ferbs54
Perhaps I should state at the outset that I have not read Ernest Hemingway's third novel, the 1929 classic "A Farewell to Arms," and thus can only comment on the 1932 filmization that I recently watched on DVD. Hemingway, as the story goes, actively disliked the picture, and with its relatively brief running time of 78 minutes, it's easy to imagine that a good part of the author's original was given the Hollywood glossover. (The 1957 remake, generally regarded as the inferior of the two, is yet almost twice as long!) A somewhat dated, slightly creaky affair, the film is of interest today mainly for the excellent performances turned in by its three leads and for the Oscar-winning photography of Charles Lang (his only Academy Award, despite a more-than-impressive filmography).In the picture, we meet an American ambulance driver named Frederic Henry (played by Gary Cooper), who is serving on the Italian front during WW1. A doctor friend of his, an Italian named Rinaldi (Adolphe Menjou), introduces him to a British nurse, Catherine Barkley (Helen Hayes, riding high after her recent Oscar win for 1931's little-seen "The Sin of Madelon Claudet," and who largely forsook Hollywood after 1935, to become "The First Lady of the American Theater"). The two instantly fall in lust (American nurse Agnes von Kurowsky, Hemingway's inspiration for the Hayes character, who he'd met while injured in Italy, had rebuffed the author's amorous advances), and after Henry is wounded at the front, Catherine tends to his wounds in hospital, becoming, uh, knocked up in the process. Forced to leave her nursing group as a result, Catherine hides out in Switzerland to have her baby, alone, leading to the mother of all tear-jerking conclusions....Released in December '32, shortly before the stifling Production Code came into being, "A Farewell to Arms" is, surprisingly, sexually frank. Catherine and Henry, scant minutes after being introduced in a hotel garden, are busily engaged in the ol' "horizontal tarantella," their randiness attributed to "the war" more than their own natural inclinations. Still, Henry tells his newfound galpal "I love you" immediately afterwards, and, as events subsequently demonstrate, he means it. Cooper and Hayes do have a certain chemistry here, although they make an odd-looking couple, with Cooper towering over his girl by a good head and a half. Much of the dialogue that they utter is of the florid, purple-prose variety, and Hayes seems to occasionally overact a tad. Also (and please don't think me a superficial pigdog here), lookswise, Hayes was far from the comeliest actress on the lot, although Rinaldi refers to Catherine as the prettiest nurse in the area. Given her plain-Jane decent looks, this instant lustful infatuation on Henry's part becomes a bit incredible; a sweeter-faced actress of the period, say Claudette Colbert, might have been a better casting choice. Cooper, with his shy smile and diffident delivery, is always ingratiating, however, and Adolphe manages to convince as an Italian doctor. (Like many folks, I have a feeling, I've long thought that Menjou was French, whereas he was actually born in Pittsburgh, U.S.A.!) Director Frank Borzage, who would go on to work with Cooper in the 1936 Marlene Dietrich vehicle "Desire," does a thoroughly admirable job here, while Charles Lang certainly did earn his Oscar, especially by dint of two powerful scenes: the POV shots from Henry's moving hospital gurney, and the montage sequence of Henry's trek to find Catherine in Brissago, Switzerland. In all, a perfectly respectable film, and one that I might have appreciated a little more, had I not seen the WW1 classics "Grand Illusion" (1937) and "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1930)--two infinitely superior pictures--at NYC's Film Forum just a few weeks earlier. Still, those immortal classics are more antiwar films, whereas "A Farewell to Arms" is a romantic drama with a WW1 backdrop. The film concludes most ambiguously, with Henry proclaiming "Peace, peace" as doves fly high and the Great War ends. But whether he is praying for world peace, or peace and surcease from his tragic memories, or peace for the pitiful woman in his arms, is anybody's guess....
swannyman
A Farewell to Arms, originally a novel by Ernest Hemingway, is a classic movie from 1932. The story follows the love between Lieutenant Fredric Henry and Catherine Barkley in Italy during WWI. The story is told from the view point of the Lieutenant. The love between Fredric and Catherine all starts when Fredric comes to Milan to visit an Italian friend Rinaldi, when Fredric and Catherine spend a night together. She is deeply hurt by this, thinking that Fredric is just using her, but he calmly tells her that it meant something to him and that he would be back. He did come back, but it was with a big injury, which allows him and Catherine to really get close to each other. Rinaldi doesn't like it, as he liked Catherine first, and tries to get Fredric to come and drink with him constantly. Later, when Fredric is healthy again, he gets sent back to the front lines, and Catherine leaves for Switzerland without telling Fredric first. She writes to Fredric constantly, even telling him that she is pregnant and can't wait to see him. He writes to Milan, where he thinks she is, and somehow all of his letters get sent back. Catherine's letters get censored by Rinaldi, saying that he doesn't want his friend to lose his head over a girl, little knowing how serious they actually were. Eventually Fredric can't take it anymore and goes back to Milan to find his love, who isn't there. Rinaldi tries to make him forget about her and is roughly refused. Rinaldi then realizes his mistake and tells Fredric where she is and helps him get there, as Fredric is now a traitor for going AWOL during the middle of the war. Catherine stills expects letters to come to her from Fredric, and is greatly surprised to find that there are letters for her, but they are all her letters that have been sent back. She faints to the floor and is sent to the hospital. Fredric arrives soon after that, but can't see her until the morning. He is told that the war is over, but he doesn't even begin to care, as his love is dying in the hospital. He gets to see her in the morning only to be there when she dies, and the story ends. One of the glaring things about this story is the main character, Fredric. He is not in tune with the people or events around him, but that is almost always the case with Hemingway. He is always out for only himself and doesn't really care who he hurts as long as he can get what he wants. As a case, he is introduced to Catherine by Rinaldi because Rinaldi is in love with her and wants her. That night, Rinaldi is left out by Fredric moving in and taking advantage of Rinaldi going to get Catherine and him drinks. Rinaldi is hurt, but Fredric makes it seem like he is the one being intruded on. This is a constant theme through the movie, most evident when Fredric goes AWOL during the middle of a battle, leaving all of his comrades there to work it out for themselves. Another theme of this movie is the camera angles. I love the camera work and how there is only one shot that is not from eye-level or above, and it is solely for impact. The shot is the scene where Fredric comes in from getting injured. The camera is a Point of View shot, from Fredric's eyes, unmoving, staring straight up. It becomes a more powerful scene because of it; it makes us be more in tune with Fredric and his injury. I also liked the lighting of the movie. Most of the lighting is natural, or at least it is made to look that way. Most of the lighting on the people's faces was blurry, like actually looking through a lens. It is most apparent when doing close ups on Catherine, it makes her look more innocent and makes her stand out more because the close ups are what you remember seeing of her, and you pay more attention to her. There is also no shot like that of any other character, again making you pay more attention to her than everyone else. This film, I think, doesn't use the mise-en-scene to its fullest. All of the cuts, except one, are just straight cuts with no delay or fading in and out. The one scene that does use a different cut is at the end when Fredric is traveling after he goes AWOL. It fades in and out of shots of Fredric and shots of the war and nature, all blurry. This gives a great effect on the passage of time and the sorrow that is all around, especially on Fredric. I think that they could have done more with the passage of time in the cuts, not the time in the narrative, but the time in the cut itself. Slower cuts might have made it a little more powerful, especially in times where the viewer is sitting on the edge of their seat waiting for more information.
