Chilly Scenes of Winter

Hey, it’s whatsisname!

And there’s that other guy! Who played the lead in Micklin Silver’s other movie… But now with more hair.

It’s a pretty oddball plot — the general gist of it’s normal enough: You have the male lead mooning over the Magic Pixie Dream Girl (above), but in normal movies she would have been dead and the male lead would have Learned Something From That. But in this movie, she’s just gone back to her husband, and is apparently happy with him.

So the movie is him remembering his short relationship with her, and not being able to move on.

Which makes it a totally different thing from the standard plot.

They still fill the standard roles — he’s a boring, normal guy, and she’s wild and wacky.

Yes, he talks to the camera.

Hey! It’s the Adam Driver from 1979!

I really liked this movie. Initially it seems like a kinda traditional drama, but then it moves in strange ways and becomes something really memorable. It feels fresh and original.

And the performances are great. Peter Riegert doesn’t have a huge role, but he’s very charming when he does appear on the screen.

And I like the calm way it’s filmed… it’s really charming.

So of course:

ilmed on location in Salt Lake City, it was released by United Artists in October 1979 under the alternate title Head Over Heels, and promoted as a lighthearted romantic comedy, much to the disapproval of director Silver as well as the film’s actors.

Chilly Scenes of Winter. Joan Micklin Silver. 1979. ⚅

Did this film have two names?

Thief

Michael Mann is another one of those directors I’ve never seen.

But the name is so familiar… and it’s because he’s the guy behind the Miami Vice TV series — so he’s basically responsible for the 80s.

This is more of a 70s movie, though.

Heh. People have noticed that modern movies usually keep the protagonist dead centre of the frame — to make it easier to post clips on tick tock or just because that’s what’s everybody’s used to now? — so it’s refreshing to see a movie where most of the shots are imbalanced like this. It’s nice.

Hey! It’s that guy!

Heh, James Caan is totally doing an impression of Jack Nicholson here.

Jack Nicholson playing a tough guy.

Hey, it’s that guy!

This is basically a heist movie… but it takes so many detours. Now they adopted a child!? That’s not very Ocean’s Fifteen.

I think. I haven’t seen any of those movies.

So it’s half heist, and half very odd relationship un-drama.

Heh heh. Cops, man.

I feel like of the classic big American male stars of the 70s, James Caan is the one that’s been forgotten the most? He was just always… there… but I guess he didn’t really have that special thing? I mean, compared to… Paul Newman/Robert Redford/Jack Nicholson/etc/etc/etc.

Hm… He had a weird 80s — did just one movie every other year or so, but after that, he did a lot of stuff… and I’ve heard about ten percent of those movies, so…

I enjoyed watching this movie… on the other hand, “so this is the final scene?” and then there was 45 minutes left.

The movie tries to do a lot, and… a lot of it’s successful? Eh, whatevs, let’s go with:

Thief. Michael Mann. 1981. ⚄

Play It Again, Sam

I’ve seen this before — like, in the early 80s? On VHS? But I always thought this was a Woody Allen movie, but he’s just an actor in this one?

“>Oh! He wrote it, too? That makes more sense. So then I wonder what the story behind this is — the studio just didn’t trust him to direct anything, so they got a different director in to oversee everything?

I mean, there’s even Diana Keaton…

Right, Herbert Ross has directed a whole bunch of funny and crowd-pleasing movies.

The movie is really funny, but it is difficult getting into this movie because you know too much about Allen these days. And this movie makes it even harder, because his character’s name is “Allan”, so the identification between character and actor is, like, 100%. And him being this nebbish guy just doesn’t quite work because of what you now know.