On Blu-ray: Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier in Pride and Prejudice (1940)

When I recently watched the new Warner Archive Blu-ray of the 1940 adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, it had been many years since I last saw the film. Several minutes into reacquainting myself with it, I realized I had my hands clasped to my chest. I was reminded that it's such a suspenseful film, though you never hear anybody refer to it that way.

Enough time passes between my viewings of this version, that I constantly forget how much of its entertainment value is in the contrast between the fluffy costumes and high-toned manners and the barely concealed daggers and erotic tensions hidden in every word the characters speak. All these posh, wealthy people are either at battle with each other, madly courting, or as is often the case, both.

Austen’s novel about judgment, image, and hidden truths in high society, centering on the five lively daughters of the Bennett family who push against convention as they strive for happy, prosperous marriages has understandably been a popular choice for film adaptations over the years, but I’ve never found a version that captured those contrasts as well as this one. 

Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson are very different performers, but as Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett the stage actor and the MGM star are well-matched because they seem to understand the dueling contradictions of their characters and the world they live in so well.

They are joined by a miraculous cast. The talent is almost too much to process. From the older generation there is Edna May Oliver, Mary Boland, and Edmund Gwenn. The high-energy younger cast includes Maureen O’Sullivan, Ann Rutherford, Heather Angel, Marsha Hunt, and the actress whose wasted career potential I mourn for thanks to HUAC, the butter-voiced Karen Morley. I have special respect for Frieda Inescort as the snobbish, but sharp-witted Miss Bingley, who manages to fling out the wickedest of barbs motionless but for the tiniest movement of her lips.

It’s the busiest, most vibrant tableau of social drama and the romances that either blossom in spite of it all or because the barricades make it more exciting. Lavish MGM production values add to the pleasure. The gowns and hats are in themselves a worthy spectacle. Of course they are not at all period appropriate, but then the plot also draws selectively from the novel. It's Hollywood.

With a cast that size, director Robert Z. Leonard must have felt as much like a traffic cop as a filmmaker, but he pulled all those varied characters together so that it looked effortless. It's a true classic.

Special features on the disc, which have been brought over from other releases of the film, include a trailer for the film, the World War II era short Eyes of the Navy and a the cartoon The Fishing Bear.

Many thanks to Warner Archive for providing a copy of the film for review. To order, visit The Warner Archive Collection.

On Blu-ray: Laurence Olivier and Diane Lane in A Little Romance (1979)

In a time where virtually the whole human race is feeling the absence of loved ones, the charming A Little Romance (1979) has become a more bittersweet film. When I recently watched the movie on a new Blu-ray from Warner Archive, I appreciated it as a timeless tribute to many aspects of love and a timely reminder of the connections that we are fighting for now.

In her film debut, Diane Lane is remarkably assured as Lauren, an American teenager living in Paris who meets and falls in love with Daniel (Thelonious Bernard) a movie-mad local boy. Despite the instability of her life due to her mother’s (Sally Kellerman) multiple marriages and affairs, Lauren is intelligent and emotionally mature. When she and Daniel meet the charming, but mischievous elderly widower Julius (Laurence Olivier), they soon pull him into their plans to go to Italy so the two can have a grand romantic moment like the one he once had with his dearly departed wife.

A Little Romance dances between innocence and corruption with such a gentle touch that everything feels suffused with light. In juxtaposing Lauren’s innocent romance with her mother’s emerging affair with a sleazy film director, it reflects on the good and bad of l’amour, but always recognizes the overall intoxication of making a love connection. The sweetness of George Delerue’s score (his sweeping romanticism is unmistakable) helps to sustain the feeling of giddiness.

One of the most compelling relationships in the film is between Lauren and her stepfather Richard (played with elegant restraint by Arthur Hill). Both actors have that rare, remarkable ability as a performer to communicate deeply with an audience as they listen and react. They are more in-sync than the other characters, because they understand each other’s emotional needs and realize that fighting for love is worth risk and struggle. Hill helps his stepdaughter to keep her big love alive, while also ensuring that his own relationship doesn’t fall victim to her mother’s restlessness.

Olivier is dramatically less subtle than these two. His is a performance full of ham, with flustered outbursts, and outsized physicality. It could be a disaster, but Sir Olivier seems to be in on the joke. When the moment requires it, he can plunge you through the heart with the most poignant expressions of grief, joy, and compassion.

In a role that could have similarly made a buffoon of Kellerman, she communicates her emotional needs with a desperation that shows through her selfishness. In most films she would be a bad person. Here she is simply a lost romantic in need of direction.

I was moved to tears by A Little Romance. The sight of tourists enjoying the bridges and canals of Venice was immeasurably moving and heartbreaking given the situation there today. But I would have gotten misty watching this in any time, because the idea that romance is worth the fight of your life is profoundly beautiful.

Many thanks to Warner Archive for providing a copy of the film for review. To order, visit The Warner Archive Collection.

SIFF 2013: Olivier Plots in Bold Color, Richard III (1955)

That English battlefield looked a lot like Southern California to me!

The above was said loudly in the line for the ladies' loo after a screening of the newly-restored Richard III (1955) at Seattle International Film Festival 2013. The lady got a laugh, and aside from the humor of what she said, I think she snapped everybody back into the real world. Olivier's masterwork can put a spell on you, and in its newly restored form you can soak up all its glory without distraction. And just to clarify, the Battle of Bosworth scenes were filmed in Spain.

The SIFF staff member who introduced the film noted that the restoration by Sony was good, but not too good. He explained that sometimes a restoration can clean up the print so much, that it looks too slick and over digitized. Consciously avoiding that problem, this restoration was made to emulate the look of 35 mm. I was so glad he said this, because I'd never thought about it before, but I had noticed that overly-sharp look in some restorations. This one did have a warm, textured appearance that I now recognize as the look of film. Oh man am I going to miss that gorgeous, grainy 35 mm.

My first thought in the opening scenes was gaw--look at all that color! Bright reds, blues and golds. It just smacks you in the face. And Richard opens with a coronation scene, so you have all the power of that ritual to amp up the vivid look of the scene.

For those not familiar with this particular Shakespearean play, Richard III is essentially about a psychopathic duke who will do anything to be king. Once he gets to the throne, he loses it in a gory fashion. Simple plot, twisted execution.

As director, producer and star, Laurence Olivier is an irresistible force in Richard. I swear he looked amused by his big, fake nose and stiff black wig, and he relished every evil maneuver his Richard made. Olivier clearly loves the role. He is serious, but seriously at play as well. The humor makes you relax, and then he hits you in the gut with a dark glare or a smoothly repulsive phrase.

Olivier's Richard seduces almost because of, rather than in spite of his evil. Everything about him stands out, from the blackness of his hair to the sharp hues of his costumes. He's acting with the best of British talent, but when he is off screen, it's hard to care about anyone else.

The cast is mesmerizing though. Holy cow, this movie has everyone. John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, Cedric Hardwicke, Claire Bloom. They perform as if on stage, with that sort of outsized projection, but the style does not overwhelm outrageous proceedings.

In fact, there are moments in Richard that achieve the most startling intimacy. Olivier crafted his masterpiece with the deepest respect for language. Music is used for great dramatic effect, but more often than not the actors speak their lines against a background of silence, and you feel the urge to lean in and capture every nuance.

Most of the film takes place on sets, as if stage bound, so it is startling to see the final battle scenes on location. It's almost too jarring, but necessary. It is as if Olivier is reminding us that while we have been enjoying what has been essentially the performance of a play, this is a film, and it needs to breathe.

Click here for more information about the films at SIFF 2013.

And here is my full coverage of the event.

Quote of the Week

I have to act to live.

-Laurence Olivier

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