Long Day's Journey Into Night. (PG.)
Directed by Sidney Lumet. 1964.
Starring Katharine Hepburn, Ralph Richardson, Jason Robards Jr., Dean Stockwell and Jeanne Barr. 170 mins. Out on Blu-ray/ DVD in the Eureka Masters of Cinema series.
Long Day's Journeys into Night: there's a lot of them about. This release of the first screen version of Eugene O'Neill's classic play comes within a month of the home release of the Chinese film bearing the same name. They are very different – a black and white version of a stage play set in a single location; a luminous, technically daring piece of arthouse cinema where dreams and memory entwine – yet they both provide compelling arguments for the value of cinema. The Chinese one by exploring the boundless opportunities the medium opens; this by demonstrating that even the worse movie is better than the torture of a night of Broadway fearta.
From the moment Hepburn utters its first line, “Thank heaven the fog is gone, I do feel out of sorts this morning,” complete with some hideous thespian pauses, you know that it is going to be a very, very long journey. O'Neill's Pulitzer/ Tony Prize winner - reckoned to be up there with the greatest American plays of the 20th century - is about a family whose members don't seem to remember anything about themselves or their past, so have to be constantly reminded of it by the others. James Tyrone (Richardson) was once a great actor, he remembers that well enough, but can't go ten minutes without a family member informing him that he is a miser. Elder son Jamie (Robards) needs reminding that he is a drunk failure. Younger son Edmund (Stockwell) can't be allowed to forget that he has consumption. The only thing that goes unmentioned is that mother (Hepburn) is a morphine addict. It was hard to suppress a hoot of derision on working out what "needing a new pair of glasses" and "doing my hair up" were euphemisms for.
So over the course of a summer's day at their country home, starting at breakfast, the four members of the family retell each their life stories, say rotten things they instantly regret, say another rotten thing, have a drink and tell dad he's a miser again, because it's been ten minutes, until midnight when they all go to bed. Presumably the next day they wake up having forgotten all this and tell each other the same things all over again.
Lumet does a decent enough job of giving it as much dramatic impact as possible – there's a moment late on during a Hepburn monologue, when he darkens the set and pulls the camera back to a distance that would be the equivalent of being about ten rows back in the stalls, or perhaps the front of the circle, which is very effective. Mostly though the film wants to take the Nobel winner's play as seriously as possible, make out that this is stark and harrowing, which simply emphasises the thespian absurdity of it all. Hepburn is one of the finest screen actresses ever but her performance frequently had me in fits of laughter. It's a Long Film's Journey to On Golden Pond.
Directed by Sidney Lumet. 1964.
Starring Katharine Hepburn, Ralph Richardson, Jason Robards Jr., Dean Stockwell and Jeanne Barr. 170 mins. Out on Blu-ray/ DVD in the Eureka Masters of Cinema series.
Long Day's Journeys into Night: there's a lot of them about. This release of the first screen version of Eugene O'Neill's classic play comes within a month of the home release of the Chinese film bearing the same name. They are very different – a black and white version of a stage play set in a single location; a luminous, technically daring piece of arthouse cinema where dreams and memory entwine – yet they both provide compelling arguments for the value of cinema. The Chinese one by exploring the boundless opportunities the medium opens; this by demonstrating that even the worse movie is better than the torture of a night of Broadway fearta.
From the moment Hepburn utters its first line, “Thank heaven the fog is gone, I do feel out of sorts this morning,” complete with some hideous thespian pauses, you know that it is going to be a very, very long journey. O'Neill's Pulitzer/ Tony Prize winner - reckoned to be up there with the greatest American plays of the 20th century - is about a family whose members don't seem to remember anything about themselves or their past, so have to be constantly reminded of it by the others. James Tyrone (Richardson) was once a great actor, he remembers that well enough, but can't go ten minutes without a family member informing him that he is a miser. Elder son Jamie (Robards) needs reminding that he is a drunk failure. Younger son Edmund (Stockwell) can't be allowed to forget that he has consumption. The only thing that goes unmentioned is that mother (Hepburn) is a morphine addict. It was hard to suppress a hoot of derision on working out what "needing a new pair of glasses" and "doing my hair up" were euphemisms for.
So over the course of a summer's day at their country home, starting at breakfast, the four members of the family retell each their life stories, say rotten things they instantly regret, say another rotten thing, have a drink and tell dad he's a miser again, because it's been ten minutes, until midnight when they all go to bed. Presumably the next day they wake up having forgotten all this and tell each other the same things all over again.
Lumet does a decent enough job of giving it as much dramatic impact as possible – there's a moment late on during a Hepburn monologue, when he darkens the set and pulls the camera back to a distance that would be the equivalent of being about ten rows back in the stalls, or perhaps the front of the circle, which is very effective. Mostly though the film wants to take the Nobel winner's play as seriously as possible, make out that this is stark and harrowing, which simply emphasises the thespian absurdity of it all. Hepburn is one of the finest screen actresses ever but her performance frequently had me in fits of laughter. It's a Long Film's Journey to On Golden Pond.
