There's Still the River

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I posted this almost three years ago and wrote a little about it, but I'm posting it again because Emily gave me the brand new Criterion Collection DVD for Christmas and I finally had the chance to re-watch it:


Charles Laughton: The Night of the Hunter (excerpt), 1955.

This river scene in particular features maybe my favorite cinematography-plus-music of all time. I first saw The Night of the Hunter with one of my best friends, Jen Tadaki, at Film Forum in New York. Awhile after that, she and another friend of ours gave me the soundtrack on vinyl – Charles Laughton reading the story, with bits of audio from the movie interspersed – for my birthday. Laughton's film is as beautiful as it is frightening, and the record and DVD are prized possessions/experiences.

If you haven't seen The Night of the Hunter (or if you have), check it out on Netflix or get the new DVD from Criterion.

Stuck By This River

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Busy day, so I will make this a quickie.

I was reminded recently of one of the most beautiful pieces of black and white cinematography I know of—the river scene in Charles Laughton's brilliant and chilling "Night of the Hunter." I don't want to ruin the story if you haven't seen the movie, but all you really need to know for a lead-in is that the evil preacher (Robert Mitchum) is relentlessly pursuing the brother and sister, and they escape in a rowboat down the Mississippi River. It's a long clip, but worth watching all the way through so you can catch all the different little animals on the side of the river (not to mention the feeling of utter dread at the appearance of the evil preacher's silhouette).

The weird thing is, this movie flopped at the box office and Laughton never directed again.