1. I'm happy to report that walking Gibbs in the morning and again later in the day is good for both of us. The walks help Gibbs be more settled in the house and it seems much less urgent for him to go out back and do his business or to run around. The best part, for me, and possibly our neighbors (who do not complain, by the way), is that Gibbs isn't barking his head off in the back yard and isn't engaging in bark-a-thons with other neighboring dogs. I welcome things being quieter and it helps me be more accepting of Gibbs barking at the mail deliverer and at passersby. Here's the thing, though: if Gibbs sacks out for a while after going on a walk, he's much less likely to notice the people (and their dogs!) walking in front of the house.
2. I returned to Vizio University today and watched Mildred Pierce (1945). After it ended and after I read some other people's reflections on the movie, including a very insightful essay that Imogen Sara Smith wrote for Criterion, I thought a lot about how much I enjoy movies that bend and go outside genre expectations. The look, the lighting, the shadows, the ubiquitous darkness of Mildred Pierce and the fact that it's a murder story all place this movie squarely in the world of film noir. The genius of Mildred Pierce, though, is that it's a story about a woman's determination to succeed on her own in the world of business, without a man, and it's a story about a mother's devotion to her daughters, hardly what one would expect in a film noir. In addition, Mildred Pierce explores social class, upward mobility, the cost of ambition, and the hard-boiled realities of the world of business.
Mildred Pierce does not feature, like so many noir movies, a hard-boiled detective. The mendacious femme fatale of this story is a surprise, a twist in the story I don't remember seeing in any other noir movies.
Joan Crawford plays the role of Mildred Pierce beautifully. The role demands that we see Mildred Pierce as steely in her resolve, unrelenting in her devotion to her daughters, vulnerable, a complex portrayal of a strong woman, but flawed. It's the first time I've watched Joan Crawford in a movie and her performance staggered me with its intelligence, depth, and many dimensions.
The movie also featured Eve Arden in a supporting role. I've loved Eve Arden ever since I was a little kid and watched her on the television series Our Miss Brooks (I had to have watched it in reruns after it went off the air in 1956) and in another show, The Mothers-in-Law. Eve Arden's wit and delivery, her flawless sense of comic timing, and her deep voice have always attracted me to her and made me laugh. I loved her in Mildred Pierce in her role as Mildred's original business mentor and then her business manager. I only wished she'd been on screen even more than she was.
3. One of my favorite features of subscribing to The Criterion Channel is watching all the different people interviewed about their experience with loving movies and listening to their comments on a handful of their favorite films from the Criterion Collection. The series is called Adventures in Moviegoing.
Tonight I listened to the entire interview with Sofia Coppola and listened to her talk about a handful of movies and then I listened to Guillermo del Toro and the brothers Josh and Bennie Safdie talk about favorite movies of theirs. I was particularly interested in what del Toro had to say about Blood Simple and the Safdie brothers' comments on The Naked City and In a Lonely Place convinced me that these will be the next two movies I'll watch at Vizio University.
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