Could there be a better (sweeter, sexier) movie than Moonstruck? It features some of the most charismatic actors of their generation, caught in their prime before they went crazy/ruined themselves with plastic surgery. Perhaps Cher and Nicolas Cage really hated each other, but the chemistry when he shouts "GET! . . .IN!. . . MY!. . . BED!" quivers in the air like a coming storm.
I just watched this perennial pleasure once again on TCM, and this time had an unexpected reaction to the couple's operatic scenes of passion: I cried. I mean, I REALLY cried, just sobbed. It took me until this moment to realize why: this is the most Italian movie I have ever seen, and right now Italia is sinking, with many hundreds of COVID-19 deaths every day.
But this movie reminded me of the true nature of this beautiful country, and is my favorite romantic comedy: though calling it that is selling it short. What made me cry was the sincerity of it, the tenderness, the fire - the proclamation that "love wrecks everything", and that we are here to RUIN OURSELVES. . . well, how big a slice of reality is that? And we respond most profoundly to that which is most real.
