In praise of HBO's Mildred Pierce
HBO is about midway through their broadcast of their incredible mini-series, Mildred Pierce. Without a doubt, it's one of the best period pieces I've ever seen.
Since this is rumored to be a kitchen design blog. I'll start out with a photograph of the set for Mildred's kitchen.
Like I said, the manufacturing exceptional length piece I've ever seen. Add to the lavish, painstaking authenticity of the set a story line that won't quit and you have a recipe for actual greatness.
Three episodes in, HBO's Mildred Pierce is approaching true greatness. Again, because this is supposed to be a kitchen blog, check out Mildred's gas range.
Amazing! I love this series for how different it is from the film noir movie. You see, I have a thing for Warner Brother's 1945 version of Mildred Pierce.
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| Joan Crawford and Butterfly McQueen chew the scenery in 1945 |
In fact, it's one of my favorite movies of all time. Like most people, I saw the original Warner Brothers movie long before I read the novel upon which it's based, James M. Cain's 1941 Mildred Pierce. In the hands of Warner Brothers and in response to a whole lot of pressure from the Hays Commission, James M. Cain's novel of eroticism, self-reliance and the Great Depression was turned into a film noir murder mystery. In 1945, murder was preferable to bed-hopping I suppose but the original wasn't a murder mystery. No one dies in the novel (except for little Rae) though I'm sure most of the characters wish they would at one point or another.
As awesome as that film is (Crawford gained her only Oscar for her main function), it is a very distinct piece of labor from the radical.
James M. Cain's novel from four years in advance is a masterpiece in its personal right and I'm thrilled to look it getting the attention it merits care of HBO. Their mini-series is a painstaking retelling of the unique novel as a great deal as it's a almost best period piece.
The last time the US experienced an economic upheaval similar to the one we're enduring now was in the the 1930s. That Mildred Piece's reversal of fortune came at the bust of a real estate bubble makes the story all the more easy to relate to.
James M. Cain was an important novelist and journalist in the early 20th Century. He wrote in what's called the roman noir style, he was all about the hardboiled crime novel. Mildred Pierce stands out in early work in that it's not a crime novel. Rather, it's a novel about perseverance and triumph over adversity. Further, it's the story of a woman and it's told from the point of view of a woman in a time where women's voices and opinions were not heard very often. Add to it that the Great Depression is practically a character in and of itself and you end up with a book that's a Must Read. So go read it . Please!
James M. Cain is one of the high-quality writers of the ultimate century no one's ever heard of however he wrote a few important stuff. Three of his finest works are included the gathering I related to within the final paragraph. The films crafted from his novels undergo and are a few surely excellent movies.
As brilliant as the movies are, his novels deserve to be study even more.
In the interim though, watch the HBO mini-collection. The story keeps getting higher with each installment (even though I recognize in which the story's headed). If you do not get HBO or stay in a part of the arena where it is not available, take coronary heart. They spent so much money on this manufacturing that it is certain to be released on DVD in a depend of weeks.