Oh, Heathcliff!

Some people can’t get enough of old movies. We salute those people! For one thing, old films were shot to be viewed on a big screen, full of screen-edge detail and lush, meaningful textures. Interestingly enough, like the very newest Pixar products, pictures made in 1939 often don’t read very well on anything smaller than a real theater’s screen. At “1939: The Golden Year of Cinema,” see what we mean, and check out the movie bats, for eight days straight. Today, the double feature is Wuthering Heights and Goodbye, Mr. Chips. Heights, of course, is the definitive film version of Emily Brontë’s novel of the same name, starring the luminous Merle Oberon and the not-yet Sir Laurence Olivier as Catherine Earnshaw and her Heathcliff. William Wyler directed, and film nerds, heads up — Gregg Toland shot and Oscared for it.
July 1-9, 2009