1968 Directed by Paul Newman
Rachel is a 35 year old school teacher who has no man in her life and lives with her mother. When a man from the big city returns and asks her out, she begins to have to make decisions about her life and where she wants it to go.
Joanne Woodward James Olson Kate Harrington Estelle Parsons Donald Moffat Terry Kiser Frank Corsaro Bernard Barrow Geraldine Fitzgerald Nell Newman Shawn Campbell Violet Dunn Beatrice Pons Dortha Duckworth Simm Landres Izzy Singer Tod Engle Connie Robinson Sylvia Shipman Larry Fredericks Bruno Engler Wendell P. MacNeal IV Melissa Newman Pete Bostrom
La prima volta di Jennifer, Рейчел, Рейчел, レーチェルレーチェル, Die Liebe eines Sommers, Raquel, Raquel, Rachel, Rachel, 巧妇怨, 레이첼 레이첼, რეიჩელ,რეიჩელ, レーチェル レーチェル, Rachelo, Rachelo
USA
USA
Man! Coming into this movie, I didn’t expect it to be so offbeat and dreamy. The whole film plays like an unsettling psychological drama and character study of a repressed teacher having her sexual awakening, and as I guess its to be expected from these kinds of individuals, what should be a liberating and joyful experience gradually falls into the horror category. All the voice over, the minimalistic, string driven score that dances between the whimsical and suspenseful captures the complexity of our character as she wrestles with these newfound desires and her upbringing, but also personal traumas. Woodward does an incredible job conveying this to perfection, balancing the sympathetic and kindness of Rachel but also putting on full display…
I probably could just write Joanne Woodward name half a dozen times and let it stand as a review given how amazing she is here and how every scene is pitched at her pace and some of the most remarkable moments boils down to close ups of her acting by herself. The only narcisistic thing about Newman's direction is how there is times the film can feel like he was just saying "I'm married to Hollywood's greastest actress and isn't Joanne amazing?" and well if I was married to someone that was a fourth as good a performer as Woodward, I might do the same. Rachel, Rachel was a best Picture nominee which in retrospect feels very strange both in…
Rachel suffers from (what I’m assuming is) PTSD, regularly seeming intelligent yet rarely feeling alive. She isn’t able to control the terrifying places her mind takes her, giving her a lack of realism and experience. Paul Newman’s frantic and dizzying style is a raw and intimate look at the anxiety and trauma, trapping the viewer in purposefully uncomfortable positions resembling the headspace and state of emotion of such conditions. The dizzying editing, worrying voices and haunting music are reminders for the horrific nature of living such a lifestyle. While Joanne Woodward captures this character seamlessly, the purposeful ambiguity of Rachel is still difficult for me to comprehend. I assume it’ll only grow with rewatches.
Well,well... This does paint a portrait of a fractured mind in turmoil. I really think Joanne Woodward does a fantastic job here and totally deserved her Oscar nomination as she is tortured by so many thoughts and dealing with middle age complacency. It really captures the community of this small town and all of the characters issues. The reprint looks fantastic on TCM. It contains a well water full of sadness and loss so be ready for that and slow beats that echo it's subject matter but if you can get behind it there is a catharsis at the end that feels endearing but never saccharine. Oh and keep an I out for a young Terry Kiser who you might remember as Bernie from that famed 80's movie.
watched this a couple weeks ago & kind of just let it live inside me since then. maybe one of my favorite performances ever, because it does feel so internal. a real deep understanding of belonging — of how everything passes us by and what really belongs to us is just our connection to our memories. nothing is promised & that can either devastate you or release you.
"You can't be a part of the human race and not be a fool to somebody." ~ Calla Mackie
Everybody knows Paul Newman the actor. Many know Paul Newman the salad dressing gourmet. But how many know Paul Newman the director? I'm guessing not many. In his lifetime (1925~2008), he made exactly six feature films, starting with this one on 1968. It just happened to earn four Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. It also got Newman the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Director in 1969. So how is it that I and so many members of the Letterboxd community have completely missed it?
The story is an adaptation of the Margaret Laurence novel "A Jest of God." It…
joanne woodward kissing a woman? thank you lord (paul newman) for your abundant blessings 🙌🏻
This movie took forever to hunt down.
The first Best Picture nominee I couldn't find through streaming service, the local library, and... other means.
Finally got access to it... and it wasn't really worth all the trouble.
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This review was for the Oscar Rewind podcast where I discuss every Best Picture nominee for every Oscar year and determine which films should have been the ones to walk away with the win. You can see our episode for this film below:
"I'm in the exact middle of my life"
Rachel (Joanne Woodward) is a schoolteacher in a small town. She's single and lives with her passive aggressive mother (Kate Harrington) who she's been taking care of since her father died. Middle age has snuck up on her and left her stuck between an existential dread of death (likely a holdover from having a mortician as a father) and an equal fear of continuing on in a purgatorial existence where nothing changes. When a man from her childhood visits town and expresses interest in her, it just might be the catalyst needed to shake her free from her paralysis and start appreciating life.
Rachel, Rachel is a rare midlife crisis movie told…
Whaatt a brilliantly layered and realistic drama about women in the 60s?? How could this be, I thought women loved being flat as shit back in the good ol days??
Joanne Woodward is an unmarried 30-something living with her mother above the family funeral home who is so comfortable in her daily routine of not living she finds herself completely miserable. Funny how treading water, having no money, living at your parents home and being uncertain of your future was more of a fringe story for the ‘60s when it’s practically the story of every person I know. (Okay, not all of those at once but at least 3/4 for like 75% of my friends.)
Actually you know what this…
It makes such a difference when streaming services put love into curating the films they feature on their site. For their method acting collection, the Criterion Channel has a forty-five minute (!) conversation between Ethan Hawke, Vincent D’onofrio, and author Isaac Butler. They discuss the history, tenets, and evolution of method acting. It’s a fascinating conversation. I’d already seen about half the films in the bundle, but by the time I finished watching the conversation, I was so excited to watch the rest!
Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman seem to have done the impossible: sustain a fifty year marriage as two major Hollywood stars. But when I watched (part of, so far) the documentary The Last Movie Stars and the method…
Why did he do it? Why did one of the handsomest and self-assured of all actors choose a delicate character study about a woman’s loneliness as his first work from behind the camera? One, to prove that he understood all spectrums of human behavior from the inside-out. Two, to give his wife a meaty role that would stretch her capabilities and give her room for career growth.
The very special Paul Newman as a debut director in 1968 uses the medium of film the special way it can be used when one has audacity—to delve us into the delicate interiors and climate temperatures of quiet and honest human experience. He creates many remarkable scenes, it’s only too bad that he…
