I went to see The Shop around the Corner (1940) at the nearby microcinema on Christmas Day with bink & Maura.
Have you seen it?
What a satisfying movie! Funny and smart, and even sort of subterraneously sexy. It's a romantic comedy of miscommunication between coworkers who like each other, . . . but the woman acts like she doesn't. The coworkers are played by Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan--they are really great together.
Meanwhile, unknowingly they are falling in love with each other through the anonymous exchange of letters.
I'm a little miffed I didn't know this movie is so good--it's set at Christmas and I'd have been watching it every year.
You've Got Mail is the 1998 remake. It's such a shame that Mail replaced the original unbelievable Macguffin (the basically unimportant explanation of why the woman acts as if she doesn't like the man) with such a clunker.
In the original, the young woman naively thinks being catty is a way women attract men's interest. (Barely believable--I can see why You've Got Mail replaced it.)
Mail's reason is believable, but it's terrible:
The woman (Meg Ryan) is attracted to the man (Tom Hanks), but she's mean to him because he's driving her indie bookstore out of business.
When the Mail couple finally realize they've fallen in love via email, you're left thinking, yeah, but Tom Hanks's character IS a jerk.
Jimmy Stewart's isn't. (Margaret Sullavan has acted like a jerk, but she acknowledges she was wrong, and it's not too late to right it.)
I had a couple days of misfiring communications myself. If I believed in astrology, I'd think some stars got their wires crossed. Conversations about things got blown weirdly way out of proportion.
A dear old friend and I almost broke up over... Danish socialism?
Really???
And HouseMate and I had a misunderstanding about. . . energy efficient light bulbs?
What?!
Luckily a couple intense, good conversations righted both connections.
Come to think of it, I had some easy and excellent connections too, including blog friend Kirsten sending the girlettes a box of fabric scraps and beads and other geegaws. They loved it! They will bring them to the Firebird costume design session with sister & bink in a couple weeks.
Here at a coffee shop, Minnie has wrapped herself in cut velvet and is sorting through a bag of beads.
Have you seen it?
What a satisfying movie! Funny and smart, and even sort of subterraneously sexy. It's a romantic comedy of miscommunication between coworkers who like each other, . . . but the woman acts like she doesn't. The coworkers are played by Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan--they are really great together.
I'm a little miffed I didn't know this movie is so good--it's set at Christmas and I'd have been watching it every year.
You've Got Mail is the 1998 remake. It's such a shame that Mail replaced the original unbelievable Macguffin (the basically unimportant explanation of why the woman acts as if she doesn't like the man) with such a clunker.
In the original, the young woman naively thinks being catty is a way women attract men's interest. (Barely believable--I can see why You've Got Mail replaced it.)
Mail's reason is believable, but it's terrible:
The woman (Meg Ryan) is attracted to the man (Tom Hanks), but she's mean to him because he's driving her indie bookstore out of business.
When the Mail couple finally realize they've fallen in love via email, you're left thinking, yeah, but Tom Hanks's character IS a jerk.
Jimmy Stewart's isn't. (Margaret Sullavan has acted like a jerk, but she acknowledges she was wrong, and it's not too late to right it.)
I had a couple days of misfiring communications myself. If I believed in astrology, I'd think some stars got their wires crossed. Conversations about things got blown weirdly way out of proportion.
A dear old friend and I almost broke up over... Danish socialism?
Really???
And HouseMate and I had a misunderstanding about. . . energy efficient light bulbs?
What?!
Luckily a couple intense, good conversations righted both connections.
Come to think of it, I had some easy and excellent connections too, including blog friend Kirsten sending the girlettes a box of fabric scraps and beads and other geegaws. They loved it! They will bring them to the Firebird costume design session with sister & bink in a couple weeks.
Here at a coffee shop, Minnie has wrapped herself in cut velvet and is sorting through a bag of beads.
That’s the Lubitsch touch. You might also like Trouble in Paradise.
ReplyDeleteJoe Fox never saw Amazon coming. What might be doing now?
Well, at least you corrected the miscommunications. I saw "You've Got Mail" YEARS ago -- don't remember much about it -- but I've never seen "The Shop Around the Corner." I'll have to remedy that!
ReplyDeleteMICHAEL: Yes, Joe Fox got his commupance. Many new indie bookstores are opening--perhaps he and Meg Ryan's character have reopened hers!
ReplyDeleteThe microcinema was having a Lubitsch series in December! I was sick and missed "Trouble in Paradise" but saw "Design for Living", "Ninotchka", (had seen them both but not for years) and "To Be or Not to Be" --wonderful stuff!
STEVE: Yes, thank goodness my friends and I hung in there and kept talking... Would be so easy to go off in a flounce!
I hope you like Shop around the Corner!
That's a great photo of Minnie!
ReplyDelete