Thu June 18, 2015
Leave Her to Heaven (John M. Stahl, US, 1945)
SEE EVENT DETAILS
at PFA Theater
(see times)
“Movies like Stahl’s were not made for TV. Their purpose unfolds only on the big screen, where the blue-velvet skies and the lethally smooth waters of Leave Her to Heaven acquire the unquestioned clarity of a fever dream.”—Anthony Lane, New Yorker
Leave Her to Heaven refashions the melodrama for the noir-stained 1940s: it reveals the devoted wife and the femme fatale as two sides of the same character, the romantic dream as nightmare. Gene Tierney stars as Ellen, a woman who, in her mother’s words, “loves too much.” When Ellen tells her new husband (Cornel Wilde) “I’ll never let you go,” it’s both a promise and a threat. Leave Her to Heaven is a departure from the relatively plain visual style of Stahl’s 1930s melodramas, luxuriating in desert and lakeside settings where even the sky seems designed to match Tierney’s eyes. (Leon Shamroy won an Oscar for the Technicolor cinematography.) But the film’s lavish looks and hysterical plot are tempered by its curiously quiet pacing and Stahl’s fundamental reticence. As the camera observes Tierney gliding sharklike in a pool or floating impassively on a glassy lake, the real turbulence stays just below the surface.
• Written by Jo Swerling. Photographed by Leon Shamroy. With Gene Tierney, Cornel Wilde, Jeanne Crain, Vincent Price. (110 mins, Color, 35mm, From Criterion Pictures)
show less
Leave Her to Heaven refashions the melodrama for the noir-stained 1940s: it reveals the devoted wife and the femme fatale as two sides of the same character, the romantic dream as nightmare. Gene Tierney stars as Ellen, a woman who, in her mother’s words, “loves too much.” When Ellen tells her new husband (Cornel Wilde) “I’ll never let you go,” it’s both a promise and a threat. Leave Her to Heaven is a departure from the relatively plain visual style of Stahl’s 1930s melodramas, luxuriating in desert and lakeside settings where even the sky seems designed to match Tierney’s eyes. (Leon Shamroy won an Oscar for the Technicolor cinematography.) But the film’s lavish looks and hysterical plot are tempered by its curiously quiet pacing and Stahl’s fundamental reticence. As the camera observes Tierney gliding sharklike in a pool or floating impassively on a glassy lake, the real turbulence stays just below the surface.
• Written by Jo Swerling. Photographed by Leon Shamroy. With Gene Tierney, Cornel Wilde, Jeanne Crain, Vincent Price. (110 mins, Color, 35mm, From Criterion Pictures)
“Movies like Stahl’s were not made for TV. Their purpose unfolds only on the big screen, where the blue-velvet skies and the lethally smooth waters of Leave Her to Heaven acquire the unquestioned clarity of a fever dream.”—Anthony Lane, New Yorker
Leave Her to Heaven refashions the melodrama for the noir-stained 1940s: it reveals the devoted wife and the femme fatale as two sides of the same character, the romantic dream as nightmare. Gene Tierney stars as Ellen, a woman who, in her mother’s words, “loves too much.” When Ellen tells her new husband (Cornel Wilde) “I’ll never let you go,” it’s both a promise and a threat. Leave Her to Heaven is a departure from the relatively plain visual style of Stahl’s 1930s melodramas, luxuriating in desert and lakeside settings where even the sky seems designed to match Tierney’s eyes. (Leon Shamroy won an Oscar for the Technicolor cinematography.) But the film’s lavish looks and hysterical plot are tempered by its curiously quiet pacing and Stahl’s fundamental reticence. As the camera observes Tierney gliding sharklike in a pool or floating impassively on a glassy lake, the real turbulence stays just below the surface.
• Written by Jo Swerling. Photographed by Leon Shamroy. With Gene Tierney, Cornel Wilde, Jeanne Crain, Vincent Price. (110 mins, Color, 35mm, From Criterion Pictures)
read more
Leave Her to Heaven refashions the melodrama for the noir-stained 1940s: it reveals the devoted wife and the femme fatale as two sides of the same character, the romantic dream as nightmare. Gene Tierney stars as Ellen, a woman who, in her mother’s words, “loves too much.” When Ellen tells her new husband (Cornel Wilde) “I’ll never let you go,” it’s both a promise and a threat. Leave Her to Heaven is a departure from the relatively plain visual style of Stahl’s 1930s melodramas, luxuriating in desert and lakeside settings where even the sky seems designed to match Tierney’s eyes. (Leon Shamroy won an Oscar for the Technicolor cinematography.) But the film’s lavish looks and hysterical plot are tempered by its curiously quiet pacing and Stahl’s fundamental reticence. As the camera observes Tierney gliding sharklike in a pool or floating impassively on a glassy lake, the real turbulence stays just below the surface.
• Written by Jo Swerling. Photographed by Leon Shamroy. With Gene Tierney, Cornel Wilde, Jeanne Crain, Vincent Price. (110 mins, Color, 35mm, From Criterion Pictures)
show less
Date/Times:
PFA Theater
2575 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, CA 94720
The Best Events
Every Week in Your Inbox
From Our Sponsors
UPCOMING EVENTS
Great suggestion! We'll be in touch.
Event reviewed successfully.