DELLA (1964) **1/2 This movie is a tremendous study in contrasts (I won't say a "great" or "wonderful" study): the hokey soap opera narrative against the sheer and sinister scenarios it surrounds; the banal but benign businessmen against the multi-faceted and scurrilously serpentine Joan Crawford; Queen Joan's insistences against the slightest variation of insolent reality; Joan's very expensive-looking hair against the cheap ass garden set, the soft lens that can't even blur the hard lines on her face; Joan against humankind, Joan against herself. That all being confused, the main contrast is probably the singularly great scenes against the pedestrian nature of it overall. It goes on and just when you think it's going somewhere, it doesn't; and just when you think maybe it's going somewhere this time it doesn't either; and then it's all over very quickly, without, I think, much of going anywhere. There are insane elements that can't be airbrushed, which is the strength of the piece. The airbrushing doesn't do anything but maybe calm down little old ladies and interrupt what was a promising pathology, that's the problem with it.
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