Highly amoral film from Aussie John Hughes reads so much like a piece of poetry as it takes us through this tale of lurid imaginings and misconceptions.
Poet John A. Scott's script, from his novella of the same name, has several biblical overtones as it examines one man's confused lust for the tempting femmes he sees on a Paris holiday and another man's covetous determination to win his neighbour's wife. Scott cleverly twists the plot to give us different concepts of the same reality, leaving us to fathom the truth.
The principal performers give strong turns, with Martin Jacobs as the deluded husband, Angie Milliken the frustrated, lonely wife and Jacek Koman the scheming 'friend'. Dion Beebe's camera startles and surprises with its early freeze frame images.
But for all its cleverness and intricate plotting, "What I Have Written" boils down to nothing more than a hedonistic film about sexual obsession. Just whose obsession is never quite clear, yet both scripter Scott and director Hughes seem happy to indulge in the hardcore images of deviant sex. Consequently their strong, often accurate character study ( says Sorel to her bed stricken husband - "Jesus was right. You looked on that woman with lust and it was enough.") is almost completely washed out by its gratuitous sexual overtones.
Monday, March 17, 1997 - Hoyts Croydon
Poet John A. Scott's script, from his novella of the same name, has several biblical overtones as it examines one man's confused lust for the tempting femmes he sees on a Paris holiday and another man's covetous determination to win his neighbour's wife. Scott cleverly twists the plot to give us different concepts of the same reality, leaving us to fathom the truth.
The principal performers give strong turns, with Martin Jacobs as the deluded husband, Angie Milliken the frustrated, lonely wife and Jacek Koman the scheming 'friend'. Dion Beebe's camera startles and surprises with its early freeze frame images.
But for all its cleverness and intricate plotting, "What I Have Written" boils down to nothing more than a hedonistic film about sexual obsession. Just whose obsession is never quite clear, yet both scripter Scott and director Hughes seem happy to indulge in the hardcore images of deviant sex. Consequently their strong, often accurate character study ( says Sorel to her bed stricken husband - "Jesus was right. You looked on that woman with lust and it was enough.") is almost completely washed out by its gratuitous sexual overtones.
Monday, March 17, 1997 - Hoyts Croydon