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Reviews
The English Patient (1996)
Not all Americans hated this beautiful film!
I felt that I needed to add a comment as the Americans almost universally panned this film. When I first saw the film in the fall of '96, I felt overwhelmed by what seemed to be a convoluted plot with too many shallow characters. Having watched the film twice since then, however, I have come to appreciate the poetic dialogue as well as the amazing cinematography and score.
For me, Hana was the most sympathetic character in the film, marvelously portrayed by Juliette Binoche. Her spontaneity, beauty, and passion illuminate the screen like no other actress today in such films as "Bleu" and "Damage". During "The English Patient", she is the character I weep for as everyone she loves is tragically taken from her and yet, she still musters the courage to persevere.
This is definitely one of those films that is too complex to comprehend in one viewing. Because of this, I sincerely understand why many think it is overwrought and pretentious. Therefore, I am reserved in recommending it to everyone. The film is similar to "The Piano", another film that critics loved but that many viewers disliked for the same above-listed reasons. For those who do have the patience, however, a lush romantic story (with heart-warming quotations you will not soon forget), is a wonderful reward.
An Unmarried Woman (1978)
Jill Clayburgh gives a remarkable performance...
Jill Clayburgh, long overlooked for her sterling performances, gives a wonderful performance as Erica Benton, a woman whose husband suddenly leaves her after almost twenty years of marriage. Married after just graduating from Vassar (a great line about the school is not to be missed!), Erica's whole adult life has been defined as a wife. Left to fend for herself with her teenage daughter in Manhattan, Erica must come to terms with a brave new world of vastly different mores than she is accustomed to.
As Erica seeks to re-define herself as a single woman, she has some embarrassing, albeit humorous, encounters in discos and taxi cabs with men who are quite frank about their needs and desires. Confused, she turns to a therapist who helps her cope and explore the person she truly is but has never had the opportunity to express. When she is able to comes to term with this issue, Erica finds happiness with someone who is her polar opposite but who loves her for the person she is.
Throughout the film, the loving relationship between Erica and her daughter, who is also intelligent and free-thinking, is explored. Although the two spar early on in the film (Erica vents her rage over men inappropriately towards the daughter's boyfriend), one of the final scenes where the two sit and play at the piano is one of the most beautiful mother-daughter scenes in modern film.
Trois couleurs: Blanc (1994)
The ultimate tale of revenge...
Although I enjoyed "Bleu" and "Rouge" better in this trilogy, "Blanc" is a wonderful story in its own right about a husband who takes the ultimate revenge on a beautiful wife who has "cuckolded" him at the start of their marriage.
Again, Kieslowski brilliantly weaves together individuals who greatly impact each other's lives in ways unexpected as the characters move from France to Poland. The white imagery, such as a stunning sequence where Julie Delpy is shown as a bride in all her glory, is prevalent throughout the film.
Julie Delpy is an actress whose talents are wasted of late on films where her range and grace are stifled. In "Blanc", however, she is uninhibited. Hidden beneath the innocence of her white gown, there is a vindictive woman who has the power to bring her new husband to his knees. Little does she know, however, that he is not as spineless as she originally thought...
Eight out of ten stars.
Trois couleurs: Bleu (1993)
A triumph of the human spirit...
This film has been a constant source of inspiration for me since seeing it five years ago. Juliette Binoche turns in an amazing performance as Julie, a woman who loses her husband and young girl in an auto accident that she survives. Numbed, Julie reacts by giving up her material possessions and turning her back on humanity. After starting life anew, however, she is forced to come to terms with and help the eccentric characters she meets (including the sex-show worker who is despised in Julie's building and the lawyer carrying her deceased husband's child).
These characters force Julie to feel emotion and ambition again. Watching Julie finish the grand musical composition that her husband began is to see a triumph of the human spirit. Despite the tragedy that made her want to ultimately withdraw from life, she brilliantly perseveres in the end. "Bleu" is a truly inspirational story.
I highly recommend watching Binoche in "The English Patient" and "Damage", two films which further show-case her talent and beauty.
The Piano (1993)
An emotionally complex woman you will never forget...
Jane Campion is a director who is not afraid to create challenging films about emotionally complex women (i.e. the haunting "Sweetie" and the biography of troubled poet Janet Frame). In "The Piano", she continues this tradition with Ada, the mute Scottish mail-order bride, who is one of the most intriguing characters ever seen on film. The viewer may not empathize with Ada's situation and may even dislike her as a person but undeniably, she is a character who speaks volumes with her gestures without ever uttering a single word.
Holly Hunter gives the performance of her career, portraying Ada with such strength that whenever she "speaks" through her piano, she has the ability to silence and/or mesmerize everyone around her, especially her lover Baines (Harvey Keitel). As Ada's daughter, Anna Paquin is brilliant as the precocious girl who shows that she can match her mother's defiance and unorthodox attitudes in several pivotal scenes.
Other than the top-notch acting, the cinematography is lush and breath-taking and Ada's music is sensuous and haunting. I agree with other viewer's comments about the music seeming out of place during this time period (1840's). However, Ada was unconventional in Victorian society. She could not play the "proper" music of the time as this would have completely stifled her creativity and inner voice. Her compositions were her life force and without them, she could not survive.
I think many Americans did not know what to make of this erotic film when it was released (after garnering high acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival), but it is a true work of art that should not be missed, especially by romantics.
The Sweet Hereafter (1997)
A hauntingly beautiful film...
Egoyan's film is a multi-textured masterpiece. The characters are fascinating, among them Ian Holm's lawyer, who wanders into a small Canadian town following a tragic bus accident which robs a community of its children. Thought to be purely motivated by greed, the viewer slowly discovers that he is plagued by his own demons.
With a role that exhibits her as one of the most complex teen-agers I have ever seen on screen, Sarah Polley portrays Nicole, who survives the accident but is paralyzed. Polley is a star to watch in years ahead; she will definitely make her mark on the independent film scene (see Sundance Film Festival 1999's "Guinevere" and "Go").
Polley sings on the soundtrack, which I highly recommend. The songs are chilling, perfectly capturing the spirit of the small town forever changed and struggling to go forward after losing their next generation.
Boogie Nights (1997)
An amazing epic of a most unlikely group of individuals...
P.T. Anderson has created an incredible film about the rise and fall of an extended family of porn stars, and the individuals who supported them financially, during the late 70s-early 80s. During this time period, adult film-maker Jack Horner (played by Burt Reynolds in a Golden Globe winning performance) had a vision that his films could go "legitimate" in the mainstream film industry-- that is, be seen as more than pornography but as actual works of art. Many critics dismissed this film as pornography masquerading as bona fide movie-making. Those who sat through the film, however, met a fascinating, albeit naive, group of characters. In a heart-breaking (and Oscar-nominated) performance, we meet Julianne Moore's beautiful "Amber Waves", an actress who seemingly has everything she desires but aches for the love of the son she has lost because of her chosen career path. Amber readily channels this displaced love on her self-made family of actors, including Mark Wahlberg's "Dirk Diggler" and Heather Graham's "Rollergirl", who go through the motions of sex on screen but have no understanding of true love or intimacy due to prior rejection of family and/or society in general.
Other note-worthy performances include Philip Seymour Hoffman's "Scotty", who spends the film smitten with and completely devoted to Dirk in a love that is painfully unrequited. Also interesting are Don Cheadle's "Buck", the actor with loftier ambitions of owning a stereo store, and William H. Macy's "Little Bill", who is continually cuckolded by a wife who enjoys putting on sex shows with any willing man in public. This drama is played out with a wonderful soundtrack that revisits the glory days of disco and the "one-hit wonder" gems that peppered the early 80s. This was certainly one of the best films of 1997.
A Woman Under the Influence (1974)
Gena Rowland's gives the performance of a lifetime...
In an Oscar-nominated performance, Gena Rowlands plays Mabel Longhetti, a mentally unstable housewife married to blue-collar worker, Nick. At first, Nick and his co-workers, who frequent the Longhetti household, regard Mabel's increasingly erratic behavior as quirky, even entertaining. When the welfare of the Longhetti children comes to public light, however, Nick must face the fact that Mabel is very ill. Mabel is hospitalized and Nick must take control of the household. Clueless as to how to manage his children, Nick makes astounding misjudgments on their behalf. As the film progresses, the viewer questions who is the more unstable individual, Mabel or Nick. Gena Rowlands gives much depth to Mabel; equally well displayed are her highs and lows as are her vital roles of wife and mother. Gena Rowlands is unforgettable in this film; she is a cinematic American treasure.