Romancefest 2018: The Handmaiden

Let's finish off Romancefest 2018 with a twisty and turny 2016 romantic thriller from South Korea, THE HANDMAIDEN, directed by Park Chan-wook. As I rounded out the month I realized most of these films have been comedies and a few of them have been dramas but there hasn't really been any thrillers. So this was a nice diversion.

It's the early 20th century. Kim Tae-ri stars as the titular handmaiden, hired by a con man (Ha Jung-woo) to infiltrate the house of an abusive pornographic book collector/salesman (Cho Jin-woong) and pose as his niece's (Kim Min-hee) handmaiden. The idea is that Jung-woo will romance Min-hee with the help of Tae-ri, steal her away from her uncle, commit her to a mental hospital, and run off with her fortune.

Like HE SAID, SHE SAID and DEFINITELY, MAYBE earlier in Romancefest 2018, this flick tells the same story from a couple different points of view, but unlike those earlier flicks this one does it well. You're hooked from the very beginning, and the twists and turns don't end until the credits roll. It's hard to talk about this movie without spoilers, so spoiler warning:

First the story is told with the con man and handmaiden conspiring against the royal niece. This ends with a twist -- instead of the niece being committed, the handmaiden is in her place. So, we flashback to find out how this happened and follow things more from the niece's point of view. That was the plan all along, we learn, until the handmaiden and niece team up with each other to overthrow the uncle and con man. So begins the third version.

I had no idea what to expect coming into this movie, despite having seen the trailer, and couldn't guess where it was going to go as it unfolded. To quote Stefon from SNL, this movie has everything -- romance, intrigue, betrayels, sex, torture, you name it, this movie has it.

Romancefest 2018: Only Lovers Left Alive

It's always exciting when it's time to see a Jim Jarmusch movie I've never seen before, so I was pumped to see ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE. Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton star as a couple long undead vampires who, instead of feeding on humans, rely on getting blood from suppliers, like drug dealers. As the movie starts, they've been living apart, but the soon reunite in Detroit.

Hiddleston, a musician, is depressed and ready to check out, so Swinton attempts to bring some joy back into his life, before her sister (Mia Wasikowska) shows up and ruins everything by roping one of Hiddleston's fans (Anton Yelchin) into things.

Like most Jarmusch movies, the strength here is the tone. Things unfold slowly and languidly, but that's perfect for a story about bored vampires who've been alive too long. Also, as usual, Jarmusch nails a perfectly dry and sarcastic tone, with Hiddleston, in particular, giving great line readings that drip with so much contempt they can't help but be funny.

Romancefest 2018: Blue is the Warmest Color

Now we've finally caught up to this decade with BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR, a  French/Belgian/Spanish co-production directed by Abdellatif Kechiche and based on a comic book of the same name by Julie Maroh.

When this movie hit the indie/arthouse circuit in 2013, it made headlines for its graphic sex scenes, epic running length and its success at Cannes. The film stars Adele Exarchopoulos and follows her character's coming of age from high school to her life as an elementary school teacher, focusing on her first love and first real relationship, with an older and more experienced art student (Lea Seydoux).

There were some troubling stories at the time about how rough the director was with his actresses and I read some interesting pieces about how prevalent the male gaze is in this movie even though its intention is to be about a relationship between two women. So, parts of it are problematic.

Still, a lot of it is great, specifically the lead performances. Lea Seydoux seems to get most of the attention, but I thought Adele Exarchopoulos was particularly great, doing so much with just the expressions on her face. Aside from a few of the sex scenes, the movie is very naturalistic and works as an intimate slice of life, with the camera lingering on facial closeups, not shying away from little things like the way people eat, or the way they look without makeup. All of that works together to show just how real and immediate (and messy) adolescence and young adulthood is, especially when it comes to relationships.

Romancefest 2018: Definitely, Maybe

Here's another one where the premise seems promising but then you wonder what the point was in the end. I hate to say that because it bugs me when people go, "What was the point of that movie?" Well, what's the point of any movie? They're just movies. But still – seriously, what's the point here?

But I'm getting ahead of myself! DEFINITELY, MAYBE stars Ryan Reynolds as a divorced single father who works in advertising. As the movie begins, Reynolds is picking up his elementary-school-aged daughter (Abigail Breslin) from school, where they're just had a sex education class. This leads Breslin to question Reynolds on how he and her mother got together.

Reynolds agrees to tell the story, but says he's going to keep the identity of which of his early flames turned out to be Breslin's mother a secret until the end. What purpose this serves in the world of the movie, I don't know, but as an audience member it's kind of an intriguing premise – at least it's a different approach to the usual formula, right? But it never really pays off in any meaningful way, other than being an excuse to keep watching until the end instead of giving up halfway through.

So, most of the movie is flashbacks to Reynolds back before his advertising days when he was working on the Clinton campaign. There are three potential moms for Breslin: Elizabeth Banks as the girlfriend Reynolds leaves behind in his move to New York, Rachel Weisz as her artsy-fartsy free spirit friend and Isla Fisher as the one Reynolds actually seems to have chemistry with, but who he keeps on not hooking up with.

So, interesting premise, poorly executed, with a very nice cast. It's also fun that most of the movie is a 90s period piece since you don't see many of those (yet), though I find it hard to believe a guy in his early 20s wouldn't know who Nirvana is in 1992. Get up on that, Reynolds.

Romancefest 2018: Bride Wars

Continuing with the "The Wedding Itself is More Important than Who I Marry" genre, we have BRIDE WARS in which Kate Hudson and Anne Hatheway play childhood friends who have dreamed of getting married at New York's Plaza Hotel their entire lives. When the time comes, however, the screenwriter contrives to make them accidentally book the same day, and the wars begin.

Both women go from best friends to selfish monsters as they attempt to destroy each other's upcoming weddings. Hudson plays a high powered attorney who conspires to make Hatheway's fake tan go awry, and Hatheway's an elementary school teacher who conspires to dye Hudson's hair blue and also contribute to her eating problem in the hopes that she will gain weight.

It's sad because these are likable actresses who deserve better movies to be in. Sometimes that happens, but not here. Last year I saw Kate Hudson play a similar monster in HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS, but oddly I think I may have enjoyed that movie more than this one, because at least it was offensively awful and this one's mostly just bland awful.

Spoiler warning: There's a weird subplot that kind of comes out of nowhere where it turns out Hatheway's intended (Chris Pratt before he was a super hero) is not her intended after all, and they break up. Meanwhile, they seemed perfectly fine together and although they had a couple little arguments, it wasn't anything any normal couple couldn't overcome. In fact, if Pratt didn't balk at Hatheway's terrible behavior in this movie, I'd be concerned. Instead, it's a sign he's not the man for Anne.

Romancefest 2018: The Wedding Planner

Moving into the 21st century for THE WEDDING PLANNER, directed by Adam Shankman, I noticed a disturbing trend. Lots of movies are sexist, including the romantic ones, and lots of the older ones involve women resigned to catch the “right man,” whether it’s for love or money. But as I moved into the 2000s, I noticed more of these movies aren’t even about finding the right man anymore: they’re just about having an awesome wedding.

Jennifer Lopez stars as the titular WEDDING PLANNER, who wants to become a partner in the wedding planning firm she works for, and plans to do so by snagging a high profile client (Bridgette Wilson-Sampras). She finds this client in the pages of Yahoo magazine which had me saying, “There used to be a Yahoo magazine?” Early 2000s movies are weird because they exist along with the internet, but they’re kinda before people knew how to use it right.

Although Lopez has super powers when it comes to wedding planning (she has abbreviations for everything and wears a vest full of emergency implements and even married Whitney Houston to the notoriously abusive Bobbie Brown!), she is lonely in her personal life. All that changes when she has one of the dumbest meet-cutes ever with Matthew McConaughey, who rescues her from a dumpster that’s about to run her over (don’t ask). Turns out the dude’s a doctor! Yum.

In a twist I didn’t see coming it turns out he’s also the dude the afore-mentioned high profile client is getting ready to marry. Oops! I guess Lopez will have to settle for the Italian dude she knew as a kid (Justin Chambers) who has been unleashed upon her by her meddling father (Alex Rocco).

It’s hard to put into words how bad this movie sucks. It wants us to think McConaughey is quirky for throwing out all the M&Ms except brown ones, and then think it’s cute when Lopez catches this habit as well. But I don’t have time to think about how cute this is because I’m too busy being annoyed that both of these people simply litter unwanted M&Ms all over the ground instead of throwing them into a trash can. Or, it wants me to think it’s cute these people break a dick off of a statue and then bond while they’re trying to put the dick back on, but I’m too busy being like “I can’t believe two adults just broke a fucking statue that doesn’t belong to them and they think it’s funny.”

Well, at least one thing can be said for this movie. A pathological liar I used to work with once claimed the wedding Lopez plans at the end of this film was actually just he and his wife’s wedding, and they used it in the movie because it was so good. So, at least a borderline illiterate, homophobic, racist hayseed thinks Lopez’s weddings are well-planned. That’s a feather in the cap for the production designer.

Romancefest 2018: He Said, She Said

1991’s HE SAID, SHE SAID, directed by Ken Kwapis and Marisa Silver has an interesting premise: what if we saw a romantic comedy from both the male’s point of view and the female’s point of view, comparing and contrasting how the two view the story differently as it unfolds. Rumor has it, the duo of directors even directed their gender’s sequences, with Kwapis handling the story from Kevin Bacon’s point of view and Silver handling it from Elizabeth Perkins’.

Bacon and Perkins star as journalists competing for a coveted spot writing editorials for a Blatimore paper. The editor of the paper (Nathan Lane) hits on the idea of simply publishing both columns, as Bacon and Perkins have a knack for arguing opposite sides of a point of view, and eventually this becomes a TV show, where the two hosts duke it out with their opinions in prime time.

Of course the two fall in love, and that complicates things. Bacon’s a conservative ladies’ man and Perkins is a more liberal Modern Woman. Baco also has a hot ex-lover (Sharon Stone) waiting in the wings to swoop in at any given moment. The middle section of the movie is supposed to be sparks flying while two smart, ambitious people attempt to avoid giving in to each other’s affections, but instead it kind of falls flat. It’s not Bacon and Perkins’ fault, though.

Ironically, the fault lies with the seemingly promising premise. The way the premise is exploited in this movie is all wrong. Instead of cutting back and forth between the two characters’ differing points of view, the movie plays about half of its two hour running time from Bacon’s point of view, then after an hour switches to Perkins’ point of view, and we get to sit through it all over again. So, if you didn’t read a synopsis that explains this premise to you, you’d have a big let down at the half way point as you suddenly realize you have to sit through the movie again.

Adding to this problem is the fact that their two points of view aren’t that different, and in the moments that they are, they differ in ways that don’t really say anything about women’s and men’s differing experiences in relationships. They just differ in ways that make you wonder, “How come?” instead of saying, “Ah, ha!”

Romancefest 2018: The Thing Called Love

I was looking forward to THE THING CALLED LOVE because it’s directed by the great Peter Bogdanovich and stars the (late) great River Phoenix. It’s a 90s rom-com about a group of hopeful country musicians trying to get their big breaks in Nasvhille. By coincidence, I just happened to watch NASHVILLE at the Hollywood a couple weeks ago, so I was like, oh yeah. Nashville!

Samantha Mathis stars as a singer/songwriter from New York, trying to make it in Nashville, along with her roommate in a cheap hotel (Sandra Bullock). The two meet a couple guys also trying to break through, the rock-star-esque River Phoenix and the more humble Dermot Mulroney. The group spends their nights trying to pass auditions at local venues in the hopes they’ll get seen by someone with power (like Trisha Yearwood, who has a cameo).

The cast is great, of course, and the music is great as well. I guess the most Bogdanovich touch on display here is the way he immerses the film in a specific place and locks in on details, rather than trying to make things seem universal. This is always a strength for any film, and especially helps what otherwise might have been a paint by numbers “I wanna make it” flick.

It’s sad to see Phoenix in his final performance, because he is so good and so young. It’s sad, in a different way, to see Bullock here, because she’s totally immersed in a character and not playing Sandra Bullock: movie star. It makes me wonder what her career had been like if she had been a working character actress instead of a star.

Romancefest 2018: How Stella Got Her Groove Back

Let’s head into the 90s for Kevin Rodney Sullivan’s HOW STELLA GOT HER GROOVE BACK, based on a novel by Terry McMillan. When I had my first movie theater job, this movie was playing, and I remember being aware of the time in the film the steamy shower scene took place, and was once able to trick the projectionist into inspecting the theater just as Taye Diggs’ ass appeared on screen. At the time this seemed like a great prank but looking back I feel like the projectionist was the winner there.

Angela Bassett stars as the title character who is successful stockbroker and single mother who heads to Jamaica with her college friend (Whoopi Goldberg) for vacation. There she meets a local who is half her age (Taye Diggs) and at first reluctantly, and then enthusiastically, enters into a relationship with him.

It’s funny what you assume a movie is about before you see it. I’d seen enough of this flick to think the whole thing took place in Jamaica and was all about how Bassett is all uptight and boring but then learns how to get back in touch with her fun youthful side by dating Taye Diggs. Like, she gets her groove back.

Turns out it’s just about the difficulties of dating a dude half your age. That’s fine, it’s just not really what I thought I was signing up for. Although the movie’s probably a little longer than it needs to be, overall it’s well made, and has a likable cast (especially Goldberg) so I enjoyed watching it.

Funny side note: in the introductory scene to Whoopi Goldberg’s wacky-best-friend character, I thought, “Hey she kinda reminds me of my favorite guy, Hollywood, from MANNEQUIN.” Seconds after thinking that, Goldberg’s character arrived at work – WINDOW DRESSING A DISPLAY IN A DEPARTMENT STORE. Just like my main man.

Romancefest 2018: Mystic Pizza

Now, I know I’ve seen MYSTIC PIZZA before because I clearly remember my Dad stopping the video halfway through and suggesting we get Domino’s delivered. This was a momentous occasion because we never had pizza on the spur of the moment midway through the evening, and we never, ever got it delivered from Domino’s. That’s my only memory of the movie, though, so I’ve given it another watch.

This is the coming of age story of three waitresses at a mom and pop pizza shop in a Connecticut fishing town. Annabeth Gish stars as a high school graduate on her way to Yale who strikes up a romance with the father (William R. Moses) of the kid she’s babysitting for the summer. Her sister is played by Julia Roberts, who falls for a rich country club dude (Adam Storke). And Lili Taylor has cold feet about marrying her boyfriend (Vincent D’Onofrio).

Today the movie is probably most remembered for featuring a pre-PRETTY WOMAN performance by Julia Roberts, and she is great in the film. But, the rest of the cast is great, as well, and unlike the other two 80s flicks I just sat through, this one plays like a real slice of life and not a contrived premise.

Romancefest 2018: Mannequin

As a counterpoint to CAN’T BUY ME LOVE, here we have 1987’s MANNEQUIN, directed by Michael Gottlieb, in which an aspiring artist (Andrew McCarthy) designs a mannequin in the image of his ideal woman (Kim Cattral), and it magically comes to life and not only becomes his lover, but also his biggest cheerleader. Why? No reason, really. It’s a premise and plot with one dimensionality built in. After all, what’s more one dimensional than a mannequin?

So, now that I’ve trashed it out of the gate, I should note that the film does strike a strange, oddball, cartoonish tone that is quirkily at odds with this potentially exploitative premise. What could have easily been a raunchy T&A fest instead becomes a naïve rom-com, almost as if a dirty old man came up with the premise, and then a grade schooler wrote the screenplay. So, ultimately, I have to admit, the movie kinda sorta does have some charm.

The plot involves the competitive world of department store window dressing (yeah, right) as two big stores, one struggling and the other successful, duke it out for supremacy. The villains lined up against McCarthy are an over zealous mall security guard (G.W. Bailey), a jealous ex-girlfriend (Carole Davis), a greedy businessman (Steven Vinovich) and a sniveling corporate spy (James Spader – I guess McCarthy and Spader are contractually obligated to always appear together).

In McCarthy’s corner, though, there’s his secret weapon – Kim Cattral, the living mannequin, who for some reason is actually the latest incarnation of an immortal Egyptian princess (or something). That stuff doesn’t really matter, except that she’s served as a muse for a lot of the greatest over the millennia, and now she’s here to muse it up with McCarthy and his department store windows.

I’d like to give a special shout out to my favorite character in the film, another window dresser who teams up with McCarthy – Meshach Taylor as the perfectly named Hollywood Montrose. Topping his outrageous wardrobe with an endless succession of crazy sunglasses, Hollywood posed a conundrum for me. The character is clearly an offensive gay stereotype played just for the laughs of the presumably hetero audience, but thanks to Taylor’s performance, he’s also the funniest, most lovable and most entertaining character in the movie. So, although Taylor was tasked with using his powers for evil, they’re still great powers, and I salute him.

Romancefest 2018: Can't Buy Me Love

Now on to the 1980s for a flick I must have seen as a kid but couldn’t remember at all, CAN’T BUY ME LOVE, directed by Steve Rash. Patrick Dempsey stars as a hard working high school kid set to spend his lawn mowing money on a new telescope, only to make a deal with the hottest girl in school (Amanda Peterson) instead: he’ll pay for her to replace her mother’s dress she ruined if she pretends to be his girlfriend.

His theory? Even if it’s only for a couple weeks, this will raise his stock value among other students at the school and he’ll be able to pal around with the popular guys and date the popular girls. Of course, you know where this is heading: the two kids will actually fall for each other, but Dempsey will get a big head from being suddenly popular and almost ruin his big chance before learning his lesson.

As the movie unfolded I thought it was refreshing that although it is basically you’re standard 80s teen comedy with a lot of the same stereotypes and clichés as both the worst and best in the genre, it afforded a three dimensional character to the popular girl instead of treating her like a prop. It also allowed the sensitive “nice guy” lead to turn into a total dick instead of validating his “nice guy” attitudes. As a counterpoint, he has a best pal who’s a perfectly reasonably cool guy (Courtney Gains) who doesn’t care about who’s popular and who’s not and is just into his own interests. He’s not portrayed as overly nerdy, he’s just a regular guy.

There’s an all-too relatable scene in the middle of the film where Dempsey has taken Peterson stargazing and is too up in his own head about his plans and schemes to realize he has inadvertently romanced her to the point where she’s ready for their first kiss. Instead, he’s too wrapped up in more shallow pursuits, and although I’ve never paid a woman to pretend to date me, I must say I can identify with a guy who can’t see what’s right in front of him.

Romancefest 2018: Shampoo

I was looking forward to checking out 1975’s SHAMPOO for a few reasons: it stars Warren Beatty, features Carrie Fisher’s first on-screen performance and was directed by the great Hal Ashby.

The film takes place in the late 60s and stars Beatty as an in-demand Beverly Hills hairdresser who dreams of opening his own salon but meanwhile toils in someone else’s and spends his days and nights hopping in and out of bed with countless women, some clients. He’s dating Goldie Hawn, but she’s looking for commitment he can’t give, and things become further complicated when a potential investor in Beatty’s future dreams (Jack Warden) is also carrying on an affair with a woman Beatty’s sleeping with (Julie Christie). Meanwhile they’re all going to an Election Day party along with Warden’s wife (Lee Grant).

The movie functions partially as an examination of the loneliness of sleeping around – Beatty is so sexed up he’s exhausted and doesn’t know what to do with himself, and seemingly can’t express himself or his own worth any way other than bedding every woman he comes into contact with. The other parts of the movie have a go at socio-political satire, showing first a conservative pro-Nixon get together and then immersing Warden’s rich/conservative character into a sex/drugs/rock ‘n’ roll-fueled hippie party.

I guess this movie serves as a commentary on the harbingers of doom lingering over an era of sexual freedom and exploration and how a new era of conservatism, corruption and materialism was about to overtake the country, and uses Beatty’s relationship struggles as a specific drama to hang these bigger ideas on, but I think all that stuff is a red herring. Sure, it’s nice to have more of a real-world backdrop for your movie so it takes place in a specific time and setting, and not just in a boring vacuum, but I think the real strengths of this movie have to do with the very surface level story of Beatty trying to have his cake and eat it too and finding both options unfulfilling.

It’d be interesting to know what his character went on to do after losing almost everything in the end. More hair, I guess.

Romancefest 2018: The Three Musketeers

Before they collaborated on a couple SUPERMAN movies, European uber-producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind teamed up with UK director Richard Lester  in 1973 to make a mega production based on Alexandre Dumas’ THE THREE MUSKETEERS.

Oliver Reed, Richard Chamberlain and Frank Finlay star as the titular musketeers, with Michael York taking the lead as a new young recruit who has to prove himself. York romances a spy for the queen (Raquel Welch) while a trio of villains (Charlton Heston, Faye Dunaway and Christopher Lee) conspire to exert their power over the throne.

There’s more swashbuckling and comedy in this one than romance, though the villain’s plots and heroe’s motivations do hinge on romantic entanglements. York is great in the lead, both impudent and sincere, and Reed stands out as the only Musketeer who really has any presence or memorable moments. Lee is the best of the villains, with Heston miscast and Dunaway underused, although I’m guessing she has a bigger role in the sequel.

Most of the best moments of the film are in the first half in which York is either offended by or accidentally offends each Musketeer and Christopher Lee, and ends up in various different duels and confrontations with each of them by virtue of his plucky devotion to honor and tradition. As the plot intrigue begins to pile up, things get a little murky, but there’s lots of sword fighting and horse riding to keep viewers distracted.

The main thing is the Musketeers seem like a group of guys it’d be fun to hang out with. The adventure, romance and intrigue is just icing on the cake.

Romancefest 2018: Heaven Can Wait

Now back to the 70s for HEAVEN CAN WAIT, starring Warren Beatty and co-directed by Buck Henry and Beatty himself. This is a remake of a former Romancefest flick, HERE COMES MR. JORDAN, and a fairly faithful one, at that, substituting boxing for football but keeping almost everything else.

Beatty's a pro football player who is mistakenly taken to heaven early by a rookie angel (Buck Henry). Together with the rookie angel's boss (James Mason), the three travel back to Earth to find Beatty a suitable replacement body, landing on an eccentric conservative millionaire who is on the verge of being murdered by his wife (Dyan Cannon) and his traitorous assistant (Charles Grodin) who are having an affair.

Beatty is a more liberal guy, so when he realizes the new body he inhabits runs a corporation committing all kinds of evil, he does his best to change things for the better, if not necessarily for ideological reasons so much as a naïve, but positive, world view. It helps that he also has a crush on one of the biggest proponents of these causes, played by Julie Christie.

The rest of the plot involves Beatty's attempts to get back into football shape so he can live his dream of going to the Super Bowl, enlisting his old trainer (Jack Warden) to help, and doing surprisingly well, until fate intervenes. Luckily fate intervenes again, and the love story with Christie, the murder plot with Cannon and Grodin, and the football plot with Beatty all come together in a bittersweet but still heartwarming conclusion.

Beatty's an interesting actor because he could easily play aloof, handsome dudes who have the world handed to them and don't have time for anyone else. Instead, he tends to play against type, infusing otherwise handsome, gifted and privileged characters with a level of sincerity and even goofiness that is rare among leading men. You can see it in the way this character loves to play his saxophone – badly.

Romancefest 2018: Seven Chances

So far we've been going in roughly chronological order this Romancefest but now we're going to take a step back to the 1920s for Buster Keaton's silent comedy SEVEN CHANCES. I saw this as part of the Hollywood Theatre's great Pipe Organ Pictures series, where organist Dean Lemire performs live accompaniment for silent films using a bonafide antique organ designed specifically for movies. If you have the means to see a movie like this, I highly recommend it. It is so choice.

Keaton stars as a young partner in a brokerage firm on the verge of going broke who learns that his grandfather has left him $7 million – on the condition that he is married by 7:00 pm on his 27th birthday. And guess what? It's his 27th birthday!

Keaton first tries to marry his true love (Ruth Dwyer) but she turns him down when she finds out about the conditions. Thus begins a series of proposals, with Keaton proposing to pretty much everyone at the country club and being turned down in a series of funny rejections.

Eventually Keaton's partners put an announcement in the newspaper and all of the women in town form a mob, chasing Keaton first in deseperation to try to become his wife and then in anger after being told the whole thing's a hoax (it's not).

Apparently Keaton wasn't that into this story, but he still manages to come up with several memorable set pieces, including a climactic chase down the side of a hill as huge boulders threaten to crush him. It's a perfect romantic comedy and an example of Keaton at the height of his powers.

Romancefest 2018: The Thomas Crown Affair

I saw the Pierce Brosnan/Rene Russo remake of THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR back in the 90s when it came out, and I always meant to check out the original, but never got around to it – until now.

This 1968 heist flick from Norman Jewison is the epitome of cool. Steve McQueen stars as Thomas Crown, a millionaire who plans and pulls off the perfect crime (robbing a Boston bank) just because he feels like it.

Faye Dunaway investigates and guesses early on Crown must be behind it. But, she falls in love with the guy because he's McQueen, and he falls in love with her because she's Dunaway.

The movie uses lots of editing techniques that would have been cutting edge at the time, using lots of split screen to show actions that are going on simultaneously, which comes in handy during the heist scenes. The shapes and sizes of the split screens change and adjust throughout sequences to highlight what we should be looking at and how we should be looking at it. It's mostly successful but it's also easy to see why more movies don't do stuff like this today (or do it far more sparingly when they do). Hal Ashby, who went on to become a great director in his own right, was on the editing team.

So, if you want something romantic and sexy but also super cool, this one's for you.

Romancefest 2018: Saturday Night and Sunday Morning

So far this year's Romancefest has been mostly lighthearted fare, but now we turn to a more dramatic flick from the UK, SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING. This 1960 film was directed by Karel Reisz.

A very young Albert Finney stars as a young machinist who still lives at home and spends his hours away from work getting drunk and laid. He's having an affair with a married woman (Rachel Roberts) as the film begins, and develops a new relationship with a pretty girl (Shirley Anne Field) more his age as the story continues.

Drama ensues when Finny first knocks up Roberts and then attempts to arrange an abortion for her. His self destructive and carefree ways quickly catch up with him and he's forced into a life he doesn't particularly want, inevitably heading down the road of transforming into his parents.

The film is shot in stark black and white in realistic locations and its influences can be seen in later British flicks like QUADROPHENIA and even A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, of all things. Finney is very compelling in the lead and it is no surprise he later became a star. This is a bleak coming of age story that benefits from addressing universal themes by using a specific time and place and unique characters. That's usually a winning combination.

Romancefest 2018: Father Goose

Cary Grant goes against type as a  rough around the edges alcoholic beachcomber in FATHER GOOSE, a 1964 romantic comedy directed by Ralph Nelson. The film takes place during WW2 on islands in the southwest Pacific where the Japanese are set to invade. Grant falls ass backwards into being roped into becoming a "coast watcher" on a deserted island by the Royal Australian Navy, spotting and reporting Japanese planes and boats that come near while living in a shack in the jungle.

When Grant's sent on a mission to pick up his replacement on a nearby island, he ends up instead with his hands full with a French teacher (Leslie Caron) and the seven little girls under her care. At first he's annoyed by their presence on the island but of course he eventually comes around and even falls in love with Caron as she falls in love with him.

This is kind of a strange film because the main premise is pretty high concept – a scoundrel is forced to put up with a straight-laced teacher and her kids. But, the details around this premise are crazy. Although it makes total sense, it never occurred to me the Navy might conscript civilians to hang out alone on deserted islands so they could report the movements of Japanese planes and ships via radio. It's a great set up for this premise, because there are so many interesting details to contend with beyond just the odd couple routine.

Still, the greatest strength is Grant, and it's interesting to note that Grant said this role was closer to his real personality than all the gentlemen he played in all his other more famous rom-coms. It's fun to see him with gray stubble, chugging whiskey, trying to fix his boat and yelling at little girls.

Romancefest 2018: How to Marry a Millionaire

Let's check back in with Marilyn Monroe for Jean Negulesco's 1953 film HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE. This time, Monroe teams up with Lauren Bacall and Betty Grable. The plan: rent a ritzy penthouse – if they already have a home base among the rich, rich men will be easier to find. Right?

Not necessarily. To support themselves, the women sell more and more of the apartment's furnishings until they're living among card tables while trying to lure millionaires. Each woman has a string of affairs where there's usually something that's not quite as it seems, and eventually they all learn maybe they should marry for love instead of millions, after all.

The most fun part of this movie for me was watch Bacall in a comedic role. I’m used to seeing her as a femme fatale in noir flicks, so it's fun to watch her bounce off of the chemistry with Monroe and Grable. Of course, Bacall's the more dry and sarcastic one and the others are more bubbly and ditzy, so it's not completely against type, but still a refreshing change.

Romancefest 2018: Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

Stanley Donen's 1954 musical SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS starts off innocently enough with Howard Keel as a pioneer farmer in the mid 1800s Oregon territory. He lives on a farm with his six brothers and wants a wife, so one day he goes into town and finds one: Jane Powell as a plucky woman working in a tavern, happy to go off and marry one man instead of serving every man in town.

The innocence continues as Powell takes on the job of civilizing the other 6 brothers and teaching them the ins and outs of courting a woman. They all go into town and there's a really cool song and dance (and fight) sequence revolving around a barn raising.

Things take a turn swiftly south when the 6 brothers hatch a plot to kidnap the girls from town that they want to take as wives, then keep them up on their farm all winter as the pass is snowed over and their families and betrothed ones won't be able to get at them. Then they'll have to marry the six brothers, right? Yeesh.

Of course this isn't meant to be disturbing, it simply is anyway. To the movie's credit, as soon as Powell figures out what has happened, she scolds Keel to the point where he moves out and flees to his winter cabin, and she banishes the other brothers to the barn. To the movie's detriment, the kidnapped women do eventually fall for the brothers and everyone gets married in a "happy" ending.

Aside from the extreme sexism on display here, the movie is at least enjoyable for inventive song and dance scenes involving chopping wood and stuff like that, though the songs are not very memorable. The first half of the film, before the kidnappings, is the best stuff. It'd be an interesting exercise to try to rewrite this one without the sexism and see how it comes out.

Romancefest 2018: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Time for another Howard Hawks movie, this time 1953's GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES. Marilyn Monroe famously stars as one half of a showgirl duo rounded out by pal Jane Russell. Monroe's engaged to be married to a rich guy (Tommy Noonan) whose father does not approve. Noonan unexpectedly has to skip their cruise to Paris thanks to his disapproving father, but Monroe and Russell have to hit the seas anyway to get to their next gig. Noonan sends a private eye (Elliot Reid) on board to make sure Monroe behaves.

Once on the cruise, all kinds of wacky hijinks ensue as Monroe sets her sights on an elderly diamond magnate and Russell first goes after the entire Men's Olympics team, before getting the hots for Reid.

The movie is most famous for Monroe's performance, her pink dress, and the song "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend" and rightfully so. She's great in the movie, and funny as always, but as far as I'm concerned Russell stole the show as the wisecracking, sarcastic half of the duo, especially in her poolside, double-entendre-laden number with the Men's Olympics team, "Anyone Here for Love."

Romancefest 2018: The Clock

Here's another Judy Garland film directed by Vincente Minnelli, 1945's THE CLOCK. This time it's a straight up dramatic role for Garland without any singing or dancing. Garland stars as a working girl in New York City who runs into a soldier on leave (Robert Walker) in Penn Station on her evening commute. Walker is new to the city and wowed by everything, including Garland. They spend the afternoon together and arrange for a later date, which turns into an all-night hangout session similar to the marathon date in BEFORE SUNRISE.

However, in this case, Walker is destined to ship off to war in a couple days, so as he grows closer to Garland, their looming departure from each other becomes more and more potentially tragic. The most heart-wrenching moment in the film is when the two of them lose each other in a crowd of commuters and waste the better part of the day trying to find each other again.

It was interesting to see Walker as a young, naïve romantic lead when the only other thing I've ever seen him in is as a creepy villain in STRANGERS ON A TRAIN. He and Garland make a convincing couple and the back lot at MGM makes a convincing New York City.

The movie begins to get a little long towards the end as our two romantic leads attempt to navigate the red tape of a quick wedding, but it gets back on its feet again in time for a tear jerking and hopeful final scene.

Romancefest 2018: Meet Me in St. Louis

As obsessed as I was with THE WIZARD OF OZ growing up, you'd think I would have seen some more of Judy Garland's work over the years, but not really. So now I've finally seen 1944's MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS (directed by Vincente Minnelli), which is a pleasant musical year-in-the-life of one turn-of-the-century St. Louis family on the eve of the world's fair.

Garland stars as the teenage daughter of a lawyer (Leon Ames) and his wife (Mary Astor) who has a crush on the neighbor boy (Tom Drake) and is intent on getting his attention. Lucille Bremer plays her sister, older by one year, hoping to snag a marriage proposal. There's also a memorable performance from Margaret O'Brien as the youngest sister who gets into hijinks on Halloween.

The movie is brimming with famous songs, like the title song and "The Trolley Song," but the show-stopping moment is when Garland sings "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" to O'Brien on Christmas Eve.

Romancefest 2018: I'll Be Seeing You

Hey, it's three Ginger Rogers movies in a row and why not – it's Romancefest. In 1944's I'LL BE SEEING YOU (directed by William Dieterle) we get something a little different from Rogers – instead of singing and dancing her way across the screen, this time she stars as a woman convicted of manslaughter who is able to take a holiday leave from prison for good behavior, and travels to visit her Aunt, Uncle and younger cousin (teenage Shirley Temple).

On the train, she meets a veteran (Joseph Cotten) suffering from what we now call PTSD and the two strike up a timid romance as they try to get close to each other without revealing their secrets – Rogers that she's in prison and Cotten that he's suffering from anxiety attacks.

There's a side plot with Temple learning not to pre-judge someone in Rogers' circumstances, and overall the movie works as a sweet message-driven movie about overcoming what you perceive as your own weaknesses and allowing yourself to be loved for who you are. It helps that Cotten is a bonafide actor's actor and not just a hunky leading man.

I never see this movie listed as a Christmas movie, but it does take place over the holidays and features many Christmassy elements, so if you're ever looking for something a little different for the holidays, check this one out.

Romancefest 2018: 42nd Street

1933's 42nd STREET is a more serious take on some of the same material explored in TWENTIETH CENTURY. The two movies are both about driven Broadway producers/directors attempting to pull off the Big Show at all costs. TWENTIETH CENTURY plays it for laughs, but 42nd STREET is more of a melodrama, along with being a musical.

The film was directed by Lloyd Bacon (with Busby Berkley directing the musical numbers) and stars Warner Baxter as a stressed out Broadway director who has been financially ruined by the stock market crash. He's developing a new show with a big star (Bebe Daniels) but there's so much romantic and business intrigue among the cast and crew of the show that it's constantly on the verge of falling apart.

There's a wide array of characters and actors on hand (including Ginger Rogers again) but the most notable is probably Ruby Keeler as a rookie chorus girl who gets her big break. She also has a romance with Dick Powell as the show's "juvenile" star, and their chemistry is sweet.

Despite all the melodrama, the movie basically exists as an excuse to show the leggy dancers hanging around backstage and to showcase Berkley's dance numbers. The numbers in similar films like FOOTLIGHT PARADE and GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933 are more impressive. These ones are similarly over-produced blockbuster extravaganzas but somehow they're not quite as exciting.

Romancefest 2018: Shall We Dance

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers return to Romancefest with 1937's SHALL WE DANCE, directed by Martin Goodrich. Astaire stars as a famous ballet dancer who'd much rather be tap dancing to jazz. Meanwhile, Rogers is a successful jazz dancer looking to settle down.

The two run into each other in a series of meet cutes and misunderstandings as Astaire schemes to win her heart. They both end up on a cruise together and become tabloid sensations after it's assumed they've been secretly married.
SHALL WE DANCE is not as quite as magical as TOP HAT or SWING TIME, but it has the same light hearted charm and is worth watching for the dance scenes.

George and Ira Gershwin did the music for this one, with the cutest number being the now-famous "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off." This tune accompanies the most astounding dance sequence as Astaire and Rogers manager to tap dance seemingly effortlessly in roller skates.

Romancefest 2018: Twentieth Century

Welcome to Romancefest 2018, 28 romantic movies in 28 days. Most of them will be movies I've never seen before with maybe the occasional flick I saw a long time ago and forgot about or saw part of but never finished.

This year I'm starting with TWENTIETH CENTURY. This 1934 romantic comedy was directed by Howard Hawks and stars John Barrymore as an eccentric Broadway producer/director molding a lingerie model he's discovered (Carole Lombard) into a star.

This works too well, and the couple has a falling out after becoming romantically involved with Lombard moving to Hollywood to make it in the movies and Barrymore moving on to a string of flops without his muse. The two estranged lovers meet again on a train (the titular Twentieth Century) and much intrigue and slapstick ensues as Barrymore schemes to win Lombard back, if not as his mate, at least as his lead.

TWENTIETH CENTURY is worth a watch if only for Barrymore's manic performance. He reminded me of Gene Wilder. What with his crazy hair and pencil mustache, I began to wonder if Mel Brooks and Wilder had Barrymore in mind when they shot YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN.