Olivia!

I thought about writing about a person I would want to have has my girlfriend.  With my wife's permission of course.  She is 93.  I spent all year last year studying and researching before coming to this aspiration.  Her photograph is right below.  Please allow me to explain.

Every year, or every so often I go down a path of research either in books or films are other media.  Modern technology allows us to do that.  Sometimes I pursued Fellini.  Sometimes Akira Kurasawa.  Sometimes Humphrey Bogart.  Once I tried to pair up Malkuans and Hindolam.  Last year I saw the movie Dodge City and enjoyed the pairing of Errol Flynn and this haunting, yet soulful, kind yet decent female lead who looked vaguely familiar.  So I decided to pursue that trail.

ODH

She is Olivia de Havilland.  She played a support role to Vivien Leigh in the most well known American story and movie of all time, Gone With The Wind.  In this role she epitomized my description of her as the kindly gentle soul.  And she is forever stamped in American film legend at least for her contributions in that particular film.

Her real contribution is different.  She mounted a famous for its time lawsuit against Warner Bros. that ultimately gave actors more creative freedom than ever before. In 1941, de Havilland sued the company over the terms of her contract. Her contract was already expired, but the studio told her that six months had been added to it for times that she had been on suspension; the studios were allowed then to suspend actors for rejecting a role and the period of suspension to be added to the contract period. Most actors accepted the situation, but de Havilland fought the system by suing the studio. The Screen Actors Guild backed her up, and she eventually won. The decision was one of the most important legal rulings in Hollywood. It was the first time actors were extended more freedom over their careers. The ruling was known as, and still is, referred to as the "de Havilland law."

Sabbatical

What I would love to do if I had a 3 month sabbatical is the following.  Not that I would succeed.  But I would love to write to Ms. Havilland in Paris where she lives today and get an introduction and invitation.  Then armed with all her movies from the 1930s till the 1980s visit with her.

We would set up a home theatre and watch one movie a day, in chronological order.  Prior to each movie, we would talk about how it came about that she picked this movie.  Then after the movie we would chat about the experience, the hightlights and the historical context, and the politics and the petty rivalries.  I might steer clear of gossip, I think - not my cup of tea.

I would then co-publish with her a book titled OLIVIA!, that would look nice and inviting on any coffee table.

Top 10

Well, that ain't happening.  So I thought I would list the top 10 Olivia de Havilland movies that I got a chance to watch last year.

10.  Captain Blood - With swashbuckler Errol Flynn - if there is one pirate movie you want to watch it is this.  Grade A-

9.  Adventures of Robin Hood - As Maid Marian in this timeless classic. (By the way, the character Robin Hood plays a bit part in Ivan Hoe).  Grade A

8.  To Each his own - this was remade as Aradhna in Hindi starring Sharmila Tagore and Rajesh Khanna.  Grade A-

7.  The Swarm - Terrible terrible movie.  I include this since we were youngsters when this came out and many of us probably saw this.  I saw it in Central theatre in CBE.  Grade D.

6.  Dodge City - Interesting western caper.  A string of 10 movies that Errol Flynn and ODH made.  This one is full of good guys, bad guys and gun fights.  Grade B-

5.  The Heiress - from the highly rated, literate, Henry James novel.  One of the movies that gives ODH a completely different turn from her sweet characters.  Here she plays plain Jane under a dictatorial dad and under the spell of an unscruplous suitor.  She comes out on top in the end, but a pyrrich victory.  Very satisfying.  Grade A-

4.  In this our life - Another great pairing this time not with an actor but an actress.  Bette Davis made a career of playing bad girls  and ODH was her perfect foil.  Dirty doings down south of the mason-dixon line.  Grab a glass of wine and revel in the worse angels in our nature.  Grade B+

3.  Lady in Cage - Amazingly stark, brutal violent movie from the 60s. Maybe cold-war peak sets the context for this reservoir dog type movie.  Utterly unrecognizable ODH.  Grade B

2.  The Male Animal - ODH plays a sassy wife to dour professor Henry Fonda.  ODH take this character slightly past the edge of her naturally sweet disposition.  But skillfully brings it back.  Great to watch a skilled actor acting against type.  Great campus comedy as well.  Grade A-

1.  Gone with the wind - I am pretty sure Olivia de Havilland worked her entire career to put this performance in context and build a body a work that stands on its own.  She did.  But Ben Kingsley cannot escape Gandhi.  Al Pacino canot escape Michael Corleone.  Humprey Bogart cannot escape the character Rick Blaine in Casablanca.  And ODH cannot escape Melanie Hamilton.  Grade A+

Summary:
 

There are many many fine artists that we can enjoy - Grace Kelley, Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart.  In our own filmdom we were discussing MGR and our connection to him in our college.  btw, I remember this occasion very clearly.  I was in the audience that day.  (Also, please allow me to put this  this little snippet in.  I am a fan of Dharmendra and not of Amitabh Bachan - period!)

World cinema is too vast to get to know even a portion of the great performers and performances, leave alone the trash that is so voluminously produced.

I am glad I spent 2008 following the work of Olivia de Havilland.  I know I will never make it to Paris, and spend the 3 months with her discussing her performances and her life as an artist.  But we will always have her movies.