I think it’s rained every day so far this May. This is not translating into movie viewing; there is also baseball, serial-killer documentaries, and *eek* the Eurovision Song Contest.
Sunshine Follows Rain (1946)
Netflix, Swedish with English subtitles
I am increasingly fascinated by how titles are so different in different languages. The Sweden and US titles are Sunshine Follows Rain, which not only sounds like Scandi “old farmer’s wisdom”, is also the refrain of a song sung by a lead character in the film, and succinctly describes the arc of the story. The UK title–which is the one Netflix chose to give me–is “Rain Follows the Dew”, which doesn’t make sense meteorologically or in the context of the story.
The German title is Das Mädchen vom Germundshof, The Girl from Germund’s Farm, because somehow in post-occupation West Germany (1952 release) “this is a story about a girl with a farm” is going to sell more tickets than “this is a story about people finding joy* after years of pain”. Like I said: fascinating.
Anyway, it’s a rural historical love story, young lovers forced to choose between duty to family and love for each other, so they run off together. But the ending is happier than most. Beautiful scenery, and interesting clothes and furniture (you know me; I’m here for the costumes).
pump it up
Soylent Green (1973)
Cable, original English
German title: Jahr 2022… die überleben wollen: Year 2022…they want to survive. I’m still hoping next year I will be allowed to do more than sit at home and watch movies…a lot of it looked familiar, though.
The rich women’s clothes were all terrible. (The starving homeless women’s clothes were also terrible, but that’s not particularly unexpected.)
This is the second time this year I have had said “Hey, that looks like Dick Van Patten!” and Mr Radish has asked “Who is Dick Van Patten?” so now I have to chase down all the movies with Dick Van Patten.
The Beguiled (2017)
Arte, auf Deutsch
So now I have to chase down the 1971 Clint Eastwood film adapted from the same novel…
I was absolutely not expecting the ending (which I think was factually wrong) and also not convinced about some of the costuming choices. But it was a good use of an evening.
Osceola (1971)
MDR, original Deutsch
Another East (Soviet) German “western”, if you can consider a movie about the Seminoles of Florida a western. I chose to view this movie because I really like other movies with Gojko Mitic, and he plays the title character, but he has less screen time than other main characters. At least he wrestled an alligator in the second act, while saving the life of an escape slave (played by a man who has no other film credits, which is sad because if he was in other movies from DEFA I would go chase them down).
Warning to Americans of a sensitive disposition: The bad white farmers *constantly* use The Forbidden N-Word. In English, even as all the other dialog is in German. The good white sawmill owner and the Seminoles use the “considered polite at the time but now you’ll get shitstormed” Other N-Word, in German. As a character-illustrating film device it managed to be both subtle and ham-handed at the same time, and I found myself wondering if contemporary Soviet-bloc audiences caught the word choices.
Costumes…the ladieswear spanned at least six decades. Also there is no way in hell saloon girls would be invited to dine with proper ladies on a plantation in 1835! Scenery…the movie was partially but not entirely filmed in Cuba (easier than flying fifty black people to Bulgaria), so the vegetation was distractingly schizophrenic. Iurie Darie, playing the tragic hero Richard Moore, has one of the worst hair dye jobs I have ever seen on a man in a leading role. There are some nice explosions at the end, which was otherwise unsatisfying. It’s a not a well-made movie. But now I am curious to learn more about the real history of the Seminoles, and the Africans they absorbed into their tribe in this timeframe.
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