MM@M: The Quiet Man, The Foreign Ones.

Yikes. Mad Men Season 4 begins in 12 days. and we're still on Season 2 of our series, charting the cinema references in television's best show. Let's get back to it.

Episode 2.5 "The New Girl"
Bobbie Barrett (Melinda McGraw) and Don Draper (Jon Hamm) are heading to a beach house for some extra marital rutting. Bobbie is feeling frisky and Don's feeling... nothing. They're both drunk.

Bobby: Lets do things you like. What else do you like?
[Don's ever stoic face lights up for a split second with the hint of a smile. He considers answering... and then]
Don: Movies.

Bobbie: YES. Spartacus?
[Don does not respond. Bobby is drunk and clearly loves the movie.]
Have you seen the foreign ones? So sexy.
Don: La Notte.
Bobbie: [Sighs with pleasure.] Yes.
Why is it so hard to just enjoy things? God, I feel so good.

While remembering Michelangelo Antonioni's La Notte makes many a cinephile feel so good, Bobbie and Don won't be smiling for long. They're about the get in a smash-up. Soon Bobbie is lying to her husband and holed up in Brooklyn nursing her wounds. But at least she's still got her sarcastic self-aware humor. She reads the trashy "Confidential" magazine.

Bobbie: Oh, Marilyn. The tragedy you live. I'm so glad I don't have problems.

ba dum dum. Funny. There's a brief conversation about Marilyn -- 'a lot of people would love to have Marilyn's problems' -- and then a mention that Marilyn might be showing up at the President's birthday celebration at Madison Square Garden that weekend. I have no idea if this was rumored among civilians before it happened in May '62 but Bobbie, as a showbiz insider, would know either way.

That weekend celebration is a piece of movie star history that even the most casual moviegoers know about.

I haven't watched that clip in years and I didn't remember that she was introduced as "The late Marilyn Monroe". Spooky. It was a reference to her lack of punctuality but tragically she was dead less than three months later.

Referencing famous historical episodes can often read as inorganic, like historical shorthand for dummies (see past discussions of Best Picture winners Cavalcade and Forrest Gump), but Mad Men generally doesn't lean too hard into these references and this Marilyn bit is thankfully just a decorative touch rather than a plot point.

There's another brief movie reference in this episode.

Trudy (Alison Brie) and Peter (Vincent Kartheiser) are having troubles conceiving and Peter, clumsily attempting to smooth over the problem, suggests that maybe they're meant to be a childless couple.

Peter: You have a baby. You can't travel. You can't go to the movies.
Trudy: You're immature Peter, you know that? ... Express some concern and stop talking about how you're going to miss seeing Cape Fear for the third time!
Peter: [Angry] I know one thing. I sure as hell wouldn't want a kid here watching this Donnybrook!

Huh?

Okay.

At first, I assumed that this was also a movie reference since they were talking about going to the movies and Cape Fear (1962). That reference is funny because it seems like exactly the type of thing that Peter would obsess about. Assuming that "Donnybrook" was an arts reference too (that's how my brain works) I found that Donnybrook! was the name of a 1961 Broadway musical (this episode takes place in Spring 1962) which was based on the film The Quiet Man (1952). I know very little about either but it turns out, as Bill and Liz inform in the comments that donnybrook is a word with an Irish origin simply referring to strife and fighting. I had assumed the musical's title borrowed this phrase for a title because the wife character (who was played by Maureen O'Hara in the 50s film, pictured left) was a fiery Irish woman and that Peter was referencing it to make a point about Trudy being difficult. (That's amusingly hypocritical because Peter is the one who's always a handful). But I see cinema even when there isn't cinema.

But anyway... Marilyn and La Notte. Why don't Americans talk about "sexy foreign ones" anymore? Sigh.

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Birthday Suits and a Ballsy Actress

Today's stars! Well not literally today's but November 18th. Get a little history. Celebrate one of these cinematic entities today in whatever way occurs to you.

Senors Gilbert, Hemmings and Infante

1836 W.S. Gilbert of 'Gilbert & Sullivan' legend. If you've never seen Mike Leigh's exceptional biopic of this creative giant, Topsy-Turvy, drop everything right now and do so.
1908 Imogene Coca beloved comic actress, mostly known for TV roles
1917 Pedro Infante Mexico's biggest movie star ever. Here he is singing. Pedro Almodóvar fans will recognize this one immediately



1939 Margaret Atwood, best-selling much-awarded author. Strangely Hollywood doesn't seem to have taken to her in a big way. The Handmaid's Tale (1990) starring Natasha Richardson is one of the few adaptations
1939 Brenda Vaccaro, Midnight Cowgirl and she of one of the oddest Oscar nominations of all time... seriously, have you seen Once Is Not Enough? Here's StinkyLulu's look at that Oscar year.
1941 David Hemmings, actor. Star of Michelangelo Antonioni's riveting Blow-Up (1966). Also: Camelot, Barbarella and Gladiator...
1942 Linda Evans, silver helmeted TV diva, Mrs. Blake Carrington.
1952 Delroy Lindo Spike Lee regular, the voice of "Beta" in Up and fine stage actor -- recently saw him on stage with Garrett Dillahunt.
1953 Alan Moore, eccentric comicbook genius: From Hell, Watchmen, etc...
1960 Kim Wilde ♪ youjustkeepmehanginon
1960 Elizabeth Perkins Weeds has cast a long shadow backwards but remember when she was Wilma Flintstone or Demi Moore's bitchy BFF in About Last Night or Tom Hanks's girl in Big?
1968 Owen Wilson to me he'll always be Hansel. And Eli Cash. (mmmm, The Royal Tenenbaums). That scene where he describes the rules of Whack Bat in Fantastic Mr. Fox is pretty choice, too. "It's real simple..."

Finally, a happy 35th birthday to Chloë Sevigny who has never been shy about wearing suits, birthday or otherwise, in her rampage through fashion and film. It seems strange to me that this actress who debuted in the savage Kids and was no stranger to provocations (Brown Bunny, Boys Don't Cry, Gummo) would end up best known for television work (Big Love) ... but at least her excellence is within a semi subversive TV show.

Next Up: Mr. Nice starring Rhys Ifans and Barry Mundy starring Patrick Wilson without his balls. Won't anyone leave Patrick Wilson's private parts alone? I'm talking to you Kate Winslet, Malin Akerman, Ben Shenkman and especially Ellen Page !!!

Ingmar and Mike

Two years ago today death came for Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni. Robert here, thinking back on the day when my two favorite living directors both died. Two men who had a huge impression on me. It was as a young budding movie lover that Bergman and Antonioni taught me how film could be more than popcorn entertainment... it could be art.

Of course one has to admit that Bergman and Antonioni are eternally entwined with the bad name that "art film" sometimes has... and for pretty good reason. After all, Ingmar Bergman directed an entire trilogy on God's silence. Antonioni directed an entire trilogy about the impossibility of love. What do you mean people think art films are needlessly depressing?

And so the reputation of the art film goes: If you want a good time... watch something else.

Still Bergman and Antonioni never really deserved that reputation. The Seventh Seal has always been more fun than people give it credit for (Andrew O'Hehir posted a nice article about it a little while back). And while Antonioni might fill your head with existential longing, he'll throw in a groundbreaking threesome scene to fill your eyes with too.


The films of Bergman and Antonioni aren't bowls full of laughs but these masters had such a good hold on the medium that I dare any cinema lover to watch them and not feel moments of pure joy. How can you not gasp in amazement when silent actress Liv Ullmann is tricked into stepping on a shard of glass and finally makes a sound in Persona? How can you not be seduced by Monica Vitti slowly putting on a stocking in Red Desert? Are there many shots in cinema as entrancing as the final shot in The Passenger? Are there many moments as joyous as the rescue scene in Fanny and Alexander?

These two men already sit among the giants of cinema history. They don't need me to defend them. But too often they're relegated to just that: history. As with many who directed the "classics" they live inside university and library walls and not beyond. Mark Twain said a classic book is one which everyone wants to have read but no one wants to read. Replace "read" with "watch" and the same rule applies to the movies.

So today, three years later, do yourself a favor... watch some Bergman. Watch some Antonioni. Go ahead. You might even find yourself having a good time.

Tues Top Ten: Total Eclipse of the Sun

As you may or may not have heard one of the longest total eclipses of the sun in decades is about to happen. It's tonight in US time (we won't be able to see it) but tomorrow morning (Wednesday July 22nd) for the countries that will have a view like India, China, Japan and The Philippines for some examples. That ultra hot orb, life giver to us all, will be blacked out for six whole minutes from some vantage points. To commemorate the occasion I thought a top ten list was in order. What's more dramatic in a movie than a sudden cut to black?

But I kept coming up blank. Why aren't there more solar eclipses in the movies? It's such an exciting visual event. So I polled some blogging friends. We still came up short. This is not a preferential list so much as a list that requires your contribution for completion.

10 (er...8) Movie Eclipses

Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
You don't technically see the eclipse here but it sets the plot in motion, the alien plant using the sun blotting as cover to sneak itself in amongst the the flower district's zinnias in order to catch Seymour's eye. The lyrics are so hilariously innocent in their da doo obviousness. Especially the punchline.

Seymour: He didn't have anything unusual there that day.
Crystal, Ronette & Chiffon: Nope, da-doo,
Seymour: so I was just about to, ya know, walk on by,
Crystal, Ronette & Chiffon: Good for you,
Seymour: when suddenly,
Crystal, Ronette & Chiffon: Da doo
Seymour: and without warning, there was this...
Crystal, Ronette & Chiffon: TOTAL. ECLIPSE. OF. THE. SUN.
[pause]
Seymour: It got very dark.

Yeah, that happens with eclipses, Seymour. I always have to suppress giggles when I watch this movie. The giggling eventually wins out.

Baraka (1992) and Apocalypto (2006)
"It's even on the poster!" Glenn of Stale Popcorn proclaimed ...of course he did. He brought up the stunning all visual no dialogue 90s documentary about life here on planet Earth. Mel Gibson's sadist's confectionary about the ancient Mayans is also so enamored of its astrological event that it must be referenced in logo / poster form.

Dolores Claiborne (1995)
JA from MNPP immediately cited this Stephen King adaptation when I went fishing for examples saying

The entire film - hell, Dolores' entire life - revolves around what goes down during this eclipse. Sometimes I consider this Kathy Bates' finest performance (it's certainly an overlooked one), and nowhere is there more apparent to me than here in this moment when she lets us see a broken woman taking her greatest stand by not moving at all. Bonus points for the scene being shot so astonishingly.

The Werckmeister Harmonies (2000)
This acclaimed Béla Tarr film was Nick's suggestion.

The first, amazing sequence has to do with a funny-sad-weird pantomime of an eclipse.

How does one pantomime an eclipse? I'm intrigued now. I know I should have seen and loved Harmonies by now but ever since I read about Sátántángo and the cat torture sequence I have been too wary to approach the filmmakers work. I'll just have to deal with derivations thereof (hi, Gus!) because I can't do movies that can't claim "no animals were harmed".

Pitch Black (2000)
This film was the first to come to my mind. I remember being terrified by the eclipse but not why. My brain is like a sieve so I asked JA if I was remembering this correctly, and he verified that I was...

Once that giant ringed planet blots out the suns the action doesn't let up ever again. There are monsters in that there absence of light and I don't know about you but I'd not so much mind finding myself hunkered down in the dark with a strapping, tank-topped Vin Diesel (at least pre-Pacifier) at my side in such sweaty...

JA is always wandering off into a NSFW place isn't he? He can't help himself. Pitch Black came out in 2000. Remember when it looked like Vin Diesel might be an action star for the Aughts in the way that Schwarzenegger and Stallone were for the 80s?

L'Eclisse aka The Eclipse (1962)
Guest blogger Robert suggested this Michelangelo Antonioni classic. I reminded him that there's no eclipse in it.

Dang Antonioni and his metaphors!

...he replied. But the list is thin and this is a classic so I say it counts. Antonioni had originally intended to include the literal event. He described his own eclipse experience like so...

I am in Florence to see and film a solar eclipse. Unexpected and intense cold. Silence different from all other silences. Wan light, different from all other lights. And then darkness. Total stillness. All I am capable of thinking is that during an eclipse even feelings probably come to a halt. It is an idea that has vaguely to do with the film I am preparing--more a sensation than an idea, but a sensation which defines the film even when the film is far from being defined. All the work and the shots that came after have always been related back to that idea, or sensation, or premonition. I have never been able to leave it aside.
-from the preface to Six Films

Ladyhawke (1985)
The last ten minutes of this, the best of the 80s fantasy films, is pure magic for epic romance loving moviegoers. Etienne (Rutger Hauer) and Isabeau (Michelle Pfeiffer) have been cursed for years to never touch. By day she soars above him as a hawk and by night he accompanies her in wolf form. Etienne doesn't believe in the prophesied "night without a day, day without a night" that will break the curse. How can such a thing exist? But break the curse this eclipse does. At first they gaze into each other's eyes in rapturous disbelief and joy. Isabeau's ecstatic involuntary gulp of laughter/tears as Etienne lifts her from her feet, basking in her beloved's true physicality for the first time in years gets me every time. Total lump in throat, tears in eyes.

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We only came up with 8. Perhaps you can fill out this top 10 in the comments. What other movies find the magic in a 'night without a day and day without a night'?

previous top tens
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