Chip Kaufmann’s Pick:
Cavalcade (1933)
Noel Coward’s Cavalcade was a huge success in its day. It can easily be seen as the precursor to Upstairs, Downstairs and other iconic BBC shows that followed in its wake. The storyline focuses on two families. Robert and Jane Marryot (Clive Brook and Diana Wynyard) live in a posh London townhouse presided over by servants Alfred and Ellen Bridges (Herbert Mundin and Una O’Connor). The Marryots have two sons while the Bridges have a daughter.
The film opens in 1899 with Robert and Alfred going off to fight in the Boer War. After the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, the Bridges leave and open a pub and things start to go downhill for them from there. Robert is later knighted for his military service but shortly thereafter a tragic event occurs. And so it goes. We see a series of vignettes of both families over the next 30 years ending the year the film was made, 1933.
While parts of the film are very theatrical by today’s standards, it must be remembered that this is a very British film from a very British author. It is also remarkably anti-war as well as nostalgic for the passing of the Victorian and Edwardian eras. Cavalcade’s pacifist message impressed audiences in 1933 and explains why it disappeared for so many years after World War II broke out. It is the last Best Picture Oscar winner to make it to DVD. If you’re interested in tracing the roots of shows like Downton Abbey, this is where you start.
Michelle Keenan’s Pick:
About Time (2013)
With February being the month of that arrow-slinging, winged baby, I figured something for Valentine’s Day would be in order. Rather than pick a classic, I picked a film that few people saw when it was out in the theatres, just a couple of months ago.
Romantic comedy is a much maligned genre and with good reason. In contemporary cinema, if Richard Curtis isn’t at the helm of the typewriter, it generally isn’t good. With Notting Hill and the film adaptation of Bridget Jones among his writing credits, Love Actually and Pirate Radio among writing and directing credits, we are quite simply spoiled. Last year Curtis gave us About Time, the story of a romantically challenged young man who learns on his 21st birthday that the men in his family have the gift of time travel.
Yes it’s a little outlandish, but they keep it pretty simple with the caveat that their ability for time travel is confined to their own lives. Like so many stories involving time travel, you have to just take it at face value; if you can’t do that, stop reading now, About Time isn’t for you.
Domnhall Gleeson (son of Brendan Gleeson) is Tim, a likeable, gangly young man who yearns not just for female companionship but love. Like Hugh Grant in Notting Hill and Love Actually, Gleeson is also the narrative voice, and as with Hugh Grant, it’s part of what draws us to him and to the story.
When Tim’s father, played by the always great Bill Nighy, tells him about his gift for time travel, Tim decides he will use that gift for the purposes of love. So when he meets the girl of his dreams, he very easily can correct any misstep on the path of love by going back in time to the point of error and – fix it. That girl is Mary, played by Rachel McAdams.
As with all Richard Curtis films the warmth of the relationships and the humanity within the story sets it apart from others. In this case Tim has a wonderful rapport with his family and his relationship with his father is one of the film’s greatest strengths.
About Time is not perfect, but it’s awfully wonderful. Enjoy with your Valentine or your lonely heart.
