Beauty vs Beast: Down & Out In Hollywood
Monday, June 22, 2015 at 3:00PM Jason from MNPP here, and I'm ready for my close-up - we're devoting today's edition of "Beauty vs Beast" to the late great director Billy Wilder, who was born on this day 109 years ago. If you had to pick your favorite Wilder picture, what would you go with? It's a query that'll break the brain of many a cinephile, so rich stands his cinematic legacy even all these decades later. I personally am torn between The Apartment (so glad I was able to hang out in the bar that Fran and C.C. frequent before it closed) and today's competitive centerpiece, 1950's Sunset Boulevard (aka still the greatest movie about Hollywood ever made), but cases made for a couple other Wilder films could probably convince me they were his be all everything too. Point being Billy didn't used to be big, he is big, and it's the pictures that got small without him. In that vein...
PREVIOUSLY Last week we wished Helen Hunt a happy birthday with a look back at her and Jack Nicholson's 1997 Oscar wins for As Good As It Gets -- facing them off y'all were decidely Team Carol with her thundering past a full 3/4ths of the vote. Explained Denny:
"Loved this film then and like it now, despite all the shit it gets. Jack is on fire - somehow Melvin doesn't come off like the complete and utter cliche he is on paper, and it's solely due to Nicholson's unique charisma - but it really is all about Helen Hunt and her warm, deeply lived-in performance as Carol. Yes the "fucking HMO pieces of shit" bit is great, but where the character (and the actress) really sings for me is in the quieter, more intimate moments. She somehow ups everyone's game when she's in a scene with them, and that's no small feat. But really, Carol wins just for being able to handle Melvin and all his bullshit."
Reader Comments (11)
While Joe seems to inspire those around him, Norma consumes them. She probably swallows them whole. You have to vote for someone with an appetite like that.
I'd just like to put this here, in case it might swing any votes Joe's way.
Honestly Norma's too much. I'm not going to argue that Gloria Swanson doesn't give a for-the-ages performance here because clearly she do. But I'm on Joe's team the entire time watching the movie. Yeah he exploits her at first and gets in way over his head but I always root for him to get the hell out of that horror show all the same.
Agree with both of you ... it is a performance for the ages... what a year for women's acting roles... I think Judy Holiday won the Oscar ( she was great in her role ) by default...
Who could choose between Swanson and Bette Davis?
For Wilder in a serious/ satiric mode, then I'm for the amazing Sunset Boulevard
For Wilder in a lighter vein, I love Sabrina with the glorious Audrey Hepburn, and Humphrey Bogart ( and those costumes!). I saw Sabrina recently and really liked the way Wilder made expositional passages unnecessary. He starts you off, you know what's going to happen, so he puts the scene on the background of something else.
And The Seven Year Itch is still good for a laugh.
Norma now. Norma forever.
Love me some hunky Holden, but gotta pick for Desmond.
Plus point: Glenn Close oh so gloriously play this role in the broadway musical!
Wow this is a tough one all the way around! I feel for Norma, delusional, forgotten and desperate to be loved but she's demanding, suffocating and has more than a cupful of crazy goin' on. Then there's the opportunistic Joe who grabs whatever he can, up to a point and after only the mildest of pangs surrenders to being a boy toy. But then on the other hand what a boy toy! At this point William Holden was sex on a stick and he does try and do the right thing. I voted Norma but could Joe just stand there and be objectified?
Favorite Wilder film! Yikes! Another tough call. There are about 10 that I really love, including this, but I'd say it's a split decision between Some Like it Hot and Witness for the Prosecution for my top choice.
I think it is so important to look at William Holden's career and how far he came under Mr. Wilder's casting and how versatile he was. Until Network, we got so used to Holden playing the cad, we forgot his introduction to films in Golden Boy and Our Town.
Yes Gloria Swanson is a star turn but it wasn't for this movie, we would probably not remember her now as anything except Joe Kennedy's mistress....but Holden........Oh to watch him
I could watch him forever.
No one was more delicious than William Holden in his prime. (Sorry, Gloria.)
A cuppa Joe Gillis for sure!
Norma would be fun to run into at a cocktail party for sure, and then run in the opposite direction when your drink needed refreshening ; )
Dramatically, it's a tough choice: between a deliciously and deliriously deranged diva and a writer who wants that big break but sadly succumbs to temptation.
But in real life, there's no contest. William Holden is one of the most underrated actors, and this is one of his most memorable roles. Nothing like a cup of hot, steamy Joe.
"And I promise you I'll never desert you again because after Salome we'll make another picture and another picture. You see, this is my life! It always will be! Nothing else! Just us, the cameras, and those wonderful people out there in the dark!... All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up."