Roman Holiday Review: It Feels Like The Perfect Roman Holiday

✯✯✯✯✯

There’s no arguing against a statement that Audrey Hepburn was one of the most gorgeous women ever to have graced the silver screen during Hollywood’s Golden Age, but to talk about the film that put her in the spotlight is yet another story. William Wyler’s Roman Holiday has a story that may have been imitated by countless other romantic comedies in the future but all these years it has not only remained so funny – it has still remained every bit as fresh as it did on its release date. But with Roman Holiday, every moment that it spends with our lead characters also happens to make oneself feel like they truly are having the time of their life in a city much like Rome, as if the cutesy nature of the story wouldn’t be enough to win oneself over. For every moment that it seeks to lift up one’s own spirits and even feel as bittersweet as these memories can be, they all build up to what truly forms one of the finest romantic comedies ever made.

Continue reading →

Advertisement

The Best Years of Our Lives – Review

✯✯✯✯✯

William Wyler’s films are award favourites but I haven’t always loved his work consistently. At his best, he’s created tender melodramas or entertaining comedies and at his worst, he feels unbelievably bloated. The Best Years of Our Lives, at a staggering length of 172 minutes, feels at risk of carrying the bloatedness of Wyler at his worst, but the way he spends time here says otherwise, for not only is a thoughtful melodrama about veterans coming home from war present and instead a staple of its own era that to this day remains one of the most self-reflexive pieces of cinema ever made. But if the title weren’t already an indicator, the very nature of the story being told can bring one in for something tender.

Continue reading →