Today is the first day of autumn. They promised us awful heatwaves for yesterday and today, days of torrid heat which have not materialized, but which have managed to keep me from walking to work, and to keep me in a semi-sedentary stupor. I've been watching a lot of movies.
Autumn Leaves (1956, dir. Robert Aldrich) with Joan Crawford, Cliff Robertson, Vera Miles & Lorne Greene. Joan plays an
unmarried middle-aged woman who makes a living typing up copies of manuscripts. She is composed, intelligent and self-sufficient. Along comes dashing, passionate, 20-something Cliff, who sweeps her off her feet, against her better judgement. Both of their performances are beautiful and believable and the plot is very compelling and ultimately satisfying. Alongside the themes of fall-spring marriage and family betrayal there is a description of American mental health policy in the 1950s. It was apparently quite easy to have someone committed, and while mental health professionals felt more empowered than ever with new perspectives, pharmaceuticals and techniques, it is not clear from the treatments shown in the film that these treatments would ultimately cure anyone.This film doesn't insult your intelligence by telling you what you should feel. It lets the characters' understanding of the truth and each other evolve with the story. The emotional lives of others are indeed cryptic, foreign things which we should not assume we understand. Even so, with patience, courage, dedication and sacrifice, even the most seemingly unreasonable situations might be salvaged - or so this film seems to say. Knowing a couple of women in very suboptimal emotional relationships where they are constantly hoping to change their abusive partners, I am less convinced of this.
No comments:
Post a Comment