*I got a C- on this paper when I wrote it in 1990, and the grade is too generous. The entire article contains spoilers for the film.*
INTRODUCTION
Of all the films I have seen in class this quarter, I think "Cries and Whispers" moved me more than any of the others. This was the first Ingmar Bergman film I had seen, and it affected me in many different ways. This paper discusses the unanswered questions I had when the lights went up but answered after a lot of thought.
-Were the men in "Cries and Whispers" catalysts for the sisters' behavior?
Yes. Karin's husband was an older, distant, uncaring man whose only reason to touch her is sexual. Even then, sex to him is an afterthought when considering his question to her after supper: "Shall we have coffee in the drawing room or shall we go straight to bed?" I do not think Karin ever loved this man, and probably married him for the money he seems to have. After Karin puts the glass in her vagina, he seems only mildly repulsed. He does not scream and go to her. I think that her self-mutilation has something to do with her menstrual cycle. Maybe he finds that aspect of a woman repulsive. From watching them, I got the feeling that these two people hated each other without limits and what we saw in the film was just the latest chapter in an undeclared war between the sexes. Why do they stay together? Probably out of social necessity. He needs a wife to trot around to his friends at parties, and Karin does not want to end up an old maid like her sister Agnes.
-Was there any lesbianism in "Cries and Whispers"?
Of course not, despite the class' reaction. Anna was Agnes' servant, and I could see how a special bond could grow between them. Also, because Anna's daughter had died, Anna was obviously transferring her maternal instincts and love to Agnes. The sequence between Karin and Maria was just sisterly love. If these characters had been American, I doubt if anyone would touch anyone else of the opposite sex. It just would not be "proper."
-Did Agnes really come back to life near the end of "Cries and Whispers"?
I think Agnes came back to life in Anna's imagination. Agnes and Anna had a bond between them that could not be shared with anyone else. My goodness, a lady and her help actually caring for one another? I think the sequence was Anna's way of showing us, the audience, that she was more than a servant. Maria and Karin's reactions are that of revulsion at the thought of being touched by the dead. Their reasons are given in their reactions- Karin does not want to be touched, and Maria has trouble with that kind of unpassionate love. There is no new information or unspoken secret released to the audience. Therefore, this information could only be possessed by someone like a servant, who sees pretty much everything but can only speak when spoken to.
--Nominated for 5 Academy Awards, with one win--
Best Picture (lost to "The Sting")
Best Director- Ingmar Bergman (lost to George Roy Hill "The Sting")
Best Story and Screenplay (lost to "The Sting")
Best Cinematography (won)
Best Costume Design (lost to "The Sting")
Wednesday, May 6, 2026
Jane Eyre's Fire at Thornfield Hall: Three Different Films
*I wrote this paper in 2000 and received an 85/100. The instructor was being too kind. I suppose this paper is considered a spoiler alert for the novel and three film adaptations, so you have been warned.*
The Internet Movie Database shows thirteen different filmed versions of Charlotte Bronte's novel, Jane Eyre. Three of those films are available on video: a 1944 version starring Joan Fontaine and Orson Welles, a 1983 BBC version featuring Zelah Clarke and Timothy Dalton, and a 1996 version with Charlotte Gainsbourg and William Hurt. While all three of these films use Bronte's novel as the source, all three differ in the way the fire at Thornfield Hall is portrayed. This essay will point out the differences between the three films' interpretations of this crucial scene in the novel, and determine which one was most successful.
In the novel, Jane has returned to an inn located close to Thornfield Hall, her former place of employment. She walks from the inn to the house, and finds it is in ruins. She had been missing from the house for months and upon her return, "gathered evidence that the calamity was not of late occurence" (Bronte 432). Jane returns to the inn, and questions the middle-aged innkeeper about the condition of the house. Jane finds out that Edward's lunatic wife, Bertha, escaped, set fire to the house, and committed suicide by throwing herself off the roof. The innkeeper describes her as "dead as the stones on which her brains and blood were scattered" (Bronte 436). Edward has been injured as well, in his vain effort to save his crazed wife. He lost one eye, had a hand amputated, and was blind in his remaining eye. In the end, Jane goes to him, he rejects her out of self-pity, then agrees to take her back, and eventually regains his sight shortly after the birth of their first child together.
A problem filmmakers have had with the scene as it reads in the novel is that Jane gets the information about the fire second-hand. She does not witness the fire or Bertha's suicide, and only discovers it after she returns to Thornfield. Of course Bronte could not have had any inkling of filmmaking technology back in 1847, when the novel was published, so how could film directors dramatize this climactic scene?
The first film viewed for this essay was 1944's "Jane Eyre," with Joan Fontaine as Jane and Orson Welles as Edward. The film tries to put all the elements of a 461 page novel into a scant ninety-six minutes. Joan Fontaine is woefully miscast as Jane, she was twenty-eight years old and playing a girl of eighteen. Orson Welles was thirty-four, trying to play a middle-aged landowner. Often, during the viewing of the film, Fontaine would look older than Welles. The film was directed by Robert Stevenson, whose most popular film would come over twenty years later in the form of Walt Disney's "Mary Poppins" (1964). He would direct many other Disney live-action films, including fodder like "That Darn Cat!" (1965) and "The Shaggy D.A." (1976). "Jane Eyre" was his sixteenth effort as a director, and his twenty-second as a writer. It would also be the last film he is credited as having a hand in writing. Stevenson co-wrote the screenplay with two giants of film, theater, and literature: Aldous Huxley and John Houseman.
Huxley is best known as the author of Brave New World. He only co-wrote one other film in addition to "Jane Eyre," 1940's "Pride and Prejudice." The rest of his filmography are films based on his works. John Houseman was a member of Orson Welles' Mercury Theater. "Jane Eyre" is his only credited screenwriting work, and Houseman would later come to prominence in front of the camera in his Academy Award winning role as the tyrannical law professor in "The Paper Chase" (1973).
Stevenson and his screenwriters open the film with a book of Jane Eyre and the heading "Chapter 1." However, the prose Fontaine narrates and the printing on the page are not the way Bronte began her novel. Most of the film takes place on studio sets and backlots. The fire climax is only accurate in that Jane comes back and finds Thornfield in ruins. Instead of an innkeeper telling her what has happened, it is the housekeeper. The filmmakers decide that only part of Thornfield Hall has burned, thereby explaining why Edward suddenly stumbles upon the scene, blind. Edward still has both hands and eyes, and no scarring from his battle with the flames. In order to show Edward is a disheveled state, he wears a few days' growth of beard and has a cane. Edward and Jane make up there in the ruins, and Jane's voiceover lets the audience know the rest of the story about Edward regaining his eyesight. This film came out a few years after Gothic romantic productions such as "Rebecca" (1940) and "Wuthering Heights" (1939). 1944's "Jane Eyre" tries to imitate their success and fails, perhaps, in part, due to World War II. The frame announcing the end of the film also urges the patrons to buy war bonds at the theater. With the war, budgets for major motion pictures may not have been very large.
Mick Martin and Marsha Porter write in their video review that devotees of the novel may be disappointed in the film (563). Leonard Maltin's video guide quibbles that this version is "artistically successful" (689). If you measure how closely the fire scene was reenacted, the film comes up short.
The next version was originally shown on the British Broadcasting Corporation networks in 1983. This version, clocking in at four hours, is able to take its time and tell the story almost as closely as Bronte wrote it. The director, Julian Amyes, is know as a reliable director of other versions of British novels for the BBC, such as "Great Expectations" (1988); and its screenwriter, Alexander Baron, also adapted the BBC mini-series "Oliver Twist" (1985) and "Vanity Fair" (1987). This "Jane Eyre" version comes closest to capturing the fire scene as written in the novel.
A drawback to this BBC version is that all the interiors are shot on videotape and all the exteriors are shot on film. This creates a sometimes jarring juxtaposition for the viewer. Zelah Clarke is probably too old to play Jane, but her work is excellent, as is Timothy Dalton's non-flashy turn as Edward. The BBC version has Jane returning to Thornfield Hall, and the innkeeper accompanying her. There he tells her what happened, as the film flashes back to the dramatization of the suicide. The dialogue of the innkeeper is almost identical to the novel, as are Jane's questions about the fire and Edward's fate. The fire is rather awkwardly staged on videotape; the filmmakers thereby betraying that the scene was shot on an interior set. However, the injuries to Edward are accurate: he is missing his hand and Dalton wears effective makeup to look like he has lost an eye. Edward does not stumble from behind a wall like the 1944 version, he is found at another house later, just as Bronte wrote. The cast is great, and Martin and Porter are accurate when they label this a "thrilling and thorough adaptation" (563).
Finally, I viewed the 1996 version of "Jane Eyre," directed by Franco Zeffirelli. Zeffirelli also worked on the screenplay with Hugh Whitemore, author of "84 Charing Cross Road" (1985). Zeffirelli is famed for his ability to bring literary classics to the screen: from William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" (1968), "The Taming of the Shrew" (1967), and "Hamlet" (1990), to accessible operas such as "La Boheme" (1965) and "La Traviata" (1982), to melodramatic dreck like "The Champ" (1979) and "Endless Love" (1981).
Zeffirelli's film is only one hour and fifty seven minutes, but he and Whitemore are able to give an accurate feel of the Bronte novel that the 1944 version misses completely. Gainsbourg plays a plain but strong-willed Jane almost as well as Clarke's Jane, but closer to the right age. Almost forgotten is Joan Fontaine's pensive, teary-eyed performance. Zeffirelli, however, makes a choice to stage the fire just as Jane is leaving Thornfield after the failed wedding ceremony, instead of months after her departure. Therefore, we see the entire fire sequence instead of having it described or shown in flashback. When Jane returns later, she is not told what happened, but the audience can assume she has figured it out. This version also loses Edward's eye with effective makeup, but he gets to keep both of his hands. The Zeffirelli version is the most sumptuous version of the story with an experienced supporting cast including Joan Plowright, Billie Whitelaw, Anna Paquin, Geraldine Chaplin, and model Elle MacPherson. The film had a large budget, and it shows, especially in the detailed set design and costuming. Hurt is a brooding Edward, and Gainsbourg is finally portraying Jane accurately, in both age and physical appearance. While this film does not follow the fire scene word for word, it still works dramatically (at least better than the two earlier versions reviewed).
This film was criticized harshly for a hurried tone to the climax that truthfully was barely noticed. Martin and Porter write that the film "concludes with dissatisfying abruptness" (563). Leonard Maltin mentions the rushed ending, then shockingly writes "the 1944 version remains the best attempt" (689). Stephen Holden of "The New York Times on the Web" writes: "After the story's climactic fire (which is not convincingly staged), the movie hurtles pell-mell through critical events in Jane's life as if the rest of the story were an afterword instead of a resolution. It feels as if the director has simply lost interest" (1).
James Berardinelli gives the film a favorable review, stating "ultimately, this film is on par with the 1944 Orson Welles/Joan Fontaine version" (Berardinelli 1). People Weekly gave the film a grade of "C," criticizing Gainsbourg's performance, while the National Review found fault in Hurt's performance.
There are many other filmed versions of Jane Eyre, including a few silent versions, a 1934 sound version with Virginia Bruce and Colin Clive, and one not available on video- a television movie made in 1973 with Susannah York and George C. Scott in the vital roles.
Of the three versions viewed, Zeffirelli's films was the better entertainment, but Amyes' fire scene was the closest to the novel. Stevenson's version is simply a misfire, perhaps buoyed by its reputation and cast than its inherent quality.
Works Cited
-Berardinelli, James. "Jane Eyre (1995)". 14 April 2000 (http://www.movie-reviews.colossus.net/movies/j/jane-eyre.html)
-Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. 1847. New York: Signet Classic, 1997.
-Holden, Stephen. "Jane Eyre". New York Times on the Web. (http://www.nytimes.com)
-Internet Movie Database. 13 April 2000 (http://imdb.com)
-"Jane Eyre". Dir. Robert Stevenson. Perf. Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine. 20th Century-Fox, 1944.
-"Jane Eyre". Dir. Julian Amyes. Perf. Timothy Dalton and Zelah Clarke. BBC/CBS/Fox, 1983.
-"Jane Eyre". Dir. Franco Zeffirelli. Perf. William Hurt and Charlotte Gainsbourg. Miramax, 1996.
-Maltin, Leonard, ed. Leonard Maltin's 1999 Movie & Video Guide. New York: Signet, 1998.
-Martin, Mick and Marsha Porter. Video Movie Guide 1999. New York: Ballantine, 1998.
-Rozen, Leah. "Jane Eyre". Rev. of "Jane Eyre," dir. Franco Zeffirelli. People Weekly 22 Apr 1996: 19.
-Simon, John. "Jane Eyre". Rev. of "Jane Eyre," dir. Franco Zeffirelli. National Review 17 Jun 1996: 57.
The Internet Movie Database shows thirteen different filmed versions of Charlotte Bronte's novel, Jane Eyre. Three of those films are available on video: a 1944 version starring Joan Fontaine and Orson Welles, a 1983 BBC version featuring Zelah Clarke and Timothy Dalton, and a 1996 version with Charlotte Gainsbourg and William Hurt. While all three of these films use Bronte's novel as the source, all three differ in the way the fire at Thornfield Hall is portrayed. This essay will point out the differences between the three films' interpretations of this crucial scene in the novel, and determine which one was most successful.
In the novel, Jane has returned to an inn located close to Thornfield Hall, her former place of employment. She walks from the inn to the house, and finds it is in ruins. She had been missing from the house for months and upon her return, "gathered evidence that the calamity was not of late occurence" (Bronte 432). Jane returns to the inn, and questions the middle-aged innkeeper about the condition of the house. Jane finds out that Edward's lunatic wife, Bertha, escaped, set fire to the house, and committed suicide by throwing herself off the roof. The innkeeper describes her as "dead as the stones on which her brains and blood were scattered" (Bronte 436). Edward has been injured as well, in his vain effort to save his crazed wife. He lost one eye, had a hand amputated, and was blind in his remaining eye. In the end, Jane goes to him, he rejects her out of self-pity, then agrees to take her back, and eventually regains his sight shortly after the birth of their first child together.
A problem filmmakers have had with the scene as it reads in the novel is that Jane gets the information about the fire second-hand. She does not witness the fire or Bertha's suicide, and only discovers it after she returns to Thornfield. Of course Bronte could not have had any inkling of filmmaking technology back in 1847, when the novel was published, so how could film directors dramatize this climactic scene?
The first film viewed for this essay was 1944's "Jane Eyre," with Joan Fontaine as Jane and Orson Welles as Edward. The film tries to put all the elements of a 461 page novel into a scant ninety-six minutes. Joan Fontaine is woefully miscast as Jane, she was twenty-eight years old and playing a girl of eighteen. Orson Welles was thirty-four, trying to play a middle-aged landowner. Often, during the viewing of the film, Fontaine would look older than Welles. The film was directed by Robert Stevenson, whose most popular film would come over twenty years later in the form of Walt Disney's "Mary Poppins" (1964). He would direct many other Disney live-action films, including fodder like "That Darn Cat!" (1965) and "The Shaggy D.A." (1976). "Jane Eyre" was his sixteenth effort as a director, and his twenty-second as a writer. It would also be the last film he is credited as having a hand in writing. Stevenson co-wrote the screenplay with two giants of film, theater, and literature: Aldous Huxley and John Houseman.
Huxley is best known as the author of Brave New World. He only co-wrote one other film in addition to "Jane Eyre," 1940's "Pride and Prejudice." The rest of his filmography are films based on his works. John Houseman was a member of Orson Welles' Mercury Theater. "Jane Eyre" is his only credited screenwriting work, and Houseman would later come to prominence in front of the camera in his Academy Award winning role as the tyrannical law professor in "The Paper Chase" (1973).
Stevenson and his screenwriters open the film with a book of Jane Eyre and the heading "Chapter 1." However, the prose Fontaine narrates and the printing on the page are not the way Bronte began her novel. Most of the film takes place on studio sets and backlots. The fire climax is only accurate in that Jane comes back and finds Thornfield in ruins. Instead of an innkeeper telling her what has happened, it is the housekeeper. The filmmakers decide that only part of Thornfield Hall has burned, thereby explaining why Edward suddenly stumbles upon the scene, blind. Edward still has both hands and eyes, and no scarring from his battle with the flames. In order to show Edward is a disheveled state, he wears a few days' growth of beard and has a cane. Edward and Jane make up there in the ruins, and Jane's voiceover lets the audience know the rest of the story about Edward regaining his eyesight. This film came out a few years after Gothic romantic productions such as "Rebecca" (1940) and "Wuthering Heights" (1939). 1944's "Jane Eyre" tries to imitate their success and fails, perhaps, in part, due to World War II. The frame announcing the end of the film also urges the patrons to buy war bonds at the theater. With the war, budgets for major motion pictures may not have been very large.
Mick Martin and Marsha Porter write in their video review that devotees of the novel may be disappointed in the film (563). Leonard Maltin's video guide quibbles that this version is "artistically successful" (689). If you measure how closely the fire scene was reenacted, the film comes up short.
The next version was originally shown on the British Broadcasting Corporation networks in 1983. This version, clocking in at four hours, is able to take its time and tell the story almost as closely as Bronte wrote it. The director, Julian Amyes, is know as a reliable director of other versions of British novels for the BBC, such as "Great Expectations" (1988); and its screenwriter, Alexander Baron, also adapted the BBC mini-series "Oliver Twist" (1985) and "Vanity Fair" (1987). This "Jane Eyre" version comes closest to capturing the fire scene as written in the novel.
A drawback to this BBC version is that all the interiors are shot on videotape and all the exteriors are shot on film. This creates a sometimes jarring juxtaposition for the viewer. Zelah Clarke is probably too old to play Jane, but her work is excellent, as is Timothy Dalton's non-flashy turn as Edward. The BBC version has Jane returning to Thornfield Hall, and the innkeeper accompanying her. There he tells her what happened, as the film flashes back to the dramatization of the suicide. The dialogue of the innkeeper is almost identical to the novel, as are Jane's questions about the fire and Edward's fate. The fire is rather awkwardly staged on videotape; the filmmakers thereby betraying that the scene was shot on an interior set. However, the injuries to Edward are accurate: he is missing his hand and Dalton wears effective makeup to look like he has lost an eye. Edward does not stumble from behind a wall like the 1944 version, he is found at another house later, just as Bronte wrote. The cast is great, and Martin and Porter are accurate when they label this a "thrilling and thorough adaptation" (563).
Finally, I viewed the 1996 version of "Jane Eyre," directed by Franco Zeffirelli. Zeffirelli also worked on the screenplay with Hugh Whitemore, author of "84 Charing Cross Road" (1985). Zeffirelli is famed for his ability to bring literary classics to the screen: from William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" (1968), "The Taming of the Shrew" (1967), and "Hamlet" (1990), to accessible operas such as "La Boheme" (1965) and "La Traviata" (1982), to melodramatic dreck like "The Champ" (1979) and "Endless Love" (1981).
Zeffirelli's film is only one hour and fifty seven minutes, but he and Whitemore are able to give an accurate feel of the Bronte novel that the 1944 version misses completely. Gainsbourg plays a plain but strong-willed Jane almost as well as Clarke's Jane, but closer to the right age. Almost forgotten is Joan Fontaine's pensive, teary-eyed performance. Zeffirelli, however, makes a choice to stage the fire just as Jane is leaving Thornfield after the failed wedding ceremony, instead of months after her departure. Therefore, we see the entire fire sequence instead of having it described or shown in flashback. When Jane returns later, she is not told what happened, but the audience can assume she has figured it out. This version also loses Edward's eye with effective makeup, but he gets to keep both of his hands. The Zeffirelli version is the most sumptuous version of the story with an experienced supporting cast including Joan Plowright, Billie Whitelaw, Anna Paquin, Geraldine Chaplin, and model Elle MacPherson. The film had a large budget, and it shows, especially in the detailed set design and costuming. Hurt is a brooding Edward, and Gainsbourg is finally portraying Jane accurately, in both age and physical appearance. While this film does not follow the fire scene word for word, it still works dramatically (at least better than the two earlier versions reviewed).
This film was criticized harshly for a hurried tone to the climax that truthfully was barely noticed. Martin and Porter write that the film "concludes with dissatisfying abruptness" (563). Leonard Maltin mentions the rushed ending, then shockingly writes "the 1944 version remains the best attempt" (689). Stephen Holden of "The New York Times on the Web" writes: "After the story's climactic fire (which is not convincingly staged), the movie hurtles pell-mell through critical events in Jane's life as if the rest of the story were an afterword instead of a resolution. It feels as if the director has simply lost interest" (1).
James Berardinelli gives the film a favorable review, stating "ultimately, this film is on par with the 1944 Orson Welles/Joan Fontaine version" (Berardinelli 1). People Weekly gave the film a grade of "C," criticizing Gainsbourg's performance, while the National Review found fault in Hurt's performance.
There are many other filmed versions of Jane Eyre, including a few silent versions, a 1934 sound version with Virginia Bruce and Colin Clive, and one not available on video- a television movie made in 1973 with Susannah York and George C. Scott in the vital roles.
Of the three versions viewed, Zeffirelli's films was the better entertainment, but Amyes' fire scene was the closest to the novel. Stevenson's version is simply a misfire, perhaps buoyed by its reputation and cast than its inherent quality.
Works Cited
-Berardinelli, James. "Jane Eyre (1995)". 14 April 2000 (http://www.movie-reviews.colossus.net/movies/j/jane-eyre.html)
-Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. 1847. New York: Signet Classic, 1997.
-Holden, Stephen. "Jane Eyre". New York Times on the Web. (http://www.nytimes.com)
-Internet Movie Database. 13 April 2000 (http://imdb.com)
-"Jane Eyre". Dir. Robert Stevenson. Perf. Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine. 20th Century-Fox, 1944.
-"Jane Eyre". Dir. Julian Amyes. Perf. Timothy Dalton and Zelah Clarke. BBC/CBS/Fox, 1983.
-"Jane Eyre". Dir. Franco Zeffirelli. Perf. William Hurt and Charlotte Gainsbourg. Miramax, 1996.
-Maltin, Leonard, ed. Leonard Maltin's 1999 Movie & Video Guide. New York: Signet, 1998.
-Martin, Mick and Marsha Porter. Video Movie Guide 1999. New York: Ballantine, 1998.
-Rozen, Leah. "Jane Eyre". Rev. of "Jane Eyre," dir. Franco Zeffirelli. People Weekly 22 Apr 1996: 19.
-Simon, John. "Jane Eyre". Rev. of "Jane Eyre," dir. Franco Zeffirelli. National Review 17 Jun 1996: 57.
Tuesday, May 5, 2026
Luis Bunuel
*I wrote this paper over thirty years ago for a foreign film class, and got a C. The instructor was being too kind.*
Luis Bunuel was born in Calanda, Teruel Province, Spain on February 22, 1900 to a well-to-do family. He was educated at Jesuit schools in Zaragoza from 1906 to 1915. He was a residencia de estudiantes from 1917 until 1920 in Madrid. At the University of Madrid, Bunuel studied with Gabriel Lorca, Salvador Dali, Juan Vicens, and Rafael Alberti. He graduated in 1924, and left Spain the following year to escape the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera.
Bunuel went to France to work in Paris. Having begun to contribute to literary journals while in Spain, Bunuel became an assistant to Jean Epstein. Bunuel and his friend Salvador Dali tried without success to break into the highbrow surrealist society in Paris. Out of this frustration came "Un Chien Andalou," probably the most famous surreal film of all time.
According to Bunuel: "...surrealism revealed to me that man cannot dispense with the moral sense. I believed in the total freedom of man, but I saw in surrealism a discipline to follow and it led me to take a marvelous and poetic, large step forward." "Un Chien Andalou," as well as Bunuel's next surrealist work "L'Age d'Or," were privately commissioned by the Vicomte de Noailles. Bunuel and Dali would select jokes, gags, and objects that would happen to come to mind. They rejected without mercy everything that might mean something. Bunuel also directed, edited, and appeared in the film. He played the man who slits the woman's eye with a razor. The film was photographed by Albert Dubergen, who would enjoy a long career in European film; and starred Simone Mareuil, Pierre Batcheff, Jaime Miravilles, Bunuel, and co-writer Dali. Siberian-born Batcheff would later receive roles in Rene Clair's "Les Deux Timides" and Abel Gance's "Napoleon" before committing suicide in 1932.
The first screening of "Un Chien Andalou" caused an uproar. Dali and Bunuel were quickly accepted into the surrealist's ranks. Over the years, many have dismissed this important film as sensationalism, others call it brilliant, and one critic simply stated "Un Chien Andalou" was "optical rape."
Bunuel's next film, with miniscule help from Dali, was "L'Age d'Or." Henry Miller said of Bunuel's second feature: "I had the impression that I was watching a film which was pure cinema and nothing but cinema...unique and unparalleled...it makes its appeal neither to the intellect nor to the heart; it strikes at the solar plexus."
In 1930, Bunuel was offered a contract by MGM and visited Hollywood, but returned, disenchanted with Tinseltown, to Paris the following year. Two years later, Bunuel was working for Paramount in Paris when he married Jeanne Rucar. They would have two sons- Rafael and Juan-Luis.
In 1935, Bunuel was the Filmofono Executive Producer in Madrid, supervising musicals and comedies. For the next three years, Bunuel served the Republican government during the Spanish Civil War, then returned to Hollywood to supervise unrealized documentaries on the war. From 1939 until 1942, he worked at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, reediting, dubbing, and directing documentaries for Latin American distribution before being dismissed because of suspicion of a Communist background. Bunuel made no apologies about his religious beliefs: "I have always been an atheist, thank God...I believe it is necessary to find God in man, it's a very straightforward attitude."
In 1944, Bunuel returned to Hollywood to produce Spanish versions of Warner Brothers films. He moved to Mexico in 1947 and directed films there until 1960. That year, he was invited to make a film called "Viridiana."
Bunuel's "Viridiana" tore into established religion. His parody of "The Last Supper" shocked those who hadn't seen the orgy involving Christ in "L'Age d'Or," and transvestitism and foot fetishes ran throughout the story of a naive nun. The Spanish government suppressed the film. During the 1960's and '70's Bunuel worked in Italy and France and lived in Mexico.
When his film "Tristana" received a Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award nomination, Bunuel said: "Nothing would disgust me more morally than receiving an Oscar. Nothing in the world would make me go accept it. I wouldn't have it in my home. Even in refusing it, like this actor [reluctant nominee George C. Scott for "Patton"], one isn't free from its corrupting influence. Look at what happened to him when he said he wouldn't accept it. It was worth a Time cover." Bunuel played with the structure of his film "The Exterminating Angel." Because it was slightly too short for commercial exhibition, Bunuel simply repeated a scene at the beginning of the film to lengthen it.
Luis Bunuel died in Mexico City, Mexico on July 29, 1983 of natural causes. Although dozens of books and articles have been written on Luis Bunuel, the late Francois Truffaut summed up this great surrealist with just two words-"happily anarchist."
Luis Bunuel Filmography
1926 Mauprat (as assistant)
1928 La Chute de la Maison Usher (as assistant)
1928 Un Chien Andalou
1930 L'Age d'Or
1932 Land Without Bread
1946 Grand Casino
1949 El Gran Calavera
1950 Los Olvidados
1950 Suzana la Perverse
1951 La Hija del Engano
1951 Una Mujer Sin Amor
1951 Subida al Cielo
1952 The Brute
1952 Wuthering Heights
1952 Robinson Crusoe
1953 El
1953 La Ilusion Viaja en Tranvia
1954 El Rio y la Muerte
1955 The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz
1956 La Mort en ce Jardin
1958 Cela S'Appelle L'Aurore
1959 La Fievre Monte a El Pao
1959 Nazarin
1960 The Young One
1961 Viridiana
1962 The Exterminating Angel
1964 Diary of a Chambermaid
1966 Belle de Jour
1966 Simon of the Desert
1969 The Milky Way
1970 Tristana
1972 The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
1974 The Phantom of Liberty
1977 That Obsure Object of Desire
Luis Bunuel
Major Film Awards
"Los Olvidados"
-Best Direction, Cannes Film Festival (1951)
-International Critics Prize, Cannes Film Festival (1951)
"Subida al Cielo"
-Best Avant-Garde Film, Cannes Film Festival (1952)
"Nazarin"
-Gold Medal, Cannes Film Festival (1959)
"Viridiana"
-Gold Medal (co-recipient), Cannes Film Festival (1961)
"Simon of the Desert"
-Silver Lion, Venice Film Festival (1965)
"Belle de Jour"
-Golden Lion, Venice Film Festival (1967)
"Tristana"
-Best Foreign Language Film, Nomination, Academy Awards (1970)
"The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie"
-Best Foreign Language Film, Winner, Academy Awards (1972)
-Best Story and Screenplay, Nomination, Academy Awards (1977)
"That Obscure Object of Desire"
-Best Foreign Language Film, Nomination, Academy Awards (1977)
-Best Adapted Screenplay, Nomination, Academy Awards (1977)
Luis Bunuel
Bibliography
Bawden, Liz-Anne, Ed. The Oxford Companion to Film. London: Oxford University Press, 1976.
Bona, Damien and Mason Wiley. Inside Oscar: The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards. New York: Ballantine Books, 1987.
Crowther, Bosley. Reruns: Fifty Memorable Films. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1978.
Debrix, Jean R. and Ralph Stevenson. The Cinema as Art. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1969.
Halliwell, Leslie. Halliwell's Film Guide, 6th Edition. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1987.
Halliwell, Leslie. Halliwells's Filmgoer's Companion, 9th Edition. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1988.
Katz, Ephraim. The Film Encyclopedia. New York: Perigree Books, 1979.
Kauffman, Stanley. Living Images. New York: Harper & Row, 1975.
Kauffman, Stanley. Field of View. New York: PAJ Publications, 1986.
Lindgren, Ernest. The Art of Film. New York: Collier Books, 1963.
Lyon, Christopher, Ed. The International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers: Volume II- Directors/Filmmakers. Chicago: Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1984.
Maltin, Lenoard, Ed. TV Movies and Video Guide, 1990 Edition. New York: Signet, 1989.
Phillips, Baxter. Cut: The Unseen Cinema. New York: Bounty Books, 1975.
Sadoul, Georges. Dictionary of Film Makers. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1972.
Talbot, Daniel, Ed. Film: An Anthology. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1969.
Truffaut, Francois. The Films in My Life. New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1985.
Luis Bunuel was born in Calanda, Teruel Province, Spain on February 22, 1900 to a well-to-do family. He was educated at Jesuit schools in Zaragoza from 1906 to 1915. He was a residencia de estudiantes from 1917 until 1920 in Madrid. At the University of Madrid, Bunuel studied with Gabriel Lorca, Salvador Dali, Juan Vicens, and Rafael Alberti. He graduated in 1924, and left Spain the following year to escape the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera.
Bunuel went to France to work in Paris. Having begun to contribute to literary journals while in Spain, Bunuel became an assistant to Jean Epstein. Bunuel and his friend Salvador Dali tried without success to break into the highbrow surrealist society in Paris. Out of this frustration came "Un Chien Andalou," probably the most famous surreal film of all time.
According to Bunuel: "...surrealism revealed to me that man cannot dispense with the moral sense. I believed in the total freedom of man, but I saw in surrealism a discipline to follow and it led me to take a marvelous and poetic, large step forward." "Un Chien Andalou," as well as Bunuel's next surrealist work "L'Age d'Or," were privately commissioned by the Vicomte de Noailles. Bunuel and Dali would select jokes, gags, and objects that would happen to come to mind. They rejected without mercy everything that might mean something. Bunuel also directed, edited, and appeared in the film. He played the man who slits the woman's eye with a razor. The film was photographed by Albert Dubergen, who would enjoy a long career in European film; and starred Simone Mareuil, Pierre Batcheff, Jaime Miravilles, Bunuel, and co-writer Dali. Siberian-born Batcheff would later receive roles in Rene Clair's "Les Deux Timides" and Abel Gance's "Napoleon" before committing suicide in 1932.
The first screening of "Un Chien Andalou" caused an uproar. Dali and Bunuel were quickly accepted into the surrealist's ranks. Over the years, many have dismissed this important film as sensationalism, others call it brilliant, and one critic simply stated "Un Chien Andalou" was "optical rape."
Bunuel's next film, with miniscule help from Dali, was "L'Age d'Or." Henry Miller said of Bunuel's second feature: "I had the impression that I was watching a film which was pure cinema and nothing but cinema...unique and unparalleled...it makes its appeal neither to the intellect nor to the heart; it strikes at the solar plexus."
In 1930, Bunuel was offered a contract by MGM and visited Hollywood, but returned, disenchanted with Tinseltown, to Paris the following year. Two years later, Bunuel was working for Paramount in Paris when he married Jeanne Rucar. They would have two sons- Rafael and Juan-Luis.
In 1935, Bunuel was the Filmofono Executive Producer in Madrid, supervising musicals and comedies. For the next three years, Bunuel served the Republican government during the Spanish Civil War, then returned to Hollywood to supervise unrealized documentaries on the war. From 1939 until 1942, he worked at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, reediting, dubbing, and directing documentaries for Latin American distribution before being dismissed because of suspicion of a Communist background. Bunuel made no apologies about his religious beliefs: "I have always been an atheist, thank God...I believe it is necessary to find God in man, it's a very straightforward attitude."
In 1944, Bunuel returned to Hollywood to produce Spanish versions of Warner Brothers films. He moved to Mexico in 1947 and directed films there until 1960. That year, he was invited to make a film called "Viridiana."
Bunuel's "Viridiana" tore into established religion. His parody of "The Last Supper" shocked those who hadn't seen the orgy involving Christ in "L'Age d'Or," and transvestitism and foot fetishes ran throughout the story of a naive nun. The Spanish government suppressed the film. During the 1960's and '70's Bunuel worked in Italy and France and lived in Mexico.
When his film "Tristana" received a Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award nomination, Bunuel said: "Nothing would disgust me more morally than receiving an Oscar. Nothing in the world would make me go accept it. I wouldn't have it in my home. Even in refusing it, like this actor [reluctant nominee George C. Scott for "Patton"], one isn't free from its corrupting influence. Look at what happened to him when he said he wouldn't accept it. It was worth a Time cover." Bunuel played with the structure of his film "The Exterminating Angel." Because it was slightly too short for commercial exhibition, Bunuel simply repeated a scene at the beginning of the film to lengthen it.
Luis Bunuel died in Mexico City, Mexico on July 29, 1983 of natural causes. Although dozens of books and articles have been written on Luis Bunuel, the late Francois Truffaut summed up this great surrealist with just two words-"happily anarchist."
Luis Bunuel Filmography
1926 Mauprat (as assistant)
1928 La Chute de la Maison Usher (as assistant)
1928 Un Chien Andalou
1930 L'Age d'Or
1932 Land Without Bread
1946 Grand Casino
1949 El Gran Calavera
1950 Los Olvidados
1950 Suzana la Perverse
1951 La Hija del Engano
1951 Una Mujer Sin Amor
1951 Subida al Cielo
1952 The Brute
1952 Wuthering Heights
1952 Robinson Crusoe
1953 El
1953 La Ilusion Viaja en Tranvia
1954 El Rio y la Muerte
1955 The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz
1956 La Mort en ce Jardin
1958 Cela S'Appelle L'Aurore
1959 La Fievre Monte a El Pao
1959 Nazarin
1960 The Young One
1961 Viridiana
1962 The Exterminating Angel
1964 Diary of a Chambermaid
1966 Belle de Jour
1966 Simon of the Desert
1969 The Milky Way
1970 Tristana
1972 The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
1974 The Phantom of Liberty
1977 That Obsure Object of Desire
Luis Bunuel
Major Film Awards
"Los Olvidados"
-Best Direction, Cannes Film Festival (1951)
-International Critics Prize, Cannes Film Festival (1951)
"Subida al Cielo"
-Best Avant-Garde Film, Cannes Film Festival (1952)
"Nazarin"
-Gold Medal, Cannes Film Festival (1959)
"Viridiana"
-Gold Medal (co-recipient), Cannes Film Festival (1961)
"Simon of the Desert"
-Silver Lion, Venice Film Festival (1965)
"Belle de Jour"
-Golden Lion, Venice Film Festival (1967)
"Tristana"
-Best Foreign Language Film, Nomination, Academy Awards (1970)
"The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie"
-Best Foreign Language Film, Winner, Academy Awards (1972)
-Best Story and Screenplay, Nomination, Academy Awards (1977)
"That Obscure Object of Desire"
-Best Foreign Language Film, Nomination, Academy Awards (1977)
-Best Adapted Screenplay, Nomination, Academy Awards (1977)
Luis Bunuel
Bibliography
Bawden, Liz-Anne, Ed. The Oxford Companion to Film. London: Oxford University Press, 1976.
Bona, Damien and Mason Wiley. Inside Oscar: The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards. New York: Ballantine Books, 1987.
Crowther, Bosley. Reruns: Fifty Memorable Films. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1978.
Debrix, Jean R. and Ralph Stevenson. The Cinema as Art. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1969.
Halliwell, Leslie. Halliwell's Film Guide, 6th Edition. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1987.
Halliwell, Leslie. Halliwells's Filmgoer's Companion, 9th Edition. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1988.
Katz, Ephraim. The Film Encyclopedia. New York: Perigree Books, 1979.
Kauffman, Stanley. Living Images. New York: Harper & Row, 1975.
Kauffman, Stanley. Field of View. New York: PAJ Publications, 1986.
Lindgren, Ernest. The Art of Film. New York: Collier Books, 1963.
Lyon, Christopher, Ed. The International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers: Volume II- Directors/Filmmakers. Chicago: Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1984.
Maltin, Lenoard, Ed. TV Movies and Video Guide, 1990 Edition. New York: Signet, 1989.
Phillips, Baxter. Cut: The Unseen Cinema. New York: Bounty Books, 1975.
Sadoul, Georges. Dictionary of Film Makers. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1972.
Talbot, Daniel, Ed. Film: An Anthology. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1969.
Truffaut, Francois. The Films in My Life. New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1985.
Poltergeist (1982)
I first saw this over forty years ago (!) and it still holds up. "Poltergeist" is one of my favorite horror movies, capturing a pinnacle moment in my life.
Steve (Craig T. Nelson) and Diane (JoBeth Williams) Freeling are a typical suburban couple with a nice house. They have three children- teen Dana (Dominique Dunne), and younger Robbie (Oliver Robins) and Carol Anne (Heather O'Rourke). Steve sells homes in the very neighborhood in which they live for a company run by Teague (James Karen). Everything is going swimmingly until odd things start happening around their seemingly perfect home. Harmless parlor tricks and weird anamolies soon give way to a missing child, and eventually a showdown with an evil presence centered in the home.
Having turned fourteen in 1982, Spielberg and his crew got everything right about growing up in suburbia. From irritating neighbors, to a house that can never seem to be picked up, the film makers nailed what it was like to grow up then. The film is not woke at all (there's, gasp, a book about Ronald Reagan shown, but with no accompanying lecture or brow beating about one of our most popular modern presidents), as the screenwriters dive into the story right away without setting up a specific time or place, perhaps knowing that most of the audience for this film are already living this life and don't need to be "shown" how things are in the Freelings' world.
There have been rumors that producer/co-writer Steven Spielberg directed much of the film thanks to director Tobe Hooper's substance abuse, according to some cast and crew. Spielberg was also shooting "E.T.- The Extra-Terrestrial" at the same time (1982 was a very good year for him, as "E.T." beat out "Poltergeist" in its three Academy Award nominations). Until I know for certain otherwise, and acknowledging that a lot of these shots are Spielbergian, I would have to say that Hooper does a nice job. Both men had backgrounds in horror, so whoever was responsible provided plenty of terror. Today's horror films over-rely on jump scares, but here they are a natural part of the proceedings. Jerry Goldsmith's score does sound like John Williams, and is effective. The 1980's special effects are iffy, but carry a certain nostalgia in the days before computer animation. The pacing never bores, Nelson and Williams are completely believable as the loving but frazzled couple, and crisp cinematography and editing insure this film will stay with you for a while, especially if you are a member of Generation X growing up in the era.
This was released in the days before the MPAA rating (PG13) was invented (thanks to two other Spielberg-involved films, "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" and "Gremlins") so this would be considered a "hard" (PG). The horrific elements are still there, including the now famous scene involving Marty's (Martin Casella) face in the mirror. This was followed by two lesser sequels and an ill-conceived remake no one wanted, but will always be considered a high watermark in horror film making. Ignore all the "curse" talk surrounding the film, sometimes tragic coincidences happen and shouldn't lessen what this is. I sometimes wish Spielberg would return to the genre more often, he was good at it.
Stats:
-Directed by Tobe Hooper
-Screenplay by Steven Spielberg & Michael Grais & Mark Victor, Story by Steven Spielberg
-Cast: JoBeth Williams, Craig T. Nelson, Heather O'Rourke, Beatrice Straight, Oliver Robins, Dominique Dunne, Zelda Rubinstein, James Karen
-Media: Streaming on Netflix
-Running Time: 114 minutes
-Letterboxd rating: (* * * * */* * * * *); IMDb rating: 10/10
-MPAA Rated (PG), contains physical violence, gore, some profanity, adult situations, drug abuse, alcohol use
Steve (Craig T. Nelson) and Diane (JoBeth Williams) Freeling are a typical suburban couple with a nice house. They have three children- teen Dana (Dominique Dunne), and younger Robbie (Oliver Robins) and Carol Anne (Heather O'Rourke). Steve sells homes in the very neighborhood in which they live for a company run by Teague (James Karen). Everything is going swimmingly until odd things start happening around their seemingly perfect home. Harmless parlor tricks and weird anamolies soon give way to a missing child, and eventually a showdown with an evil presence centered in the home.
Having turned fourteen in 1982, Spielberg and his crew got everything right about growing up in suburbia. From irritating neighbors, to a house that can never seem to be picked up, the film makers nailed what it was like to grow up then. The film is not woke at all (there's, gasp, a book about Ronald Reagan shown, but with no accompanying lecture or brow beating about one of our most popular modern presidents), as the screenwriters dive into the story right away without setting up a specific time or place, perhaps knowing that most of the audience for this film are already living this life and don't need to be "shown" how things are in the Freelings' world.
There have been rumors that producer/co-writer Steven Spielberg directed much of the film thanks to director Tobe Hooper's substance abuse, according to some cast and crew. Spielberg was also shooting "E.T.- The Extra-Terrestrial" at the same time (1982 was a very good year for him, as "E.T." beat out "Poltergeist" in its three Academy Award nominations). Until I know for certain otherwise, and acknowledging that a lot of these shots are Spielbergian, I would have to say that Hooper does a nice job. Both men had backgrounds in horror, so whoever was responsible provided plenty of terror. Today's horror films over-rely on jump scares, but here they are a natural part of the proceedings. Jerry Goldsmith's score does sound like John Williams, and is effective. The 1980's special effects are iffy, but carry a certain nostalgia in the days before computer animation. The pacing never bores, Nelson and Williams are completely believable as the loving but frazzled couple, and crisp cinematography and editing insure this film will stay with you for a while, especially if you are a member of Generation X growing up in the era.
This was released in the days before the MPAA rating (PG13) was invented (thanks to two other Spielberg-involved films, "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" and "Gremlins") so this would be considered a "hard" (PG). The horrific elements are still there, including the now famous scene involving Marty's (Martin Casella) face in the mirror. This was followed by two lesser sequels and an ill-conceived remake no one wanted, but will always be considered a high watermark in horror film making. Ignore all the "curse" talk surrounding the film, sometimes tragic coincidences happen and shouldn't lessen what this is. I sometimes wish Spielberg would return to the genre more often, he was good at it.
Stats:
-Directed by Tobe Hooper
-Screenplay by Steven Spielberg & Michael Grais & Mark Victor, Story by Steven Spielberg
-Cast: JoBeth Williams, Craig T. Nelson, Heather O'Rourke, Beatrice Straight, Oliver Robins, Dominique Dunne, Zelda Rubinstein, James Karen
-Media: Streaming on Netflix
-Running Time: 114 minutes
-Letterboxd rating: (* * * * */* * * * *); IMDb rating: 10/10
-MPAA Rated (PG), contains physical violence, gore, some profanity, adult situations, drug abuse, alcohol use
Hammer House of Horror {"Charlie Boy" #1.6} (1980)
A good episode in the series is certainly better than the similarly themed voodoo doll section of "Trilogy of Terror" with Karen Black.
Graham (Leigh Lawson) and Sarah (Angela Bruce) inherit a voodoo fetish doll after Graham's uncle is accidentally killed. According to expert Heinz (Marius Goring), the doll can make bad things happen to any person who is associated with it. After a drunken pity party Graham throws for himself (where he stabs the doll with a knife), family and friends around him begin dying violent deaths, with the now-panicked couple next on the list.
While the reasoning behind the doll (named Charlie Boy) able to kill people is tenuous at best, the film makers wisely have the fetish do its murdering remotely. Thankfully, there are no tiny figures running down hallways after its prey, which makes the viewer wonder if this is all in a stressed-out Graham's mind. The cast is great. While many anthology entries cannot concentrate too much on characterization, screenwriters Bernie Cooper and Francis Megahy are able to put some nice touches in here and there like Gwen (Frances Cuka) and her relationship with Graham's uncle. David Lindup provides a different, jazzy score and veteran director Robert Young keeps things moving at a brisk pace.
Nothing groundbreaking, but I don't understand the weak reception this episode has received. A good entry in the sometimes terrible "killer voodoo doll" horror subgenre.
Stats:
-Directed by Robert Young
-Screenplay by Bernie Cooper and Francis Megahy
-Cast: Leigh Lawson, Angela Bruce, Marius Goring, Frances Cuka, David Healy, Michael Culver, Michael Deeks, Jeff Rawle
-Media: Streaming on Amazon
-Running Time: 52 minutes
-Letterboxd rating: (* * * 1/2/* * * * *); IMDb rating: 7/10
-Unrated, contains strong physical violence, gore, very brief female nudity, sexual content, adult situations, alcohol use
Graham (Leigh Lawson) and Sarah (Angela Bruce) inherit a voodoo fetish doll after Graham's uncle is accidentally killed. According to expert Heinz (Marius Goring), the doll can make bad things happen to any person who is associated with it. After a drunken pity party Graham throws for himself (where he stabs the doll with a knife), family and friends around him begin dying violent deaths, with the now-panicked couple next on the list.
While the reasoning behind the doll (named Charlie Boy) able to kill people is tenuous at best, the film makers wisely have the fetish do its murdering remotely. Thankfully, there are no tiny figures running down hallways after its prey, which makes the viewer wonder if this is all in a stressed-out Graham's mind. The cast is great. While many anthology entries cannot concentrate too much on characterization, screenwriters Bernie Cooper and Francis Megahy are able to put some nice touches in here and there like Gwen (Frances Cuka) and her relationship with Graham's uncle. David Lindup provides a different, jazzy score and veteran director Robert Young keeps things moving at a brisk pace.
Nothing groundbreaking, but I don't understand the weak reception this episode has received. A good entry in the sometimes terrible "killer voodoo doll" horror subgenre.
Stats:
-Directed by Robert Young
-Screenplay by Bernie Cooper and Francis Megahy
-Cast: Leigh Lawson, Angela Bruce, Marius Goring, Frances Cuka, David Healy, Michael Culver, Michael Deeks, Jeff Rawle
-Media: Streaming on Amazon
-Running Time: 52 minutes
-Letterboxd rating: (* * * 1/2/* * * * *); IMDb rating: 7/10
-Unrated, contains strong physical violence, gore, very brief female nudity, sexual content, adult situations, alcohol use
Hammer House of Horror: {"Witching Time" #1.1} (1980)
This first episode of the infamous British television series doesn't score nearly enough scares.
Film composer David (Jon Finch) is stuck home alone at the farmhouse he shares with his actress wife Mary (Prunella Gee), who is away on a shoot (in actuality, a rendezvous with a lover). On a dark and stormy night, he discovers Lucinda (Patricia Quinn) hiding in his barn. She claims to be a three hundred year old witch who permeates herself into both David and Mary's lives.
Despite being about an hour long, the story drags for the middle twenty minutes after starting off so well. The small cast is good, the farmhouse setting is flawless, Leaver's direction is adequate (despite a number of goofs along the way), but Read's script shoots its twist right away and tedium sets in. Luckily, there aren't a lot of embarrassing special effects around, but watching David become obsessed with Lucinda while Mary helplessly gawks is a bore. By the time the climax kicks in, the cast suddenly become very melodramatic and the script hurries to a conclusion without offering any answers as to why the first fifty-two minutes of the broadcast even occurred.
I used to love watching this show in my junior high school years (what's not to love- nudity AND horror!) but without remembering specific episodes. Hopefully, as I work my way through the series, it will all come back to me.
Stats:
-Directed by Don Leaver
-Written by Anthony Read
-Cast: Jon Finch, Patricia Quinn, Prunella Gee, Ian McCulloch, Lennard Pearce, Margaret Anderson
-Media: Streaming on Amazon
-Running Time: 52 minutes
-Letterboxd rating: (* * 1/2); IMDb rating: 5/10
-Unrated, contains physical violence, gore, some female nudity, some sexual content, some sexual references, adult situations
Film composer David (Jon Finch) is stuck home alone at the farmhouse he shares with his actress wife Mary (Prunella Gee), who is away on a shoot (in actuality, a rendezvous with a lover). On a dark and stormy night, he discovers Lucinda (Patricia Quinn) hiding in his barn. She claims to be a three hundred year old witch who permeates herself into both David and Mary's lives.
Despite being about an hour long, the story drags for the middle twenty minutes after starting off so well. The small cast is good, the farmhouse setting is flawless, Leaver's direction is adequate (despite a number of goofs along the way), but Read's script shoots its twist right away and tedium sets in. Luckily, there aren't a lot of embarrassing special effects around, but watching David become obsessed with Lucinda while Mary helplessly gawks is a bore. By the time the climax kicks in, the cast suddenly become very melodramatic and the script hurries to a conclusion without offering any answers as to why the first fifty-two minutes of the broadcast even occurred.
I used to love watching this show in my junior high school years (what's not to love- nudity AND horror!) but without remembering specific episodes. Hopefully, as I work my way through the series, it will all come back to me.
Stats:
-Directed by Don Leaver
-Written by Anthony Read
-Cast: Jon Finch, Patricia Quinn, Prunella Gee, Ian McCulloch, Lennard Pearce, Margaret Anderson
-Media: Streaming on Amazon
-Running Time: 52 minutes
-Letterboxd rating: (* * 1/2); IMDb rating: 5/10
-Unrated, contains physical violence, gore, some female nudity, some sexual content, some sexual references, adult situations
Alive and Kicking (1997)
The terminally underrated Jason Flemyng plays a dancer with AIDS who falls for someone unexpected in this dramedy.
Flemyng is Tonio, a dancer in London who is watching seemingly everyone around die from the disease. Infected himself, he and his dance troupe try to power on through a difficult performance under the mentally unstable eye of Luna (Dorothy Tutin, offering up a touching performance). Tonio meets the mysterious Jack (Antony Sher) at the funeral for his mentor/friend Ramon (Anthony Higgins), and learns Jack was counseling Ramon through his fatal diagnosis. Tonio and Jack begin to see each other, and complications arise almost immediately. Jack is HIV-negative, so physical sexual contact is difficult. Tonio throws himself into the upcoming performance, but his body begins having other ideas. Jack has issues of his own, drinking and smoking too much, perhaps racked by guilt that he does not have the very disease he is trying to coach others through. Tonio and his best friend Millie (Diane Parish) confide in each other as Tonio and Jack fight and make up ad nauseam.
While the performances are great all around, Tonio and Jack are hard characters to like. Tonio expresses his emotions through his dancing, but when he isn't onstage, watch out. Jack begins drinking his feelings away, asking Tonio some hard-hitting questions (why aren't you angry? would you have given me a second look if you weren't sick?) that both Jack and the viewer never get answers to. The dance troupe and Jack's counselor friends are all cliquey, and that does repel (again) both the men and the viewer. This isn't a "bad" thing, but where the film does falter is in its romantic conventions in an otherwise uncoventional romance. Jack and Tonio go away on vacation (if I see one more scene of someone's ashes getting scattered, and blowing back onto the person doing the scattering, I will scream). Their bickering gets tiring, and the film's pacing begins to suffer since we know the outcome of what will happen in the next scene- fight, make up, fight, make up, fight, make up...
Flemyng was Dr. Jekyll in "The League of Extraordinary Gentleman," and was one of the best things about that film. I could imagine him in a Bond/007 villain role. While he expresses all of Tonio's emotions facially and physically, his voice is velvety deep and rich, but slightly monotone (think Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter). His Tonio isn't flighty and light, his bitchiness has an edge even in lighter moments (such as the droll scene where he and lesbian Millie decide to throw caution to the wind and have sex, or his tantrum before a performance). I didn't like the original title, "Indian Summer" (the name of the production that Tonio and Millie are in), as well as the American "Alive and Kicking," which sounds like a documentary about a spunky troupe of octogenarian tap dancers.
Nancy Meckler's direction is good, but Martin Sherman's script is tonally off-putting. Trust me, I'm an expert at unlikely romantic pairings, and while Tonio and Jack go through the paces, I found myself checking the clock once in a while. If anyone else but Flemyng had been in the lead role, you probably could knock a couple of points off my rating.
MPAA Rated R for profanity, some female nudity, some male nudity, sexual content, strong sexual references, adult situations, mild drug use, strong alcohol and tobacco use.
Flemyng is Tonio, a dancer in London who is watching seemingly everyone around die from the disease. Infected himself, he and his dance troupe try to power on through a difficult performance under the mentally unstable eye of Luna (Dorothy Tutin, offering up a touching performance). Tonio meets the mysterious Jack (Antony Sher) at the funeral for his mentor/friend Ramon (Anthony Higgins), and learns Jack was counseling Ramon through his fatal diagnosis. Tonio and Jack begin to see each other, and complications arise almost immediately. Jack is HIV-negative, so physical sexual contact is difficult. Tonio throws himself into the upcoming performance, but his body begins having other ideas. Jack has issues of his own, drinking and smoking too much, perhaps racked by guilt that he does not have the very disease he is trying to coach others through. Tonio and his best friend Millie (Diane Parish) confide in each other as Tonio and Jack fight and make up ad nauseam.
While the performances are great all around, Tonio and Jack are hard characters to like. Tonio expresses his emotions through his dancing, but when he isn't onstage, watch out. Jack begins drinking his feelings away, asking Tonio some hard-hitting questions (why aren't you angry? would you have given me a second look if you weren't sick?) that both Jack and the viewer never get answers to. The dance troupe and Jack's counselor friends are all cliquey, and that does repel (again) both the men and the viewer. This isn't a "bad" thing, but where the film does falter is in its romantic conventions in an otherwise uncoventional romance. Jack and Tonio go away on vacation (if I see one more scene of someone's ashes getting scattered, and blowing back onto the person doing the scattering, I will scream). Their bickering gets tiring, and the film's pacing begins to suffer since we know the outcome of what will happen in the next scene- fight, make up, fight, make up, fight, make up...
Flemyng was Dr. Jekyll in "The League of Extraordinary Gentleman," and was one of the best things about that film. I could imagine him in a Bond/007 villain role. While he expresses all of Tonio's emotions facially and physically, his voice is velvety deep and rich, but slightly monotone (think Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter). His Tonio isn't flighty and light, his bitchiness has an edge even in lighter moments (such as the droll scene where he and lesbian Millie decide to throw caution to the wind and have sex, or his tantrum before a performance). I didn't like the original title, "Indian Summer" (the name of the production that Tonio and Millie are in), as well as the American "Alive and Kicking," which sounds like a documentary about a spunky troupe of octogenarian tap dancers.
Nancy Meckler's direction is good, but Martin Sherman's script is tonally off-putting. Trust me, I'm an expert at unlikely romantic pairings, and while Tonio and Jack go through the paces, I found myself checking the clock once in a while. If anyone else but Flemyng had been in the lead role, you probably could knock a couple of points off my rating.
MPAA Rated R for profanity, some female nudity, some male nudity, sexual content, strong sexual references, adult situations, mild drug use, strong alcohol and tobacco use.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)