Kate Winslet takes on iconic role first played by Joan Crawford in HBO miniseries MILDRED PIERCE
SEE IT BIG! MILDRED PIERCE (Todd Haynes, 2011)
Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria
Sunday, May 13, free with museum admission of $10, 4:00
718-777-6800
www.movingimage.us
www.hbo.com
Clearly, the Museum of the Moving Image has a wicked sense of humor. Last Mother’s Day, the Astoria institution screened all five and a half hours of Todd Haynes’s splendid HBO version of Mildred Pierce, and they’re doing it again this Mother’s Day at 4:00, this time as the conclusion to the Fashion in Film Festival: If Looks Could Kill — and right after a 1:00 screening of the Joan Crawford original. This new Mildred Pierce is less a remake of Michael Curtiz’s 1945 noir, which earned Crawford a Best Actress Oscar for the title role, than a more faithful retelling of James M. Cain’s 1941 novel about a dedicated mother who cannot see through the deception of her awful, terrible, miserable, horrible, conniving daughter. Kate Winslet is stoic as Mildred, who, after her husband, Bert (Brian F. O’Byrne), leaves her for another woman, starts working as a waitress to help take care of her two children, especially her piano-prodigy daughter, Veda (first played by Morgan Turner, then Evan Rachel Wood when she’s older). Soon after Mildred’s pies become extremely popular, she opens up her own restaurant, with the help of Bert’s former business partner, Wally Burgan (James LeGros), who doesn’t mind getting a little something extra from Mildred. Mildred starts living a more exciting life, gallivanting around with would-be playboy Monty Beragon (Guy Pearce), but her happiness is continually thwarted by her undying, undeserving love for her daughter, who does not return the feeling but is more than content to take her mother’s money. Haynes and cowriter Jon Raymond focus on the characters instead of the camp, coming up with a compelling and involving depression-era tale that will break your heart over and over again. The Fashion in Film Festival, which examines clothing, crime, and violence in movies, also includes Abel Ferrara’s Ms. 45 on Friday and Alfred Hitchcock’s Marnie and John M. Stahl’s Leave Her to Heaven on Saturday.