Something to Watch

Truth be told, many Academy Award winning movies go right over my head. That's why the two I've watched most recently were such delightful surprises and I highly recommend both.  First, The Apartment starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine. '

I know Shirley MacLaine mostly from Steel Magnolias and Sweet Charity, two of my favorite movies.  I know Jack Lemmon, from Grumpy Old Men.  Seeing them in roles from 1960 when they were much younger made me see each of them in a whole new light.  Jack Lemmon's character has an apartment on West 67th street between near Central Park and uses it in order to get ahead at work.  I am so fascinated with anything that depicts an older version of New York from Breakfast at Tiffany's and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying to Mad Men.  This movie totally upsets any idea that men in New York just recently became cads.


The other movie I saw, A Room With A View, I watched entirely because lately I cannot get enough of Maggie Smith.  Since I know Helena Bonham Carter from Les Miserables, Dark Shadows, Alice in Wonderland, Sweeney Todd, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory this was a bit of a shock for me.  I didn't know she was even capable of existing outside of some dark weird role.

I think this is one of those movies you watch when you are in the mood for British accents and early twentieth century English Society.  Not terribly much even happens over the course of this two hour film. Nevertheless I enjoyed myself for some inexplicable reason.