Alex Guinness's Mr. Bird is given a death sentence by his doctor in Last Holiday, so he heads out to spend all his savings at a posh hotel in a resort town, his last remaining days intersecting with the lives of others, and coming upon a mix of eerie reminders of his mortality, and extremely good luck he can't possibly make use of. The subtle satire of it is, opportunities breed opportunity, and only by acting the rich man does Bird finally get ahead in life. The lesson is more overt: Live life, for caution is a cage. But then there are examples to the contrary in the film as well. Temperance, then. Neither too frugal, nor too opulent. But Last Holiday won't let me get away with that either. It's a comedy except when it isn't, and Fate is fickle indeed. A common man's window into the world of moneyed men and women, their hypocrisies and "first world problems" turns into an attempt at finding what's really important in life and how to best live it. Guinness is up to the task - and well supported by his cast - playing the truth sayer who you really want to see pull through. As to whether Fate decides this is a comedy or a tragedy in the end, I'll let you discover.
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TheInfanta
This film should be on all sorts of official lists!!!MovieManMark
Close enough. It is part of Janus Films' Essential Art House set, but ICM doesn't count it as part of the Criterion Collection.allisoncm
Isn't this Criterion?Siskoid
Alex Guinness's Mr. Bird is given a death sentence by his doctor in Last Holiday, so he heads out to spend all his savings at a posh hotel in a resort town, his last remaining days intersecting with the lives of others, and coming upon a mix of eerie reminders of his mortality, and extremely good luck he can't possibly make use of. The subtle satire of it is, opportunities breed opportunity, and only by acting the rich man does Bird finally get ahead in life. The lesson is more overt: Live life, for caution is a cage. But then there are examples to the contrary in the film as well. Temperance, then. Neither too frugal, nor too opulent. But Last Holiday won't let me get away with that either. It's a comedy except when it isn't, and Fate is fickle indeed. A common man's window into the world of moneyed men and women, their hypocrisies and "first world problems" turns into an attempt at finding what's really important in life and how to best live it. Guinness is up to the task - and well supported by his cast - playing the truth sayer who you really want to see pull through. As to whether Fate decides this is a comedy or a tragedy in the end, I'll let you discover.