#58
Post
by Scharphedin2 » Thu Nov 30, 2006 10:18 am
First, kudos to SncDthMnky for a moving post on how this film affected him.
It is a film almost designed to make the viewer examine his or her own life. What particularly moved me was the rhythm and repetition: the birthdays/anniversaries that open each new sequence of the film; the events in the lives of the characters that recur with variations in each generation; the simple, inescapable pattern that death follows birth. And, I agree with zedz on the part that it is all so light and elegant, the way Lubitsch achieves this that it probably does not stirke most viewers to begin with that the patterns will continue, and that, while the individual vignettes making up the body of the film are humorous, the sum total is tragic. Of course, Lubitsch manages to have his cake and eat it too at the very end, and I for one could not help but love him for it.
I think I am not spoiling anything, if I mention that one of the "chapters" in the film closes with a dance, and as the camera cranes up, there is a single line of voice-over that is very matter-of-fact and not too much of a surprise, but at the same time it is devastating, again because of the pang of recognition that anybody watching the film will have. Everyone, in one way or another, will be able to look back on life, and think of a particular moment, maybe not too significant in itself, but which in hindsight will take on much greater meaning, and this is what Lubitsch captures so movingly in this particular scene.
In closing this post with a comment on the comedy, I award Eugene Pallette the prize for greatest comedic actor of breakfast scenes. There is in Preston Sturges' The Lady Eve a scene, wherein Pallette -- as the "emperor" of an ale empire and choleric father to the bumpling Henry Fonda character -- comes downstairs in his mansion, positions himself at the breakfast table, and discovers that while the table is set as usual, no breakfast has been prepared. He rings his bell for the servants, but, alas, they are all far too busy preparing the household for a big dinner party that has been arranged to present the European niece (Barbara Stanwyck in a turn of events too complicated to go into here) of a neighbor to society. Sturges shows us all the frantic and hilarious activities of the servants, cutting back several times to Pallette, as he is getting more and more agitated, finally banging the silver covers of his plates together and against the tabletop like cymbals in a desperate plea for attention and service.
Now, halfway through Heaven Can Wait, Lubitsch takes us into the diningroom of Tierney's parents, as they "meet" at their twenty foot diningroom table for breakfast. Her father is played by none other than Eugene Pallette, and he is again a growling, ornery patriarch and beef tycoon, whose greatest concern is to read the funny papers on this particular Sunday morning. At the other end of the table Marjorie Main has already taken her place at the table, and, yes, she has got the section with the funnies. At this point I knew that I would not soon forget this film, and, clearly Eugene Pallette has entered my personal all-star stock company, as the king of breakfast table scenes.