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February 2019 in Films
I really didn’t watch very many films in February. Mostly being soooo tired because of the bad weather, traveling a lot, and the fact that most movie theaters in February were still full of 2018 holdovers that I’d either already seen or didn’t want to see. That said, I did have some favorites that I watched and as always you can see those after the cut.
Female Filmmaker Friday: Crossing Delancey, 1988 (dir. Joan Micklin Silver)
For this week’s Female Filmmaker Friday I’ve chosen a film I first saw on TCM during A Year With Women, and that I have subsequently re-watched many, many times: Joan Micklin Silver’s Crossing Delancey. The film is based on a play by Susan Sandler, who also wrote the screenplay. Much like Susan Seidelman’s Desperately Seeking Susan, this film captures an era and place in New York City that no longer exists. Featuring a score by the Roches, much of the film takes place in the Lower East Side. This article does a great job of breaking down the changes that have happened in the last thirty years to that neighborhood. There be spoilers after the cut.
Movie Quote of the Day – Crossing Delancey, 1988 (dir. Joan Micklin Silver)
Izzy: Thanks so much for coming tonight. I felt so clumsy the other day.
Sam: It was an awkward situation, Mrs. Mandelbaum setting it up like that. I should have spoken to you on my own the first time I saw you.
Izzy: When was that?
Sam: The first time? About three and a half years ago, I think.
Izzy: Where?
Sam: In the neighborhood. On the benches with your bubbie. Around.
Izzy: Really.
Sam: Then one day, Mrs. Mandelbaum comes by the store does her usual spiel. Shows me her pictures, tells her lies. “This one’s 18, a scholar. This one’s 22, a beauty.” Some of these pictures were taken before the flashbulb was invented. But it’s like this little ritual we have. She has a business and I respect that. I’m a bachelor. She can’t help herself.
Izzy: Wait a minute. You mean, you didn’t hire her?
Sam: No. But on this particular day she pulled this from her bag.
Izzy: Oh, no.
Sam: And I said, “Yes, Mrs. Mandelbaum this one I’ll meet.”
Movie Quote of the Day – Hester Street, 1975 (dir. Joan Micklin Silver)
Gitl: Goodbye. Go in good health.
Bernstein: Goodbye to the boy.
Gitl: May you have a boy of your own one day.
Bernstein: From your mouth to God’s ear. To have a son, a man must have a wife.
Gitl: A wife you can get.
Bernstein: To whom would that I ask? What if she would say no?
Gitl: What if she would say yes?
Movie Quote of the Day – Chilly Scenes of Winter, 1979 (dir. Joan Micklin Silver)
Charles: Could you imagine living with a man named Ox?
Susan: Yes, if she’s happy.
Charles: She’s not happy.
Susan: Are you happy?
Charles: What’s happy?
Female Filmmaker Friday: Hester Street, 1975 (dir. Joan Micklin Silver)
Firstly, apologies for the unintended hiatus of this feature. It should be back in full force for the rest of the year. This week I’m going to take a brief look at Joan Micklin Silver’s Hester Street, which earned Carol Kane a Best Actress Oscar nomination in 1975.
the diary of a film history fanatic 