Mildred Pierce
The mother of all mother-daughter melodramas and one of the most incisive and cynical films ever made about class in America.
Introduction and discussion are by Marion van der Wijgaart (in Dutch).
Joan Crawford capped a career playing hard-nosed working girls with her ferocious, Oscar-winning turn as the titular tiger mom who bootstraps her way up from put-upon housewife to wealthy restaurateur all to win the love of her monstrously bratty little girl Veda. But what could drive her to murder? Etched in striking noir chiaroscuro, this slashing James M. Cain adaptation is a landmark film in American cinema.
Michael Curtiz, USA, 1945, 111 min. English spoken, without subtitles.
With Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott, Eve Arden, Ann Blyth.