Tired old queen at the movies

review

All That Heaven Allows
Far From Heaven

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n interesting comparison exists between the two films chosen for the Christmas episode of Steve Hayes: Tired Old Queen at the Movies.

Douglas Sirks' All That Heaven Allows (1955) follows the love affair between a well-to-do middle-aged widow with grown children, Jane Wyman, and her gardener, Rock Hudson, who is twenty years younger. Todd Haynes' Far From Heaven takes the same scenario, but has the woman, Julianne Moore, losing her husband played by Dennis Quaid, to a gay lover. She too finds solace in the arms of her gardener, this time a handsome black man, played by Dennis Haysburt. Each film takes a pot shot at the conservatism of the 1950's with the latter adding a more realistic 90's edge. Both offer fascinating and moving holiday viewing by two iconic filmmakers.

Happy Holidays!

Steve Hayes

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How bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man's eyes

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I do desire we may be better strangers

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And if you like I will be around...

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Cast your mind back to the mid- to late 90s, and you might just remember Eurodance duo La Bouche, best known for Be My Lover and Sweet Dreams (not, thankfully, a cover of the Eurythmics hit).

A product of the infamous Frank Farian (of Milli Vanilli fame), La Bouche comprised vocalist Melanie Thornton and Lane McCray. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the group was an attempt to cash in on the success of 2 Unlimited, who originated the female singer/male rapper formula.

Regardless of Thornton's vocal talents, there's no denying that La Bouche were but a poor man's 2 Unlimited, without any of the charm, sex appeal or oomph! Thornton was ice cold, and McCray seems to have got the gig by virtue of being A Black Guy. Farian might just as well have inserted a cardboard cutout of 2 Unlimited's Ray Slijngaard and achieved a better result than McCray's embarassing "rapper dude".

When La Bouche were big, I was but a young kid, and so have a certain affection for them. Just hearing Be My Lover or my personal favourite, I Love To Love, takes me right back to adolescent Saturday morning music video shows, after a night in the only gay bar in town (on those occasions I was unlucky enough to make it back to my own home).

Melanie Thornton was killed in a plane crash in November 2001, just as her solo career was taking off. And no one seemed to notice - there was September 11 to worry about, and the near-simultaneous deaths of the bigger stars Aaliyah, and Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes.

You might not have heard of La Bouche, or Melanie Thornton. Or maybe you just forgot about this silly little slice of pop nonsense. I'm hoping you can take a moment to remember a young woman whose star once burned brightly.

The last La Bouche single I heard, before they faded from my radar, was You Won't Forget Me in 1997.

Funny, that.

The evil that men do lives after them

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Tired old queen at the movies

review

The Razor's Edge

T

yrone Power's return from active duty in World War II provided the impetus for filming the most expensive picture Twentieth Century Fox had ever produced, W. Somerset Maugham's The Razor's Edge, directed by Edmund Goulding, with Gene Tierney, John Payne, Clifton Webb and in an Oscar winning performance Anne Baxter.

No expense was spared in this tale of a man who returns from the Great War and finds himself disillusioned with the world he supposed to live in and his eventual quest for spirituality. Tierney and Power made an exciting love team and Webb and Baxter were perfectly cast. Gorgeously shot by cinematographer Arthur Miller, beautifully scored by Alfred Newman and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck himself, it was nominated for multiple Oscars including Best Picture and is a prime example of Hollywood at it's sumptuous best.

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I am a man, more sinned against than sinning

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The Parodical

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And when Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer

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It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing

Just when we thought that we'd never see EastEnders' Arinze Kene with his shirt off again (the boy's been disgustingly overdressed lately. Who cares if it's winter?), the BBC have delivered all our Christmases at once. Behold: Arinze in his underwear.

Never before have so many pause/rewind buttons been deployed so much.

Last night's EastEnders can still be viewed on iPlayer. More Arinze Kene here, here, and here. More shots after the jump...