I’m not really a horror fan but this is getting insanely good reviews. It’s at 97!
As it always is calling something “pretentious” is code for “ I don’t know much about the topic”
The Criterion Closet is a safe place for people to be pretentious film nerds, that’s the whole point.
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About a movie starring two of the biggest icons of the generation (Audrey Hepburn/Cary Grant) at that. It’s not Casablanca, and honestly I wasn’t a big fan the one time I watched it, but it’s pretty far from “obscure.”
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I wouldn’t call Charade pretentious. It’s like an off-brand Hitchcock movie. Calling it obscure from today’s standpoint seems fair since I don’t think it’s watched much anymore.
They should do a Supermarket Sweep version of the Criterion Closet.
Fun factoid about Charade
The film includes a notice reading “MCMLXIII BY UNIVERSAL PICTURES COMPANY, INC. and STANLEY DONEN FILMS, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED” but omitting the word “Copyright”, “Copr.” or the symbol “©”. Before 1978, U.S. law required works to include such a word or symbol in order to be copyrighted.[19][20][21]Because Universal failed to properly display the copyright notice, the film entered into the public domain in the United States immediately upon its release.[22] As a result, copies from film prints of varying quality have been widely available on VHS, DVD and Blu-ray in addition to official releases of the film from Universal themselves as well as The Criterion Collection. The film is also available for free viewing on YouTube and free download at the Internet Archive.[23] However, while the film itself is in the public domain, the original music remains under copyright if outside the context of the film.[24]
Someone forgot to hereby declare copyright
I mean it’s in the public domain (I see you just got in before me on that), so it’s always on Prime Video among many other places. I would expect that a relatively decent percentage of people who like old movies have seen it or are at least aware of it. One of the gateways a person who wants to get into older stuff would take is to attach to one of the big stars and watch their major stuff, and Grant and Hepburn provide two strong paths. It’s Hepburn’s third-most popular movie on Letterboxd and fourth-most popular on IMDb. And Grant’s second-most popular on LB and third-most popular on IMDb.
I suppose “obscure” is debatable depending on how one wants to define the term, but the person who is objecting to that post is almost certainly just an “I can’t be bothered with the classics” moop.
I think you might be right that people who watch a lot of old movies have a decent chance of seeing this. But I think for the general moviegoing public, almost all movies from around 60 years ago are going to be considered obscure. The things that save them from obscurity are having a lasting impact on popular culture (e.g., James Bond franchise), making some “best of all time” list (e.g., Lawrence of Arabia), or both (e.g., Psycho).
I’d never heard of Charade before.
Okay that certainly surprises me, but I guess it’s a useful data point.
Never heard of charade either
Anyway, while the subject of Audrey Hepburn has come up, here’s one that I was pretty blown away by when I discovered it for the first time a few months ago.
The Children’s Hour (1961) directed by William Wyler • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd
A private school for young girls is scandalized when one spiteful student, Mary Tilford, accuses the two young women who run the school of having a lesbian relationship.
Hepburn, Shirley MacLaine, James Garner. Honestly didn’t realize they would center a mainstream movie on this subject at this point in history since we were only 13 years removed from Rope and Hitchcock was simply not allowed to acknowledge that gay characters were even a thing. This one is pretty gripping, and it’s available on Tubi if you can stand the ads (or on Criterion or Hoopla if you have one of those). I gave it 4.5 stars.
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Looks dope, didn’t even know Denzel was in it
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I need a 1+ hour video essay on why and how “trailer starts now” became a thing. Looking at you, hbomberguy
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Just watched 1985’s Tuff Turf starring James Spader and Kim Richards, featuring Robert Downey Jr. I don’t understand how I’ve never seen this, and am glad that deficiency has now been rectified. Imagine Pretty in Pink crossed with The Warriors. Great stuff!
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Spader was so menacing in the 80s
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