More tidbits:
Holiday (again)—Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is showing one of my all-time favorite movies next week, Holiday. It’s showing at midnight on Friday, August 5, which according to their scheduling means the midnight between Friday and Saturday. But I think that’s EST so for me, it would be 11 pm on Friday. I don’t have cable, and some nice people recorded the movie for me the last time it was on, plus I’m thinking about getting the Region 2 DVD. I’ve got plenty of Holiday.
Seriously, this is a wonderful movie, much better than The Philadelphia Story. My boyfriend would argue that it is better than Bringing Up Baby, but I think that might be going a little far. Besides, the two movies are entirely different in tone—the only thing they really have in common is that they both star Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant. I’ve always preferred the Hepburn-Grant pairing to the later Hepburn-Tracy pairing.
For those of you who are wondering if I am going to push this movie at you every single time it airs on TV … yes, I am, until it is released on DVD in the United States. Sony/Columbia owns the DVD rights so I’m not holding my breath.
(The Paramount showed a lovely print of the film last year that had been restored by UCLA. I don’t know if that’s what TCM is showing, and I don’t think that’s the print they used for the UK transfer. So if you get a chance to see the restored print of Holiday in a theater, go.)
By the way, I think Holiday would make an interesting double-feature with Igby Goes Down, which shows a clip from Holiday at the beginning of the movie. You could argue that Igby Goes Down is a remake of Holiday, updated for contemporary situations. Also, it is fun to watch a movie in which Susan Sarandon is as mean as a snake.
Reel Paradise—I saw this movie at SXSW and I am happy to learn that it has found theatrical distribution. If you visit the movie’s Web site, you can find a list of the release dates for theaters in various cities. Mostly it is playing in Landmark Theaters, with staggered release dates from Aug. 17 to Nov. 6. Dobie will start showing the movie in Austin on Sept. 30.
My review of Reel Paradise from SXSW is here. This is a quite enjoyable film, especially if you are a film geek. The Piersons were at the screening I attended and John Pierson noted that he still had the keys to the Meridien 180 theater in his pocket; if anyone wanted to go over there and show movies, he’d gladly hand over the key. I had a fleeting moment of temptation. [Via the Austin American-Statesman]
4 thoughts on “reel paradise holiday”
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We were in Maine and just stopped by the Maine International Film Festival to see one film and bumped into Janet Pierson. They were showing “Reel Paradise” there. Which I thought amazing if only because Jette, us and now the Piersons all live within a few miles of each other in Austin.
I like “Reel Paradise” because of the family dynamics of the Piersons in the documentary as much as for the movie slut aspects of it.
Edward Everett Horton rocks! “Holiday” isn’t my fave Kate Hepburn film (“Bringing Up Baby” is), but I do love her chemistry with CG in it. I also love Lew Ayres, whose real life story is a little sad. All the acting is great in this one, except for the actress who plays CG’s fiancee.
Why doesn’t anyone ever have an Edward Everett Horton film festival? Hmm, I wonder if I could convince a local theater that such a film series is absolutely necessary. Top Hat, Holiday, Trouble in Paradise, Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife … and of course the 1930 Holiday too (he’s in both) if there was any way to get a print. Naturally we could show Rocky and Bullwinkle episodes beforehand.
You couldn’t get anyone to do an Edward Everett Horton festival because he was almost always the second banana. A very good one, to be sure.
Holiday does seem to be more solidly plotted than either Philadelphia Story or Bringing Up Baby — although asking a screwball comedy to be solidly plotted is kind of silly. And if you’re not terribly fond of romantic comedies generally, then Holiday will certainly seem like a better movie, simply because it isn’t a comedy. A romance with the odd funny bit, yes, but not at all a comedy. I don’t quite understand why it’s billed as a screwball comedy. How could it be, with that storyline? At the end of the day, Linda’s relationship with her family is likely irretrievably damaged — which, actually, is probably a good thing, ultimately, but not funny. Or even happy.
What I don’t get is: why did they do a remake only five years later?
My own favorite Hepburn comedy would be A Lion in Winter, but then, I like savagely pointed comedies.