Welcome to a new column here at Hillhead Review. The good folk upstairs have permitted your correspondent space to write a few words on the world of cinema – specifically the world of cinema freely and legally available online. No subscription fees needed here (3F is aware BBC iPlayer is not technically free, but what’s a TV license between friends). So: check in regularly to expand your horizons beyond superheroes, franchises, and reboots, all from the comfort of your laptop.
The aforementioned iPlayer really is a treasure trove. Some bona fide greats are hanging out there. One is THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, probably the most famous unfinished film ever. Director Orson Welles had only a year before helmed CITIZEN KANE, which you may have heard of, but his relationship with studio RKO was rapidly breaking down. With the film still in post-production Welles left for a short project in South America – RKO shot their own ending and released the film before he could do anything about it. The footage for Welles’ version was posted out to him in Brazil but went missing, and has never been found.
The film that remains may be a hybrid but is still a banger. Set at the hinge of the 19th and 20th centuries it’s the story of the old-money Amberson family whose fortune gets swept away in the new era of industrialisation. There are interesting parallels with today, as we watch to see whether those betting the house on a new technology – then the car, now artificial intelligence – are onto a winner or not. Visually it’s terrific; they built a mansion with collapsable walls to let the camera glide through it in single takes, and the cast are very good looking. See if you can catch the change of tone in the final third when the studio’s re-shoots take over.
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), 84 minutes, BBC iPlayer. Available indefinitely.
Over on 4oD there’s a counterpart looking east rather than west. Set in the 1870s, the same decade AMBERSONS begins, CORSAGE is a fictionalised portrait of the Empress Sisi of Austria. Vicki Krieps, possibly the most exciting thing to ever emerge from Luxembourg, stars as the monarch. You wouldn’t know it from the gorgeous costume and set design but it’s a sneaky postmodern film, full of knowing comments about womanhood in the 21st century as well as the 19th. With this approach and ‘golden handcuffs’ theme it can’t help comparisons with Sofia Coppola’s MARIE ANTOINETTE – this is better.
CORSAGE is Kreutzer’s fifth feature. Her sixth, GENTLE MONSTER, stars the mighty Léa Seydoux and arrives in the UK as part of the BFI Film Festival in London later this year. Fingers crossed for a wider theatrical release, but it will be on Netflix in November.