debbystardust

The Cinematography plays a starring role and director David Lean delights in laying out the treasure of Venice in summer for the cinematic eye. A later Lean film Lawrence of Arabia is my favorite film and it's interesting to see similarities in the two movies: trains, impoverished boys selling cigarettes, and regret.

A relative of mine said of this film: "Katharine Hepburn is too old. It's sad." But he's totally wrong. She's an amazing protagonist. We know nothing of Jane except in the visual feast of her summer sojourn in Venice. Her athletic performance is undeniably remarkable. She falls in a canal and gracefully swims out of it without using a stunt double. Plot? There is a plot. I don't remember the details. For me, it's the visuals and the the glorious fashion of 1955. It's still the "New Look" but every stitch of clothing is a sartorial delight. This isn't just a travelogue. This is a clothes movie. "Jane's" high ponytail never wavers- but her dresses tell a different story.

Speaking of visuals, Jane's Italian paramour is a work of art. He was the actor from South Pacific, the original "Some Enchanted Evening." He brings the charm of Venice to life. And yet.... Is the couple's ill-fated flower, the gardenia, a good thing? Does it represent some post-war malady half-understood?

I enjoy tennis movies. Tennis has been a casual interest of mine since watching John McEnroe's TV tantrums when I was a child (I think tantrums are the best thing about tennis.) Although my brothers played basketball and my uncle was a professional baseball player, I was overweight with a bad leg, so I wasn't athletic in school. I've been envious of athletes, but I'm now cycling and becoming more active after getting needed vascular surgeries. I feel the envy and competition of the characters in Challengers because I've "sat on the bench" so much in my life.

Josh O'Connor was the standout performer for me, but the other two lead actors more than hold their own. The odd choice of a children's choir on the soundtrack took me out of the scene twice in the film (I kept thinking, I sang that in church, but I can't remember the lyrics and the British children were hard to understand.) The visuals in the film are often stunning, but I'm left feeling like I watched a great sports montage along with fragmented pieces of relationships. However, Challengers is more evocative and memorable than most other recent films. It's certainly better than the Paul Bettany film Wimbledon.

For years, I've seen the "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore" clip from Network. I had high expectations. But, I watched another film by Network's screenwriter, Paddy. Chayefsky, called The Hospital before finally watching Network. I can't help but wonder if George C. Scott, the star from the earlier film, would have played Peter Finch's role had he not burned his bridges with the writer by feuding with him on set. It's hard to see a role with an angry, screaming mad man and not see Scott as the actor for it. Yes... I think it might have been a better film with Scott. But Finch, obviously, has the role of his life here and performs the hell out of it.

There were moments when I was distracted by Chayefsky's writing. I knew Faye Dunaway was a love interest for the much older William Holden as soon as she steps foot into his office. But at least her character is a career woman on equal footing with Holden and not a patient relative with the head of the hospital like in the Scott film. And, it's William Holden. Somehow, the shadow of his younger self makes the pairing believable. At times, Holden's character Max serves as a walking thesaurus. I learned new words from this film. And I love Victorian novels so that's saying something. Chayefsky's calling cards are obscure language, inconvenient May/December romance, and black power background characters judging from the Network and The Hospital. And the actors playing the revolutionaries given a stage on television are so good that I want to spend more time with them at points in the movie. The actress gives such humanity to her misguided character that you wonder if she could have really made it in life if she hadn't met that Ahmed guy.

I should give a plot summary, but I'd rather not spoil anything for a first time viewer. Definitely a must see but it kind of implodes by the end... kind of like the whole network and Howard's life.