Monologue - "L-I-V-E"

Jose here with the Monday Monologue.



When nineteen year old Harold Chase (Bud Cort) meets seventy-nine year old Maude (Ruth Gordon) at a stranger's funeral, he has little idea of what she has in store for him. The eccentric lady shows him how to live, not in the corny sense we've come to see recently in movies about dying people, but in a more active way.

She gets him out of his rich kid world (which he already loathes) by reminding him that "It ain't about morality"

With that in mind they steal cars to go plant stolen trees to the forest, attend funerals of people they never met before and they smoke, seemingly illegal, herbs before plunging into deep conversation.

It's during one of these smoke-and-talks where Harold confesses,

I haven't lived
I've died a few times

And Maude listens surprised while Harold reveals how he became so obsessed with death...

Well, the first time was when I was at boarding school in the chemistry lab. I was in there cleaning it up, so I decided I'd do a little experiment...
so I throw this stuff out, begin mixing it up-very scientific.

There was this massive explosion! It knocked me down, blew out a huge hole on the floor.
There was boards and bricks and flames leaping up!

I figured, you know, time to leave. My career in school was over...

So I went home, my mother was giving a party, so I just ran up the backstairs, went to my room, turned on the light and got this funny feeling. The doorbell rang, I went out to the banister and two policemen came in. They found my mother and told her that I was killed in the fire.

I decided right there that I enjoyed being dead

The scene is moving because of the sincerity with which Cort delivers the lines. It explains, if anything ever could, why he'd tried to set himself on fire before in the film. With this scene we stop holding on to the idea that he's a spoiled brat and begin to empathize with him.

But this moment truly belongs to Gordon. Some people believe that an actor shows his mastery of the craft by his ability to listen.
If that's the case, then Gordon sits and listens like a pro, before she goes and gives Harold a sweet pep talk about taking risks in life and being bold enough as to get hurt in the process. "Otherwise you got nothing to talk about in the locker room" she says.

And we can only imagine all the things someone like her had to talk about...
*

DVD: Natalie Wood 6 Times!, Nick & Norah

Collections ~ It's Tuesday so there are new box sets available highlighting everything from tired hockey masked killers (you know who) to highly respected thespians (Peter Sellers and Alec Guiness) but the big ... make that B-I-G... deal for The Film Experience is the "Natalie Wood Collection" which includes six films. I haven't seen Bombers B-52 or Cash McCall but even if they're bad you still get to stare at her for two hours. Her beauty justifies most any running time.

Natalie Wood *swoon*

The other four are more notable players in her filmography. There's the Edith Head costumed Helen Gurley Brown comedy Sex and the Single Girl (1964) and two true classics: the musical Gypsy (1962) and the legendary 'Warren Beatty Destroys Lives!' teen angst of the unbeatable Splendor in the Grass (1961). Adventurous movie fanatics might be most interested in getting a good long look at the underseen and idiosyncratic inside Hollywood drama Inside Daisy Clover (1965) from director Robert Mulligan (To Kill a Mockingbird). Natalie, 27 when the film was released, was too old for her role as an ascending teenage starlet, but Robert Redford is just right as her undeniably breathtaking but possibly gay lover. Ruth Gordon is her crazy mama (and strangely Oscar nominated though she's barely in the movie). Inside Daisy Clover's true Best Supporting Actress is Katharine Bard (someone I'd never heard of) who plays a slightly "off" Hollywood wife named Melora Swan. I was riveted every time she appeared. She was apparently a television actress and only made two feature films after this one. I guess nobody noticed how terrific she was. Shame.

From the Vaults ~ Being There (30th Anniversary) is sitting on my TV waiting for me to screen. I love Hal Ashby movies and I've never seen it. Oops. It stars Peter Sellers as a gardener who becomes a political advisor. Shirley Maclaine co-stars and they get Oscar winning support from Melvyn Douglas. When I wrote up that piece on The Little Mermaid two years ago, Bruno Paxton reminded me that I was giving it a teensy bit too much credit as THE comeback for Disney animation since Oliver and Company was a hit the year before. So yeah, 20th anniversary DVD for that cute 2D kitten. Finally Babs somehow found the time to return to her musical Yentl for an "Extended Directors Edition". Would that she would return to acting instead.

Newbies ~ Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist in which Michael Cera moves on from Juno (not the town in Alaska) and into Kat Dennings. Sweet funny movie with stellar comedic support from Ari Graynor. Can I see her in another movie NOW (previous posts)? There's also the Southern girl-fest The Secret Life of Bees starring actresses Queen Latifah, Sophie Okonedo and Dakota Fanning and singers Jennifer Hudson and Alicia Keys, Space Buddies which I'd really rather not type about... moving on! And Zack and Miri Make a Porno which I have yet to see. Worth a rental? Help me out.
*

To Ruth

From Adam of Club Silencio:

"The earth is my body; my head is in the stars. "

Of all the endearing wisdom that Maude gave to Harold during their May 1st/December 31st romance, that one seems particularly special given the anniversary of Ruth Gordon's death. She lived to the full age of 88, passing on August 28, 1985. I can't imagine there was a more hilarious woman of her generation. Someone just as likely to teach you the splendors of life as to dose your chocolate mousse... Either way it's "snips and snails and puppy dog's tails!"

There would have been a vast hole left in cinema without Ruth Gordon. We'd certainly never value life and we might even trust the elderly.


Her turn as the nosy Minnie Castevet is so completely delightful. How often can you say that about your neighbors, let alone one who's a Satanist? Her character's devious deeds would be nothing without Gordon's disarming nature. She looks like someone who'd play bridge with your grandma, and you'd kindly eat her inedible desserts. Even if she told me she was responsible for my birthing Satan's offspring, I'd just laugh and force down another slice.


And then there's Maude... Brought to charming life by Gordon, she's one of the most inspirational and life-affirming figures in cult cinema. Greeting card sentiments would wear on most audiences, but Gordon gives them a vibrancy so human that they dig right to the heart. She creates in Maude a spirited memorial to living life to the fullest, while stopping to honor death along the way.

So let's all steal a tree and transplant it in her honor. Here's to Ruth with her head in the stars.


Send her your love in the comments!

20:07 ("Poor Terry")

Hello everybody! This is JA from My New Plaid Pants, and I'm taking over duties for Nathaniel's terrific 20:07 project whilst he's away. And let me just tell you, he was not kidding when he said finding a good frame of film exactly 20 minutes and 7 seconds into a movie is no picnic - this was about the fifteenth DVD I threw in. But this one worked out beautifully:

No dialogue - just the sound of a door buzzer ringing.
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Back in New York

I realize my presence is an abstracted one. It matters not to you where I post from so long as posting happens. But I'm back in Manhattan after a clear my head trip to Connecticut. Just sharing is all...

I already posted about Manderlay. Nick and I also watched Louis Malle's lemon-scented shapeshifter Atlantic City(1980), the Natalie Wood headliner Inside Daisy Clover(1965) which is a dark Hollywood fable. The real mystery of it is how Ruth Gordon managed a supporting actress nomination for it. She's barely in it and the other featured woman (someone I'd never heard of called Katharine Bard) acts circles around her in this messy but intriguing picture. Finally we screened the glitzy Auntie Mame(1958) which I hadn't seen in well over a decade and which Nick had somehow never laid eyes upon.