Breathless

Our Prof in Law & Lit scoffed at us for our general dislike of The Trial, but I think he fails to understand the word "like." There were aspects I disliked (the treatment of women seems dubious), but that doesn't deny its many aspects of brilliance. This led to a rather heated discussion on the subway home last night - oh, how our fellow passengers must have loved us.

K could not breathe within the legal system. It corrupts, overwhelms, destroys us so much that it denies our basic functions. The lack of air is something that Lumet uses in to great effect in The Verdict - Frank Galvin is constantly out of breath, running up and down stairs. The presence of law makes everyone unhealthy - the lawyer, Galvin, and the client, K. The extent of the physical deterioration is evident, as the court officials in the tenement cannot breathe properly outside its doors. Even the Court portrait painter chooses to live without air.

Of course, this fundamental physical corruption indicates erosion of the soul and morals. Even the priest is in on it, part of the system both in employment and his behaviour: he tricks K into meeting him, rather than arranging it directly. And the church - albeit on a Thursday morning - is cavernously empty, in comparison to every court or legal proceeding K goes to, teeming with people. We've abandoned God for bureaucracy, for procedures. Even the days indicate that - a mobbed court on a Sunday, empty cathedral on a Thurdsay.

Apparently, this is what being a lawyer does to you. Can't wait!

Horses and Happenings

This weekend has been a monumental one for the viewing of classic movies. Hence the jumbled list of labels for this post below. I watched: Network; The Talk of the Town; It Happened One Night; and, finally in full, The Godfather.

I'm not going to go indepth about these, but I stumbled upon a couple of things that made me think / leap for joy / pause etc.... that is, I reacted to them and wish to share them with you.

1. TCM on Demand is a simply glorious addition to my life! That's how I watched both The Talk of the Town and It Happened One Night. It's not TCM on Demand, per se, but Free Movies on Demand, which has free Sundance and TCM and something else... absolutely phenomenal and a resource I shall exploit further, particularly when it's a cold, miserable afternoon in winter and I need warming up spiritually. See (2) below for more...
   
2. The Talk of the Town is not a "classic" in the sense of the others, but I'm a sucker for anything with Cary Grant in it. I realised that I will watch a romcom of old, but nothing made in the last thirty years with that description unless someone gives me a compelling reason to (gun against head, torture of my cats, etc.). I think it's because those romcoms were actually a) romatic and b) funny, thus fulfilling the "com" part of it. Sharp, witty, funny, they treated it as serious business, by and large, and the classic ones had glorious scripts - where women may have had stereotyped roles but were fast and funny and smart. Doesn't really describe "Good Luck, Chuck", now does it?
   This movie was also interesting for its depiction of a man who knows what's just (Grant's character, on trial for arson & murder he did not commit), and the law professor who sits stuffily in his room but is about to be appointed to the Supreme Court. We've been studying the lawyer and the moral attorney / person, but the law professor and the law propagated there hasn't been touched upon, and I think there's a wealth of stuff there - are they complicit? Completely, Thane would say, but I think it's an interesting question, possibly to be further studied by yours truly.
3. The Godfather was much better than when I was fifteen; while it was not the best movie I've ever seen, I could at least see something of what others see in it. Again, the opening scene is interesting, because Buonasera talks of how the sentencing of his daughter's attackers, rather than giving him relief, humiliated him. He put faith in "being American," abiding by the rules, going through the system, and it failed him. That wasn't justice. So he has to go outside the law to do so. You wonder what would have satisfied him, but presumably jailtime, and he wouldn't have felt the need to come to the Don. Michael's gradual hardening is horrific to watch. If only every time the music came on when he was in Sicily I hadn't thought of the Colin Corleone sketch from the Glam Metal Detectives...* Nonetheless, it was excellent and I didn't fall asleep once - which, for me in a three-hour movie watched on my sofa on a Sunday night, is not guaranteed.
4. Network was extremely, unexpectedly, funny, and Faye Dunaway is my new heroine - she was extraordinary in this movie. Bonnie & Clyde here we come!
   

* After the beginning "titles," go straight to about 4:30 and hear more of the music... gargling seems to work extremely effectively.