Big old jumble of feelings about this one, largely positive.
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo is way too long, yet it’s still structurally quite impressive to build a whole 2hr 20 movie around those titular thirty seconds. Somehow the air sequences were way more convincing, immersive and exciting than those in Darling Lili, a quarter century later.
It’s not too heavy on the propagandistic elements, and we do get a conversation where Van Johnson and Robert Mitchum talk about their unease at killing…
Wow, this was lovely.
I don't really know anything about the Curies, so just took this movie on its own terms, and was very moved by the portrayal of partnership. Some of it is just innate when you have one of the great screen teams of the '40s as your central couple. Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon always felt right with each other; sophisticated but sparkly, with a mutual warmth that escapes the screen. It's always beautiful to watch them…
I mean, what can you say about a film where Dr. Elvis hugs a girl for hours to cure her of autism? And it works!
Just, wow...
Really, really loved this - although it's sort of a romcom, and is often very funny, there's a genuine emotional heft to it that hit me in a way I wasn't expecting. The use of Céline Deveaux's animation to illustrate Jeanne's tortured inner monologue manages to compliment Blanche Gardin's engagingly low-key performance rather than overcrowd it, and although Jean is pitched as something of a Manic Pixie Dream Guy, Laurent Lafitte gives him a genuine, complex weight.
Everyone in this film seems like a real person, dealing with very real problems, which makes the hard-earned simplicity of that final scene feel especially lovely.
