#187: Gone with the wind, Movies recommended or seen lately... les films a voir

Genre: Drama/Drame

Annee/Year: 1939

Format: Blu Ray

Gone with the wind. One of the american cinema's greatest classic now beautifully restored and availble on Blu Ray. Definitely a good investment. This classic film was done in 1939 and is shown in full screen (aspect ratio 1.33:1) as the movies of that period were shot. Sound and image are perfectly restored and we cannot flaw this restoration.

Director Victor Fleming created this masterpiece on the same year he put out the also excellent Wizard of Oz. Two movies who marked the art and the times by the same director on the same year(which happens to be the year the 2nd world war started as well); nothing less than breathtaking.

Victor used one the most amazing cast for this movie: Vivien Leigh plays the main role of a spoiled rich girl named Scarlett O'hara, who is placed in unsusually grueling circumstances which she must face to survive. The famous Clark Gable is cast in the main male role of Rhett Butler a sleazy character with enough ego to pull through the war and get out winning. The tale is set in 1860 in southern USA in the area of Atlanta during the civil war. The movie starts us before the civil war with the southerners and their beutiful plantations and their huge egos and pride. We see the beautiful soires organised on the plantations and the young Sacrlett plotting to get at the heart of every man she can convince. She is especially interested in the one man which cannot get and who will get engage with her cousin/neighbor and she hates her for that.

The movie quickly turns us to war time and how the south bitterly lost the civil war. The plantations were mainly destroyed and pillage and life for young Scarlett makes a turn for the worst as she has to take control of her surroundings, her father's plantation after he goes crazy and has to do anything to stay alive and keep her land as well as help her sick friends.

After the war we see Scarlett marrying to a man she does not love but who will bring her revenue and allow her to become a shrewd business woman. After this second husband gets killed in a political face off, she gets engaged to Rhett who always saw her for what she truly is. Perfectly knowing his wife still secretely loved her friends' husband. After having two children/babies and losing both in tragic accidents involving Rhett she fianlly realizes her true love is her husbad Rhett at the moment her best friend dies and she realizes she could have her husband but does not really love him. By then it is too late and Rhett leaves her in a tragic final scene where she realizes all she has is her land named Tara.

An epic movie, larger than life, with countless sets and scenes and actors. Beautifully crafted and shot with exquisite dresses and decors. This movie is a 4 hour adventure recounting an important part of the american history from a very interesting perspective. Mixing action and history to a complex love story this is truly a classic tale. Never has a movie aged more beautifully, it is truly timeless.

Autant en emporte le vent. Un grand classique américain dans la plus grande tradition du cinéma. Ceci est la revue de la restauration du 70e anniversaire de ce grand film qui est distribué sur Blu Ray. Le réalisateur Victor Fleming a aussi sorti en 1939 le film le Magicien d'Oz; vraiment incroyable qu`un réalisateur puisse sortir deux films si marquants la même année...

Victor utilisa une des meilleures distributions de tous les temps pour ce film: Scarlett O`Hara jouée par Vivan Leigh et Rhett Butler joué par le non moins fameux Clark Gable ainsi qu`une troupe énorme de personnages secondaires inoubliables. Ce film grandiose est mémorable autant par sa trame sonore (toujours utilisée lors de la remise des Oscars, que par ses décors gigantesques, ou par la qualité de sa cinématographie, mais aussi par ses costumes inoubliables.

Le film se déroule en 1860 et nous fait revivre la période précédant la guerre civile américaine en première loge des plantations autour d`Atlanta. On y voit la richesse des propriétaires et de leurs familles et leur vaine fierté qui les conduisit à la guerre avec les Yankees. Pendant la seconde partie du film, on vit les affres de la guerre et les difficultés des habitants à y survivre. Le film se termine sur la reconstruction de l`économie et des familles après cette sanglante guerre. Mais ce film nous montre ceci comme arrière-plan seulement, car le film suit la vie de Scarlett à travers cette guerre et on la voit de jeune fille riche et impudente devenir une femme plus épanouie qui a su survivre dans une période très difficile. Le film la suit dans ses amours avec trois maris qu`elle n`a jamais su aimer; jusqu'au moment où elle réalise à quel point elle adore son mari Rhett. Dans la scène finale elle lui avoue son amour, mais trop tard, car il la quitte... Dans la plus pure tradition des vraies tragédies grecques.

Un film grandiose et un des plus grands classiques que tous doivent voir. Mais attention ce film dure 4 heures. Elles seront vite passées en si bonne compagnie. Ce film n`a vraiment rien perdu avec l`age; tel un bon vin!

Great quotes:

Title card: There was a land of Cavaliers and Cotton Fields called the Old South... Here in this pretty world Gallantry took its last bow... Here was the last ever to be seen of Knights and their Ladies Fair, of Master and of Slave... Look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered. A Civilization gone with the wind...
...
Scarlett: Atlanta!
Mammy: Savannah would be better for ya. You'd just get in trouble in Atlanta.
Scarlett: What trouble are you talking about?
Mammy: You know what trouble I's talkin' 'bout. I's talking 'bout Mr. Ashley Wilkes. He'll be comin' to Atlanta when he gets his leave, and you sittin' there waitin' for him, just like a spider. He belongs to Miss Melanie...
Scarlett: You go pack my things like Mother said.
...
Rhett Butler: With enough courage, you can do without a reputation.
...
Scarlett: [pleads with Rhett as he is about to leave to join the Confederate Army] Oh, Rhett! Please, don't go! You can't leave me! Please! I'll never forgive you!
Rhett Butler: I'm not asking you to forgive me. I'll never understand or forgive myself. And if a bullet gets me, so help me, I'll laugh at myself for being an idiot. There's one thing I do know... and that is that I love you, Scarlett. In spite of you and me and the whole silly world going to pieces around us, I love you. Because we're alike. Bad lots, both of us. Selfish and shrewd. But able to look things in the eyes as we call them by their right names.
Scarlett: [struggles] Don't hold me like that!
Rhett Butler: [holds her tighter] Scarlett! Look at me! I've loved you more than I've ever loved any woman and I've waited for you longer than I've ever waited for any woman. [kisses her forhead]
Scarlett: [turns her face away] Let me alone!
Rhett Butler: [forces her to look him in the eyes] Here's a soldier of the South who loves you, Scarlett. Wants to feel your arms around him, wants to carry the memory of your kisses into battle with him. Never mind about loving me, you're a woman sending a soldier to his death with a beautiful memory. Scarlett! Kiss me! Kiss me... once...
[he kisses her]
...
Rhett Butler: Take a good look my dear. It's an historic moment you can tell your grandchildren about - how you watched the Old South fall one night.
...
Rhett Butler: Now that you've got your lumber mill and Frank's money, you won't come to me as you did to the jail, so I see I shall have to marry you.
Scarlett: I never heard of such bad taste.
...
Scarlett: Sir, you are no gentleman.
Rhett Butler: And you, Miss, are no lady.
...
Scarlett: As God is my witness, as God is my witness they're not going to lick me. I'm going to live through this and when it's all over, I'll never be hungry again. No, nor any of my folk. If I have to lie, steal, cheat or kill. As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again.
...
Melanie Hamilton: Whatever happens, I'll love you just as I do now until I die.
...
Scarlett: Rhett, Rhett... Rhett, if you go, where shall I go? What shall I do?
Rhett Butler: Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.
...
[last lines] Scarlett: Tara! Home. I'll go home. And I'll think of some way to get him back. After all... tomorrow is another day.

Link: http://warnervideo.com/gonewiththewind/

Rating perso: 8.5/10