Two Movies

Two movies upon which to comment today.

I watched this one on Netflix this past weekend, and I highly recommend it.  It tells the story of how the BBC secured an interview in 2019 with Prince Andrew, Duke of York to discuss his relationship with well known sex predator and trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.  The movie stars Billie Piper and the young BBC producer who worked to get the interview, Gillian Anderson as the reporter who conducted the interview on the telly, and Rufus Sewall who plays the priggish and clueless Andrew.  If you know the story, you know that it was this interview that led to Andrew essentially being fired from his "job" as a Royal by his mummy, the Queen.

I give this movie Three and One-Half Grandstander Stars, and make this observation.  The way the British Royal Family is portrayed in movies and television - if only a third of it is actually true, then they are just a bunch of batshit crazy eccentrics.  I mean, what was with "Randy Andy" and the stuffed animals on his bed pillows?  The man was sixty years old at the time!

Last Sunday afternoon, Linda staged a surprise "Date Afternoon" for me.  I had no idea where we were going until we got to the place:

Yep, the Strand Theater in beautiful downtown Zelienople, PA was showing "Casablanca" on a big screen, and my perfect date was treating me to the perfect movie in a perfect setting.  I have written of "Casablanca" many, many times in this space,  just type "Casablanca" in the search box to verify that fact, so I won't go into detail about it again today.   If you've never seen it, then what in the hell is the matter with you?  Stop what you're doing now, find it on a streaming service, and watch it today.  And if you ever get the chance to see it (or any other classic movie for that matter) on a big screen in  theater, do so.  This is the third time that I have seen it in this manner.

In a 1992 book, "The Making of Casablanca", marking the fiftieth anniversary of the movie, author Allen Harmetz includes this paragraph in the Preface:

"Cynicism is a necessary protective cost for those who come close to the film industry's seductively hot center, and I have needed a doubly thick coat.  I grew up on the outskirts of MGM where my mother worked in the wardrobe department, and I later wrote about Hollywood for the New York Times.  But my cynicism dissolves when Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman say goodbye at the airport, and, at least in the dark corner of a movie theater, I am sure that I would be capable of such a sacrifice too."

That is the essence of "Casablanca".  It is a perfect movie.