Marie Antoinette From A Different Perspective

Fans of period drama would love the new French movie Farewell My Queen which was featured at both the Berlin and San Francisco Film Festivals this year. The film was adapted from the novel by Chantal Thomas and director Benoit Jacquot was also responsible for the screenplay.

Many big-screen and TV movies have been made about Marie Antoinette, but this film took a very different perspective. It focuses on the final months of the decadent queen's life before she was beheaded. It also dwells on her lesbian affairs instead of her numerous other relationships with men. The entire film was made from the perspective and the eyes of the queen's reader Sidonie Laborde played by Lea Seydoux (Gabrielle in Woody Allen's Midnight In Paris). Not sure why the 27-year-old Seydoux is the darling of the French movie world at the moment - her performance in the film is quite flat in my opinion!

Diane Kruger gives a wonderful performance in her portrayal of the tormented and bored queen. At 36, Kruger is more or less the same age when Marie Antoinette was beheaded. The face that launched a thousand ships (Kruger also played Helen of Troy in Troy) is equally magnificent in Farewell My Queen. With her German descent, Kruger is convincing as the young queen from Austria. But the most winning performance comes from Virginie Ledoyen who plays the queen's lesbian love interest Gabrielle de Polignac. With her Spanish blood, Ledoyen is both dangerously beautiful and heartlessly cruel in the movie.

This film ultimately succeeds because it takes a different path in depicting the last days of a decadent empire. Even though we've caught glimpses of the splendour of Versailles every now and then, most of the film takes place in dark corridors and the quarters of the ladies-in-waiting. We get a sense via all the whispers, gossips, scandals and back-stabbing that the French Revolution is lurking close by to clean up the act of the aristocracy. The other key message from the movie is that like all other relationships, lesbian love can often be unrequited and heartbreaking.

Plummer's Words Are Intoxicating

Canada has many national treasures, but Oscar-award winner Christopher Plummer must be one of the most gifted ones! Fresh from his Oscar laurels as Best Supporting Actor in the movie Beginners in February, Plummer gave a bewitching performance in a one-man show A Word Or Two at this season's Stratford Shakespeare Festival.

At 85 and still dapper, Plummer gave a performance of his lifetime this past weekend when I was there at the Avon Theatre. I like it even better than his other successful one-man show Barrymore because this one is almost an autobiography delivered by the master himself on stage. Against a very simple but stunning and symbolic staircase of hardcover books, Plummer walked, danced, recited poetry, referenced Shakespeare and other literary greats, sat in the elegant Director's chair, read behind a podium and laughed and cried (teary-eyed) with the audience in English and French.

Spanning a career of over 60 years, Plummer celebrates the beauty of language via this 90-minute performance. In the fast-moving tech world of the internet, smartphones and social media, he's showing us the impact of the written word while he's growing up in Montreal. We, the audience, strolled with him through his most favourite literature - from the Bible to Shaw and Wilde to Coleridge and Marlowe; from Shakespeare and Byron to Nash and Leacock.

As a result, I found myself savouring every word he said and, like enjoying a bottle of vintage red wine, became totally intoxicated at the end of the show. My friend and I both concluded as we exited from the theatre that the performance inspired us to go back home and read more poetry!

Plummer wrote in the introduction to the program guide that he wants to show what impact the written word can have on impressionable youth. Unfortunately, like other Stratford Shakespeare Festival performances, there was hardly any youth in sight among the audience yesterday. It's depressing to see a sea of seniors as the primary audience. Perhaps it's Plummer's age which mainly attracts an older audience, but to preserve and cherish our other national treasure, the Stratford Shakespeare Festival itself, the Festival's marketing department ought to do more to attract more multicultural and younger audiences. According to The Globe and Mail, the audience at Stratford has been declining in the last 10 years. This is certainly not a good sign - we don't want Plummer to pass and move on, but as he said, this will come one day. The Festival itself should be a different story - It's time that they start filling the seats with younger bums!

 

Facing Old Age And Mortality With A Sense Of Humour

I'm now convinced that the entire movie industry, not just Hollywood, is finally realizing the power of baby boomers. This is another movie about the inevitable lifestage of aging and passing, this time from France in French - Et Si On Vivait Tous Ensemble? (And If We All Lived Together?)

I went and saw it not just from a boomer's perspective, but because Jane Fonda has always expressed in her recent interviews that it's on her bucket list to act in another French movie - her third in her long film career - and she's the lead actress in this flick. As reported in her interview with The Canadian Press, there are thematic similarities between her new film and Prime Time, her 2011 book on old age that covered love, fitness, food and self-analysis. She laments that Hollywood is less interested in portraying life after retirement. At 74, Fonda rarely seems hung up on her age and continues to be a trailblazer in film, writing, speaking engagements and charity work.

So the movie confronts old age from the perspective of a group of Parisien seniors - two married couples and one permanent playboy. They are all stricken with serious illnesses, challenges of mortality and relationships with one another and their younger generations. But in subtle and gracious European style, the film stares at old age with audacity, optimism and a great sense of humour. Watching Fonda's smooth acting skills and flawless beauty at her age is the ultimate pleasure for me as a lifelong fan. Even though Fonda speaks fluent French (she studied art in Paris when she was young and her first husband was, of course, French director Roger Vadim), she still worked with a dialogue coach to get her lines perfect.

The only other recognizable actor is 68-year-old Geraldine Chaplin who looks painfully old and thin when compared to Fonda. Thirty-four-year-old Spaniard Daniel Bruhl also did a wonderful job playing the dogwalker Dirk, the only younger supporting actor in a movie anchored by seniors including Guy Bedos, Claude Rich, Pierre Richard and Bernard Malaka.

The concept of a group of lifelong senior friends living together and supporting each other instead of spending their winter years in seniors homes is refreshing. It's also sad and funny at the same time. My only criticism of the movie is the choice of English-language songs throughout the movie. Why try to appeal to an English-speaking audience when the entire film is in French?

For fellow Jane Fonda fans, the movie legend's next project includes a new book on teenage sex. I also understand that her African-American adopted daughter will be coming up with a new book sharing her experience of growing up with her adopted mom.

Intimacy And Distance

Hope Springs is definitely a movie for baby boomers. I can't imagine anybody under 40 who would want to go see this movie unless they want to better understand their parents.

The movie is a bit sappy, particularly with its music, but what happens in the film is so true and painfully funny that it makes the flick totally enjoyable! The story is simple and has been approached in numerous different angles in other movies. But somehow, this one works because there are so many uncomfortable situations. After 30 years of marriage, daily boring routines set in and instead of intimacy, a huge distance has been created between the couple. Meryl Streep's character Kay best sums up the theme of the flick - you can be in a relationship but still feel lonelier than when you're alone!

I'm not a fan of Meryl Streep's, but I always think she's more talented playing comical roles (except for Mamma Mia) than her endless roles of impersonating historic characters like Margaret Thatcher or flaunting her multiple accents on the large screen. But the biggest surprise is macho Tommy Lee Jones who will probably get an Oscar nomination for his role as the husband Arnold. Not only does he have the best lines in the movie, but the 'constipated' look he puts on throughout the entire movie just cracks you up over and over again. Both Streep and Jones honestly display their aging bodies which make it more believable. And, of course, Streep's hairstyle and ghastly middle-aged wardrobe just say it all!

Steve Carell plays the unusual role of a marriage counsellor, and I was waiting for his comical role to surface, but he plays the role straight and I respect him for having successfully taken on this new challenge.

But the biggest kudos should go to Gen-Xer writer Vanessa Taylor who wrote the original screenplay. One would never imagine the writer and co-producer of popular TV series Game of Thrones could have written this movie about a stale relationship between a boomer couple!

Although Hope Springs didn't generate too many favourable reviews from professional critics, I would highly recommend this movie if you want a good laugh.

A Conundrum - To See Or Not To See?

I'm a big Jeremy Renner fan, so I went to see The Bourne Legacy on its appearance in theatres on the first day. But when asked whether it's worth seeing, my response is: "only if you like Jeremy Renner."

The plot is weak, even though it's directed by Tony Gilroy who wrote the screenplay for The Bourne Ultimatum. If you believe that all human beings can be engineered and programmed, including soldiers and spys, then anything goes. The movie has very little to do with the previous Bourne stories within the franchise, and it looks like a major stretch naming the movie after Jason Bourne. It becomes worst when the protagonists have to fly to Manila just to find the right medical fix for Aaron Cross played by Renner. This is just another lame excuse to shoot action scenes in an exotic city with a ton of traffic and crowds!

If the plot is weak, the screenplay is even worse. After a lot of life-threatening fighting and escape incidents, is the best line for the protagonists reduced to a plain "Are you ok?" It's insulting for Rachel Weisz (who plays a doctor) to be given such a bimbo role and weak lines in the movie. I never understood why a Cambridge University graduate like Weisz would have taken on such a crappy role. And what a waste of acting talent to put Ed Norton in his villanous role as retired Col. Eric Byer?

But watching Jeremy Renner is really the focus of the entire flick. If you like him, then it's definitely worth your while because you won't care about the length of the movie and the imbecilic screenplay and ridiculous plot. If you don't like this actor, then really there's no point. The cinematography is stunning, though, throughout the entire movie, particularly the winter scenes shot in Alberta.

A Visual Eye-Candy

Once again, contrary to critics' unfavourable reviews, I like Len Wiseman's Total Recall - a remake of the 1990 movie featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sharon Stone. Don't get me wrong, this is not thought-provoking science fiction, but two straight hours of non-stop action and entertainment.

I like Len Wiseman's direction. After all, he's most famous for blockbusters like Men in Black, Live Free or Die Hard and Independence Day. One should never question whether the plot makes sense in such kind of movies. But think along the lines of a simplified version of Inception - layers and layers of dreams and nightmares; past, present and future; and the good versus the evil. Like the film's protagonist Douglas Quaid/Hauser (played by Colin Farrell), we, as the audience, also constantly question ourselves - is this a dream or is this the reality? Are we seeing Quaid or Hauser?

Colin Farrell is a very strong actor (remember his performance in Phone Booth?), but his talent is under-utilized in his role as a beefcake double agent in this movie. I never like Kate Beckinsale as an actor, but I can see why her husband picked her for this role after the duo's partnership in the ridiculously successful Underworld franchises. She also did her action scenes well. Jessica Biel looks cool and pretty but, frankly speaking, any Hollywood actress could have played her role as Melina. The villain's role is always the most challenging. But Bryan Cranston is just not the right actor for his role as Cohaagen. And what a big waste of talent - Cranston's mesmerizing performance as Walter White in award-winning TV drama Breaking Bad still haunts me!

The other reason why I like this movie is the familiar Toronto scenes - the movie was shot in 2011 in both Toronto and Guelph. But as a Torontonian, you can recognize Commerce Court, the Metro Toronto Convention Centre and the University of Toronto.

All in all, I would categorize Total Recall as a visual eye-candy!

Everybody Cheats On Everybody

The movie 360, directed by acclaimed Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles (City of God, The Constant Gardener), has not received many good reviews from critics. But the film, to me, was a pleasant surprise.

360 was shot in seven cities around the world, many of which are my favourites except for Paris. From Vienna to Paris to London to Rio de Janeiro - all done with great style. It's not unusual for adultery and infidelity to be themes for movie plots nowadays, but in this flick, it goes even further. Everybody cheats on everybody else. Depressing? Maybe. But it's also amusing. The story goes in full circle as the title suggests, but there's also a 'six degrees of separation' theme interwoven into it.

Above all, I most enjoyed the acting from the international cast, all of whom gave their best. Jude Law and Rachel Weisz are always good - the former is definitely aging with his receding hairline while the latter doesn't look one day older than her award-winning appearance in The Constant Gardener, also by the same director. The relatively less famous actors from Czechoslovakia, Brazil and Russia all give credible performances. But the most impressive actor in this flick is Ben Johnson who gives a bone-chilling performance in his role of a reforming sexual predator. Do we need Sir Anthony Hopkins for this movie? Probably not, but he's comfortable even in an 'uncomfortable' role.

Nobody even mentioned the soundtrack for this movie, but I thought it's one of the film's biggest attractions. The plot might be a bit disjointed at times, but overall, style trumps content in this one!