Picnic (1955)

more than a film, a kind of experience. dramatic, not original but good tool for remember the force of great stories about self definition, love and fundamental choices, with few traces from Tennessee Williams and Steinbeck. William Holden does a great role. Kim Novak has the science to use her classic tricks for create the unpredictable blonde. Rosalind Russell is pure Blanche du Bois and Verna Felton is herself at all. a film who remains, for me, a kind of revelation. because it is , against mistakes, a convincing fresco of South. because it gives more than a drama but a drama well made. because it has the rare gift to be sentimental and realistic in same measure, with same brilliance.

Where is MST3K when you need it? "Picnic" had me resurrecting this late 80s fad: Conflicted belle shirks marrying for money for a deeper passion - NOT! Irrestible 20-something drops out of college and out of his boxcar into the roiling undercurrents of a... picnic - NOT! Gracefully aging spinster displays resilience and inner strength grappling with the gender roles of her day - TRIPLE NOT! Holden's bluster and swagger had me wanting a film noir ending of some sort. He looks ruggedly hot as usual, but nowhere near the age he's supposed to be. Bogie could have been cast to similar effect.Novak expressionlessly drones about being tired of being looked at, only to throw over the local nice guy for a booty call with a sexy dancer she has known for all of six hours - the sort of charmer with lines like "you asked for it".She's egged on in her non-mutual romance by her social-climbing mother, who in countering Novak's objection that she is only nineteen, displays a knack for non-linear mathematics: "Next year you'll be 20, then 21, and then...40!"The movie never succeeds in making us care for the main characters. There is an attempt at exploring Holden's inner conflict, but in the balance of things, he's more creepy than compelling, while Novak wins the Oscar for "Best Blank Expression" in most scenes. But Russell's "spinster school marm" performance is the nadir of the whole affair. Acting with all the poise of a tipsy Old West bar maid, she literally rips Holden's shirt off in public then (also literally) throws herself at a long-time boyfriend the next morning. And when, implausibly, he goes through with the ceremony, she sticks her tongue out at the school on the way by.The only likable character is the ditched boyfriend. What is so repellent to Novak's character? He's cute, nice, rich and until the picnic, has even settled for kissing when they park. More to the point, he is going out with her against his father's wishes and stands up to the old man about it.At least I came away with some ideas for my next picnic, like the octogenarian balloon blowing contest. I'll have to watch that scene again, it was an emotional high point.

Absolutely masterful storytelling. Four story lines united by two beautiful melodies, which themselves are united. Four romance-related stories are intertwined: deepening love between Bill & Kim; painfully destroyed crush of teenager Strasberg; lost love of mother; lost romance of Roz Russel. All roles masterfully acted, with the exception of Bill's stiff dancing. That being said, there, on screen, are your mother and father, and all their ancestors, and all your descendants. That's what life is about — simply that. By the way, this scene is definitive proof that free will does not exist. Bill didn't have a chance. Guys take note: When women say they want more romance in their lives, this is what they mean. It's worth a shot.

Corny and hokey. This movie is an example of what can happen when a the storyline of a play is changed to conform to a movie format. What is a tight wrapped theatrical production morphs into something almost unrecognizable from the original on the screen. This movie can be best summed up in one word: hokey. True, the movie was made in 1955, but still, by that time Hollywood was already treating the subject of sex in a more candid manner. This movie takes a great play with a lot of intense interactions and transforms it into an overblown mess with a lot of stagy overacting. Despite the title of the play, the story is not about a picnic, yet the movie makes a picnic a central feature of the story, which diverts the audience's attention from what is going on between the principal characters, who get lost in the crowd. If any movie did not need extras, this is the one. Yet for some reason, this movie has an army of extras playing picnickers. William Holden's performance is good but not especially strong or overpowering and there is little chemistry between him and Kim Novak. Much more intense and better acted are the performances by Rosalind Russell and Arthur O'Connell, both in supportive roles. The movie should have been about them.