What's On At The Tropic
by Phil Mann
If you're like me, you've gone loyally to the annual Woody Allen movie, always with the hope that the mastermind of Annie Hall, Manhattan and Hannah and her Sisters would again let us find out about ourselves by watching others. That is the genius of fiction, in film as well as in literature, and no one can do it better than Woody when he's on target. And he is again, with VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA. Maybe it's the sultry Spanish setting, but the silly mysteries of his English period are a thing of the past.
Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) and Vicky (Rebecca Hall), as two American friends spending the summer in Barcelona, represent two poles of youthful aspiration. Cristina is the rebel looking for passion and Vicky the solid citizen looking for a stable future. On the male side, we have Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem) the sexy artist, and Doug (Chris Messina) the successful MBA. And as the title suggests, a fifth major character is Spain, represented by Penelope Cruz, plus the Catalonian capital city (pronounced Barthelona, Ms. Cruz tells us in interviews) and rural Oviedo. Writer/Director Allen is no longer on screen, but an Allenesque narrator reminds who is really stirring this plot. The onscreen Woody Allen may have morphed into Ms. Johansson. She’s the one who can’t find herself. Well, actually no one can find themselves, none of the Americans at least. The Spaniards, who have had a few more centuries to look, seem to be a little closer to the solution, but they’re making a different mess of their lives.
I understand that the Spanish government offered Allen great financial incentives to film a movie there. If so, it's the best investment they ever made. There are, of course, no poor people, or even poorly furnished homes, in Woody Allen movies, and this is one is no exception. I'm going to book some tickets on Iberia as soon as I finish this column.
Also opening this week is TELL NO ONE, the French crime thriller that swept this year’s Cesar awards. It's based on an American crime novel and, as some reviewers have noted, it seems like a Hitchcock movie dubbed in French. If you're an "I don't do subtitles" type, maybe this is the movie to make you get your reading glasses out. You'll be sitting on the edge of your seat anyhow. The setting is Paris, but unlike the Woody Allen movie, this is a real city rather than a travelogue fantasy.
So take your choice, get into your psyche while watching gorgeous Spain, or lose yourself in the non-tourist streets of Paris. There’s also a third choice, because the mean streets of Gotham city are also hanging around with the continuing run of THE DARK KNIGHT.
There’s a whole world at the Tropic, your cool summer haven.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Jules and Jim (Rhoades)
‘Jules and Jim” Is Three-Way Delight on Monday Night
Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades
LPTV’s Mary Sparacio is at it again this coming Monday night, continuing her showings of old classics at the Tropic Cinema. This time around she’s pulled out a 1962 masterpiece called “Jules and Jim,” a perfect example of French New Wave filmmaking by François Truffaut.
Described in as “the audacious apotheosis of the French New Wave,” Truffaut’s “Jules and Jim” represents a new (at the time) language of cinema, one that incorporated newsreel footage, photographs, freeze frame, dolly shots, wipes, and voiceover narration. Some shots used cameras mounted on bicycles.
This is a film that epitomizes that French phrase ménage à trois. Here is the story of a three-way love affair between – as the title implies – a shy writer named Jules, his outgoing friend Jim, plus a free-spirited young woman named Catherine.
These Bohemians carry on a mix-and-match relationship that spans 20 years, from Belle Epoch to Great Depression, those periods that bracket World War I.
Although the film is named after the two men, the woman is in fact the dominant character. Jeanne Moreau is perfectly cast as the charmer who reminds them of a statue they once saw. Oskar Werner is Jules; Henri Serre is Jim.
These characters were supposedly based on avant-garde artist Beatrice Wood’s triangular relationship with painter Marcel Duchamp and writer Henri-Pierre Roché. Truffaut based the film on a book written late in life by Roché. Beatrice Woods once commented, “I cannot say what memories or episodes inspired Roché, but the characters bear only passing resemblance to those of us in real life!”
Such is fiction, such is film.
srhoades@aol.com [from Solares Hill]
Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades
LPTV’s Mary Sparacio is at it again this coming Monday night, continuing her showings of old classics at the Tropic Cinema. This time around she’s pulled out a 1962 masterpiece called “Jules and Jim,” a perfect example of French New Wave filmmaking by François Truffaut.
Described in as “the audacious apotheosis of the French New Wave,” Truffaut’s “Jules and Jim” represents a new (at the time) language of cinema, one that incorporated newsreel footage, photographs, freeze frame, dolly shots, wipes, and voiceover narration. Some shots used cameras mounted on bicycles.
This is a film that epitomizes that French phrase ménage à trois. Here is the story of a three-way love affair between – as the title implies – a shy writer named Jules, his outgoing friend Jim, plus a free-spirited young woman named Catherine.
These Bohemians carry on a mix-and-match relationship that spans 20 years, from Belle Epoch to Great Depression, those periods that bracket World War I.
Although the film is named after the two men, the woman is in fact the dominant character. Jeanne Moreau is perfectly cast as the charmer who reminds them of a statue they once saw. Oskar Werner is Jules; Henri Serre is Jim.
These characters were supposedly based on avant-garde artist Beatrice Wood’s triangular relationship with painter Marcel Duchamp and writer Henri-Pierre Roché. Truffaut based the film on a book written late in life by Roché. Beatrice Woods once commented, “I cannot say what memories or episodes inspired Roché, but the characters bear only passing resemblance to those of us in real life!”
Such is fiction, such is film.
srhoades@aol.com [from Solares Hill]
Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Rhoades)
‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’ Is Latter-Day Woody Allen
Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades
My wife refuses to see Woody Allen movies because she disapproves of his marriage to his Korean stepdaughter. She doesn’t buy that “the heart wants what it wants” excuse when hurtful to others.
Me, being from the live-and-let-live school of life, I don’t care how Allan Stewart Konigsberg screws up his personal relationships. I like his films. Well, his funny ones.
Being good at compartmentalization, I can easily separate an actor from his movie roles, and a director’s works from how he conducts his life.
I suspect I’m on morally mushy ground here, but there you have it. I couldn’t wait to see “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” – the new Woody Allen romantic comedy that opens today at the Tropic Cinema.
Rather than the name of one strange character, the film’s title refers to two sisters – Vicky (played by Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (this one’s Scarlett Johansson) – who go on a holiday to Barcelona.
The two girls are at very different stages in their lives.
“Vicky has a plan ahead of her,” says Hall. “She’s getting married, she’s getting her Master’s, she’s moving out of the city, and she’s going to have babies. She feels that everything is falling into place as expected.”
However, her sister’s life is at loose ends. “Cristina is kind of a wandering lost soul,” says Johansson. “She’s aimless and doesn’t really know what she wants. She’s exploring her youth with no responsibility and coasting wherever the road takes her.”
Woody Allen specifically had the city of Barcelona in mind as the film’s setting. “When I began writing the script, I wasn’t thinking of anything other than creating a story that had Barcelona as a character,” he claims. “It’s a city full of visual beauty and the sensibility of the city is quite romantic. A story like this could only happen in a place like Paris or Barcelona.”
There, the girls become enamored with a painter (a lighthearted role for new Oscar-winner Javier Bardem), unmindful that his hotheaded ex-wife (Bardem’s real-life girlfriend Penélope Cruz) isn’t quite willing to let him go.
Therein lies the crux of the plot. It’s about life choices.
Although Allen wrote and directed this messy little love poem, he doesn’t star in it, seemingly fazing himself out of his acting career as he gets older. That’s perhaps a wise box-office choice, for at age 72 he’d be nearly 50 years older than his two leading ladies. (Note: He’s 35 years older than his wife Soon-Yi, an age spread he apparently considers more appropriate for a fixation with younger women.)
Gee, we should’ve seen it coming. His movies are often semi-autobiographical. For example, in “Manhattan” he was an older guy lusting after a teenaged Mariel Hemingway – granddaughter of Key West’s most famous writer.
These days Woody seems to be fond of Scarlett Johansson, this being his third movie starring the young actress.
Allen’s filmography includes more than 40 movies in all. He considers “Match Point,” “The Purple Rose of Cairo,” and “Stardust Memories” to be his best efforts.
However, most people designate “Annie Hall” as his masterpiece. American Film Institute picked it as one of the 100 Best Movies – and the fourth best comedy – ever made. It won him two of his three Academy Awards, the other coming for his family-at-odds film “Hannah and Her Sisters.”
Despite his attempts at making serious films inspired by the works of Ingmar Berman, fans liked the neurotic comedies best. He lamented that fact in the Fellini-esque “Stardust Memories,” where people keep telling his character, a successful filmmaker, that they appreciate his work, “especially the early, funny ones.”
“Vicky Cristina Barcelona” isn’t one of the early, funny ones. More a light romantic comedy in keeping with “Scoop” or “Anything Else.”
When my friend Julie married a Hollywood insider, Woody Allen’s executive producer Charles Joffe showed up at the pre-wedding party. I got a chance to chat with him. He told me that Woody had planned to come, but still suffered from bouts of agoraphobia, despite thirty years of three-times-a-week psychoanalysis.
“Why doesn’t he make funny movies anymore?” I incautiously asked. Just idle cocktail-party conversation.
“Don’t let him hear you say that,” his producer warned. “He thinks his films are funny.”
I guess it’s a somewhat subjective concept. Just like an appropriate age differences between couples.
srhoades@aol.com [from Solares Hill]
Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades
My wife refuses to see Woody Allen movies because she disapproves of his marriage to his Korean stepdaughter. She doesn’t buy that “the heart wants what it wants” excuse when hurtful to others.
Me, being from the live-and-let-live school of life, I don’t care how Allan Stewart Konigsberg screws up his personal relationships. I like his films. Well, his funny ones.
Being good at compartmentalization, I can easily separate an actor from his movie roles, and a director’s works from how he conducts his life.
I suspect I’m on morally mushy ground here, but there you have it. I couldn’t wait to see “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” – the new Woody Allen romantic comedy that opens today at the Tropic Cinema.
Rather than the name of one strange character, the film’s title refers to two sisters – Vicky (played by Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (this one’s Scarlett Johansson) – who go on a holiday to Barcelona.
The two girls are at very different stages in their lives.
“Vicky has a plan ahead of her,” says Hall. “She’s getting married, she’s getting her Master’s, she’s moving out of the city, and she’s going to have babies. She feels that everything is falling into place as expected.”
However, her sister’s life is at loose ends. “Cristina is kind of a wandering lost soul,” says Johansson. “She’s aimless and doesn’t really know what she wants. She’s exploring her youth with no responsibility and coasting wherever the road takes her.”
Woody Allen specifically had the city of Barcelona in mind as the film’s setting. “When I began writing the script, I wasn’t thinking of anything other than creating a story that had Barcelona as a character,” he claims. “It’s a city full of visual beauty and the sensibility of the city is quite romantic. A story like this could only happen in a place like Paris or Barcelona.”
There, the girls become enamored with a painter (a lighthearted role for new Oscar-winner Javier Bardem), unmindful that his hotheaded ex-wife (Bardem’s real-life girlfriend Penélope Cruz) isn’t quite willing to let him go.
Therein lies the crux of the plot. It’s about life choices.
Although Allen wrote and directed this messy little love poem, he doesn’t star in it, seemingly fazing himself out of his acting career as he gets older. That’s perhaps a wise box-office choice, for at age 72 he’d be nearly 50 years older than his two leading ladies. (Note: He’s 35 years older than his wife Soon-Yi, an age spread he apparently considers more appropriate for a fixation with younger women.)
Gee, we should’ve seen it coming. His movies are often semi-autobiographical. For example, in “Manhattan” he was an older guy lusting after a teenaged Mariel Hemingway – granddaughter of Key West’s most famous writer.
These days Woody seems to be fond of Scarlett Johansson, this being his third movie starring the young actress.
Allen’s filmography includes more than 40 movies in all. He considers “Match Point,” “The Purple Rose of Cairo,” and “Stardust Memories” to be his best efforts.
However, most people designate “Annie Hall” as his masterpiece. American Film Institute picked it as one of the 100 Best Movies – and the fourth best comedy – ever made. It won him two of his three Academy Awards, the other coming for his family-at-odds film “Hannah and Her Sisters.”
Despite his attempts at making serious films inspired by the works of Ingmar Berman, fans liked the neurotic comedies best. He lamented that fact in the Fellini-esque “Stardust Memories,” where people keep telling his character, a successful filmmaker, that they appreciate his work, “especially the early, funny ones.”
“Vicky Cristina Barcelona” isn’t one of the early, funny ones. More a light romantic comedy in keeping with “Scoop” or “Anything Else.”
When my friend Julie married a Hollywood insider, Woody Allen’s executive producer Charles Joffe showed up at the pre-wedding party. I got a chance to chat with him. He told me that Woody had planned to come, but still suffered from bouts of agoraphobia, despite thirty years of three-times-a-week psychoanalysis.
“Why doesn’t he make funny movies anymore?” I incautiously asked. Just idle cocktail-party conversation.
“Don’t let him hear you say that,” his producer warned. “He thinks his films are funny.”
I guess it’s a somewhat subjective concept. Just like an appropriate age differences between couples.
srhoades@aol.com [from Solares Hill]
Tell No One (Rhoades)
Tell Everyone About ‘Tell No One’
Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades
My pal Sandy and I swap mystery novels – John Sanford, Jonathan Kellerman, James Lee Burke, J. A. Jance, David Baldacci, and the like.
Recently he sent me a book by Harlan Coben, a writer new to me. Seems Coben is best known for a series of mysteries about a sports agent who solves crimes. A quick read, I polished it off in one night.
I liked it well enough that I picked up a Harlan Coben paperback to read on a recent trip. Titled “Tell No One,” it was a taut little thriller about a pediatrician accused of being a serial killer. A real page-turned.
This was Coben’s first stand-alone novel since starting the other series. And it was a winner. “Tell No One” has turned out to be the bestseller of all his 17 novels to date.
Little did I know it was being made into a movie by French director Guillaume Canet.
‘Tell No One’ (French title: “Ne le dis à personne”) opens today at the Tropic Cinema. If you like mysteries, you’ll like it.
The plots of Coben’s novels “often involve the resurfacing of unresolved or misinterpreted events in the past (such as murders, fatal accidents, etc.) and often have multiple plot twists.”
And “Tell No One” is true to form.
In the book, the main characters are David Beck and his wife Elizabeth, but in writing the screenplay Canet changed the names to make them sound more Gallic. And New York locales were smoothly transitioned to Paris and its environs.
Dr. Alexandre Beck (very ably played by François Cluzet) is a French pediatrician whose wife Margot (Marie-Josée Croze) was brutally murdered some eight years ago. Although a serial killer was arrested, the man maintained that Margot wasn’t one of his victims. Haunted by his wife’s memory, Alex throws himself into his work.
But when two new victims turn up, the police reopen the case and focus on Alex. Even though he professes his innocence, there’s ample evidence pointing to him as the killer.
The mystery increases when Alex receives a strange e-mail with a video link showing Margot to be alive. The message warns him to tell no one, because they are being watched.
Alex’s sister (Marina Hands) persuades her girlfriend Hélène (Kristin Scott Thomas) to hire a high-powered attorney (Nathalie Baye) to defend him. But when a friend is murdered Alex goes on the run, trying to uncover the truth about his dead wife’s reappearance – as well as prove his innocence.
Is his wife really alive? Who killed his friend? Who tried to abduct him. Who is behind this?
It’s an edge-of-your-seat Hitchcockian thriller – a classic “wrong man” plot, complete with suspense, humor, and heart-pounding chase sequences.
In addition to being thriller, this is a story of loss and redemption. And it’s the melancholy of lost love that gives this film its haunting atmosphere.
Notice that the man who follows Beck in the station is a cameo by author Harlan Coben himself. And director Guillaume Canet, also well known as an actor in France, appears as a key character called Philippe Neuville.
The film did quite well with France’s César Awards, winning four: Best Director for Guillaume Canet, Best Actor for François Cluzet, Best Editing for Hervé de Luze, and Best Music Written for a Film for Matthieu Chedid. It also was nominated in five other categories.
Truth told, I liked the movie even better than the book.
srhoades@aol.com [from Solares Hill]
Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades
My pal Sandy and I swap mystery novels – John Sanford, Jonathan Kellerman, James Lee Burke, J. A. Jance, David Baldacci, and the like.
Recently he sent me a book by Harlan Coben, a writer new to me. Seems Coben is best known for a series of mysteries about a sports agent who solves crimes. A quick read, I polished it off in one night.
I liked it well enough that I picked up a Harlan Coben paperback to read on a recent trip. Titled “Tell No One,” it was a taut little thriller about a pediatrician accused of being a serial killer. A real page-turned.
This was Coben’s first stand-alone novel since starting the other series. And it was a winner. “Tell No One” has turned out to be the bestseller of all his 17 novels to date.
Little did I know it was being made into a movie by French director Guillaume Canet.
‘Tell No One’ (French title: “Ne le dis à personne”) opens today at the Tropic Cinema. If you like mysteries, you’ll like it.
The plots of Coben’s novels “often involve the resurfacing of unresolved or misinterpreted events in the past (such as murders, fatal accidents, etc.) and often have multiple plot twists.”
And “Tell No One” is true to form.
In the book, the main characters are David Beck and his wife Elizabeth, but in writing the screenplay Canet changed the names to make them sound more Gallic. And New York locales were smoothly transitioned to Paris and its environs.
Dr. Alexandre Beck (very ably played by François Cluzet) is a French pediatrician whose wife Margot (Marie-Josée Croze) was brutally murdered some eight years ago. Although a serial killer was arrested, the man maintained that Margot wasn’t one of his victims. Haunted by his wife’s memory, Alex throws himself into his work.
But when two new victims turn up, the police reopen the case and focus on Alex. Even though he professes his innocence, there’s ample evidence pointing to him as the killer.
The mystery increases when Alex receives a strange e-mail with a video link showing Margot to be alive. The message warns him to tell no one, because they are being watched.
Alex’s sister (Marina Hands) persuades her girlfriend Hélène (Kristin Scott Thomas) to hire a high-powered attorney (Nathalie Baye) to defend him. But when a friend is murdered Alex goes on the run, trying to uncover the truth about his dead wife’s reappearance – as well as prove his innocence.
Is his wife really alive? Who killed his friend? Who tried to abduct him. Who is behind this?
It’s an edge-of-your-seat Hitchcockian thriller – a classic “wrong man” plot, complete with suspense, humor, and heart-pounding chase sequences.
In addition to being thriller, this is a story of loss and redemption. And it’s the melancholy of lost love that gives this film its haunting atmosphere.
Notice that the man who follows Beck in the station is a cameo by author Harlan Coben himself. And director Guillaume Canet, also well known as an actor in France, appears as a key character called Philippe Neuville.
The film did quite well with France’s César Awards, winning four: Best Director for Guillaume Canet, Best Actor for François Cluzet, Best Editing for Hervé de Luze, and Best Music Written for a Film for Matthieu Chedid. It also was nominated in five other categories.
Truth told, I liked the movie even better than the book.
srhoades@aol.com [from Solares Hill]
Friday, August 22, 2008
Week of August 22 to 28 -- Phil Mann
What’s On at the Tropic
By Phil Mann
The Tropic completes its Superhero Trifecta this week with the opening of the new Batman film, THE DARK KNIGHT. Iron Man was a Techno Terror, surmounting evil with alloys and clean energy sources. Think Barack Obama. Hellboy is the King of Creatures, battling vast forces of evil emerging from a netherworld almost by force of his personality and some quips. He’s a brawler. Think John McCain.
And now we have the latest edition of Batman. He’s got the riches of Iron Man and some great gadgets, plus the cahones of Hellboy without his sense of humor. But unlike the other two, who deal with worldwide conspiracies, this Batman is just fighting an urban crime wave, and verges on evil himself in dealing with evil. Think Rudy Giuliani, I’d say.
I’m not the one to assess these movies, however. For an expert opinion I turn to my 17-year-old consultant, who provides this report on two of his summer favorites:
“Batman and Iron Man, two major summer blockbusters, are tough to compare. The Dark Knight is a dark, chilling epic, while Iron Man is a special effects packed movie filled with comedic lines. Both feature all-star casts and were number one in the box office. Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne and Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark both are billionaires who use their spare time to fight crime.
The Dark Knight looks deeply into what makes a hero and the limits of the law, making Christian Bale into a rogue hero. Heath Ledger’s posthumous performance as the Joker is disturbing and frightening. It features all the big explosions and hi-tech gadgets expected of it, without seeming too far-fetched. Iron Man is a much more light-hearted movie with many funny lines and quips. Robert Downey Jr. is a much more likeable character than the brooding renegade, Batman. Iron Man features many more CGI effects and more complex, futuristic technology. In my opinion both movies receive 5 stars.”
Isn’t it time for a Hillary Clinton superhero, something beyond Lynda Carter, for this new generation of stylistic and even profound uber-characters? There’s no shortage of material, as the Wikipedia listing for Superheroines makes clear. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_superheroines) Hollywood, wake up. You’ll have a guy movie and a chick-flick rolled into one!
Just to keep us grounded, the Tropic’s other new film this week is the story of a true super hero. CHILDREN OF THE HUANG SHI is set in China in 1937 as the Japanese army is overrunning the country. It tells the story of a young Englishman, George Hogg, who became responsible for the children of an orphanage and led them to safety with a trek across snow-bound mountains to the edge of the Gobi Desert, a movie that reminds that ordinary humans can do wondrous things. Why do make-believe heroes always seem to be more entertaining that real-life ones, and more enjoyable? I suspect it’s because characters like George Hogg make us feel guilty or inadequate, forcing us to confront our selves, while Batman or Iron Man are guys that let us escape from our drab selves.
By Phil Mann
The Tropic completes its Superhero Trifecta this week with the opening of the new Batman film, THE DARK KNIGHT. Iron Man was a Techno Terror, surmounting evil with alloys and clean energy sources. Think Barack Obama. Hellboy is the King of Creatures, battling vast forces of evil emerging from a netherworld almost by force of his personality and some quips. He’s a brawler. Think John McCain.
And now we have the latest edition of Batman. He’s got the riches of Iron Man and some great gadgets, plus the cahones of Hellboy without his sense of humor. But unlike the other two, who deal with worldwide conspiracies, this Batman is just fighting an urban crime wave, and verges on evil himself in dealing with evil. Think Rudy Giuliani, I’d say.
I’m not the one to assess these movies, however. For an expert opinion I turn to my 17-year-old consultant, who provides this report on two of his summer favorites:
“Batman and Iron Man, two major summer blockbusters, are tough to compare. The Dark Knight is a dark, chilling epic, while Iron Man is a special effects packed movie filled with comedic lines. Both feature all-star casts and were number one in the box office. Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne and Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark both are billionaires who use their spare time to fight crime.
The Dark Knight looks deeply into what makes a hero and the limits of the law, making Christian Bale into a rogue hero. Heath Ledger’s posthumous performance as the Joker is disturbing and frightening. It features all the big explosions and hi-tech gadgets expected of it, without seeming too far-fetched. Iron Man is a much more light-hearted movie with many funny lines and quips. Robert Downey Jr. is a much more likeable character than the brooding renegade, Batman. Iron Man features many more CGI effects and more complex, futuristic technology. In my opinion both movies receive 5 stars.”
Isn’t it time for a Hillary Clinton superhero, something beyond Lynda Carter, for this new generation of stylistic and even profound uber-characters? There’s no shortage of material, as the Wikipedia listing for Superheroines makes clear. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_superheroines) Hollywood, wake up. You’ll have a guy movie and a chick-flick rolled into one!
Just to keep us grounded, the Tropic’s other new film this week is the story of a true super hero. CHILDREN OF THE HUANG SHI is set in China in 1937 as the Japanese army is overrunning the country. It tells the story of a young Englishman, George Hogg, who became responsible for the children of an orphanage and led them to safety with a trek across snow-bound mountains to the edge of the Gobi Desert, a movie that reminds that ordinary humans can do wondrous things. Why do make-believe heroes always seem to be more entertaining that real-life ones, and more enjoyable? I suspect it’s because characters like George Hogg make us feel guilty or inadequate, forcing us to confront our selves, while Batman or Iron Man are guys that let us escape from our drab selves.
pmann99@gmail.com [published in Key West, the newspaper - www.kwtn.com]
Children of the Huang Shi (Rhoades)
‘Children of Huang Shi’ Makes
Its Journey at the Tropic
Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades
Roger Spottiswoode – a distant relation to Key West’s Spottswood family – directed “Children of Huang Shi,” a moving war drama set in China that opens today at the Tropic Cinema.
Jonathan Rhys Meyers (who has amazed us with his diverse performances as both Elvis and Henry VIII) plays an English journalist named George Hogg, who along with an Australian nurse saved sixty orphaned children during the Japanese occupation of China in 1937. Radha Mitchell (you’ve seen her in films as varying as “Silent Hill” and “Finding Neverland”) portrays the courageous young nurse.
Yun-Fat Chow (“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”) and Michelle Yeoh (“The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor”) are aptly cast as the Chinese partisans who join Hogg on this incredible thousand-mile journey across the snow-bound Liu Pan Shan mountains to the safety of the Mongolian desert at the western edge of the Great Wall.
Aside from being a thrilling wartime adventure, keep in mind that this film is based on a true story. It actually happened. So this is not just a made-up morality play, but a piece of history that in fact reaffirms of the goodness of man.
Here, a hardboiled journalist and an unsentimental nurse discover their capacity for love and responsibility to others.
“Children of Huang Shi” marks the first official co-production between China and Australia. In Australia the film is titled “Children of the Silk Road,” while in Singapore it’s known as “Escape From Huang Shi.”
These awesome mountain and desert regions of interior China have been rarely filmed. And talk about “a cast of thousands,” some 10,000 extras were hired for the movie’s sweeping crowd scenes.
Go see it. It’s a lesson in the true meaning of courage.
srhoades@aol.com [originally published in Solares Hill]
Its Journey at the Tropic
Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades
Roger Spottiswoode – a distant relation to Key West’s Spottswood family – directed “Children of Huang Shi,” a moving war drama set in China that opens today at the Tropic Cinema.
Jonathan Rhys Meyers (who has amazed us with his diverse performances as both Elvis and Henry VIII) plays an English journalist named George Hogg, who along with an Australian nurse saved sixty orphaned children during the Japanese occupation of China in 1937. Radha Mitchell (you’ve seen her in films as varying as “Silent Hill” and “Finding Neverland”) portrays the courageous young nurse.
Yun-Fat Chow (“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”) and Michelle Yeoh (“The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor”) are aptly cast as the Chinese partisans who join Hogg on this incredible thousand-mile journey across the snow-bound Liu Pan Shan mountains to the safety of the Mongolian desert at the western edge of the Great Wall.
Aside from being a thrilling wartime adventure, keep in mind that this film is based on a true story. It actually happened. So this is not just a made-up morality play, but a piece of history that in fact reaffirms of the goodness of man.
Here, a hardboiled journalist and an unsentimental nurse discover their capacity for love and responsibility to others.
“Children of Huang Shi” marks the first official co-production between China and Australia. In Australia the film is titled “Children of the Silk Road,” while in Singapore it’s known as “Escape From Huang Shi.”
These awesome mountain and desert regions of interior China have been rarely filmed. And talk about “a cast of thousands,” some 10,000 extras were hired for the movie’s sweeping crowd scenes.
Go see it. It’s a lesson in the true meaning of courage.
srhoades@aol.com [originally published in Solares Hill]
Brideshead Revisited (Rhoades)
Revisiting ‘‘Brideshead Revisited’
Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades
Back in 1981, people of literate tastes tuned to PBS to watch a British-made television miniseries called “Brideshead Revisited.” Based on a 1945 novel by Evelyn Waugh (he considered it his “magnum opus”), it is a period piece about a group of upperclass Brits at Brideshead, a large country estate in Yorkshire.
The television production starred such fine actors as Jeremy Irons, Anthony Andrews, Laurence Olivier, Claire Bloom, Diana Quick, Jane Asher, and John Gielgud.
My old friend Tom Wolfe (he was a contributor to Harper’s Magazine when I was associate publisher there) wrote that the series had been successful in the US because it was a “plutography” – that is, a graphic depiction of the lives of the rich.
Keep in mind, this was during the ’80s, a period designated by Wolfe as the Me Decade. And television was marked by such popular fare as “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” and the fairy tale wedding of Charles and Diana.
The question: Are we ready – as the title implies – to revisit Brideshead? The answer apparently is “yes,” in that a new film version of “Brideshead Revisited” is currently at the Tropic Cinema.
Like the TV series, the film tells the story of forbidden love and a loss of innocence in pre-WWII England. It’s presented as the memoir of Captain Charles Ryder, a man drawn to the Brideshead estate and its resident Flyte family, especially Sebastian whom he meets at Oxford and sister Julia with whom he becomes infatuated.
This triangular relationship can be seen as a metaphor that reflects the decline of a decadent period in English history.
Of course, we have an entirely new cast: Matthew Goode (“Match Point”) as social climber Charles, Ben Whishaw (“Perfume: The Story of a Murderer”) as charming Sebastian, and Hayley Atwell (“Cassandra’s Dream”) as sophisticated Julia. Plus two-time Oscar-winner Emma Thompson (“Howard’s End,” “Sense and Sensibility”) as Lady Marchmain.
Directed by Julian Jarrold (“Becoming Jane”), it’s a brave attempt at trying to recapture magic in a bottle.
That’s a tall order. As one film fan put it, “It’s outrageous that its producers even bothered to do a new screen version of this drama ... since it would be nearly impossible to match the hosannas that surrounded the acclaimed TV miniseries.”
The original ranked tenth among the 100 Greatest British Television Programs in a list compiled by the British Film Institute. It even placed as seventh best Masterpiece Theater episode, even though it wasn’t actually part of that series, having been broadcast on PBS in its Great Performances telecasts.
Obviously trying to draw on the cachet of the TV series, the movie also used Castle Howard in North Yorkshire as the Brideshead location.
Time Magazine has included Waugh’s “Brideshead Revisited” on its list of “All-Time 100 Novels.” And the TV miniseries is ranked by International Movie Database viewers as the 14th most popular film or television title set in the 1930s.
I doubt this remake will end up ranking that well among similar period films. In fact, a quick glance at IMDb shows it currently at 291. If you disagree, go to www.imdb.com and cast your own vote. After all, this is an election year!
srhoades@aol.com [originally published in Solares Hill]
Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades
Back in 1981, people of literate tastes tuned to PBS to watch a British-made television miniseries called “Brideshead Revisited.” Based on a 1945 novel by Evelyn Waugh (he considered it his “magnum opus”), it is a period piece about a group of upperclass Brits at Brideshead, a large country estate in Yorkshire.
The television production starred such fine actors as Jeremy Irons, Anthony Andrews, Laurence Olivier, Claire Bloom, Diana Quick, Jane Asher, and John Gielgud.
My old friend Tom Wolfe (he was a contributor to Harper’s Magazine when I was associate publisher there) wrote that the series had been successful in the US because it was a “plutography” – that is, a graphic depiction of the lives of the rich.
Keep in mind, this was during the ’80s, a period designated by Wolfe as the Me Decade. And television was marked by such popular fare as “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” and the fairy tale wedding of Charles and Diana.
The question: Are we ready – as the title implies – to revisit Brideshead? The answer apparently is “yes,” in that a new film version of “Brideshead Revisited” is currently at the Tropic Cinema.
Like the TV series, the film tells the story of forbidden love and a loss of innocence in pre-WWII England. It’s presented as the memoir of Captain Charles Ryder, a man drawn to the Brideshead estate and its resident Flyte family, especially Sebastian whom he meets at Oxford and sister Julia with whom he becomes infatuated.
This triangular relationship can be seen as a metaphor that reflects the decline of a decadent period in English history.
Of course, we have an entirely new cast: Matthew Goode (“Match Point”) as social climber Charles, Ben Whishaw (“Perfume: The Story of a Murderer”) as charming Sebastian, and Hayley Atwell (“Cassandra’s Dream”) as sophisticated Julia. Plus two-time Oscar-winner Emma Thompson (“Howard’s End,” “Sense and Sensibility”) as Lady Marchmain.
Directed by Julian Jarrold (“Becoming Jane”), it’s a brave attempt at trying to recapture magic in a bottle.
That’s a tall order. As one film fan put it, “It’s outrageous that its producers even bothered to do a new screen version of this drama ... since it would be nearly impossible to match the hosannas that surrounded the acclaimed TV miniseries.”
The original ranked tenth among the 100 Greatest British Television Programs in a list compiled by the British Film Institute. It even placed as seventh best Masterpiece Theater episode, even though it wasn’t actually part of that series, having been broadcast on PBS in its Great Performances telecasts.
Obviously trying to draw on the cachet of the TV series, the movie also used Castle Howard in North Yorkshire as the Brideshead location.
Time Magazine has included Waugh’s “Brideshead Revisited” on its list of “All-Time 100 Novels.” And the TV miniseries is ranked by International Movie Database viewers as the 14th most popular film or television title set in the 1930s.
I doubt this remake will end up ranking that well among similar period films. In fact, a quick glance at IMDb shows it currently at 291. If you disagree, go to www.imdb.com and cast your own vote. After all, this is an election year!
srhoades@aol.com [originally published in Solares Hill]
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