Monday, July 19, 2004

The Name of the Rose The Name of the Rose was just recently released on dvd for the first time (at least in this country). Jean-Jacques Annaud is one of my alltime favorite filmmakers, and I was surprised some years ago when I learned that this great film -- I worship at his feet for it -- was not available on dvd. It came in just this past week. I learned from the commentary that there had been unfavorable reviews and not-so-wonderful attendance numbers in the US when the film first came out. As an admirer and fan of the book -- yes, I have actually read the whole book, from beginning to end, several times; it's a story you can read for far more than just to learn whodunit(!) -- I had blown straight past any critical comment or reviews, and rushed to see the film as soon as I could. Great film. Loved it! Not only is the film even better than I had remembered, and well-transferred to dvd, but the director's commentary, unlike many, is worth hearing, not only for the directorial information (where they are at this point, what the difficulties were, how he was able to cast Sean Connery, whom he loved working with, etc.) but also because he is honest (without being brutal or attempting to harm) about the relatively few difficulties he had. He tells us how the film is used as a basic introduction to courses in Medieval Studies in some parts of Europe, because of the authenticity of the details... and much more, all far more interesting than the usual banalities and banter people making commentary soundtracks tend to indulge themselves with. There's a contemporary 'making of' featurette made in Germany, and also a dvd-time photo reminiscence by Annaud. A great man, a great film. If you haven't seen it, you've just run out of excuses. If you have, it's time you saw it again! 9:52:15 AM     Love, Actually I recently saw the movie Love, Actually -- I had skipped it when it was in the theaters on the basis of way-too-saccharine trailers, although I was very interested because of the great people in it: Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, the wonderful Gregor Fisher (who plays the well-cast Bill Nighy's manager, the hefty guy always dressed in denim, and who played the villainous Squeers in the fine Nicholas Nickleby with James D'Arcy) and many others, not least my personal favorite Colin Firth (sigh -- indications of schoolgirl crush here). He's the guy in the movie who learns Portuguese so he can propose to his girl. Watching him open up the house he rents in France is one of the best scenes in the film. (Best Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice, even better than Olivier IMO; great Jack Worthing to Judi Dench's Lady Bracknell; great Earl of Wessex in Shakespeare in Love, that constantly frustrated man who had the bad luck to get his own way; the betrayed and, finally, vengeful husband of Kristin Scott Thomas in The English Patient; and much more, much gloriously more...) And yes, I do like watching the Prime Minister (Hugh Grant; no one does this kind of thing the way he does) making some good moves to "Jump" by the Pointer Sisters, and I really like the scene where Mark (the fine Andrew Lincoln) shows the handwritten poster cards to Juliet (Keira Knightley). Excellent! The movie managed to avoid most of the sentimentality pitfalls -- my gosh, not all, it's about romantic love at Christmastime, good grief! -- But it's tonic with a twist rather than the strawberry pop the trailers showed us). And speaking of tonic: For American audiences, there is some much-needed see-yourselves-as-others-see-you quinine water here. Don't spit it out just because it has a slightly bitter aftertaste. It's much easier on us than we deserve, just enough to make us pause a little and even (gasp!) think, I can only hope. 9:42:12 AM

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