SICK MOVIE

I'm currently in bed with a tight chest and tight head as if my body is being slowly tightened by some medieval instrument of torture, the sort of thing Alan Rickman's Sheriff of Nottingham might have used against Robin Hood in 'Prince of Thieves'. Throwing the kitchen sink at this thing, including ginger, garlic, brandy, lemon and paracetemol, I find I'm also in desperate need of some cultural balm at this delicate time to alleviate the tyranny of my clammy disposition.

So, to accompany my misery, I decided to finally get round to watching Leo McCarey's 'Make Way For Tomorrow' (1937) and see what all the fuss was about as I'd read that the master Japanese film maker, Yasujirō Ozu, had claimed the film to have inspired the concept of his own magnum opus masterpiece 'Tokyo Story' (1953), often cited as the greatest film ever made in many film critic polls (not that we take any notice of those).

Turns out, I've been emotionally pole-axed by this emotionally punishing McCarey movie and feel in some ways even worse than I did before I pressed the play button on the remote. Don't get me wrong. This is an incredible film and I'll definitely be returning to it when I'm feeling a little more resilient. Orson Welles described it to Peter Bogdanovich as "the saddest movie ever made" and one that "would make a stone cry." Tears were most certainly shed in the watching of this most uncompromising American movie and now I'm even more drained of fluid than my dehydrated body already was previously.

Following the journey of an elderly couple forced to separate geographically from one another after the bank forecloses on their home, the husband (Victor Moore) and wife (Beulah Bondi) face cruel self-realisations about the nature of being old and poor. We see the awkwardness of the wider family trying to accommodate their elders in their difficult circumstances and failing in almost all metrics, though not through outright callousness or villainy but because they're so pre-occupied with their own lives they have little room to consider the needs of Barkley and Lucy Cooper.

Without spoiling the movie in case you also decide to watch this exquisite little film, all I will say is that it is quite humbling to watch a movie that deals with the key themes of age, mortality and love in such an economic and astutely observed way. I can see why Ozu was so inspired by it and how its influence can be found in many of his own seminal movies.

As a consequence of watching 'Make Way For Tomorrow', I am now on a McCarey binge, returning to old favourites 'Going My Way' (1944) with Bing Crosby and 'Love Affair' (1939) with Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne. Apparently, McCarey was good friends with Jean Renoir who admired McCarey's attention to detail in exploring the minutiae of human emotions and it occurs to me that McCarey's faith-led philosophy on humanity reveals itself in his key movies and touches the soul in a way few modern films do (Hirokazu Koreeda excepted).

One scene that has left an indelible impression on me after watching the movie is where a bandleader in a grand hotel that the elderly couple revisit fifty years since they first stayed on their honeymoon notices they can't keep pace with the current dance tune he's conducting so changes it for them mid-song to a gentle waltz instead.

Imagine if the world was a little more like that, eh?

In conclusion, sometimes it may be the case that a "grieving widows" approach to  being sick may be the solution to feeling a little better. By which I mean - rather than try and watch something completely upbeat and ridiculous, watch something utterly depressing and heartfelt and you'll rediscover your own sense of humanity as you recover from a bout of flu or whatever variant of virus is currently flying around your local neighbourhood.

Now. Where's the brandy?