Chip Kaufmann’s Pick:

Love (1927)

With the latest incarnation of Anna Karenina starring Keira Knightley having just having hit the big screen (see review this issue), I thought I would recommend my second favorite version of the story which is the 1927 silent film starring Greta Garbo and John Gilbert.

It was recently restored as part of an ongoing TCM project and released through the Warner Archive Series. It has the added bonus of having a brand new soundtrack that matches the action and that the DVD was taken from a screening at UCLA before a live audience who react to the proceedings showcasing what it is like to attend a silent movie screening

Even though Garbo would do the sound remake of the film 8 years later, she was never lovelier than she was here at the ripe old age of 22. Her co-star John Gilbert (who was 7 years older) had fallen madly in love with her during their previous film together. Their obvious affection for each other shows through every frame and makes them the ideal Anna and Vronsky because here real life was mirroring the fictional story. This also necessitated a title change so the marquee could read “John Gilbert & Greta Garbo in LOVE.

Today the most celebrated aspect of this film is the way it ends. MGM shot two different endings, one for Europe and one for America. It appears that only the American ending survives. I won’t tell you what it is but if you are familiar with the book then it will come as a surprise. However the ending is right in keeping with the Holiday season. Love is available only as a DVD-R but it can be obtained locally from Rosebud Video or from Orbit DVD in West Asheville.

Michelle Keenan’s Pick:

Love Actually (2003)

When I think about movies to watch at Christmastime, I tend to favor more classic holiday fare, but if you prefer something more contemporary, Love Actually might be the ideal holiday pick. Love Actually is written and directed by Richard Curtis and stars a cast of who’s who in current British cinema.

The film tells the stories of eight (or maybe it’s ten) loosely related and inter-related couples in the month leading up to Christmas. Here’s just a few of the highlights: Liam Neeson is recent widower and now single father to his young stepson (Thomas Sangster). Emma Thompson is a housewife and mum who suspects her husband, Alan Rickman, is cheating on her with his secretary. Colin Firth is a best-selling author, who retreats to the French countryside to work on his latest novel and nurse a broken heart. Billy Nighy is an aging rockstar and former drug addict who’s trying to make it to the top of the pop charts (and beat a young boy band) with a Christmas song, and last but not least, Hugh Grant is the newly elected Prime Minister who finds himself utterly distracted by a member of his household staff.

With so many plots and sub plots, we’ve got about twenty characters to follow. It sounds like it would be a train wreck, and in many hands it would be, but it’s not. Love Actually is a true delight. It opens and closes with Hugh Grant’s narrative and a fantastic, ever growing collage of real-life footage of loved ones meeting loved ones off the plane at Heathrow International Airport. The opening narrative combined with the images sets the tone for the whole film. Every character is in pursuit of love in one form in another. Couched with genuine comedy and heart, the film smartly fires on all cylinders and has a surprising universal appeal.

In addition to the actors mentioned above the cast also includes Rowan Atkinson, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Gregor Fisher, Martin Freeman, Keira Knightley, Andrew Lincoln, Kris Marshall, Martine McCutcheon, Lucia Moniz, Rodrigo Santoro, and Billy Bob Thornton. Love Actually marked Richard Wright’s directorial debut. Known previously as the writer of Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, this was a fitting [if not over due] debut.

Even at this hectic time of year, love actually is all around us. Rent it and enjoy a respite from the season.