Molly Ringwald talks about John Hughes…

August 12th, 2009 at 03:18pm Will Pfeifer

… In the New York Times. And she has some interesting things to say.

Among them, there’s this…

Most everyone knows that John retreated from Hollywood and became a sort of J.D. Salinger for Generation X. But really, sometime before then, he had retreated from us and from the kinds of movies that he had made with us. I still believe that the Hughes films of which both Michael and I were a part (specifically SIXTEEN CANDLES and THE BREAKFAST CLUB) were the most deeply personal expressions of John’s. In retrospect, I feel that we were sort of avatars for him, acting out the different parts of his life — improving upon it, perhaps. In those movies, he always got the last word. He always got the girl.

She’s right. John Hughes made other fine films — PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES, for example, and the underrated SHE’S HAVING A BABY. But even his other famous high school film, FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF, doesn’t have the same emotional kick that SIXTEEN CANDLES and THE BREAKFAST CLUB do. They just seem more serious and thoughtful, somehow, even though they both have some moments of (very) broad comedy.

In fact, looking at those movies objectively, I’d say PLANES and FERRIS are better movies — sharper, smarter and directed with more style and snap. They’re a lot more focused and seem more aware of what they want to be. But SIXTEEN CANDLES and BREAKFAST CLUB, like Ringwald says, are more personal. They’re sloppier, less focused and, as often as not, they fall on their faces. But that’s why they still work, and still connect with high schoolers and people who haven’t been in high school a long, long time (I graduated in 1985, the same year THE BREAKFAST CLUB hit theaters). On some level, they feel like they were made not only for high schoolers, but by a high schooler.

And judging by what Ringwald says in her perceptive piece, maybe they were.

Read the rest here.

Entry Filed under: actors, directors, Deaths