“What Do You Do, Louise?” “I Write.”

6 Responses to “What Do You Do, Louise?” “I Write.”

1. mutecypher says:

   March 17, 2013 at 3:29 am

   Too weird, I just watched most of this streaming on Netflix – the dialog became unsynced with the video at about the time John Reed went back Russia and I couldn’t watch any more..

   It’s almost like “Dark Knight” with the guy who play(ed) The Joker in an even better movie than everyone else.

   Except Reds is an excellent movie with Nicholson being Mercutio-without-a-death-scene, and Heath was a rabid Bugs Bunny in a My Little Pony cartoon.

   Reply
2. mutecypher says:

   March 17, 2013 at 3:33 am

   I should have added “Sure you do” to the “I write.”

   Reply
   • sheila says:

     March 17, 2013 at 4:51 am

     Why would you do that? Do you want to diminish Louise Bryant’s accomplishments just like everyone else around her did?

     I love how Beatty uses that refrain, repeatedly, to show the kind of crowd she ran with (very important to have something to “do”), and that no matter how much she wrote about art shows (and very important art shows – the most important art show of the 20th century, come to think of it – the Armory Show in 1913) – she would never ever be taken seriously.

     Those people were assholes to Louise Bryant.

     That’s why the scene with Maureen Stapleton at the end is so moving. Emma Goldman acknowledged how much they had underestimated her.

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     • sheila says:

       March 17, 2013 at 6:15 am

       and the scene between Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton in the beachhouse in Provincetown is the best work Nicholson has ever done (and that’s saying something).

       Reply
       • mutecypher says:

         March 17, 2013 at 3:45 pm

         I wasn’t aware of the importance of The Armory Show when I first watched Reds back in ’81, but in subsequent viewings the light eventually went on over my head “hey, that show was a big deal – she got it.” I like that Beatty doesn’t make a point of letting the audience know that, even having his character use it as an example of Louise’s “trivial” work. And the exchange with Emma G at the end is wonderful: it humanizes Emma G. and gives us a hint of Louise’s skills as an observer (“everyone is giving her coats, I bet she needs a scarf”) and her desire to be liked by Emma.

         Yeah, despite all the rhetoric about classless society and equality and free love – the folks in that milieu asked the newbies what they did just to be able to put them down (or place them in the proper spot in the hierarchy).

         I don’t think anything else he’s done is better than what starts at “keep the glass, I’ll take the whiskey” and the next 5 minutes. Well, his other 2 big scenes in the movie, giving the poem to Louise at the Hudson home and when she comes to see him after John’s gone to Russia the second time.

         Incandiferous, as Toulouse would say.

         Reply
3. bybee says:

   March 17, 2013 at 11:37 am

   I need to watch this movie again. I didn’t have enough scaffolding back in 1981.

   Reply

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