Summertime...the movie

I found myself a victim of channel surfing last night. What I mean is I was channel surfing before bed and happened to see a rather disturbing clip of a horror movie. That did it. I was unable to go to sleep. But one channel down was a Katherine Hepburn movie. I'm a big fan of the actress so I watched. And ended up watching for the last hour and change of the movie. I had no idea what movie I was watching as the tv in my bedroom doesn't have an actual cable box which means I have no info button I can push. So I decided to look it up today. It's called "Summertime" and came out in 1955. I found myself going back and forth between liking it and hating it. It's odd how some things don't translate to modern times. For one, Katherine constantly referred to herself as being up there in age and yet she was still gorgeous. I'm not sure what age her character was, but Katherine was in her 40s. It was odd to watch a woman in her 40s consider herself unable to get a man. But then the parts that made me cringe were scenes in which she was conflicted and unsure of how to act towards an Italian man she she found attractive. She's an amazingly talented actress and so the acting was not lacking, rather the script and what was customary at the time is just so different. Knowing the film had to have been from the 50s, I was shocked by the outright discussion of sexual relations between a woman on a trip to Italy and a married Italian man. Very progressive. Equally shocking is that the film was nominated for two Oscars. I didn't see the entire film, but I wouldn't call it Oscar worthy..but again, it was the 50s. I'm sure if I watched the other films from 1955 I would think it was Oscar worthy. Hell, some of the films nominated in the past few years aren't as good as this film. I'm not saying you should go out and rent it, rather the Oscars haven't been very discriminating lately.

So by 1:00 it was time for bed and the movie was over. I was sad. Naturally the movie didn't end in a typical modern way, where the two lovers stay together, find a way to make it work. No Katherine returned to the US despite finding a man she loved, who loved her, at a time in her life when society deemed her too old. Being the end of Valentine's day, I was hoping for a happy romantic film, but instead found myself on another Roman Holiday (but with less silliness).

And this is what happens when you channel surf too close to bed. Be warned. You too might get sucked into a movie and stay up too late. Or maybe you don't have an over-active imagination that takes one scene from a horror film and runs with it.