Change Your Image
Alli-5
Reviews
Ban sheng yuan (1997)
Story of doomed love, subtly told
I had heard this film described as a 'Chinese Gone With the Wind' and saw it as part of a 'Hong Kong Melodrama' season. Both these labels do the film an injustice, since it is quite an intimate character study and not just a sweeping epic. Lamentably, the film will probably only have this limited release in the UK.
Firstly, just a quibble: although my Cantonese is minimal, isn't this film mostly in Mandarin? Also, the subtitles were terrible in terms of spelling and grammar, making some scenes a bit difficult to follow and others unintentionally hilarious. Is there no way of getting these subbed before export of the prints?
The story, essentially the problems that beset a young couple in Shanghai in the Thirties, is told without recourse to cliched situations and dialogue and the cinematography is beautiful. I did wonder about the heroine's modern look, but this was a minor consideration. The atmosphere of the lives of working people in what was the most modern city in China is successfully captured and the niceties of Chinese culture thoughtfully portrayed.
This is definitely not an action film, even in terms of a backdrop of dramatic battle / war scenes. Fans of Zhang Yimou will enjoy the stately pace of the narrative, which conveys something of the inevitability of the fate of the main characters. The music, too, is haunting, and not intrusive. Definitely worth considering if you want to lose yourself in an elegaic film about the subtleties of a relationship conducted in a world of cruel financial and moral realities.
The Man in the Iron Mask (1998)
It tries, but it's Hollywood, and not Dumas
I couldn't help thinking, despite a respect for the talents of Mssrs. Depardieu, Byrne, Irons and Malkovich, not forgetting Mms. Parillaud and Godreche, that if it had been entirely a French production, it would have been immeasurably better.
It isn't Dumas, but then the novel is so long and rambling as to be virtually impossible to film. This is a well-enough crafted film with a pacy plot and plenty of expected swashbuckling, but it plays fast and loose with some vital facts about our beloved musketeers and never quite trades its patina of Hollywood gloss for something approaching Seventeenth Century France.
I preferred Lester's attempts at conveying Dumas on screen in the Seventies, which captured the spirit of the original novel, but Lester was sensible and chose the original 'Three Musketeers', which blazed a trail in terms of tone and pace that Dumas himself couldn't match in his successive four novels.
If you like Errol Flynn, watch this. If you are a fan of the Musketeers, or the genre, read the books, watch the Lester films or see one of the many modern French swashbucklers instead.
Haunted (1995)
Strong performances and atmosphere - overall good twist on trad. ghost story.
I hadn't planned to watch this film, but spotted it on terrestrial TV in the late-night schedules. Its cinematic release passed me by completely. I am no fan of the horror genre in general, but flipped channels because of the quality cast and to see if the Sussex setting was authentic.
It is hokum, of-course, but engaging enough to convey the tension and confusion felt by the main character, David (Quinn). John Gielgud, Anna Massey and Anthony Andrews almost slip into parody, which makes poor David's unease all the more understandable, but Kate Beckinsale's performance, in wonderful twenties togs, as Christina is well-judged and Aidan Quinn is, surprisingly, a convincing academic of the twenties.
I grew up in Sussex, and knew plenty of houses similar to Edbrook, though not, as far as I know, in quite the same way, and I think the gorgeous sleepiness of the countryside is captured very well.
I didn't think that the few SFxs were worth the effort, frankly, as they didn't add anything that the imagination couldn't provide, but the idea that what you can't see is far more powerful than what you can is generally adhered to and with good effect.
The idea is not wholly an original one, but it does avoid piling cliche upon cliche and gives the traditional story a fresh perspective, so definitely worth a look if you're wanting to immerse yourself in a creepy, historical ghosty story with very good production values. Ignore the usual seduction stuff - this is worth putting up with for the lack of obvious anachronism in the dialogue.