Thursday, February 18, 2021

Thursday Movie Picks: Forbidden Love (Romance Tropes Edition)

 

For the seventh week of 2021 as part of Wandering Through the Shelves' Thursday Movie Picks. We go into the third week of the Romance Tropes Edition in the subject of forbidden love. Love that is considered wrong or taboo but for the people involved, it feels right and dangerous. Then, there’s those affairs that are just absolutely wrong. Here are my three picks as they’re all directed by the late, great Louis Malle:

1. Murmur of the Heart
Malle’s 1971 coming-of-age film set in postwar France revolves around a young teenage boy discovering sex while being really attached to his mother due to the fact that he’s treated almost indifferently by his father. It’s a compelling yet offbeat film from Malle that showcases a boy and his mother both dealing with their own issues as they spend time at a hotel/sanatorium due to the boy’s health while his mother tries to find fun. Alas, things become troubling and really fucked up to say the least though its ending is actually more endearing than eerie.

2. Pretty Baby
The film that introduced the world to Brooke Shields is a film that wouldn’t be made today considering that it does feature a nude yet underage Shields in the film as the daughter of a prostitute who would become one herself. Yet, the creepy aspect of the film involves Shields and Keith Carradine where the latter is a photographer who wants to help her but is also in love with her. It is an amazing film but one that not many people would want to see as it is creepy and also unsettling in terms of its subject matter.

3. Damage
Malle’s penultimate film about a politician who falls and begins an affair with his son’s new fiancée is a more conventional film from Malle yet it does feature amazing performances from Jeremy Irons, Juliette Binoche, and a well-deserving Oscar nominated performance from Miranda Richardson as Irons’ wife. It is one of Malle’s lesser films but it is still this compelling drama about an affair that shouldn’t have happened and the implications that it brings to a man and his obsession with this affair with a woman who is to be his daughter-in-law.

© thevoid99 2021
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10 comments:

  1. Birgit5:03 PM

    I wouldn’t mind seeing Pretty Baby even though it is creepy especially knowing Shield’s mother was all for it. I would like to see the last film because I like all 3 actors.

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  2. joel659136:27 PM

    I've put off watching Murmur of the Heart because of the subject matter though I've heard its a fine film. Maybe some day.

    Speaking of seamy subject matter that certainly fits Pretty Baby, something that would NEVER be made by a major studio with important actors today.

    I didn't love Damage but what I did love about it was Miranda Richardson's performance. A pity she's never won an Oscar, a very skillful actress.

    I tried to find three that looked at the forbidden aspect in contrasting ways.

    Broken Blossoms (1919)-Chinese immigrant Cheng Huan’s (Richard Barthelmess) dream of spreading Buddhism to London has dissipated and he has sunken into aimless opium addiction until he finds young English waif Lucy Burrows (Lillian Gish) battered on his doorstep. Renewed by their emotional connection he cares for her as she recovers, but their forbidden love across ethnic boundaries is riven when they are discovered by Lucy’s abusive father (Donald Crisp).

    Death Takes a Holiday (1934)-Unable to comprehend why people cling so tenaciously to life Death (Fredric March) assumes human form as Prince Sirki at Duke Lambert’s Italian villa. Mixing with his guests in an attempt to gain insight he meets the beautiful Grazia (Evelyn Venable). Instantly attracted to each other Sirki and she wrestle with the impossibility and the forbidden nature of their love.

    Dirty Dancing (1987)-Teenager Baby (Jennifer Grey) is vacationing with her family at a Catskills resort in the 60’s when she meets dance instructor Johnny (Patrick Swayze). Through a series of events they become involved but the lovers face several obstacles including the dual facts that Johnny is forbidden to fraternize with the guests and Baby is likewise forbidden from seeing the older Johnny by her father (Jerry Orbach).

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  3. Cinematic Delights12:13 AM

    Nice - a theme within a theme! I don't think any of these films are for me but interesting to read more about them nonetheless.

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  4. Brittani Burnham4:34 AM

    I think what you did with this theme but I've never seen any of these unfortunately.

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  5. SJHoneywell7:09 PM

    I really, really, really dislike Murmur of the Heart. Not one I'll watch again.

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  6. Dell4:56 PM

    I saw Pretty Baby years ago and was pretty disturbed. I don't remember much about it now, but I doubt I'll go back to it. Murmur of the Heart sounds a bit insane.

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  7. Sonia Cerca9:32 AM

    I haven't seen any of them but I'd really like to see the third one because of its cast.

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  8. Ruth4:14 PM

    I've been wanting to see DAMAGE for ages! I mean Jeremy Irons AND Juliette Binoche? Those are amazing casting picks.

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  9. ThePunkTheory12:08 AM

    Pretty Baby is the perfect pick! It's been ages since I saw that film, and upon reflection, it was very unsettling.

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  10. thevoid9910:00 PM

    @Birgit-Pretty Baby is a film that wouldn't have been made right now though Louis Malle I think did enough to not make it exploitive as he wasn't that kind of person.

    @joel65913-I saw Broken Blossoms I think a year or 2 ago as I liked it but didn't like the idea of a white guy as an Asian.

    @Brittani-Louis Malle is a must as he is one of the greats though these three films are just a taste of other films that he's done.

    @SJHoneywell-What about Malle's other films?

    @Wendell-Murmur of the Heart does sound insane but it's told in a light-hearted and low-key approach which for some reason worked for me.

    @Sonia-It's kind of minor Malle for me but it is still a good film.

    @Ruth-I would recommend it though I heard Binoche and Irons didn't really get along during production but neither of them don't like to say awful things to each other.

    @ThePunkTheory-It is and now, it is a film that should come with a warning.

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