!. My favorite scene- Susan Sarandon talks about what marriage is:

    (I got this from a Movie Quotes site so if I am breaking any rules, Founding Bettys please delete):

    ”We need a witness to our lives. There's a billion people on the planet, what does any one life really mean? But in a marriage, you're promising to care about everything. The good things, the bad things, the terrible things, the mundane things, all of it, all of the time, every day. You're saying 'Your life will not go unnoticed because I will notice it. Your life will not go unwitnessed because I will be your witness'."

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  3. I have a special corner of my heart for Rock Hudson.

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