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Acting. Pshaw. Acting is so 2010. Concern for "good acting" has blinded many a viewer to genius cinema. And the condemnations are never insightful, pivoting on some bogus, received notion of verisimilitude. Yawn.
rah!
― nakhchivan, Friday, 20 May 2011 19:56 (thirteen years ago) link
A couple of years after watching Night of the Hunter, I read this Brothers Grimm's tale, and got the same powerful punch in the stomach:
There was once a little girl who was obstinate and inquisitive, and when her parents told her to do anything, she did not obey them, so how could she fare well? One day she said to her parents, "I have heard so much of Frau Trude, I will go to her some day. People say that everything about her does look so strange, and that there are such odd things in her house, that I have become quite curious!" Her parents absolutely forbade her, and said, "Frau Trude is a bad woman, who does wicked things, and if thou goest to her; thou art no longer our child." But the maiden did not let herself be turned aside by her parent's prohibition, and still went to Frau Trude. And when she got to her, Frau Trude said, "Why art thou so pale?" "Ah," she replied, and her whole body trembled, "I have been so terrified at what I have seen." "What hast thou seen?" "I saw a black man on your steps." "That was a collier." "Then I saw a green man." "That was a huntsman." "After that I saw a blood-red man." "That was a butcher." "Ah, Frau Trude, I was terrified; I looked through the window and saw not you, but, as I verily believe, the devil himself with a head of fire." "Oho!" said she, "then thou hast seen the witch in her proper costume. I have been waiting for thee, and wanting thee a long time already; thou shalt give me some light." Then she changed the girl into a block of wood, and threw it into the fire. And when it was in full blaze she sat down close to it, and warmed herself by it, and said, "That shines bright for once in a way."
― Marco Damiani, Sunday, 22 May 2011 07:12 (thirteen years ago) link
three weeks pass...
eight months pass...
so, Gish fires one shot at Mitchum and he goes squawking into the barn like a cartoon rooster? mysteriously unsatisfying climax, and someone on the Criterion commentary says as much.
― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 8 March 2012 12:17 (twelve years ago) link
I've never really done too much hard thinking about it, but the ending certainly seems deliberate in its effect--Gish's character is certainly as archetypal as Mitchum's in that respect...
― ryan, Thursday, 8 March 2012 23:36 (twelve years ago) link
seven years pass...
Just found the book Night of the Hunter on a bargain table and read it; it's actually very good and it turns out the movie is a REALLY faithful adaptation.
― Lily Dale, Monday, 18 November 2019 03:46 (four years ago) link