The Dead 4K 1987

If you are already familiar with John Huston's work, based on his classic films, many of which, starting with The Maltese Falcon, starred Humphrey Bogart, be prepared for the fact that, despite its ominous title, there is no trace of adventure or crime in The Dead. John Huston's last film captivates with its sadness and beauty. The great director seems to understand that The Dead will be the final chord in his rich career, and as a farewell, he shot an intimate, perhaps even intimate film about a ball in the house of elderly ladies, and in fact, about the life that is given to us.

Guests gather at an Irish house with elderly aunts. Most of them are respectable people, but there are also a staunch supporter of the Irish Renaissance, Ivorz, who teases Gabriel Conroy, the central character, and a drunkard, a black sheep who tarnishes the reputation of the Freddy Malins family. There are almost no young people. The hosts are two unmarried women of a certain age and their niece, who may well end up an old maid. The party proceeds without noise or scandal. The hosts and guests entertain each other with singing, poetry recitals, and dancing. Everything is quiet, peaceful, and mundane. The evening is not even spoiled by a tipsy fool who constantly reminds everyone of his presence and almost causes a scandal because he was called by his first name, Teddy, and not his usual second name, Freddy.

The film features beautiful music by Alex North, a fifteen-time (!) Oscar nominee, whom the Academy honored with an award for his contribution to cinema only at the end of his life. The outdoor shots are beautiful and beg to be hung on the wall. Joyce's work has been carefully and almost verbatim transferred to the screen. I remember the moment when Gabriel, the nominal protagonist, and his wife Greta (Anjelica Huston) are about to return home, and the old sad Irish song “The Girl from Aughrim” plays, which only his wife seems to hear. The second part of the story takes place at Gabriel and Greta's home. The wife tells her husband about her first love, and this story becomes a revelation for Gabriel, presenting their marriage in a new light.

With age, strong feelings are gradually forgotten, and it is never superfluous to remind yourself that you can, as far as possible, exist peacefully, which is equivalent to death, or you can live in such a way that in the end there is no feeling of resentment that you have deprived yourself of something very important.