This being Thursday, it's time for another edition of "Thursday Movie Picks", the blogathon run by Wandering Through the Shelves. This week's theme is "Just One Day", which I would assume means movies that are set over the course of one day, as opposed to movies that are set on the same date. I may be cheating ever so slightly, because one of my movies takes place within the span of 24 hours, although the very last scene is first thing the next morning. Anyhow, here goes:
Fourteen Hours (1951). Richard Basehart walks into a hotel, rents a room, and then walks out of the window onto the ledge, with the obvious intent to jump off and kill himself. Somebody down below sees him, and the cops are called into action to try to call him off the ledge. Meanwhile, a crowd develops below, waiting to see if he'll jump. Grace Kelly has a small role as a woman getting a divorce meeting her lawyer in an office with a view of the hotel across the street.
One Wonderful Sunday (1947). Akira Kurosawa directed this little movie about young Japanese man Yuzo, on a date with Masako in Tokyo. However, Yuzo only has a paltry amount of money on him, and doesn't have prospects of getting more any time soon since it's not long after the war and good work is hard to come by. So the two try to celebrate a day out with next to nothing, and see if their love can survive.
The Firemen's Ball (1967). Miloš Forman directed this movie in his native Czechoslovakia before being forced into exile. The retired fire chief of a small town had 50 years of service with the department but is now dying of cancer, so his colleagues decide that they're going to have a big party in his honor. At least, it's ostensibly in the former chief's honor. In reality, it seems to be in honor of everybody else as they're all trying to make themselves look as good as possible. Everything that could go wrong does, and anarchy ensues. The movie was banned in Czechoslovakia under the Communists because it can pretty obviously be seen as a scathing indictment on Communist "solidarity", although when I watched it I could see as being set in any small town anywhere. (Forman himself said it wasn't a commentary on Communism.) The final scene is of a man waking up the next morning, and there is an opening scene setting up decorations that in theory could have been a day or two before the party, but it's most likely all set in the span of 24 hours.
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5 comments:
I've only seen the first of these three. Fourteen Hours is a trim little thriller thanks to Basehart and Paul Douglas with an interesting cast of supporting characters moving in and out of the story. So much better than the terrible redo Man on a Ledge from a few years ago which managed to drain all the suspense out of the film.
I've heard of the last film but the second is new to me.
I didn't realize how many films were set in a single day until I went looking this week.
High Noon (1952)-Just married to his Quaker bride Amy (Grace Kelly) that morning Sherriff Will Kane (Gary Cooper who won the Oscar for this performance) has quit his post and plans a quiet farm life away from the town. Word comes that a killer he had imprisoned 5 years ago has been paroled and is arriving with his gang on the noon train intent on a showdown. Ignoring advice from all to flee, including successful businesswoman Helen Ramirez (an outstanding Katy Jurado) his former mistress, Will tries to gather help to stand up to the outlaws but finds all the townsfolk turning their backs on him and he must face them alone at High Noon. A thinly veiled allegory for the blacklist which affected many involved with the film.
Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962)-A young singer, Cleo (Corinne Marchand) must wait two hours for the results of a biopsy and drifts around Paris seeing friends and considering the exigencies of life. Part of the Nouvelle Vague movement this isn’t for everyone but it has its charms.
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)-“Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” That’s the credo of uber popular high school student Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) who decides that today is too perfect to be wasted in school. After convincing his parents he’s sick he gathers up his best friend Cameron (Alan Ruck) and girlfriend Sloane (Mia Sara) for a day of adventure in the city while his suspicious principal Mr. Rooney (Jeffrey Jones) tries to catch him red-handed. Broderick is madly charismatic in the lead and surrounded by a fantastic cast including Edie McClurg who is hysterical as Rooney’s secretary.
I haven't seen any of these.
I haven't seen any of these, but Kurosawa is a director whose work I really want to check out.
What Brittani said.
I haven’t seen any of these but have wanted to see the first one for sure. I have not heard of the second film but I have heard of the last one and have always been undecided about seeing it.
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