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Breaking the Spell of the Health Care Debate
Good Meds, Bad Meds Film Series at IFC
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One of the greatest aspects of American film history is that it gives us a detailed portrait of our society stationed in time. More so than other arts, including literature and music, film offers an in-the-moment perspective of a large chunk of culture: fashion, wit, language, music, mannerisms, body language, etc. And since films are an effort of a large group, as opposed to the lonely writer or reclusive composer, you have the input of everyone from makeup artists to production executives—even the government often weighs in. Watching films from past eras helps us put present day issues into perspective. This is what makes the “Good Meds, Bad Meds: American Health Care on Screen” series at the IFC Center so poignant. The Independent Film Center has chosen a number of films to help break the spell of the mass media’s version of medicine in our culture.
Speaking of spells, Spellbound, Alfred Hitchcock’s 1945 psychological thriller, which opened the series on April 9, was a brilliant choice for a big screen showing. Hitchcock movies are gorgeous in the cinema and Spellbound is no exception. First of all, we have Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman ogling each other to a melodramatic score, as awestruck as the audience by each other’s beauty in several close-ups. Then there is the sumptuous dream sequence credited by Salvador Dali, filled with the artists’ typical melting objects and disconcerting landscapes. Furthermore, some typical Hitchcock visual antics involving weapons, skis and an impaling keep the eyes interested. Aside from the beautiful scenery, watching this film now is a reminder of how much psychotherapy has changed over the past half century, exposing how difficult it is to gauge the science of one’s own time.
In case you missed the opportunity to breakup the droll of the national healthcare debate with Spellbound, perhaps Humphrey Bogart as a Long Island stable boy and Bette Davis as the equestrian debutant in Dark Victory might bring you out on June 25. This 1939 film puts Bette Davis at the height of her career up against a life-threatening brain tumor that is slowly causing her to loose her senses. Again, the film is worth the price of admission for the soft focus close-ups of actors that will feel like friends to many of us. The series also contains the wit driven People Will Talk (1951), with Carry Grant at the helm of the loquacious script, playing June 18. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) closes out the series on July 2, a finale choice that has implications of ripping apart the institutions that house our bad meds and breaking free into some fantasy meadow where medicine debates are nonexistent.
See the IFC’s webpage, www.ifccenter.com for specific show times and ticket information.