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Reviews
Reconstruction (2003)
Intriguing and thought provoking
I saw this movie at the London Film Festival, introduced by Boe the director and the beautiful Bonnevie, the lead actress. Boe is a graduate of the Danish film school and, as you might expect, the film is packed with movie references from Bergman to Hitchcock via Lynch. I hope the movie picks up a UK distributor as a second viewing is needed to understand the movie fully. On one viewing alone, this is an intelligent, intriguing and thought provoking movie with an excellent sense of time and place (Copenhagen, the present, even though no-one seems to have a mobile phone!), clever cinematography and editing and good performances. Boe creates a vision of Copenhagen as a labyrinthine, alien jungle where your front door may disappear and your friends have never seen you before.
Highly recommended
The Human Stain (2003)
Oh dear, it's a mess
I saw this movie at its UK premiere at the London Film Festival, introduced by Benton, Hopkins and two other cast members.
How could you not want to see this movie? Hopkins, Kidman, Harris and Sinise, in an adaptation of a Roth novel directed by Benton. The book deals with huge themes and moral issues around racism, child abuse, denying one's heritage, loss and loneliness. Sounds great, doesn't it?
Unfortunately this movie is a mess. Let's start with the casting: Hopkins sleepwalks through the whole movie and is totally unbelievable; the iconography around Kidman (beauty, style, intelligence etc) is incompatible with the trailer trash character she plays. OK, we accept her as the courtesan in 'Moulin Rouge' but it took a false nose for us to see her as Virgina Woolf in 'The Hours'; Ed Harris as a trailer trash husband calling Hopkins 'the old guy' - come on.
The structure is all wrong. It starts with the car crash the flashes back to 1998. Yet the most interesting section of the film takes place in 1944, with Hopkins as a young man. When we finally flash forward to the car crash again, that's not the end of the movie. There's a 15 minute coda added, after the 2 main characters have died. Suddenly Sinise and Harris are the stars.
Finally, the gargantuan themes of the book are trivialised. The enormity of what Coleman does to his mother and family passes over our heads. Contrast this with the same scenario in Sirk's 'Imitation of Life'. In that movie, when Sarah Jane turns her back on Annie we share the mother's unbearable pain. Where is Coleman's inner conflict, do we really feel Kidman's character's guilt and pain? Can a 100 minute movie really tackle these themes in a meaningful way?
Why did Hopkins and Kidman make this film? Why is it so disappointing? Is it an unfilmable novel? Decide for yourselves.
L'Anglaise et le duc (2001)
Slow and unengaging
Much has been made of Rohmer's use of digital technology to 'fill in' the background. At times it works well, the scene where Grace and her maid witness from afar the King's execution is particularly striking. At other times it gives the film a strangely amateurish look, resembling a home video. However, the major failing is that the sheer artificiality of the mise en scene creates an alienating effect in the viewer. We know that what we are watching is not real so how can we feel for the characters? To be frank, I did not care at all what happened to the Lady or the Duke.
The other major failing, I regret to say, is the performance of Lucy Russell in the leading role. She is in virtually every scene and the success or otherwise of the film rests on her performance. OK she is speaking a foreign language but she is incapable of expressing real emotion. Her emoting in the scene where she recounts to her friend Mme de Meyler (an excellent performance by the debutante Helena Dubiel) seeing the head on a pole caused some embarrassed laughter in the audience. Also, watch her hands when she is expressing emotion!
All in all a very disappointing film, particularly given the positive reviews on this site.
La veuve de Saint-Pierre (2000)
Not a classic Leconte
This is a dramatic and stylish account of the relationship between 3 characters living in the tough world of St Pierre in the 19th Century. Neel Auguste is sentenced to death by guillotine (la veuve) but there is no guillotine on the island. They must wait for it to arrive and in the meantime Auguste is rehabilitated through the patronage and protection of Madame La (Binoche) and her husband (Auteuil).
This is a well constructed and shot movie but it lacks the spirit of Leconte's more personal films (The Girl on the Bridge, Monsieur Hire, The Hairdresser's Husband). Leconte introduced the film at a preview screening in London that I attended and explained that he was not the first choice director. The script and cast were already in place when the director dropped out.
Leconte does a good job but as a 'director for hire' rather than 'auteur' this work is something of a disappointment.
Under Suspicion (2000)
2 Movie Greats, Mano a Mano
Morgan Freeman, Gene Hackman, the beautiful Monica Belluci, San Juan, Puerto Rico at carnival time - surely the ingredients for a major blockbuster? Well, yes and no.
This is a gripping, stylish game of cat and mouse between 2 of the greatest screen actors of the last 30 years. Freeman as the wise cop (think Seven, Kiss the Girls!) and Hackman as the businessman on the edge (think No Way Out, Extreme Measures !)
Whilst occassionally assaulting the senses through his use of jump cuts, loud music and unsettling camera work, the director makes us think, reflect and review what we have seen and question what is reality and what is fiction. The most striking stylistic device is the maintenance of the interrogation during the flashback sequences so that whilst Hackman is retelling his story, Freeman - his inquisitor, is with him in his flashback. This causes the viewer to question the truth of what he is seeing. Is Hackman the murderer or is he drowning in a sea of circumstantial flotsam and jetsam? Go and see for yourself but take your brain with you - this is no walk in the park but an intriguing, thought-provoking grown-up movie in a summer of mindless pap.
Enjoy
Romance (1999)
Cold, Cold Heart
Romance has already gained notoriety in England (it opens tomorrow) for being passed uncut by the normally prudish British censor. For the first time since Ai No Corrida we are allowed to see an erect penis on the screen. The censor reckons that this is an 'art film' and certainly anyone going to see it for erotic entertainment will be sorely disappointed. I saw the movie at a preview introduced by Catherine Breillat. She said that we might expect the film to be hot whereas, in reality it is 'glacial'.
This is a gruelling portrait of a woman in a sexless relationship, who loves her boyfriend but gets nothing in return. Do we identify/sympathise with her? Partly, but the spare, cold mise en scene and use of long takes and long shots creates a distantiation effect. Yes, there are some shocking scenes (the baby crowning, the juxtaposition of sperm/lubricant on her stomach and the lingering shots of her being bound.
This is a film worth seeing but take your parka
A Murder of Crows (1998)
Cuba's no dramatic lead
They say that a defendant who represents himself has a fool for a client. Well, Cuba is one of the Producers of this film and he obviously needs to be protected from himself. He's a fine comic actor but his little smirks, quizzical looks and mugging to the camera just don't work when he's playing the dramatic lead. He's not the only person who's miscast. Marianne-Jeanne Baptiste, so wonderful in 'Secrets and Lies' looks like she has stumbled into the wrong movie. Best (or worst) of all this movie boasts the worst disguise since Jane March in 'Color of Night' - if you don't spot it within the first 10 seconds and then work out the whole plot, then shame on you, you're no movie buff. Destined for DTV or DTTV - don't expect to see this in your local movie theatre.
Peeping Tom (1960)
The British 'Psycho'
It's difficult to imagine the effect that this film had on critics and audiences when first shown as in the 90's we have become desensitized by the violence and cruelty of slasher movies.
Yet even today this film is deeply disturbing. The lead character is portrayed in a sympathetic light, thanks to a stunning performance from Carl Boem. He is a victim of a cruel and abusive father, desperate to escape the curse that has been handed down to him. There are some memorable scenes: the home movie showing him and his father (played by Michael Powell and his own son), the shot of the beautiful model turning round and showing her hare lip and the projection of one of the murders to the blind mother, with part of the frame projecting onto the murderer.
This is a deeply unnerving film but brilliantly made. Go see.
The Rake's Progress (1945)
What a bounder!
The Rake's Progress (as this film is known in England) tells the story of a spoiled, rich public school boy who cannot settle in peace time but finds his role during the war by sacrificing himself for the war effort. The name of the film was changed for US audiences, according to Director Gilliatt, because 'the distributors thought the original one might lead audiences to expect something about gardening'!!
Your enjoyment of this movie will depend on your reaction to Rex Harrison in the lead role of Vivian. If you see him as a fun loving bounder, you'll have fun. If, on the other hand you find him an annoying, faithless, womanising bastard then you'll find 124 minutes verrrrry long.
I started off in the first camp, particularly during the scenes when he is based in a coffee plantation in Latin America and the amusing conversations with his elderly aunt. However the charm soon wears off as he cuckolds an old university friend, uses a beautiful jewish refugee to pay off his debts and causes his own father's death in a drink driving accident.
Does he find redemption in the end? Well, this depends on your interpretation of the final scenes. If you buy the moral that he has now found his place then the film has some meaning. I found the redemptive ending tacked on - reminiscent of the way Hawkes was forced to insert the criticism of gangsters in Scarface.
There are some good performances, particularly from Godfrey Tearle as Vivian's father and Margaret Johnson as the Secretary. Rex acts as Rex just like in Blithe Spirit, Doctor Doolittle, My Fair Lady etc....
If you've nothing better to do on a wet Sunday afternoon, give this film a look and post your views.
Millions Like Us (1943)
It's great to be together
Millions Like Us is one of the few films made during the 2nd World War which deals with women factory workers. When Celia gets her call-up papers she wants to do something glamorous like joining the ATS. Instead she is sent to a munitions factory.
This movie is part love story and part propaganda-flic. The propaganda elements are more subtle than in many 40s films eg 'The Next of Kin'. However the life of the factory girl is glamourized. This is Celia's escape from the domestic drudgery of caring for her elderly father and allows her to find true love. Also the togetherness of the factory girls is emphasised throughout the film. The contrast between shots of Celia demure and alone that we see at the start of the film and the final scene of her as an integral part of the group is marked. Not only is munitions work vital to the war effort, we are being told, but it also provides companionship, an outlet and fulfillment for women.
A film about and for women in the workplace may sound like a step forward from the usual patriarchal portrayal of the female sex. Yet, at its heart this is a deeply conservative film. Ultimately Celia finds fulfillment with and through a man and whilst the companionship of women is important, all the female characters are searching for a husband.
However, the Directors should be applauded for having done a good job in making an enjoyable, informative propaganda film.
By the way, look out for the shots of Patricia Roc's feet when she is talking to her husband. Is this an erotic charge or fear of chilblains? Watch the movie and let us know what you think.
Hatter's Castle (1942)
Mad Hatter's Me Party
This has all the trappings of a classic melodrama: family disputes, unwanted pregnancy, banishment, financial ruin, adultery, rape and suicide. Yet the film also has overtones of tragedy as the hatter's tragic flaws lead him to lose his family, his castle and ultimately his life. The film has added resonance from the parallels between the hatter and Hitler. The film uses techniques of German expressionist cinema: light and shadows, obtuse camera angles etc, and the hatter is clearly identified as a despotic tyrant. If we accept this parallel, his ultimate downfall is a matter for rejoicing and indeed the film ends on a high note as his daughter and the Doctor leave the dark church and enter into the light. It's not blatant propaganda but the parallels are clear