Will There Be Any Stars In My Crown?

[poliphilo]

I've got a birthday coming up. It's not a round figure one, so I'm not making a deal of fuss. Actually, even if it was a round figure one I'd want to keep things low-key. Once you're past 50 the only birthday that's worth jumping up and down about is your 100th.

I used to take my body for granted. Now I'm acutely aware of its frailty.

And its unreality.

So what is it? A column of water stiffened with carbon and calcium and other elements. Or, as Webster put it, "a little crudded milk, fantastical puff-paste."

It ain't me.

(Babe)

It's this thing I'm using while I work my passage through this heavy dimension. It's like a space suit or a diving suit. If I'm lucky it has another 20 or 30 years wear in it.

We'll see. But every birthday brings it closer to systems failure and the awfully big adventure.

Detachment, that's the thing to be working at when you get past 50. I like it here, but I'm hoping they won't have to pry my fingers loose at the end.

I had a flying dream last night. I said, "look, this is how it's done," spread my arms like dicky-bird wings and took off for the ceiling.

Can't do it now, but one day maybe.

Something to look forward to.

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

No. I watched Torn Curtain last night- a movie I tried very hard to like, but without much success.
Hitch wanted Shirley Maclaine, but the Studio insisted on Julie Andrews and he gave way- a terrible mistake. Julie's character is supposed to be a passionate pilgrim and she plays it as little Miss Nice.

Paul Newman is pretty dreadful too.

So I will prioritize Rope. It's there on the shelf
along with all the other movies we bought in a frenzy of Hitch-mania. I guess I'm moving it to the head of the queue.

[butterscotch711.livejournal.com]

I haven't actually seen 'Torn Curtain', how naughty of me.

Hope I didn't spoil Rope by pushing my interpretation of it! You should enjoy it.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I watched it this afternoon. Your thesis deepened my enjoyment.

But I prefer Strangers on a Train. Rope, for me, is a remarkable experiment that doesn't quite work. I can't, with the best will in the world, accept Jimmy Stewart as a gay sophisticate.

But it was brave of him to try. I understand (from the commentary) that Cary Grant was Hitch's first choice, but he turned it down because he didn't want to be associated with "it".

[butterscotch711.livejournal.com]

I fell in love with Rope first, so I kind of have a thing for it. And yes, Jimmy Stewart... His machoness does make for some ironic possibilities though. But it would have been a thing to see Cary Grant in the role. Montgomery Clift was also supposed to play Brandon, and also didn't want to be associated with 'it', but I thought the casting for Brandon and Phillip was excellent as it was.

One piece of trivia I always find intriguing about Rope is that while the cameras weren't rolling the rest of the cast treated the woman playing Mrs Wilson like she was actually a maid, and mostly ignored her. So rude and unthinking!

I think Strangers on a Train has more of a contemporary appeal, too, because it depicts a world where Bruno can get around comfortably enough being gay and Guy can be a big macho tennis player-turned-politician in his world and not be particularly bothered by Bruno, until their paths cross, and suddenly Guy is associated with 'it' (amongst other things) and becomes consumed with guilt and secrecy. Today, as a male celebrity, Guy would already be dogged with gay rumours, and if I were doing a remake I'd play on that...although Hitchcock loved his innocent-men-wrongly-accused to get wrongly-accused all at once during the movie in a big trippy onslaught of Catholic guilt.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Clift would have been good.

Ailz and I were talking about who we'd most like to have seen in Stewart's role and she suggested James Mason. Ah, yes!

Poor Mrs Wilson. Actually I think she gives what is probably the best performance in the film.

Both films gain some of their charge from "it" being unmentionable. If they were remade today you'd lose that dimension, but maybe gain others.

I'd love to see a contemporary movie about a gay star who tries to pass as straight.