Saturday, June 13, 2009

the pursuit of purity





























many of us fall in love with novelist d. h. lawrence. while reading 'lady chatterley's lover' one senses that he understands the nature and complications of desire. how one maintains a generous spirit while holding on to the commitment to oneself is an important theme. in his book 'sons and lovers' this writer managed to bring together many aspects of love: familial, sexual, and self.
actor dean stockwell adopts a pretty good english accent to portray 'paul', the second of three sons born into a family of coal miners. trevor howard plays his grime encrusted proud and loving (in his sad way) father. the divine wendy hiller plays the mother. these three alone guarantee a quality experience. added to this cast is one of the absolute jewels of cinema, actress mary ure, as paul's mature love interest. this movie is the single most beautiful looking black and white i have seen. among many other nominations, it won the oscar for cinematography. every aspect of this film is just stunning.
how does one honor one's fate while keeping selfishness at bay? that is an important question and this 1960 production of 'sons and lovers' helps us to find some answers.

from top: dean stockwell/mary ure/wendy hiller

1 comment:

nipper said...

pal, this film sums it up. this film has your favorites, mary, dean and wendy.