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...
I mentioned to a digi-friend the other day that I'd watched this film, and he said he had too, but that the twist was obvious. I get irrationally angry at people who think that that is an appropriate critique. It's a film. Of course it's obvious. What was he expecting? So I told him that if you want unexpected, your best bet is real life. And then I thought about what made me upset. I enjoyed watching the film. I actually looked up the plot on Wikipedia so I knew what to expect. I like films better when they're spoiled for me. And while I understand that lots of people are not that way at all, I wonder if, when we complain that we saw something coming, what we mean is that the film bored us so much that our minds skittered ahead to fill in the blanks. For filmmakers, the ramifications of that possibility are that their burden is to keep the viewer's mind engaged in the present: interested in what is on screen rather than trying to create suspense with emptiness....
Besides the totally outdated technology prevalent throughout the entire film, this movie grated on my nerves precisely every time Al pulled out his despairing or angry screech. It was exactly like watching a two-year-old throw a tantrum (and I would know, having spent this last weekend with SEVEN of the most adorable human rodents in the universe), but to be fair, the effect was probably intentional. Don't think I didn't love the rest. The movie was really funny. The parodies of then-popular movie franchises were just high-budget enough to be unmistakable, and just dramatic enough to be almost flattering. I particularly enjoyed Conan the Librarian's accent, the Rambo parody (lovely muscle-suit), and the opening Indiana Jones sequence - complete with a lovely imitation of Harrison Ford's deadpan acting. The plot was thoroughly predictable which made the characters themselves a parody of the romantic comedy as well. It's either brilliant or sad, depending on how broad...
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