cbf@allegra.UUCP (09/29/83)
This is from an item I submitted this past Monday. It was buried
in the Hitchcock stuff:
On the NY Film Festival, I saw Larry Kasdan's *The Big Chill* on
opening night this past Friday. It's being released this week. I
imagine I'm too young to appreciate the full extent of the effect
this movie is bound to have on anyone who "came of age" in the
sixties, but great filmmaking and terrific acting, as practiced
here, have a universal appeal. With *Return of the Secaucus Seven*
and *Winter of Our Dreams*, we now have a varied and fascinating
triad on the theme of "The Sixties, Fifteen Years Later".
Some more thoughts. The premise of *Chill* is very similar to that of
*Secaucus*. Only, the reunited friends in *Chill* seem to have lived a
little more than those of the other film. Also they're more
recognizably "middle-class" than the still-marginal characters of
*Secaucus*. I found the completely different (Australian) *Winter of
Our Dreams*, which made its points in a more subtle way than the other
two films, all the more powerful. Still, I think that *The Big Chill*
is one of the best American films released so far this year.
Coming up: some thoughts on *Danton*.
--Charles (decvax!allegra!cbf)