Classics!
My favorite sedative.
Despite Casablanca being my senior prom theme, I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the only one in the Boise High School senior class who hadn’t seen it. In fact, I finally watched it last year for the first time. It lives up to the hype. Lately, I’ve been feeling a disconnect to current shows and movies, they seem so fast and shiny! All I really want to watch is Jeopardy! and classic movies. I wish could report that I am watching them perkily sitting up with a bowl of popcorn, with rapt attention and a critical mind. But I’m not. I’m watching them all slumped and cozy in my bed, usually watching them in, say, thirty-minute increments. The pacing is so much slower than current media, a three-minute establishing shot will have me lulled to sleep. Sometimes I barely make it past the seemingly endless opening credits. I keep my peepers open as long as I can, then start it up again the next night.
But, I’m still getting something tangible from my sleepy screenings. There is so much inspiration. The costumes! The interior design! The mid-Atlantic accents! The intrigue! THE FONT DESIGN! I think any creative person should be watching oldies but goodies. Actually, I bet they all are, and I’m late to the Criterion Collection Party.
Here are my favorites that I’ve watched so far.* So far, I’ve been primarily watching movies I can stream for free, but I may graduate to paying a few bucks for the really good ones. If you have recommendations for old classics, please send them my way!
Pandora and the Flying Dutchman
This is the one. I love it. Ava Gardner is a vision (the other lead actor is devoid of any charms, but no matter- Ava makes up for it) and the outfits and interiors are spectacular. What is most notable to me is the clear influence of surrealism: the compositions look like Dali painting and the lighting feels like day and night at the same time.
The Red Shoes (1948)
This movie has already received a lot of love. I think I saw that it’s Greta Gerwig’s favorite movie. It’s about a dancer torn between her career and romantic love. It’s also about magical red shoes that dance through what feels like a psychedelic fever dream. The hand-painted intro credits alone make it worth a watch.
My Brilliant Career (1979)
This is like Australia’s Little Women. Based on a novel of the same name from 1901 written by feminist writer Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin (who went by Miles Franklin). Judy Davis, who plays Sybylla, has the most amazing hair. I just adored it.
Lilies of the Field (1963)
This is the movie for which Sidney Poitier became the first male Black actor to receive an Oscar. He’s incredible in it, playing the capable and independent Homer, a nomadic handyman who stops by a monastery. The nuns believe he has been sent by God and Homer wrestles with their expectations. It’s such a joyful movie!
Good Morning (1959)
I’ve read that this movie is most often remembered for it’s fart jokes, and the movie is peppered with little trombone toots. It’s several small plot lines about a neighborhood in Japan, and the small worlds inside each home. For example, a central plot is about two young boys who go on strike, refusing to speak until their family buys them a television. I was pretty enamored with the color palette of this movie: the light quality, use of patterned texture, etc- it makes for a muted but colorful world.
I Married a Witch (1942)
A witch from the 17th century returns to pester a politician. That’s probably enough to get anyone hooked, but also Veronica Lake is a DREAM. No wonder she was the it girl with the hair everyone wanted. And her voice! This whole thing is silly and campy and would be a perfect spooky season watch.
Blithe Spirit (1945)
This one is also for spooky season: a writer commissions a local woman to conduct a seance, and it stirs up the ghost of his first wife. This movie won a lot of awards for it’s special effects. The ghost(s!) are green and sassy and do all sorts of silly things.
Summertime (1955)
As the trailer says “Venice in all her moods.” We’ve also got Katharine Hepburn, too, as a “spinster” who is curious and creative from the get-go. We get to delight in seeing Katharine have a blast on vacation with her cute outfits and new friends.
Roman Holiday (1953)
I think everyone else had seen Roman Holiday except me at this point. I can’t tell you how many time I’ve thought of Audrey Hepburn’s princess tantrums since watching this movie. It’s fun to see her sample from “the entire menu of fun and romance.”
Wuthering Heights (1939)
For fans of the “bratty little curls” in Cole Escola’s Oh! Mary. We have Laurence Olivier, who is simmering and dramatic. But I also went on a side quest to learn about the lead actor Merle Oberon, navigated Golden Age Hollywood by hiding her South Asian heritage. She is now considered the first Asian person to be nominated for an actor for Best Actress.
Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
Twisty and turny! I was genuinely surprised by the ending. Marlene Dietrich is SO COOL in this movie, and an absolute babe at 55. Perfect for anyone who loves procedurals.
Lifeboat (1944)
I’ve read that this is considered to be Hitchcock’s most overlooked film. Tallulah Bankhead, in her most famous role, stars as a journalist who sees being stuck on a lifeboat her perhaps her most epic story. The assortment of survivors is tested when they realize that that one of them is a Nazi. This sent me off into the internet to read about Bankhead, who was a firm supporter of the Civil Rights Movement, an open bisexual who had Billie Holiday and Greta Garbo among her lovers, and was known for refusing to wear underwear during the filming of Lifeboat.
Rear Window (1954)
This has been one of my favorite movies for a long time, and I rewatched it for maybe the fourth time. I’m including it simply because it’s the movie that made me think “huh, maybe I should be watching old timey stuff.” It’s also such cool, classic Hitchcockian premise: a traveling photographer with a broken leg thinks he’s witnesses a murder from his apartment window. Lesson to be learned: some of the best stories happen close to home.
The Third Man (1949)
I’m adding this one as an honorable mention, because it is so effective at making me fall asleep, I’ve tried watching this several times and always end up snoozing. I can tell it’s very good, but the pacing is like a dang lullaby. Recommending it for someone stuck in a sleepless night. Eventually I’ll finish it and finally get to see Orson Welles’s famous “ta-da!” moment.
*Note: there’s often one part in every old movie where something is painful: sexism, racism, an old offensive term, etc. I find myself able to find worth in these movies despite those moments, and I’ve done my best to avoid movies in which the themes themselves are overtly rotten. It’s one of those “many things are true at the same time” things.
Delights:
• I’ve been using “the Brick” to block social media apps, and I highly recommend it. I like having a physical way to turn on and off the most distracting elements of my phone.
• I really love these Japanese chia seed konjac gummies that I get at our local Asian market. They have a firm jello consistency with the slight crunch of the chia seeds. I’ve tried the peach and grape flavors and like them both.
love old movies ❤️