Henry Koster
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No date is provided, though “The Story of Ruth” (1960) is playing at the Orpheum cinema below Eliza’s apartment, and “Mister Ed,” which premièred the following year, is on TV.
The mirrored sequins on a Chanel dress cast reflections that flit across the walls like mischievous wraiths, and you may even detect a hint of “Harvey” (1950)—in which Jimmy Stewart was best friends with an invisible rabbit—as the doors of a hotel elevator open and close to let through a nonexistent guest.
After scrubbing Dick’s concept of its paranoid underpinnings, writer-director George Nolfi is left with the setup for an old-fashioned supernatural romance like Topper or The Bishop’s Wife, plus a central couple with unusually strong chemistry.
It’s based on the real Father Stuart Long, with the standard theatrical embellishments (and concepts of suffering to test faith), but none are significant enough to give this picture the profound flavor of “The Song of Bernadette,” or “The Robe,” or “A Man for All Seasons” (or even “My Left Foot” or “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” a la the biblical Book of Job).
Overall, though, the flavor is less “The Robe” and has more in common, tone-wise, with something like the comedy “Sister Act.”
Audience members who have been around for a while can’t help but compare the Christian films made by Cecil B. DeMille – The Ten Commandants949), Samson and Delilah (1949), The Sign of the Cross (1932), The King of Kings (1927); Henry King’s David and Bathsheba (1951) and Henry Koster’s The Robe (1953); all far more authentic Bible stories.
Think of Jimmy Stewart's remarkable performance in "Harvey" in 1950.
It's like a version of "Harvey" where we see James Stewart and the rabbit, but not the wondering or dyspeptic people around them.
The last time a talented Asian cast got this kind of opportunity on this big a scale was in Disney’s The Joy Luck Club 25 years ago, and before that, probably in Universal’s 1961 adaptation of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, Flower Drum Song.
Is this his James Stewart “Harvey” moment?
Like James Stewart's character in "Harvey" (1950), Donnie sees a rabbit that no one else can see or hear.
Phantom Thread (2017)
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
influenced by My Cousin Rachel (1952)
Themes Visuals
Rebecca and other influential melodramas, including Hitchcock’s Suspicion or David Lean’s The Passionate Friends, focus on the protagonist (her interiority particularly in the face of an obscure, oppressive husband); films like Vertigo, as well as other mystery or thriller texts such as du Maurier’s novel My Cousin Rachel focus on the interrogation of the woman, giving a space in which to critique the man’s paranoia and control.
In certain respects, the movie bears a relation to last year’s My Cousin Rachel , though its not quite so robustly stylised as Roger Michell’s film.
Still, at its heart, Eternity evokes the charm of old Hollywood fantasies, such as Harvey, It’s a Wonderful Life, and The Bishop’s Wife– films that ask us to laugh at life’s absurdities while nudging us to reflect on our own paths, the choices made and unmade.
Call it The Bishop's Wife for 1998--one of the oddest years in movies of the last twenty, among which crop this film maintains a comfortable medium-buoyancy.
From "The Bishop's Wife" to "Heaven Can Wait," this subject and its variations are quite popular.