Criterion Channel is going to have a George Cukor list next month and like I need to fangirl over George Cukor.
I've only seen 5 of his movies out of his prolific filmography and I've loved them all. A lot of what I like about him is how he handles his female characters and the interaction between his characters.
One thing that always stands out to me is how he uses the close up. In Dinner at Eight there's this one scene where a doctor and his wife are discussing the doctor's extra marital affairs and the close ups he did on the doctor and the wife made the scene so much more impactful and really leaves a lasting impression on you. If you didn't have the close ups, it would be just another conversation, but the close ups give the scene a lot more depth. The wife is playing it cool with what she says but through the close up you can see that she is hurt.
The way he jumps from one genre to the next is impressive too. Gaslight and My Fair Lady are two totally different films. One is a terrorizing film about a woman's fear that she is going mad and the other is a film about a girl in poverty who wants to be accepted by high society. Two totally different characters, two different plots, but all the same they are so impactful and you feel for the characters the same. You want them to succeed. I feel like he can spark empathy in even the most hardened of movie fans.
tl;dr george cukor is lit af okay?
I've only seen 5 of his movies out of his prolific filmography and I've loved them all. A lot of what I like about him is how he handles his female characters and the interaction between his characters.
One thing that always stands out to me is how he uses the close up. In Dinner at Eight there's this one scene where a doctor and his wife are discussing the doctor's extra marital affairs and the close ups he did on the doctor and the wife made the scene so much more impactful and really leaves a lasting impression on you. If you didn't have the close ups, it would be just another conversation, but the close ups give the scene a lot more depth. The wife is playing it cool with what she says but through the close up you can see that she is hurt.
The way he jumps from one genre to the next is impressive too. Gaslight and My Fair Lady are two totally different films. One is a terrorizing film about a woman's fear that she is going mad and the other is a film about a girl in poverty who wants to be accepted by high society. Two totally different characters, two different plots, but all the same they are so impactful and you feel for the characters the same. You want them to succeed. I feel like he can spark empathy in even the most hardened of movie fans.
tl;dr george cukor is lit af okay?
