Feb. 20, 2003 - 9:47 pm

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Gilda (1946)

i saw this one on the shelf at work a few days ago and thought "hey, i've never seen a Rita Hayworth movie. that must be the one to see." this is probably the one she's best known for. if you've ever seen The Shawshank Redemption (1994), you've seen at least a clip out of this. she really did do a good job and wasn't just a beautiful actress. she was also good at her job, i now realize. she didn't completely knock me off my feet, but she did a very good job.

this movie involves a love triangle. strangely enough, this is one of the films featured in The Celluloid Closet (1995) that i watched a few months back. i totally had forgotten that, so i was freaked out by the fact that there is a subtle but substantial dose of homosexuality tossed into the subtext of this film. it's about an American gambler who meets the owner of a casino in South America and becomes his right hand man. later on you start to become fairly certain that they were a bit more than friends. but then one day the owner goes off and marries Gilda. needless to say Johnny, the young gambler, is a little upset. and it surely doesn't help that Gilda and he were actually together at one point. it's probably the most in depth and confusing love triangle i've ever seen.

this has a great screenplay though. it totally wasn't what i was expecting. i guess i was expecting some sort of fluff film that focuses totally on how complicated and goddess-like this woman Gilda was. instead i got some complicated film noir with a large quantity of scorned love and masked homosexuality. i enjoyed it because it wasn't what i was expecting and because i didn't completely understand everything that was going on. i guess i enjoy that sometimes. i mean when i don't completely understand everything that happens. it makes a movie worth watching again. i still need to watch my new copy of Mulholland Dr. (2001).

that's weird. the IMDb lists Gilda as having been referenced in Mulholland Dr. i guess that's just one of the many things i'll have to watch out for.