Monday, April 29, 2013

The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp (1943)

Follow Clive Candy (Roger Livesey) as he lives, laughs, loves and fights his way through forty years of British military history.

*      *      *

The sheer visual power of this film is something that simply cannot be denied. It's a style so lush and enveloping that there is no way to escape it. The colors and emotions are so intense that they are able to leap from the screen and take you over, both body and soul. Those simple shots of floating leaves near the end of the film are just as powerful and resonant as anything Yasujiro Ozu ever concocted. Add to this the stellar performances on display and resistance is futile. I know people love to trumpet The Dark Knight as the high water mark in terms of cinematic adaptations of comics, but this film did it better. Twenty-seven years before  Christopher Nolan was even born, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger were able to create a cinematic masterpiece by taking a "silly" two-dimensional comic-strip character, and making him both human and tragic. 
You laugh at my big belly, but you don't know how I got it. You laugh t my mustache, but you don't know why I grew it. How do you know what sort of fellow I was when I was as young as you are, 40 years ago?
Watch this movie and you will understand.

No comments:

Post a Comment