Ep. 174: Richard's Things

June Gloom 2: Down to Frown is officially underway, and we are kicking it off with the 1980 British drama RICHARD'S THINGS, starring Liv Ullmann and Amanda Redman.

RICHARD'S THINGS is the story of Kate, a woman whose husband Richard has the decency to die before the movie even really gets going, leaving behind his things — and, as Kate slowly pieces together, his mistress. What follows is a methodical, quivering-lipped journey through grief, betrayal, and the unlikely friendship that blooms between a widow and her late husband's younger lover, Josie. United by their mutual loss, mutual exasperation, and a shared appreciation for lighting a cigarette without ever actually smoking it, the two women navigate the emotional wreckage of loving the same deeply average man.

There's so much to uncover in RICHARD'S THINGS.  And by uncover, we don't mean nudity.  There's not much of that.  But there are omelets. There are hugs — intense, hard-R hugs. There is a burglar in slacks.  There are disgruntled in-laws. And eventually, there is a road-side breakup that may be the most efficient ending of a relationship in cinema history. 

We discuss the film's notoriously deliberate pacing — which is to say, every line of dialogue arrives as though it has traveled a great distance and needs a moment to rest. We gush over the film's undisputed highlight: a gloriously civil home burglary committed by a man in a sport coat who would go on to play Emperor Palpatine in the STAR WARS franchise.

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