I'm afraid that Franco Zeffirelli isn't quite the "faithful custodian of the classics" the sleeve claimed. The liberties he took with the plot appalled me, not because they altered in any significant way the flow of the story, but because condensing the love story into a couple of hours merely cheapens the experience. Jane's tormented youth becomes a few moments of discomfort, and her helpless wandering transforms into a short carriage ride after which she faints for no apparent reason. I must say that the acting in the film is very fine. The spoken french rolled glibly from Charlotte Gainsbourg's tongue, and the passions evoked by the director in all the main characters fit the story very well. I have been used to seeing the housekeeper as a brusque and enigmatic arbiter, but she became a caring and somewhat lonely older woman in the honed talents of Joan Plowright. Only a brief camera moment saved her from accusations of coldness, though. This version o...
It didn't blow me away. I did develop a real hatred for the stereotyped military/establishment/colonialists, which indicates good filming, but doesn't at all veer from the norm, or show any depth or nuance. The way in which this film immerses the viewer in a whole different world/eco system seems to have garnered all the attention for this film (along with the ground-breaking special effects, which honestly, kinda did blow me away), but it's all aimed at creating Utopia, where most fantasy realms are dystopic. I speculate that the reasons for this common dystopia include a prevalent belief that any Utopia is either behind us or never existed, and anything we could create/discover in the future would be as flawed as we are. The optimistic-to-the-point-of-delusion belief that we might someday meet a culture/world who did it correctly, or who have some essential evolutionary advantage that makes them successful in a way we will never achieve faces down and ultimately lose...
This film (not reviewed on rottentomatoes.com) apparently launched Debbie Reynolds's career. I've seen her in several great movies that came out previous to it, though, including Susan Slept Here and The Tender Trap . I certainly prefer the former of these to the latter, but both seemed in a similar vein with less attractive leading men. Leslie Nielsen's a babe. I say that with the utmost respect for his extensive and widely varied career, and despite (maybe because of?) his amusing role in the Sci-Fi/Shakespearean Forbidden Planet (1957, a year AFTER Tammy and the Bachelor , according to IMDB, but 1956, same year, according to rottentomatoes (who, incidentally, give Forbidden Planet a shocking 95%)), seen unfortunately as a precursor to Star Trek 's Captain Kirk. Oddly, both actors (Nielsen and Shatner) seem to have turned to comedy in their advancing years. I think the only real smudge I must give this movie comes from its musical leanings. After having seen Song...
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