Heroes

 The conditions we're in has given me the opportunity to watch 'Films' (albeit on DVD) the most recent 'Classic' we watched was Gaslight and a great reminder of where the bandied about term Gaslighting comes from.

The film was not the greatest transfer and it was decidedly  short on explosions and CGI but it packs a punch and the man who wrote the play it was developed from was  Patrick Hamilton who wrote a few great novels and plays (Rope made a film by another Hollywood great, Hitchcock)   - I read a  biography of Hamilton some time ago, he was it seems not a happy soul a heavy drinker (reminds me of Patricia Highsmith who I've read a recent biography of  and it's back to Hitchcock again).

Anyway I'm straying from the point two of the other films we've watched are the ' Classic' Sunset Boulevard  and Fedora both from the Director/Writer Billy Wilder (a hero for sure) who I've recently read a biography of (Nobody's Perfect) and the fictionalised re-telling of the making of Fedora  'Mr Wilder & Me' by  Jonathan Coe (possible another hero- for me a great contemporary writer).  

So I'll try and get back to my point - as you find out more about your heroes, inevitably there's a reveal that they're not perfect, the things you like about them are part of them - for Wilder I liked that he'd escaped Austria/Germany ahead of WW2, worked as a Gigolo ( rather disappointingly I discovered that here the term was more a dancing partner to  wealthy women) was a collector of Modern art (and  something of an artist himself) he stood with John Houston against McCarthyism and made great films of various genres (from Film Noir Double indemnity to the  iconic Rom-Com The Apartment) but he was human, he  recognised he was a guilty party in the failure of his first marriage .

So it's important to cut ourselves some slack when we try to be our own heroes and realise that we are none of us without fault.