1. I messaged Christy to find out when I might be able to borrow her pickup and take cardboard cluttering up the garage to the dump. It turned out Paul had the truck, he'd loaded up Christy's cardboard and other items, and he was going to the dump. Awesome. I texted Paul, found out he hadn't headed out yet, and he dropped by and now our garage is free of cardboard again. I like that!
2. I've mentioned before that I was thrilled last week to see that on Sept. 1st Criterion Channel made a collection of movies from the British New Wave available -- these movies were made from 1959-63, featured working class characters and stories and dealt with the difficult realities of their lives, not shying away from once forbidden subjects like adultery, abortion, and social inequity. Often shot in black and white on location, frequently in industrial towns of the north of England, the directors of these movies often used the techniques of documentary film to enhance the realism of their work.
Over the years, I've watched several movies featuring Albert Finney when he was in his forties and older, but today I introduced myself to one of his earlier works, the British New Wave movie, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960). Finney played the role of Arthur Seaton, a hard drinking, immature, sexually promiscuous laborer at a bicycle factory whose affair with Brenda (no surname), a married woman, results in her pregnancy.
Brenda is played brilliantly by Rachel Roberts, another actor whom I'd never seen as a young performer. Rachel Roberts made a lasting impression on me over forty years ago when I first saw Picnic at Hanging Rock. Roberts played the role of Mrs. Appleyard, the stern, foreboding headmistress of the movie's girls' private school.
The scenes between Arthur and Brenda during the exciting days and nights of their affair are full of the intoxication of romance and sex on the sly. The tone changes once Brenda discovers she's pregnant and, in breaking the news to Arthur, confronts him with the realities she now faces that she's carrying their child. Rachel Roberts, having merrily played Brenda's enjoyment of her dalliance with the younger Arthur, turns bitter and resolute. Arthur is, in every way, unprepared to hear Brenda's unvarnished sizing up of their situation as she lays out to Arthur the stark contrast between what this pregnancy means for her, as a woman, as opposed to him as man who can simply walk away (or be turned away) from Brenda's life. I won't reveal how she (not they) decides to go forward with her pregnancy.
Rachel Roberts' performance is superb, wide ranging, and complex. Albert Finney masterfully brings Arthur, a most deplorable character, to life in an equally superb and demanding performance.
3. Well, I almost watched the movie regarded as the first of the British New Wave, Room at the Top. It features Laurence Harvey. But, quite by accident, it turns out I did watch Laurence Harvey perform later in the evening. Debbie asked me, while she wound down after teaching all day, to play an episode of Columbo again (like I did last night). Well, surprise, surprise, I clicked on the 7th episode of Season 2 and who was the guest star/villain? None other than Laurence Harvey. He plays a psychologically tortured and homicidal chess master about to play a former world champion who has come out of retirement.
Now that I've seen Laurence Harvey match wits with Peter Falk, I look forward to watching Laurence Harvey, thirteen years younger, perform in the movie Room at the Top.
A limerick by Stu:
The live version of this can be scary.
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