movie gourmet

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Keith Kupferer and Katherine Mallen Kupferer in GHOSTLIGHT. Courtesy of IFC Films.

This week on The Movie Gourmet, as we are on the verge of what looks like a rich fall movie season, I’m recommending another look at an overlooked little movie from earlier this year, the endearing family drama Ghostlight, available to watch at home on Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango (included). The acting in Ghostlight, which won the audience award at SCSW, is superbly authentic. The actors playing the family members are an actual dad, mom and daughter. One of the best movies of the year.

CURRENT MOVIES

  • Thelma: too proud to be taken. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • Perfect Days: intentional contentment. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango, Hulu (included).
  • How to Come Alive: addicted to his own turmoil. In theaters.
  • Didi: learning to get out of his own way. In theaters.
  • Between the Temples: prodded out of his funk. In theaters.
  • Hit Man: who knew self-invention could be so fun? Netflix.
  • I Saw the TV Glow: brimming with originality. Back in some theaters and Amazon, AppleTV; Fandango.
  • The Bikeriders: they ride, drink and fight, and yet we care. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango, Peacock (included).
  • Ghostlight: a family saves itself, in iambic pentameter. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango (included).
  • Challengers: three people and their desire. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • La Chimera: six genres for the price of one. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.

ON TV

Cynda Williams and Billy Bob Thornton in ONE FALSE MOVE

On September 21, Turner Classic Movies presents the gripping contemporary neo-noir One False Move. This is a fundamentally noir story – there are guys overreaching for greed and ambition, a femme fatale, and a very dark secret. America’s original sin – race – is at the core of One False Move.

The tale begins with a home invasion in Los Angeles. Two vicious professional robbers, with one’s beautiful girlfriend, steal money and cocaine, leaving a trail of corpses. The crime is solved right away – the cops know who did it and that the murderers are headed to a small town in Arkansas. The LA cops fly to Arkansas and lay in wait with the local constabulary. One False Move is a ticking time bomb as we wait for the criminals to drive across the Southwest to the inevitable confrontation. 

One False Move features a great performance by the late Bill Paxton. It’s one of my Overlooked Neo-noir, and can also be streamed from Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu and YouTube.

Bill Paxton in ONE FALSE MOVE

Under the Radar at NashFilm

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Rene Perez Joglar (center) in IN THE SUMMERS. Courtesy of NashFilm and Music Box Films.

While the Nashville Film Festival has its share of high-profile movies, don’t miss the discoveries that are screening under the radar. Here are three films by new directors and an indie doc with 100% African-American voices. These movies are why we go to film festivals. 

  • In the Summers: in this remarkably authentic and evocative narrative, two sisters fly to Las Cruces, New Mexico, for annual summer visits with their divorced dad. The father, Vincente, played by Rene Perez Joglar (AKA the rapper Residente) is a spirited and talented underachiever who tries to show them a Disney Dad experience; the girls soak up the fun, but also absorb lessons about Vincente’s less reliable characteristics. Each summer the girls return with additional savvy and sponge up real world lessons from Vincente’s changing circumstances and behavior. It’s a compelling coming of age for the daughters, but the changes each year in the dad, bouncing from unearned swagger to self-loathing distraction to an uneasy humility, are just as forceful. The three sets of actors playing the daughters as they mature are excellent, as is Joglar. In the Summers is a triumphant debut feature for writer-director Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio, who coveys so much without spoon-feeding the audience.
  • To a Land Unknown: This searing thriller takes us to Athens, into the underground world of Palestinian migrants stuck until they acquire false passports that will get them into Germany. Yasser (Mohammed Ghassan) is a decent family man forced into low level criminality to survive and raise money for the forged passport; he is also burdened by responsibility for his cousin, whose drug addiction is a ticking bomb. Repeatedly exploited and defrauded, Yasser conceives of one very risky way out – to scam the very human traffickers preying on him. Ghassan is excellent, as is Angeliki Papoulis as a fun-loving but clear-eyed Greek woman also living in the margins. To a Land Unknown is the gripping first feature for Dubai-born Mahdi Fleifel, who works between Britain, Denmark and Greece.
  • A King Like Me: This fun and thoughtful doc tells the story of the all-African-American Mardi Gras parading organization, Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club. A King Like Me traces the journey of this 100+-year-old New Orleans cultural institution as it survives Jim Crow, Hurricane Katrina and COVID-19, and faces a sensitive question – should African-American men continue to publicly parade in black face? This movie is brimming with humanity.
  • Endless Summer Syndrome: A professional couple and their two very attractive teenage kids are enjoying August, as upscale Parisians like to do, in a roomy, well-appointed country home. Their idyll is rocked when the mom is tipped off that the dad may be sexually involved with one of the adopted kids. She furtively investigates, trying to find out what is going on with whom. We know that there will be a reckoning once she finds out, but no one in the audience will guess the shattering ending. First-time director and co-writer Kaveh Daneshmand keeps the tension simmering. The performances are superb, and I was surprised to learn that only one of the four actors has substantial film experience.

Also see my Previewing the Nashville Film Festival. Here’s the Film Guide.

Frederika Milano and Gem Deger in ENDLESS SUMMER SYNDROME. Courtesy of NashFilm and Altered Innnocence.

Previewing the Nashville Film Festival

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Will Ferrell and Harper Steele in WILL & HARPER. Courtesy of Netflix.

The always exquisitely curated Nashville Film Festival opens on Thursday, September 19 and runs through September 25 with a diverse menu of cinema. The Nashville Film Festival is the oldest running film festival in the South (this is the 55th!) and is an Academy Award qualifying festival. The program includes a mix of indies, docs and international cinema, including world and North American premieres.

Programming Director Lauren Thelen says, “I’m impressed, honored and excited to screen this year 150 films from 25 countries. I continue to be impressed by the diverse range of cinema out there, and I’m eager to see how our audience will react.”

I’ve sampled the program and, later this week, will recommend three films by new directors and an indie doc with 100% African-American voices.

The Nashville Film Festival embraces its home in Music City and emphasizes films about music, like Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road, Fanny: The Right to Rock, The Return of Tanya Tucker: Featuring Brandi Carlile and Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues from the three most recent fests. That’s the case with this year’s fest opener, Devo, and the closer, This Is a Film About the Black Keys. There’s some insider buzz about Songs from the Hole.

One sure fire crowd-pleaser will be the Netflix doc Will & Harper, featuring a road trip by Will Farrell and his longtime friend, former SNL writer Harper Steele, who has transitioned.

See it here first: several films in the program have already secured distribution and will be available to theater and/or watch-at-home audiences. Before just anybody can watch them, you can get your personal preview at the Nashville Film Festival: Will & Harper, Bob Trevino Likes It, In the Summers, Exhibiting Forgiveness and Endless Summer Syndrome.

Check out the program and buy tickets at the festival’s Film Guide. Watch this space in a couple days for my NashFilm recommendations. Here’s the festival trailer.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Ben Gazzara and Audrey Hepburn in THEY ALL LAUGHED

This week on The Movie Gourmet, Turner Classic Movies presents one of my favorite overlooked movies, the extremely hard-to-find THEY ALL LAUGHED. Peter Bogdanovich’s 1971 film elevates the entire rom com genre. The middleaged romance between Ben Gazzara and Audrey Hepburn is exquisitely wistful and authentic. John Ritter leads an endearingly funny supporting cast with Patti Hansen, Blaine Novak, Dorothy Stratton and Colleen Camp. Ritter’s comedic performance is itself a masterpiece – right up there with the best of Chaplin, Keaton and Cary Grant. They All Laughed remains an essentially lost film, although you can find the DVD. Set your DVR to record the TCM screening on September 15.

REMEMBRANCE

James Earl Jones’ expressive face, imposing bearing and authoritative voice won him an Oscar for THE GREAT WHITE HOPE. The voice was enough by itself to dominate the STAR WARS franchise as Darth Vader.

CURRENT MOVIES

  • Thelma: too proud to be taken. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • Perfect Days: intentional contentment. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango, Hulu (included).
  • How to Come Alive: addicted to his own turmoil. In theaters.
  • Didi: learning to get out of his own way. In theaters.
  • Between the Temples: prodded out of his funk. In theaters.
  • Hit Man: who knew self-invention could be so fun? Netflix.
  • I Saw the TV Glow: brimming with originality. Back in some theaters and Amazon, AppleTV; Fandango.
  • The Bikeriders: they ride, drink and fight, and yet we care. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango, Peacock (included).
  • Ghostlight: a family saves itself, in iambic pentameter. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango (included).
  • Challengers: three people and their desire. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • La Chimera: six genres for the price of one. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.

Movies to See Right Now

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Harry Dean Stanton in PARIS, TEXAS

This week on The Movie Gourmet – Harry Dean Stanton’s masterpiece in Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas has been restored and re-released in theaters. In Paris Texas, Harry Dean plays Travis, a man so traumatized that he has disappeared and is found wandering across the desert and mistaken for a mute.  As he is cared for by his brother (Dean Stockwell), he evolves from feral to erratic to troubled, but with a sense of tenderness and a determination to put things right.  We see Travis as a madman who gains extraordinary lucidity about what wrong in his life and his own responsibility for it.

At the film’s climax, Travis speaks to Jane (Natassja Kinski) through a one-way mirror (she can’t see him).  Spinning what at first seems like parable, Travis explains what happened to him – and to her – and why it happened.  It’s a 20-minute monologue so captivating and touching that it rises to be recognized as one of the very greatest screen performances.

Paris, Texas is on my list of the fifty or so Greatest Movies of All Time. It’s been playing the Laemmle theaters in LA this week, opens at San Francisco’s Roxie today and opens at the Palm in San Luis Obispo next week.

Natassja Kinski and Harry Dean Stanton in PARIS, TEXAS

CURRENT MOVIES

  • Thelma: too proud to be taken. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • Perfect Days: intentional contentment. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango, Hulu (included).
  • How to Come Alive: addicted to his own turmoil. In theaters.
  • Didi: learning to get out of his own way. In theaters.
  • Between the Temples: prodded out of his funk. In theaters.
  • Hit Man: who knew self-invention could be so fun? Netflix.
  • I Saw the TV Glow: brimming with originality. Back in some theaters and Amazon, AppleTV; Fandango.
  • The Bikeriders: they ride, drink and fight, and yet we care. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango, Peacock (included).
  • Ghostlight: a family saves itself, in iambic pentameter. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango (included).
  • Challengers: three people and their desire. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • La Chimera: six genres for the price of one. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • Daddio: intimacy between strangers. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • Sorry/Not Sorry: revelatory, and posing the smartest questions. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • The Grab: important, engrossing and sobering. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
  • Relative: a loving, but insistent investigation. Amazon (included with prime), AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube. 
  • Wicked Little Letters: a sparkling Jessie Buckley and an interesting take on repression. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Netflix.
  • How to Have Sex: searing and authentic. MUBI.
  • Civil War: a most cautionary tale. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.

ON TV

Lawrence Tierney and Claire Trevor in BORN TO KILL.

On September 10, Turner Classic Movies offers Born to Kill (1947). Lawrence Tierney (no cupcake in real life, either), plays the nastiest, most predatory and savage male character in film noir history. Set in the world of Reno quickie divorces, the characters seem to compete to demonstrate the most venal behavior; (spoiler: the psychopath played by Tierney wins.) Claire Trevor, the Queen of Noir, was often wore flamboyant hats, but she just keeps topping herself in this film. Walter Slezak and Elisha Cook, Jr., play dregs of the underworld.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Brenda Blethyn as VERA.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – my irreplaceable father-in-law died this week, so I’m honoring him with a photo from his favorite BritBox crime show, Vera.

CURRENT MOVIES

  • Thelma: too proud to be taken. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • Perfect Days: intentional contentment. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango, Hulu (included).
  • How to Come Alive: addicted to his own turmoil. In theaters.
  • Didi: learning to get out of his own way. In theaters.
  • Between the Temples: prodded out of his funk. In theaters.
  • Hit Man: who knew self-invention could be so fun? Netflix.
  • I Saw the TV Glow: brimming with originality. Back in some theaters and Amazon, AppleTV; Fandango.
  • The Bikeriders: they ride, drink and fight, and yet we care. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango, Peacock (included).
  • Ghostlight: a family saves itself, in iambic pentameter. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango (included).
  • Challengers: three people and their desire. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • La Chimera: six genres for the price of one. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • Daddio: intimacy between strangers. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • Sorry/Not Sorry: revelatory, and posing the smartest questions. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • The Grab: important, engrossing and sobering. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
  • Relative: a loving, but insistent investigation. Amazon (included with prime), AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube. 
  • Wicked Little Letters: a sparkling Jessie Buckley and an interesting take on repression. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Netflix.
  • How to Have Sex: searing and authentic. MUBI.
  • Civil War: a most cautionary tale. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.

WATCH AT HOME

I DON’T FEEL AT HOME IN THIS WORLD ANYMORE

The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Izaac Wang in DÌDI. Courtesy of Focus Features/Talking Fish Pictures LLC © 2024 All Rights Reserved.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of Didi and Between the Temples, a remembrance of a European film icon, and an underappreciated 1964 drama that showcased a future movie star.

REMEMBRANCE

Alain Delon in ANY NUMBER CAN WIN

Impossibly handsome and dashing, no one ever removed their sunglasses with more of a flourish than iconic French leading man Alain Delon.  Delon had eyes that could switch off any glimmer of empathy – perfect for playing sociopaths. Accordingly, he broke through internationally playing Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley in Purple Noon (1960). Delon is best known for being a favorite of top European directors, starring in Visconti’s Rocco and His Brothers and The Leopard, Antonioni’s L’Eclisse, and Melville’s Le Samouri and Le Cercle Rouge. I also like Delon in the less famous caper movies Any Number Can Win and The Sicilian Clan. Mr. Klein, in which Delon played a sleazy French art dealer who took advantage of Nazi persecution of Jews, was a Lost Film, only becoming available again in the past five years.

Sheila O’Malley has written most insightful essays on Delon and has posted the most playful photo of him.

CURRENT MOVIES

  • Thelma: too proud to be taken. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • Perfect Days: intentional contentment. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango, Hulu (included).
  • How to Come Alive: addicted to his own turmoil. In theaters.
  • Didi: learning to get out of his own way. In theaters.
  • Between the Temples: prodded out of his funk. In theaters.
  • Hit Man: who knew self-invention could be so fun? Netflix.
  • I Saw the TV Glow: brimming with originality. Back in some theaters and Amazon, AppleTV; Fandango.
  • The Bikeriders: they ride, drink and fight, and yet we care. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango, Peacock (included).
  • Ghostlight: a family saves itself, in iambic pentameter. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango (included).
  • Challengers: three people and their desire. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • La Chimera: six genres for the price of one. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • Daddio: intimacy between strangers. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • Sorry/Not Sorry: revelatory, and posing the smartest questions. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • The Grab: important, engrossing and sobering. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
  • Relative: a loving, but insistent investigation. Amazon (included with prime), AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube. 
  • Wicked Little Letters: a sparkling Jessie Buckley and an interesting take on repression. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Netflix.
  • How to Have Sex: searing and authentic. MUBI.
  • Civil War: a most cautionary tale. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.

WATCH AT HOME

MIDNIGHT FAMILY.

The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:

ON TV

Sammy Davis, Jr. in A MAN CALLED ADAM

In the underappreciated 1966 drama, A Man Called Adam, Sammy Davis Jr. plays Adam, a self-destructive jazz star. Adam draws people in with his talent and charisma, and, racked by guilt, pushes away those closest to him with selfish and cruel behavior. You can catch A Man Called Adam on Turner Classic Movies on August 27.

Claudia (Cicely Tyson) is drawn to Adam and tries to save him, anchoring herself in the roller coaster of his life. Remember that, after all the ups and downs, a roller coaster always ends up at the bottom.

Cicely Tyson, in her first credited movie role, is radiant. Two great speeches, in which she absolutely commands the screen, showcase her talent; you can tell that this is going to be a movie star. While no Cicely Tyson, Sammy Davis, Jr., is excellent as the protagonist. 

Cicely Tyson in A MAN CALLED ADAM

BETWEEN THE TEMPLES: prodded out of his funk

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In Nathan Silver’s comedy Between the Temples:, Jason Schwartzman plays a cantor whose wife’s death the year before has plunged him into despair; he is so paralyzed by depression, he has even lost his ability to sing. He has a chance meeting with his childhood music teacher (Carol Kane), now a retired widow.

Despite her age and his resistance, she insists on joining the bat mitzvah class he teaches at the temple. She’s a force of nature and may have enough gusto to overcome his angst. As their friendship evolves, will it bring him out of his funk?

Between the Temples is co-written by C. Mason Wells and director Nathan Silver. There are plenty of chuckles arising from Schwartzman’s character trying to neutralize his former teacher’s tsunami of will. And there are LOL moments from Madeleine Weinstein’s hilarious turn as as the rabbi’s lovelorn daughter Gabby.

Kane is excellent, and so is Dolly De Leon, who stole Triangle of Sadness, sparkles as a relentlessly determined Jewish mother. The prolific comedy writer Robert Smigel appears as the rabbi.

I screened Between the Temples for this year’s San Francisco Jewish Film Festival; Between the Temples opens in Northern California theaters this weekend.

DIDI: learning to get out of his own way

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Photo caption: Izaac Wang in DÌDI. Courtesy of Focus Features/Talking Fish Pictures LLC © 2024 All Rights Reserved.

The coming of age dramedy Didi explores that moment of maximum awkwardness and intensity for boys – the summer before entering high school. Their universe is their peers, and their desperation to be accepted and to avoid embarrassment is overwhelming. At the same time, raging testosterone seems to be crowding out the ability to think.

Didi is set at that moment (2008?) when teenagers were migrating from Myspace to Facebook. Chris Wang (Izaak Wang) lives with his older sister, their mom and his dad’s elderly mother in the Silicon Valley suburb of Fremont; the dad is away on a tech job in Taiwan. The mom (Joan Chen) has her hands full running the household by herself, and her would-be career as a fine arts painter is just not happening.

There’s a lot of immaturity in our world, but little is as obnoxious as that of a 14-year-old boy. Chris plunges ahead brashly, with a social clumsiness that is remarkable even for a young teen male. .

He is fascinated by a girl, but his best friend accurately observes that “you have zero game“. Chris also identifies what he thinks is a short cut to popularity, as a skate board filmer, but without any of the requisite preparation. He doubles down on a series of postures. One of the funniest aspects of Didi is Chris’ gift for telling pathetically naked lies that will inevitably be exposed.

Not only do Chris’ poses fail to work, he self-isolates and self-humiliates. He is going to have to learn whether he can accept who he is and is not, whether his sister is his ally instead of his antagonist, and whether his mother has something to offer besides meal preparation.

Didi features another stunning performance by Joan Chen as a mom absolutely beaten down by household drudgery, her ungrateful kids, and relentless criticism from mother-in-law. Through most of the film, the character is an emotional pinata, but Chen finishes the story with moments of searing humanity.

Didi is the first narrative feature written and directed by documentarian Sean Wang, who was nominated for an Oscar last year for his short film Nai Ni and Wai Po. Wang brings us into a teen milieu with unsurpassed authenticity.

Note: As a Bay Area native, I was confused by the Wang family home being in Fremont, but Chris starting to attending Fremont High, which is twenty miles away in Sunnyvale; that’s a dumb-down for the non-Bay Area audience. Writer-director Sean Wang himself grew up Taiwanese-American in Fremont and attended Irvington High.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption. Jodie Comer and Austin Butler in THE BIKERIDERS. Courtesy of Focus Features.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – a new review of last year’s overlooked neo-noir The Little Things, which is worth streaming for Denzel Washington’s performance. Note that Thelma, Ghostlight, Daddio and Sorry/Not Sorryare already streaming. The Bikeriders, which has been streaming for couple weeks, is included in a Peacock subscription. Plus, scroll down for a rarity, my recommendation of a sexy silent film.

REMEMBRANCE

Gena Rowlands, Oscar-nominated as best actress for Gloria and A Woman Under the Influence, had a gift for authentic and wrenching performances. I also liked her in lighter fare like Minnie and Moskowitz and Night on Earth. She was the director John Cassavetes’ wife, muse and leading lady.

CURRENT MOVIES

  • Thelma: too proud to be taken. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • Perfect Days: intentional contentment. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango, Hulu (included).
  • How to Come Alive: addicted to his own turmoil. In theaters.
  • Hit Man: who knew self-invention could be so fun? Netflix.
  • I Saw the TV Glow: brimming with originality. Back in some theaters and Amazon, AppleTV; Fandango.
  • The Bikeriders: they ride, drink and fight, and yet we care. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango, Peacock (included).
  • Ghostlight: a family saves itself, in iambic pentameter. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango (included).
  • Challengers: three people and their desire. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • La Chimera: six genres for the price of one. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • Daddio: intimacy between strangers. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • Sorry/Not Sorry: revelatory, and posing the smartest questions. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • The Grab: important, engrossing and sobering. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
  • Relative: a loving, but insistent investigation. Amazon (included with prime), AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube. 
  • Wicked Little Letters: a sparkling Jessie Buckley and an interesting take on repression. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Netflix.
  • How to Have Sex: searing and authentic. MUBI.
  • Civil War: a most cautionary tale. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango, but still expensive.

WATCH AT HOME

Alexis Denisof and Amy Acker in MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:

ON TV

Greta Garbo and John Gilbert in FLESH AND THE DEVIL

I rarely, rarely recommend silent dramas, because today’s general audiences find them too stilted to enjoy, and I don’t push “eat your broccoli” movies on folks. But, on August 19, Turner Classic Movies will present the 1926 Flesh and the Devil, and it’s a good chance to see what the stardom of Greta Garbo was all about, as well as pre-Code Hollywood sexuality.

Flesh and the Devil was made in Garbo’s first year in Hollywood and was her breakthrough star-making role in the US. She plays Felicitas, a woman who enjoy making men loooong for her. In her seduction of the righteous young limitary officer Leo (John Gilbert), she shoots him a come hither look even while kneeling for communion in church. She accepts his offer of a dance and immediately flops into his arms with predatory intent, quickly leading him outside into the dark where they can be alone; things move rapidly to a post-coital smoke. Reportedly, this is cinema’s first horizontal love scene and its first closeup of an open-mouth kiss.

At filming, Garbo was 21 and Gilbert 26 (but he looks over 30). Gilbert had dreamy looks, expressive eyes and perfect comic timing; he was a naturalistic actor – unusually so for the silent era – and he would have probably been a top talent in today’s cinema. The couple’s steamy chemistry in Flesh and the Devil was real; they moved in together before the shooting wrapped. Their enthusiasm during the filming of the bear rug scene so embarrassed director Clarence Brown that he did not call “cut”; the crew just crept out of the studio.

Flesh and the Devil also includes an excellent character performance by George Fawcett as Pastor Voss, a character who oddly smokes a cigar in his pipe. Fawcett was 65 but had already made 107 silents films.