TCM TO SHOW AYN RAND'S "LOVE LETTERS"Weds8/16

[Jerry Biggers]

This is sort of a double entry (similar notice in Events and Happenings):

TCM (Turner Classic Movies) to air LOVE LETTERS(1946), for which Ayn Rand wrote the screenplay.

TIME: this WEDNESDAY. AUGUST 16, at 8:00 PM (Eastern time).

NOTE: According to IMDB, this movie is NOT currently available on VHS or DVD.

[Reidy]

I think it's a much better movie than The Fountainhead, with some beautiful dialogue that only Rand could have written.

Incidental intelligence: the only time Noel Coward (a favorite of Rand's and the subject of a couple of allusions in her fiction) mentioned her was to say in his diary that he hated this movie.

Peter

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Jerry,

Thank you for the announcement! I will be sure to watch it.

Michael

[Kat]

Thank you. I have added it to the calendar and there is a reminder at the bottom of the main page now.

Kat

[Chris Grieb]

TCM has some excellent information on Love Letters at their web site. It is worth looking at.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Well, I saw it.

It was a nice nostalgic trip through the past with really early editing tricks like quick fade-out to quick fade-in between scenes. I didn't mind though. It was very charming. Jennifer Jones also was a wonderfully bubbly presence who easily outshone the rather wooden acting of the time (with the exception of Robert Scully, who was completely at ease in a minor role as Roger Morland).

The only serious drawback I saw was the treatment of amnesia by Rand. She apparently disliked the idea so much she didn't do any homework at all on it. This is one of the few places she appears sloppy in professional work. To be fair, I don't know what the knowledge of amnesia was back in the 40's.

From everything I have ever seen and read on amnesia, the type of traumatic event the Singleton/Victoria character endured would have resulted in global amnesia, which means that the memory of the past is erased, but the mind has the ability to learn new knowledge.

Singleton appeared in a trial right after the onset of the amnesia attack where she was clearly told that her name was Victoria Morland and that she had killed her husband, yet later in the film's timeline, she did not know these facts. A few other facts were treated the same way. Either there were new attacks of amnesia that were not mentioned in the story, or the treatment of amnesia was rather strange and had no relation to real amnesia. Singleton/Victoria obviously did not suffer from any kind of anterograde amnesia (inability to retain new memories after a short time) because all other facts and people around her were remembered with clarity.

Still, I'm very glad I finally saw this. Some of the dialogue was wonderfully Randish.

(I'm biting my tongue not to make a quip about half-assed amnesia, ARI and the Brandens...)

Michael

[Chris Grieb]

It was wonderful. The dialog is very Randish. It was a Romantic movie with a very big R.

[Guyau]

2010 in Las Vegas

At the Objectivist Summer Conference to be held July 2–July 10, Dina Schein Federman will make a presentation on Ayn Rand’s screenplays written under contract with Hal Wallis. I have seen Love Letters, thanks to a friend, and it was delightful. Other adaptations by Rand, from other authors’ novels, were The House of Mist, The Crying Sisters, and You Came Along.

[Chris Grieb]

2010 in Las Vegas

At the Objectivist Summer Conference to be held July 2–July 10, Dina Schein Federman will make a presentation on Ayn Rand’s screenplays written under contract with Hal Wallis. I have seen Love Letters, thanks to a friend, and it was delightful. Other adaptations by Rand, from other authors’ novels, were The House of Mist, The Crying Sisters, and You Came Along.

Miss Rand noted at NBI that she had adapted You Came Along with the author of the original novel. My memory is she did not think of this screenplay as highly as she thought of Love Letters.

[9thdoctor]

2010 in Las Vegas

At the Objectivist Summer Conference to be held July 2–July 10, Dina Schein Federman will make a presentation on Ayn Rand’s screenplays written under contract with Hal Wallis. I have seen Love Letters, thanks to a friend, and it was delightful. Other adaptations by Rand, from other authors’ novels, were The House of Mist, The Crying Sisters, and You Came Along.

I've never heard of The House of Mist, or The Crying Sisters, and they're not listed on IMDB.com. You Came Along did nothing for me, but Love Letters was a nice salute to Cyrano de Bergerac, I thought it was pretty good. I wonder how much Howard Roark's experience with John Erik Snyte draws on Rand's experience as a junior screenwriter.

[Kat]

There will be a screening of the movie Love Letters at OCON tonight, Tuesday, July 9, 2013 at 7:45 pm. OCON is taking place this year at the Westin Michigan Ave in Chicago. It is across the street from the John Hancock Center.


http://objectivistco...013/events.html

Love Letters: Screening and Talk Tuesday, July 9 • 7:45–10:45 PM
This event includes a screening of Love Letters, a 1945 film based on a novel by Christopher Massie and adapted by Ayn Rand. Following the 101-minute-long film, directed by William Dieterle and starring Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotten, Michael Paxton discusses the movie’s history and gives a brief analysis of its adaptation for the screen.
The audiovisual components (e.g., directing, production design, art directing and music) are discussed in the context of how the filmmakers successfully used these elements to serve the story’s theme and how Ayn Rand’s sense of life imbued the project. The discussion includes examples of how the film could possibly be improved and remade to be a more dynamic work of art. The evening includes a display of movie memorabilia from the film and Mr. Paxton’s personal collection (stills, ads, press book, 78 and LP recordings, and posters). Q&A follows the presentation.
Ticket pricing for the event is on the pricing page. ($10)