Undoubtedly the production of the classical movie has got to be one of the finest “inventions” since the stapler. In fact, the classical movie is one which we had the benefit of when we were kids, when at that time there were only three television channels restricted viewing opportunities were given reprieve as Saturday afternoons and Sundays—when Dad wasn’t sucked into The Wide World of Sports —held movies from the times of the past; movies that feature glamour girls and fearless males that had long since passed out of our way of life.
Although there is evidently a clear distinction, between classical movies and classical movies with only classical period elements (music, costumes, storylines, etc.), I would like to address the delight of the classical movie of yesterday and today that does involve only a particular period of history and does, then feature only classical period elements.
Let’s first start with my favorite classical movie of all time, Impromptu. This film portrays a few years in the lives of George Sand, Franz Liszt, Freiderich Chopin, as well as the royal and prosperous people who took the artists in, thus permitting them to compose, write, paint, create…this was in exchange for enjoyable company and entertainment. The focus of the film is Sand, who is obsessed on partnering with Chopin…her aggression as great as his weakness (physical instabilities). In addition the costuming, the music (for sure), the dialogue, and the setting are all as dramatic as the direction, the technique, and the delivery of words and emotion. What’s more there is even a theme or two that every person from the beginning of time until now can identify with or appreciate- the love/hate, good/evil and longing/belonging motifs that are as classic as the film itself.
There are other classical movie choices that I enjoy, and these are also the more marginal (or less mainstream popular) ones. I personally find Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (though evidently POST-classical periods), Wilde, and Jefferson, for example, as creditable of classical movie acclaim as Amadeus, Emma, The Piano, and any number of Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson brilliant [re-]productions.
When you think classical movie, what comes to your mind? For some, may think black and white, or big powdered wigs or perhaps maybe classical music? Do you often think about fanciful dresses and formalities? Or do you think classic movie in terms of it being colossal in popularity? Or just maybe do you consider classic movie is as any individual might determine it—according to appeal, accuracy and aesthetics? As for me, I tend to take in the black and white flicks with the beauties and the beaus, the comedies with the curmudgeons, the histories with the insight into who people were then…like us but with an added je ne sais quoi that we must investigate, discover about, and appreciate in as great a depth and as wide a breadth as we might.