Weekly Theme

Weekly Theme for September 7: Infidelity

So, I think this is a very potentially interesting subject when it's been done well. I wanted to do this theme after watching my first Wong Kar-Wai film, In The Mood For Love. I thought this film handled the subject so well and with such an original point of view that I couldn't really help but marvel at it. It's also shot extemely beautifully and has a wonderful score.

I am also reminded of Adrien Lyne's Unfailthful. This flick was a hell of a lot better than I thought it would be. It's not excatly brilliant but I think it was pretty exciting and again, it took a relatively original look at a very old conflict.

Another one I feel like mentioning as much as possible is John Turturro's musical, Romance & Cigarettes. I don't think enough people have seen this one so if you haven't , check it out. It's a great tragic comedy with an awesome cast.

Anyway, that's all I've got at the moment. So let's hear about some of your favorite cheating films.

Re:Weekly Theme for September 7: Infidelity

Awesome topic.

Probably my favorite film about cheating / having an affair is Dressed to Kill. The first twenty, thirty minutes of the film is so insane, so mind blowingly intense - a woman in an unhappy marriage is hooked into a quickie with a stranger and . . . I can't say anymore because it's just so awesome you have to watch for yourself.

True Lies had fun with the typical affair plot with Jamie Lee Curtis wanting more from her marriage and toying with the idea of having an affair with sleazy Bill Paxton.

Of course there is Fatal Attraction which made every man think twice before committing adultery.

Dave is a great film about the president of the United States having an affair and his staff having to cover it up in an absurd yet amusing way.

Monsoon Wedding dealt with a woman dealing with an arranged marriage and the other man she is madly in love with.

American Beauty was another film about a bored suburban marriage falling apart.

Rushmore had that great little love triangle with Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman duking it out.

More when I think of 'em.

Re:Weekly Theme for September 7: Infidelity

mercurial:

Awesome topic.

Probably my favorite film about cheating / having an affair is Dressed to Kill. The first twenty, thirty minutes of the film is so insane, so mind blowingly intense - a woman in an unhappy marriage is hooked into a quickie with a stranger and . . . I can't say anymore because it's just so awesome you have to watch for yourself.

True Lies had fun with the typical affair plot with Jamie Lee Curtis wanting more from her marriage and toying with the idea of having an affair with sleazy Bill Paxton.

Of course there is Fatal Attraction which made every man think twice before committing adultery.

Dave is a great film about the president of the United States having an affair and his staff having to cover it up in an absurd yet amusing way.

Monsoon Wedding dealt with a woman dealing with an arranged marriage and the other man she is madly in love with.

American Beauty was another film about a bored suburban marriage falling apart.

Rushmore had that great little love triangle with Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman duking it out.

More when I think of 'em.

Oh boy.

It would seem weird for me to say something like "my favorite film about cheating / having an affair is..." because I realize a lot of times any kind of affair / infidelity / promiscuity in movies turns me off.  At least when I am supposed to be sympathetic to the characters.  That's just me.  And I realize it's a thing that really turns me off to a lot of movies that some peopel otherwise thing are great.  But that's why we are all different I guess!

Two movies I saw recently that both have "brief" in the title came to mind.  David Lean's Brief Encounter and Vittorio De Sica's A Brief Vacation.  They are also both similar in that they deal with good women with no so perfect husbands (but who do love them) getting sucked into affairs with much more appealing men, but not going as far as they could have before retracting.  I liked them both well enough.  They say that Brief Encounter is still the best classis "chick flick" that a lot of guys seem to like as well.

The Coen brothers first movie Blood Simple deals with an affair which results in some death and violence like a lot of their subsequent films.

And Kubrick's final film Eyes Wide Shut seems to be a warning against even taking the first steps towards the world of infidelity.

Emery, I see you mention Romance & Cigarettes so often I don't know why I haven't seen it yet.  But I trust you, and I'm curious to see what Turturro did with these great actors too.  Hopefully it will rise to the top of my Netflix queue soon.