Podcast: Quarantined with "Emma" and "Cactus Flower"
Saturday, March 21, 2020 at 10:00PM with Nathaniel R and Murtada Elfadl
Everyone's a shut-in so we'll be watching the same movies at home.
Index (33 minutes)
00:01 Updates on health and the NYC self-quarantine
04:20 Cactus Flower (1969) is a delight, though crazy sexist. We both fell hard for Ingrid Bergman and enjoyed Goldie Hawn's Oscar winning debut, too. It's streaming on Criterion Channel. We also talk briefly about our reader's choice series thus far and what's next.
17:38 The latest adaptation of Emma starring Anya Taylor-Joy. Murtada really loves Bill Nighy and Nathaniel loves the look but we both think it's not as strong as the 1996 Gwyneth Paltrow version.
26:30 Bonus randomness - two perfect leading lady star vehicles: Rita Hayworth in Gilda and Cher in Moonstruck.
31:00 Wrap-up
You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you?
Reader Comments (9)
Nice chat!
So glad you talked about Cactus Flower in such depth. Goldie is charming (I can't agree on her Supporting Actress win though, not with Susannah York's brilliance in They Shoot Horses, Don't They? in competition) but I agree that the movie belonged to Ingrid Bergman. She's so sly and lovely in it.
Looking forward to the discussion of Only Angels Have Wings!
Feel better soon Nathaniel!!!
I have a hard time believing that spectacular women like Ingrid Bergman and Goldie Hawn found Walter Matthau so appealing.
And the Supporting Actress Oscar should have been awarded to Catherine Burns for playing Rhoda in Last Summer. She was heartbreaking. That monologue about her mother still merits acclaim.
Moonstruck was conceived as a Sally Field vehicle. Cher's casting made the character more glamorous than intended.
Moonstruck is great and extremely rewatchable.
all of it’s 3 Oscar wins are among the most deserving winners of their categories
Loved Bergman in Cactus Flower. Better than two of her Oscar wins, maybe even all three. (She's great in Gaslight, but had far too many on-the-edge-of-passing-out roles.)
In Supporting, I'd be 100% Team Cannon that year. Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice was absolutely brilliant.
I see an 1969 Supporting Actress Smackdown coming.
Get better soon, Nathaniel!
Moonstruck may be my favorite movie made in the 1980s. It is truly perfect.
Cactus Flower played on constant rotation in my house as a kid. I absolutely love every second of it.
I need to re-watch Cactus Flower. There are certain scenes that have stuck firmly in my mind, mostly involving Ingrid Bergman and Goldie Hawn (both are delightful in it). I thought Mia Goth was terrific in Emma, playing just the right notes of insecure and dependent (and I actually thought Anya Taylor-Joy was perfect casting, particularly due to those facial features which always make her look conniving and dangerous, even though we're let in on her schemes here).
I'm going to be hosting a virtual movie club while we're on lockdown (I basically made a call on my Facebook and a bunch of people are going to join me on Zoom to talk about a movie a week). I'm looking forward to that.