Mad Men – “Shoot”, originally uploaded by moley75.
January Jones as Betty Draper in an iconic scene from episode 9 of season 1 when she takes her son’s bb gun and shoots at pigeons.
I photographed these off the telly. More of the same can be found on Flickr.
Mad Men – “Shoot”
There were two particularly outstanding moments in an episode packed with them.
Pete losing it was gasp-worthy. Just why he loses is unclear, it was either for him or for Peggy or just because he had heard too much. It may be a turning point for his character because otherwise he is a cowardly creep who likes humiliating his secretary and hides behind someone else when he thinks he’s in trouble.
The other remarkable scene was the sight of Betty in her negligee, cigarette in mouth impassively shooting at (and deliberately missing?) pigeons and it was an awesome end to an awesome episode.
The pigeons weren’t a subtle metaphor – they are in a box, they fly around a bit and then go back in the box – and Betty is as wounded as the one that Polly caught. Still the metaphor worked: maybe because Betty is shooting at the pigeons, they might stay away; maybe that’s the next step, leaving the box and not coming back; maybe she was suggesting to them that being dead is better than being in a box; or maybe Betty is replying in kind to her neighbour – those pigeons were flying over her yard after all.
Elisabeth Moss looks pregnant to me and since I don’t think (and hope) that the programme makers are suggesting that her character is unknowingly pregnant I think her weight gain is a Jane Leeves/fat Daphne ploy.
I love that the ad men are sometimes utterly clueless. Sal’s remarks about Jackie O (I mean K) may seem knowing to us but I think many people did think she would be unpopular because we women cannot stand any other women who are more glamorous than us and have married well (and can speak Spanish).
Don is a better husband when he doesn’t have a mistress and I was surprised that many people thought he deliberately sabotaged Betty’s modelling when it seemed to me that he was happy to let her try. His decision to stay at Sterling Cooper was in part (along with a host of other reasons) because he hated his wife being used as a bribe.
This show is tremendously complex and I appreciate that Betty’s behaviour, Don’s motives, Pete’s feelings, or Peggy’s attitude can’t simply be summed up in one or two ways.
I haven’t even mentioned Peggy and Joan’s confrontation. Gosh, this is an episode I would really like to watch again.
Gone (David Fury)
Oh dear, three duds in a row. I have very little to say about this episode that can be construed as positive. I don’t actively dislike it the way I detest “Dead Man’s Party” and this is mainly because I can’t bring myself to care that much. Willow’s hair was nice (though the cardigan/coat thing wasn’t so much) and the invisible fight and, erm, the revealing of the Trio was fun.
The invisible sex scene was shorter than my still curled toes remember but I could have done without the ear nibbling. [Interestingly Marti Noxon wasn't keen on the concept of invisible sex but Joss Whedon and David Fury were which makes me have kinder thoughts towards MN.] Buffy is outrageously disrespectful to Xander when she does that. The social worker’s humiliation was excruciating particularly since she hadn’t behaved at all unreasonably at the Summers’ house.
Which brings me to Spike. There is something visceral (thanks Charles) about him that provokes disgust in me. He looks like he stinks of cigarettes and alcohol like a bus station tramp and, as I have mentioned before, his body is too well-defined and just reminds me of a cadaver (which is highly appropriate I suppose). I didn’t realise until these last three episodes that I disliked Spike at all. I certainly liked him a lot in season 4.
Anyway, we learn that an uninhibited Buffy is a selfish Buffy, that Warren is the evil one of the Trio and that you can see the wires operating the social worker’s keyboard when Buffy was being hilarious in her office in the widescreen version.
This season is at its nadir with this episode though it barely picks off the bottom with the forthcoming “Doublemeat Palace” (I actually remember that more fondly than “Beer Bad” so we’ll see how it goes…) and there is still “As You Were” to come.
* Oh dear, I’m quoting Andrew which means the best quote was from the Trio.
Mr Deeds Goes to Town
Frank Capra was a genius. I have no idea how he managed it but every sentimental, corny, mushy, unlikely scene in this film just wasn’t.
The dialogue (by Robert Riskin), acting and casting certainly helped. The film overcomes its abrupt changes in direction with charm and verve.
I love Jean Arthur. She makes me laugh (I know she is supposed to but it doesn’t always work out that way) and her cracked voice gives her dramatic scenes extra poignancy. The hard-boiled but actually quite squodgy girl reporter was a thirties standby but she played it so well. The rope and coin tricks were quietly funny. When she drops the coin and had to get on her knees to search for it, I was reminded of the piggybank scene in Easy Living. This excerpt from Ray Carney’s American Vision: The Films of Frank Capra talks about Arthur’s performance in the film and has a fascinating take on the dropped coin incident.
I’m not a fan of Gary Cooper. I can’t think of another of his films that I have particularly liked but I do like him in this particularly when he was untidy. I liked the fact that Longfellow rang up Babe to confirm the truth of the story rather than relying on secondhand news: that happens too often in films and on TV.
Lionel Stander was super as the strong-arm who was the first to recognise Longfellow’s merits. The two old ladies (Margaret Seddon and Margaret McWade) were hilarious and I really liked John Wray’s affecting performance as the farmer.
There is a huge problem with this film that stops it from being completely enjoyable. Why is Longfellow so violent? Thumping people was not the answer to any of the problems he faced and his powerful words at the hearing amply demonstrate this.
Nice photography too:
Mad Men - “The Hobo Code”
Mad Men has surprised me. I was prepared for the setting in the privileged world of Madison Avenue to annoy me and I thought based on the hubbub before and during its first broadcast on BBC Two that it would be unbearably sexist. Like I said before, it does portray sexism (as well as racism and anti-Semitism) but that doesn’t mean it condones it.
The setting is perfect because it is all about selling dreams, telling lies, hiding the truth, and maintaining the lucrative status quo. And, of course, the setting is the background while the focus is on how people are.
I love that a drama can pulls you in and make you gasp as you watch people talk. I felt as breathless as if watching an action sequence while Elliott and Sal ate dinner and talked.
I think it is a tremendous series. My other favourite current series is Battlestar Galactica but I think this is better in that I feel it understands its own direction better than BSG and the characters behave more consistently (admittedly, after half a series I think BSG’s characters weren’t messed up too much). I like its moral greyness and its lack of simplicity while at the same time it isn’t obscure. It is so well written
I find I problematic that I don’t really like anybody. Just when I thought I had found my one character to cling to she has sex with Pete in his see-through office or she keeps going on about her daughter being fat or she isn’t in every episode or, …
I don’t know why Peggy cares about Pete but I do believe in their relationship. His jealous behaviour is consistent with his character and the fact that she still looks to see if he looks her way is consistent with her character. If I am disappointed with how a character behaves then that’s just like real life.
I wish they would stop Don from being so clever and witty and giving him the best lines. If they show any more of his miserable childhood then maybe he will become my character and I’ll have to ignore the mistreatment of his wife and his philandering.
Tootsie
I haven’t seen this film in years but I have seen it several times as I realised when I watched it on DVD and found myself anticipating many of the scenes and the funny moments and lines. It has aged quite well and I actually like Bill Murray this time. Dustin Hoffman is utterly fantastic as Michael Dorsey and Dorothy Michaels. However, it is too long, I found it a bit boring in parts and the music and songs were…dated.
The film examines gender roles and expectations but fails to maintain consistency. Many of the problems that women face were picked up but then left dangling. This is most notable in the case of Sandy who is treated thoughtlessly, dishonestly and carelessly but is not given any closure. How are we supposed to believe Michael will behave better towards Julie (“but I was a better man with you, as a woman than I ever was with a woman, as a man”) when we have seen how he treated Sandy while he was busy being this wonderful man as Dorothy? He even sleeps with Sandy because he would rather do that than tell her the truth.
Revolting predatory behaviour by an elderly male actor is portrayed as commonplace sexual harassment and the step-up to rape is seen as a natural progression. I believe that we are still supposed to think that John Van Horn is not unequivocally repulsive but amusingly and misguidedly mistaken.
Another thing that irritated me was that Julie’s father got an apology from Michael while Sandy got nothing and, not only that, he got to moan about how he could have done without the dancing when it was he who had forced Dorothy to dance with him.
Finally, Dorothy was lucky to get away with so much ad-libbing in the hectic world of soap opera and I love how there was not a writer to be seen anywhere near the studio.
Madeleine
As you would expect this is an impeccably made film by a true great. However, the other British great, Alfred Hitchcock possibly might have made a more involving film.
Ann Todd was icy as Madeleine. Actually what I mean is that icy Ann Todd played Madeleine and that cold centre of the film made it all rather mechanical. I did like the unequivocal ending with her face giving it away.
I’ve just realised Ann Todd was in The Paradine Case so maybe Hitchcock might not have improved this.
There was one outstanding scene when Madeleine persuades Emile to dance. She twirls, he gradually gets into the rhythm (stick and all) and soon they are dancing as uninhibitedly as the villagers in the valley below, and this scene is incredibly sexy. Seriously, I don’t think I have seen a dance scene that was quite so effective before.
Fitzcarraldo
We made Adam watch this by telling him it was about a man who drags a boat over a hill. That is true, of course, but we hadn’t bargained on approximately an hour of film before he even gets his boat. Once it got going and Claudia Cardinale’s disturbing dubbed breathlessness was left behind this became compelling viewing.
Kinski made have been bonkers but I reckon Herzog isn’t too normal either. Not that I’m complaining when people make films on such unlikely subjects and take me to places and eras I’m never going to experience and make fantastic and magical films.
House of Games
This is a stupid film and Professor Maggie Walsh, I mean, Professor Margaret Ford is stupid for the majority of it.
Lindsay Crouse’s performance is wooden and unemotional but I have less of a problem with that now than I did when I saw this in the cinema on its first release. She is just a strange actress and she is, at least, better than Rebecca Pidgeon. I’m not sure what to make of the practice of directors casting their wives in films: it often leads to strange and uncomfortable dynamics.
I like Margaret’s revenge and I do dispute Mike’s assertion that he never hurt anyone. I think humiliation comes extremely close to hurt.
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