New Year's Eve plays a role in numerous Hwood movies. A few that spring to mind:
Sunset Blvd. (1950): Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) throws a New Year's Eve party for two, she and Joe Gillis (William Holden)
The Apartment (1960): Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine) dumps her ex-lover Jeff Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray) for good, then runs through the streets of Manhattan to the apartment of her true love Clifford Baxer (Jack Lemmon)
When Harry Met Sally (1989): Harry (Billy Crystal) through the streets of Manhattan to a New Year's Eve party to profess his love to Sally (Meg Ryan)
Forrest Gump (1994): Forrest (Tom Hanks) 'celebrates' New Year's Eve in crowded bar with a somber Lt. Dan (Gary Sinese)
New Year's Eve represents that mystical transition from the 'old' to the 'new,' the future full of possibilities -- and so it makes sense in Sunset Blvd., The Apartment, and When Harry Met Sally that key characters would seize the moment to make a break with the past, or in Ms. Desmond's case at least try to. But with that moment in Forrest Gump, followed by the disastrous encounter with the two floozies in Lt. Dan's apartment, the story uses New Year's Eve to underscore another point: While the world is moving from the old to the new, Lt. Dan is still stuck in a rut, at rock bottom, and making no move to change his life. Perhaps it's his memory later on of this dark night that precipitates his trek to see Forrest when Forrest has begun his shrimp boat operation, eventually leading to Lt. Dan's 'reconstruction' as a character.
You can go through the list of holidays -- Christmas, Valentine's Day, Thanksgiving, Independence Day, Groundhog Day and so on -- and find movies which use these occasions as backdrops and themes for their stories. In fact, there was the pitch sale in October called "Leap Year" which uses an Irish custom on each February 29th as the main hook of the story.
One final point: Hwood can tie a movie's holiday setting / theme to its release on the actual holiday weekend, oftentimes a great marketing ploy.
Holiday movies. Something to think about when you're brainstorming story ideas.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
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4 comments:
One more for your list, Scott. The terribly overlooked Coen Brothers flick THE HUDSUCKER PROXY. As much as it's a totally daffy slapstick farce, it also addresses, quite touchingly, our collective choices and the passage of time and second chances.
"Y'know... for kids!"
Oh, and I forgot to add, one of the few films where the stroke of midnight on New Years Eve is a major plot point.
Additionally, the not-great-but-interesting STRANGE DAYS also uses New Years Eve to great dramatic advantage.
One of my favorite movies of all time, "Radio Days", ends with much of the cast on the roof of a building on New Year's Eve.
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