Author Topic: Top Favorite Films!  (Read 138496 times)

Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: Top Favorite Films!
« Reply #130 on: July 25, 2018, 06:21:20 pm »
Chuck, I went online to research current movies starring women, and guess what I found out: a new version of Little Women will be filming in Boston this October and guess who is cast in the role of Laurie? Our own Timothée Chalamet!!

More details here, as well as a hilarious clip of William Shatner attempting a German accent as Professor Baer!
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Offline SaraB

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Re: Top Favorite Films!
« Reply #131 on: July 26, 2018, 09:11:15 am »
He’s exactly right for Laurie! But sadly it’ll still be Amy who gets him rather than Jo.

Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: Top Favorite Films!
« Reply #132 on: July 26, 2018, 09:44:45 am »
...In "Grace and Frankie," 80-year-old Jane Fonda dates 62-year-old Peter Gallagher. Who is not only handsome, he's also incredibly rich.

Of course, she's also beautiful. So not that it could NEVER happen, but ...  ::)

Just to set the record straight, Grace, played by Jane Fonda, is supposed to be 72 and is also rich, not to mention beautiful and whip smart. Whereas Nick, played by Gallagher, is something of a ditz and is in his mid-60s. I don't think it's that much of a stretch. I have dated a man 11 years older than me in my mid-60s, a man my same age, and was married to a man 3 years younger than me for 30 years. And I hang around with a man 22 years younger than myself. I've discovered that age is arbitrary.

But, back to The Book Club. There is one particular segment that spoke to me so clearly that I had to see the movie again. I would go into more detail but that would involve spoilers.
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Offline serious crayons

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Re: Top Favorite Films!
« Reply #133 on: July 26, 2018, 09:45:51 am »
I just happened to be discussing the Laurie-Jo-Amy situation with a friend the other day. Her name is Laurie Jo [last name]. She said her mother named her that because she thought Laurie and Jo should have wound up together. I've known this friend for 35 years and never knew that was the story behind her name!

I toured Louisa May Alcott's childhood home a few years ago. Very interesting! Apparently she was instructed to write a book for girls by her publisher, so she banged it out in about three weeks on a tiny desk that flipped down from the wall. There were drawings all over the walls of the bedroom belonging to the real-life "Amy."

It seemed pretty clear LMA was a lesbian, which might explain why the relationship with Laurie went awry.



Offline serious crayons

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Re: Top Favorite Films!
« Reply #134 on: July 26, 2018, 10:39:04 am »
Just to set the record straight, Grace, played by Jane Fonda, is supposed to be 72 and is also rich, not to mention beautiful and whip smart. Whereas Nick, played by Gallagher, is something of a ditz and is in his mid-60s.

I didn't remember what their ages were supposed to be on the show; 80 and 62 are the ages of the respective actors. (Nick doesn't come across to me as especially ditzy, though.) But of course Jane Fonda is beautiful and smart. She looks better than most 40-year-olds.

Quote
I don't think it's that much of a stretch. I have dated a man 11 years older than me in my mid-60s, a man my same age, and was married to a man 3 years younger than me for 30 years. And I hang around with a man 22 years younger than myself. I've discovered that age is arbitrary.

I think it's a huge stretch, not because relationships between people of different ages are impossible or doomed, but because it's just not how things generally go in TV shows or movies (except in movies targeting women, especially targeting older women, in a wish-fulfillment kind of way). Real life is slightly less imbalanced, but not much. In most straight couples -- certainly not all; I've known plenty of exceptions, including my own -- the man is older.

Your stories all make sense. My husband was five years younger than me. And it's not at all unusual for a woman to date or marry a man 11 years older or more. And I hang around with 20-somethings sometimes, too (although friends and romantic partners are two different things and I most likely wouldn't date them).

But let's take movies. I can think of maybe three or four movies in all of film history involving romantic couples in which the woman was substantially older than the man. And in those cases, the fact that the woman was older is a major issue in the relationship (as it is in Grace's and Nick's). (Compare theirs to Frankie's relationship with an African-American man, where race, AFAIK, is never mentioned.)

The most prominent example is probably The Graduate. The fact that Mrs. Robinson was much older than Benjamin was the whole point -- along with the adultery, of course -- and the reason their relationship seemed doomed and shallow and icky. (Also because the woman came on to the man, in a very bold way, which tends to be a taboo as well, and even more so back then.) It was clear Ben only got involved with her because he was feeling cynical and aimless following college. Elaine, on the other hand, was age-appropriate and sufficiently docile. So Ben's relationship with her seemed "nice" and "natural," though threatened by her evil old mother.

As I'm sure you know, the ages of all three actors were pretty close. Ann Bancroft was 35. Dustin Hoffman was 29. Katharine Ross was 27. So the age difference between Bancroft and Hoffman -- the depraved mismatched lovers -- was only one year more than me and my ex-husband. And Ann would have been eight when her daughter was born.

Sally Field, also famously, has played both the peer and mother of Tom Hanks. Most recently in a movie called Hello, My Name is Doris she plays an older woman with a crush on a younger colleague. It sounded terrible and I haven't seen it -- I first heard of it in an AARP article warning people not to see it. But I just watched the trailer and it's full of cringe-worthy ageism. Is Doris delightfully quirky, or a clueless joke? Though looks like it has an "empowering" upbeat ending. So I suppose it's a matter of taste and you'd probably have to see the whole movie to decide how you felt. But I didn't get a great feeling from the trailer.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3766394/

Harrison Ford, Al Pacino and Martin Sheen are all several years older than Sally Field. Never say never, but I can't imagine any of them starring in a movie in which they're made into a joke for lusting after a much younger coworker. It would just be a normal movie romance! Harrison Ford was paired with Anne Heche, 26 years his junior, and the age gap wasn't supposed to be a big deal. The closest to Doris I can think of is when Robert De Niro played the intern in Anne Hathaway's company. And his character was much more dignified -- kind of old-school, but in a good way, teaching those whippersnapper millennials a thing or two, not seeming clumsy and insecure and clueless.

Then there's Maggie Gyllenhaal, at 37, getting turned down as "too old" for a role opposite a 55-year-old man. A few years before that, it was portrayed as pretty normal in Crazy Heart when she got involved with Jeff Bridges, 28 years her senior.

Here's a great illustration of how it works. In "Leading Men Age, But Their Love Interests Don’t," Vulture graphed the ages of a bunch of actors and actresses cast as romantic pairs over the years. All of them show some age gap, often substantial, and only occasionally is the woman older than the man.

More tellingly, the gap between ages grows as the actors get get older. The actor whose romantic partners' ages are closest to his is Tom Hanks. But even in his there's a gap, and Vulture congratulates it for being within a mere 10 years!

If I were John, I would carefully copy all the words and images, highlighting some in larger fonts and colors, for a beautiful presentation. But I'm lazy and it's easier for anyone interested to just click on the link.

http://www.vulture.com/2013/04/leading-men-age-but-their-love-interests-dont.html



I could talk about age differences in real life, but I've typed enough for now!  :laugh:


« Last Edit: July 26, 2018, 04:19:17 pm by serious crayons »

Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: Top Favorite Films!
« Reply #135 on: July 26, 2018, 11:49:05 am »
Just to set the record straight, Grace, played by Jane Fonda, is supposed to be 72 and is also rich, not to mention beautiful and whip smart. Whereas Nick, played by Gallagher, is something of a ditz and is in his mid-60s. I don't think it's that much of a stretch. I have dated a man 11 years older than me in my mid-60s, a man my same age, and was married to a man 3 years younger than me for 30 years. And I hang around with a man 22 years younger than myself. I've discovered that age is arbitrary.

I'm not sure I agree with the "age is arbitrary" part, but beyond that, the same thing can apply to gay men. Whenever our paths cross (usually accidentally and only occasionally), I hang out some with a young man who is literally young enough to be my son (the "son" part strikes  me as kinda neat). But he's an "old soul," so we seem more like contemporaries than otherwise.  (He's also one of those amazing persons who seem to know everybody, so even when our paths do cross, usually at the Usual Watering Hole, invariably he sees someone else he needs to greet, and then someone else, and then someone else. ...  ;D )
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Offline SaraB

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Re: Top Favorite Films!
« Reply #136 on: July 26, 2018, 02:45:03 pm »
I just happened to be discussing the Laurie-Jo-Amy situation with a friend the other day. Her name is Laurie Jo [last name]. She said her mother named her that because she thought Laurie and Jo should have wound up together. I've known this friend for 35 years and never knew that was the story behind her name!

I toured Louisa May Alcott's childhood home a few years ago. Very interesting! Apparently she was instructed to write a book for girls by her publisher, so she banged it out in about three weeks on a tiny desk that flipped down from the wall. There were drawings all over the walls of the bedroom belonging to the real-life "Amy."

It seemed pretty clear LMA was a lesbian, which might explain why the relationship with Laurie went awry.




Love that about your friend’s name!

Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: Top Favorite Films!
« Reply #137 on: July 31, 2018, 02:21:38 pm »
I didn't remember what their ages were supposed to be on the show; 80 and 62 are the ages of the respective actors. (Nick doesn't come across to me as especially ditzy, though.) But of course Jane Fonda is beautiful and smart. She looks better than most 40-year-olds.
I was just watching the program where Nick sees Grace's healing scar from the knee surgery and falls down in a dead faint! He also botches making scrambled eggs. . .how ditzy is that?
I can think of maybe three or four movies in all of film history involving romantic couples in which the woman was substantially older than the man. And in those cases, the fact that the woman was older is a major issue in the relationship (as it is in Grace's and Nick's).
I didn't notice the age difference, which is only 7 years at best, being a major issue. The most important thing about Nick, IMHO, is that he is a rich and successful entrepreneur who is learning that his business acumen doesn't necessarily translate into success with women, especially Grace.

As for movies where the woman was older, Harold and Maude leaps to mind, but there is also Cheri, The Beach, The Good Girl, Unfaithful, Anna Karenina, and about 65 others on this list: https://www.imdb.com/list/ls066983450/

The most prominent example is probably The Graduate. The fact that Mrs. Robinson was much older than Benjamin was the whole point -- along with the adultery, of course -- and the reason their relationship seemed doomed and shallow and icky. (Also because the woman came on to the man, in a very bold way, which tends to be a taboo as well, and even more so back then.) It was clear Ben only got involved with her because he was feeling cynical and aimless following college. Elaine, on the other hand, was age-appropriate and sufficiently docile. So Ben's relationship with her seemed "nice" and "natural," though threatened by her evil old mother.
I wouldn't think of The Graduate as the most important example of a December/May romance. I would think of Harold and Maude as that. Also, their relationship was not a romance; it was just lust. You listed 3 reasons why their relationship was icky, and I would argue that the age difference was the least icky reason. More icky to me was that Mrs. Robinson was bored and a cougar; also that she knew Benjamin loved Elaine, her daughter. She was a predator, but learned it because she had been preyed on (remember the part about why she and Mr. Robinson had to get married in the first place?) I think of Mrs. Robinson more like Sleeping Beauty's stepmom, in fear of being supplanted as the "fairest of them all" and ready to use diabolical means to feed her bruised ego.

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Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: Top Favorite Films!
« Reply #138 on: July 31, 2018, 03:04:59 pm »
Sleeping Beauty's stepmom, in fear of being supplanted as the "fairest of them all" and ready to use diabolical means to feed her bruised ego.

That was Snow White's stepmom.
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Offline CellarDweller

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Re: Top Favorite Films!
« Reply #139 on: July 31, 2018, 05:39:51 pm »
Did someone say "Snow White?"



Tell him when l come up to him and ask to play the record, l'm gonna say: ''Voulez-vous jouer ce disque?''
'Voulez-vous, will you kiss my dick?'
Will you play my record? One-track mind!