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Reviews
Un week-end sur deux (1990)
A quiet film with a lingering resonance...
I saw this film in New York City, at a matinee consisting of about eight people, based on a favorable review by Vincent Canby during his last days as the chief movie critic for the New York Times. It has stayed with me, and has often come to mind in the many years since then.
Nicole Garcia's direction is highly personal, highly indiosyncratic, with the texture and richness of real life and lived experience rather than the polish and technique of a film school graduate with a big studio budget. In a way, with its strong woman's point of view and its refusal to pander for audience approval of its characters' behavior, it might make for an interesting pairing with Allison Anders' independent American film, Gas, Food, Lodging (though the two films are in no way related in storyline, locale, socio-economic milieu, etc.).
Nathalie Baye is extraordinarily effective as the heroine on the verge of (or in the midst of) a spiritual breakdown. She can be rude and sullen, but strangely fascinating; she has a great drunk scene in which she blows a much-needed job; she's full of surprises and a far more interesting actress than the mediocre one she's playing in the film, as she drives on in search of an eclipse and ultimate redemption.
Though it is deliberately small in scale and proportioned accordingly, this film is well worth a look, both as a superb character study and as a choice acting vehicle for Ms. Baye.
Höstsonaten (1978)
An art house Mommie Dearest?
Perhaps that's why I like it. Ingmar was not so nice to Ingrid when he wrote about the experience of directing her in his autobiography, but the director/actor relationship works well as far as the results on film are concerned. Liv was not so well served this time, however.
Is it time for a remake, with Faye Dunaway and, say, Uma Thurman??? Maybe Roman Polanski could be persuaded to direct it.
The Search for Bridey Murphy (1956)
I believe in Bridey!
This film is modestly budgeted, and was no doubt hastily made. But it is nonetheless a fascinating cultural artifact, a portrait of a time when the idea of reincarnation was a radical concept in America. The director had a genuine interest in the subject, and the always appealing Teresa Wright does a lovely job dancing the "Morning Jig." In many ways, this film is a lot more forthright and a lot less hokey than "The Three Faces of Eve," which would make an interesting pairing with "Bridey" on a double bill. I have to give it an unweighted 8, and pray that Shirley MacLaine never decides to remake it.
The Deep Blue Sea (1955)
Underrated, underviewed, unavailable
This film suffers from the lingering taint of tepid critical response upon its initial release, based largely on the facts that (1) Rattigan's original play was "opened up" (including a ski trip to Switzerland) and shot in CinemaScope and (2) that the beautiful and glamorous Vivien Leigh played a heroine created on stage by the talented but dowdy Peggy Ashcroft.
Leigh's performance was deemed cold - too controlled - yet she provides the cold fire, hot ice quality that always made her a fascinating film actress. More's performance as the lover was overrated - he won a prize at the Venice film festival, and made it plain that he and his co-star did not get along during filming, mainly because he protested Leigh's desire to look her best. Such a desire is all the more understandable given the fact that her last completed film was A Streetcar Named Desire, as the faded beauty Blanche, and that she had subsequently broken down during the filming of Elephant Walk and been replaced by the much younger Elizabeth Taylor.
There were dissenting critical opinions. Pauline Kael called Leigh's performance here "brilliant" when later reviewing The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone and finding the Karen Stone performance wanting in contrast. (I beg to differ with Pauline on that point, being a Karen Stone enthusiast myself.) In any case, The Deep Blue Sea deserves to be seen. It was produced by Alexander Korda in Britain, but distributed by 20th Century Fox in the U.S.A., so maybe there are copyright issues blocking its release on video.
Here in America the film would seem a likely staple of the American Movie Classics cable station, if for no other reason because it stars the woman who played Scarlett O'Hara. (20th Century Fox CinemaScope films of the same vintage play regularly on the station, e.g., How To Marry a Millionaire, Three Coins in the Fountain, Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing, Anastasia, et al.) The critical success of David Mamet's adaptation of The Winslow Boy may stir interest in Rattigan once again - let's hope so.
The play itself was and remains a strong acting vehicle, especially for the woman who plays Hester. Faye Dunaway nearly did it in NYC for Roundabout, but somehow the star and the theater couldn't come to terms over contract demands, and it was revived instead with Blythe Danner (aka Ma Paltrow).
Let's hope that Vivien Leigh's performance will be available for viewing by movie fans and serious film and theater scholars alike in the near future. After all, she is one of the great actresses of the twentieth century cinema, and this is one of but eight films she made following Gone With the Wind.
An interesting footnote: Arthur Hill appears briefly in this film; later, when Vivien Leigh won a Tony Award for her performance in the Broadway musical Tovarich, Hill won the Tony for his dramatic turn in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. There is an amusing photograph of Leigh, Hill, and fellow winners Zero Mostel and Uta Hagen at the awards ceremony, circa 1963.