Archive for the ‘Mildred Pierce’ Category
You mean you just loaf?
Dear Natalie,
It was hard to decide which image to go with to frame Part II – the dashing loafer, Monty Beragan (as I clearly did), the vapid conniver Veda (of whom I had a hard time finding a good image), or sweet, loveable Ray, who is with us no more. I can’t wait to hear what you thought coming to the story with fresh eyes, but Part II definitely picked up for me. It accomplished an enormous amount in an hour. Mildred is no longer an ashamed working girl but the ecstatic owner of an about to open business, with her name in shining neon. She is no longer the kept woman of awkward, slobbish Wally, but the lover of stylish, swaggering Monty Beragan. Read the rest of this entry »
Not Just Bread, All the Cake in the World
Moth Chase friends – we’ll be blogging part 1 of MP today, and following up with Part 2 on Wednesday…
Dear Kathryn,
Well, after watching part 1, I’m not entirely hooked on this miniseries – although anything that promises that Guy Pearce is on his way will keep me tuned in. I chose this picture and this title for this post because I think their juxtaposition reveals a sad prescience for our particular moment in time. Mildred, a women who up to that horrible moment of her husband leaving was of decent means – seemingly not at all touched by the 2 year old Depression destroying other parts of the country – still only has this one dress and pair of shoes to go out and do her pavement pounding in! It’s unimaginable to today’s middle class, let alone upper middle class (which apparently Vida thinks they are). So even someone who lives comfortably within such normal restrictions insists she wants cake, not bread, for her children – all the cake in the world. There’s something about her new scarcity that makes her seek abundance now…and it left me wondering how that is writ large on our national psyche now, 80some years after The Great Depression…how much does our culture of excessive excess grow out of a period of need? In a sense, I’m watching for a clue to that desire. Well, for that and the crazy sexual politics…my goodness! Read the rest of this entry »
