LA Stories #2: Mildred Pierce

Wednesday, 17 February 2010

Following our film club's inaugural screening last month of Chintaown, Jo and I continued our LA Stories season on Tuesday with 40s noir-melodrama Mildred Pierce. It's one of those classic films I've shamefully never seen. Joan Crawford won an Oscar for her performance as the suburban housewife who'll seemingly do anything for her daughters. Yesterday it was officially announced that Kate Winslet will now play the role in an HBO mini series written and directed by Todd Haynes.

Here's the original trailer:


I loved it. It looks great - all expressionist black and white; the dialogue is especially juicy (William Faulkner was one of the writers) and Max Steiner's score is brilliant. By coincidence we saw Jean-Pierre Jeunet's new film Micmacs on Sunday which reuses lot of Steiner's old film music, Inglorious Basterds style, to excellent effect.

Our shortlist of LA films is growing but I'm still open to suggestions if you have any.

Los Angeles on Film

Saturday, 23 January 2010

Last year my colleague Richard told me that every month he and some friends gather to watch a movie based on an a theme that's agreed at the start if each year. It's a great idea and in 2009 their theme was Clint Eastwood. They didn't see The Beguiled but did sit through Space Cowboys.

Inspired by Richard and his pals I thought I'd initiate my own monthly film club with a membership of two. The simple aim to is to watch movies that Jo and I either have never seen or haven't seen for a long time. Our inugaural theme is 'Los Angeles' and last night we enjoyed Chinatown, probably one of they best films set in the LA.



Now I'm after suggestions for what other Los Angeles films we should watch. I already have plenty of ideas and keep looking over this huge list of movies that feature in Thom Andersen's brilliant documentary Los Angeles Plays Itself, but if you have favourites you think we must watch please leave a comment below. Thank you!