Acteurist oeuvre-view – Dorothy McGuire – Part 1: CLAUDIA (1943) and THE ENCHANTED COTTAGE (1945) + FEAR & MOVIEGOING IN TORONTO (Delphine Seyrig series)

[iframe style=”border:none” src=”//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/25745079/height/100/width//thumbnail/no/render-playlist/no/theme/standard/tdest_id/2333198″ height=”100″ width=”” scrolling=”no” allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen]

Our Dorothy McGuire Acteurist Oeuvre-view begins with Claudia (1943) and The Enchanted Cottage (1945), in both of which she’s paired with Robert Young. We talk about the qualities McGuire imported to the screen from the stage role she made famous, in the 1941 play Claudia, by Rose Franken, David O. Selznick’s marketing of them, and the career vicissitudes that possibly negated this nascent persona. After diving deep into the complex psychology of Claudia, we discuss John Cromwell’s great romantic fantasy, The Enchanted Cottage, and the metaphorical implications of its fairy tale. And in Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto, the Delphine Seyrig retrospective continues with Alain Resnais’ Muriel and Jacques Demy’s Donkey Skin. 

Time Codes:

0h 1m 00s:        Introduction to Dorothy McGuire

0h 15m 45s:      CLAUDIA (1943) [dir. Edmund Goulding]

0h 45m 23s:      THE ENCHANTED COTTAGE (1945) [dir. John Cromwell]

1h 14m 57s:      FEAR & MOVIEGOING IN TORONTO – MURIEL (1962) by Alain Resnais & PEAU D’ANE (1970) by Jacques Demi (From TIFF’s Delphine Seyrig series)

1h 23m 35s:     Listener mail with Simon

 

+++

* Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project – a discussion of Late Spring

* Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s

* Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive)

* Read Elise’s piece on Gangs of New York – “Making America Strange Again”

* Check out Dave’s Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! 

Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy

Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com

We now have a Discord server – just drop us a line if you’d like to join! 

Check out this episode!

Read Full Post »

January Special Subject – Ginger Rogers & Fred Astaire – Part 2 + FEAR & MOVIEGOING IN TORONTO

[iframe style=”border:none” src=”//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/25666614/height/100/width//thumbnail/no/render-playlist/no/theme/standard/tdest_id/2333198″ height=”100″ width=”” scrolling=”no” allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen]

Our January Special Subject is Part 2 of our look at the films of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, for which we watched Follow the Fleet (1936), Shall We Dance (1937), Carefree (1938), and The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939). Fred and Ginger’s popularity was on the decline in his period, but these movies include some of Dave’s favourites. We discuss the ways in which these films adhere to and depart from the formula established in their earlier films, for better and worse, then turn our attention to Carefree‘s curious portrayal of the insanity of psychiatry and Vernon and Irene Castle‘s unusual romanticization of marital love and its basis in shared work. And in Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto, the TIFF Lightbox Delphine Seyrig festival continues with cult horror movie Daughters of Darkness, the greatest movie of all time, Jeanne Dielman 23 Quai du Commerce 1080 Bruxelles, and two feminist activist videos co-directed by Seyrig, S.C.U.M. Manifesto (in which Seyrig reads an excerpt from Valeria Solanas’ book) and Maso and Miso Go Boating. We confess to a shared blind spot in our ability to appreciate 1970s sex thriller aesthetics and explore the implications of the “orgasm interpretation” of Jeanne Dielman, before too much second-wave feminism causes Elise to leave her body and despair of humanity. Dave, however, is on board. We’ve got something for everyone (except for people who do not want to be on spoiled on the ending of Daughters of Darkness) in this episode!

 

Time Codes:

0h 1m 00s:        FOLLOW THE FLEET (1936) [dir. Mark Sandrich]          

0h 18m 16s:      SHALL WE DANCE (1937) [dir. Mark Sandrich]

0h 26m 35s:      CAREFREE (1938) [dir. Mark Sandrich]

0h 38m 18s:      THE STORY OF VERNON & IRENE CASTLE (1939) [dir. H.C. Potter]

0h 54m 01s:      Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto: DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS (1971), JEANNE DIELMAN 23 QUAI DU COMMERCE, 1080 BRUXELLES (1975), SCUM MANIFESTO (1976), and MASO & MISO VONT EN BATEAU (1975)

 

+++

* Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project – a discussion of Late Spring

* Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s

* Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive)

* Read Elise’s piece on Gangs of New York – “Making America Strange Again”

* Check out Dave’s Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! 

Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy

Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com

We now have a Discord server – just drop us a line if you’d like to join! 

Check out this episode!

Read Full Post »

Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year – Paramount – 1942: SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS & THE ROAD TO MOROCCO + FEAR & MOVIEGOING IN TORONTO – Delphine Seyrig series at TIFF: Be Pretty and Shut Up (1981), India Song (1975) and Last Year at Marienbad (1961)

[iframe style=”border:none” src=”//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/25595415/height/100/width//thumbnail/no/render-playlist/no/theme/standard/tdest_id/2333198″ height=”100″ width=”” scrolling=”no” allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen]

For our Paramount 1942 episode, we hit the road with a comedy with a lot on its mind, Preston Sturges’ Sullivan’s Travels, and a comedy without any mind, the Hope/Crosby road movie Road to Morocco. We debate just how much deep thinking a comedy should do and consider what kind of thinking comedy itself can do without any help from an auteur. We also isolate some of the unusual features of the Hope/Crosby double act that lend Road to Morocco an invigorating unpleasantness. And then, in our Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto segment, we start off the TIFF Cinematheque Delphine Seyrig retrospective with a feminist documentary directed by the actress, Be Pretty and Shut Up!, and a couple of mind-bending European art films about the leisure class, Marguerite Duras’ India Song and Alain Resnais’ Last Year at Marienbad. 

Time Codes:

0h 01m 00s:      SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS [dir. Preston Sturges]

0h 35m 39s:      ROAD TO MOROCCO [dir. David Butler]

0h 55m 34s:      FEAR & MOVIEGOING IN TOROTNTO – Delphine Seyrig series at TIFF: Sois belle et tais-toi (1981), India Song (1975) and L’année dernière à Marienbad (1961)

 

Studio Film Capsules provided by The Paramount Story by John Douglas Eames

Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler

                                   

+++

* Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s

* Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive)

* Read Elise’s latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating.

* Check out Dave’s new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! 

Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy

Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com

 

We now have a Discord server – just drop us a line if you’d like to join! 

 

 

 

 

Check out this episode!

Read Full Post »

Acteurist oeuvre-view – Jean Arthur – Part 12: THE IMPATIENT YEARS (1944); A FOREIGN AFFAIR (1948) and SHANE (1953) + Fear & Moviegoing in Toronto: WILIAM SHAKESPEARE’S ROMEO + JULIET (1996)

[iframe style=”border:none” src=”//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/25522467/height/100/width//thumbnail/no/render-playlist/no/theme/standard/tdest_id/2333198″ height=”100″ width=”” scrolling=”no” allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen]

There’s Sometimes a Buggy says hello to 2023 and goodbye to Acteur Jean Arthur with three movies by three auteurs (Virginia Van Upp, Billy Wilder, and George Stevens): The Impatient Years (1944), A Foreign Affair (1948), and Shane (1953). Elise decides in real time that The Impatient Years, a sour mid-40s comedy of remarriage, is a great comedy because it’s not very funny (using another Shakespeare reference to get there). We discuss the geopolitical context of Wilder’s remarkable A Foreign Affair, agreeing that Arthur’s persona in it has nothing to do with Capra; and George Stevens’ leftist de-bunking of certain myths of the Western genre in Shane. And speaking of Shakespeare, in Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto we revisit a Gen X classic that neither of us had seen in about 20 years, Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juilet, which prompts Elise to perceive the resemblance between Leonardo DiCaprio and Joan Crawford. 

Time Codes:

0h 1m 00s:        THE IMPATIENT YEARS (1944) [dir. Irving Cummings]

0h 26m 45s:      A FOREIGN AFFAIR (1948) [dir. Billy Wilder]

1h 03m 45s:      SHANE (1953) [dir. George Stevens]

1h 20m 56s:      Elise & Dave’s Top 10 Jean Arthur films

1h 24m 09s:      Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto: WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S ROMEO + JULIET (1996) [dir. Baz Luhrmann]

 

+++

* Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project – a discussion of Late Spring

* Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s

* Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive)

* Read Elise’s piece on Gangs of New York – “Making America Strange Again”

* Check out Dave’s Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! 

Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy

Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com

We now have a Discord server – just drop us a line if you’d like to join! 

Check out this episode!

Read Full Post »