Salon.com > Mildred Pierce

Nostalgic for everything

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 01:00:00 +0000

"Nostalgia is denial -- denial of the painful present," says a philosopher (Michael Sheen) in Woody Allen's surprise hit "Midnight in Paris." "The name for this denial is Golden Age thinking: the erroneous notion that a different time period is better than the one [that] one's living in. It's a flaw in the romantic imagination of those people who find it difficult to cope with the present."

If nostalgia is indeed a flaw, it's one that many 2011 films and TV programs shared. Some of the year's most talked-about movies and shows gave themselves over to some form of nostalgia -- unabashedly reveling in, and idealizing, not just an earlier time, but the artists and artistic styles that we associate with that time, and the rush of emotion that accompanies our fantasies of same. Allen's "Midnight in Paris" -- his top grossing movie ever -- is Exhibit A. It's an immensely likable reworking of his short story "A Twenties Memory" in which an Allen stand-in, screenwriter Gil (Owen Wilson), magically gets to travel back to the time of Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein. But it's merely the keynote address in a year of budget-busting, production-design-showcasing, time-tripping cinema and television, a year that invited viewers not merely to experience stories from another time but to slip into them with deep pleasure and savor their restorative power.

A grand finale for “Mildred Pierce”

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 13:01:00 +0000

There was so much great filmmaking in last night's "Mildred Pierce" finale that I could spend all morning appreciating it, but for illustration's sake, I'll let one example suffice: the scene where Mildred (Kate Winslet) and Bert (Bryan O'Byrne) eat at the new seaside restaurant and hear the voice of Veda (now an opera singer and played by Evan Rachel Wood) coming through the radio. Director Todd Haynes, his cinematographer Ed Lachman, and the actors are at peak strength. I love the shot over Mildred and Bert's shoulders of the radio broadcasting the music (it has talismanic power), and the close-up of Mildred staring at the radio and listening to it, half the frame blocked out by the back of the radio. I love the long tracking shot of the stunned Mildred walking to the seaside. Most of all I love that final profile shot of Mildred staring out at the sea at night, after which the camera tracks right. The screen fills up with blackness that expresses the void Veda's absence created in her mother; there's also a concurrent sense that Mildred's emotions are casting themselves out into the blackness, or onto the ocean, in a kind of cosmic reaching-out.

The rooms that steal the show

Sun, 10 Apr 2011 23:01:00 +0000

HBO's "Mildred Pierce" is a lot to think about. I don't mean Kate Winslet's amazing performance or Todd Haynes' detailed direction of James M. Cain's rags-to-riches portrait of a down-on-her-luck single mother. No, I mean the lamp in Mildred's living room. I mean the curtains in Veda's bedroom. The vase of flowers on that table in the hall of Monty's mansion. I keep having to stop and start my DVR when I realize I've missed an entire scene because I'm trying to figure out if I can work that chair over there in the corner into my hard-to-arrange living room. I mean! If Mildred's Spanish bungalow is supposed to make me feel sorry for her, uh, yeah, that ain't working. Sign me up for lower middle class!

But there are other rooms in movies that have gripped my imagination over the years as well. Here are a few -- and I know yours will be different; there's an enormous number of possibilities and they're all incredibly personal. Please post yours in the comments so that when I win the lottery, I'll have some design ideas.

Is Mildred Pierce’s daughter bratty beyond belief?

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 09:05:00 +0000

Mildred Pierce's daughter Veda has always been a brat. She was a brat in James M. Cain's original 1941 novel and in the 1945 film, and she's a brat in the new HBO miniseries, which aired its third episode last night. But her sheer insufferability seems to be a make-or-break proposition with some of my friends, and with more than a few critics. I want the comments thread discussion in the second meeting of The Mildred Pierce Club to go wherever it feels like going, but I'm especially interested in your feelings about Veda.

But first, our ground rules:

1. Do not discuss plot events beyond the end of Episode 3, which aired last night.

2. It's fine to compare the miniseries to the movie or the novel as long as you don't run afoul of rule No. 1.

3. This article contains spoilers. Deal with it.

Back to Veda: As played by Morgan Turner (and starting next week, Evan Rachel Wood) she's a musically talented and beyond-precocious child, and very much the dark mirror of her mother's ambition -- a little monster of entitlement who takes without giving.

Welcome to the “Mildred Pierce” club

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 13:29:00 +0000

Hear ye, hear ye: The first meeting of The "Mildred Pierce" club is in session.

Although I'll offer general observations about filmmaker Todd Haynes' version of James M. Cain's book, which debuted last night on HBO, this isn't going to be a scene-for-scene recap. I want to get a discussion going. I want to know what you thought of the first two chapters, and I hope to hear from as wide a range of viewers as possible: people who've seen everything filmmaker Todd Haynes ever directed, and those who have never heard of him until recently; people who've read the source novel and/or seen the 1945 Joan Crawford film and those who are new to the material. (My own series overview is here.)

Ground rules:

1. Do not discuss plot events beyond the end of Episode 2, which aired last night. I want this forum to be enjoyable for all viewers, not just those who know the source text backward and forward, seen the 1945 film or already watched the whole miniseries via press screeners, pirated copies, whatever. Alluding to future events in super-vague terms that could mean anything ("... in light of upcoming events," etc.) is permissible, and might be unavoidable in some cases, but do not go beyond that. If I see any comments that run afoul of rule No. 1, the comment will be deleted. Err on the side of caution, my lovelies.

Pop Torn: 10 pieces of culture we’re feeling iffy about

Sat, 26 Mar 2011 13:01:00 +0000

Wednesday in New York, it managed to snow, hail and be passingly warm out, all at the same time. Now imagine that these little tidbits of cultural news from this week were like the weather in New York. Now you see what we're getting at, right?

1. Lindsay Lohan dropping her last name: Problem is, we'll still know those are her parents.

2. Michael Scott proposes to Holly on "The Office": Good episode, but it really took this much hype to get people talking about "The Office" again? Not a great sign for when Carell leaves.

3. "The Big Lebowski" Monopoly game: Awesome when we thought it was a real thing. Turns out to be a Photoshop from Reddit. Which is still cool, but someone out there needs to market this!

“Mildred Pierce” is a quiet, heartbreaking masterpiece

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 14:43:00 +0000

"Mildred Pierce" is a masterpiece. I say that with some surprise, because I went into this five-part, limited-run HBO series skeptical of the channel's motivation for making it (Period costumes! Kate Winslet! Emmy bait!) and resisting the appeal of its director, Todd Haynes ("Safe,""Far From Heaven"), a filmmaker whose work I've always admired but rarely loved. If I see a richer, more perfect drama on TV this year, I'll be surprised. I like "Mildred Pierce" so much that I'm going to recap it for Salon every Monday, starting the morning of March 28. It's the best way to appreciate the breadth of this series' excellence without spoiling key plot twists for the uninitiated.