Sunday 27 March 2005

A Hot Air Balloon Filled with Fart Gas

Ah, another glittering evening at the Rivoli rubbing shoulders with the Boroondara hoi polloi. This evening's entertainment was Enduring Love, an alleged 'movie' (as opposed to a David Jones catalogue) allegedly directed by Roger Michell, he who featured also in the most recent post, and who should probably not be let out again, ever. Adapted by Joe Penhall, who now joins my personal blacklist, from Ian McEwan's excellent novel, Enduring Love is the first movie I've seen this year that is made entirely out of poo. (Being a Michell film, one-third of the poo was white, one-third brown and candlelit, and the remainder all Englishy-pastoral.) This is a truly bad movie and a terrible adaptation. Promise not to go see it.

Other movies seen this fortnight: Ong-Bak, Constantine, Blow-Up, Fahrenheit 451, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. All perfectly acceptable, even the one with Keanu in, which didn't suck at all, unaccountably.

7 comments:

Scrivener said...

Ok, I promise. Though just from the title alone, the chances of my seeing it are slim.

The Life Aquatic, I enjoyed quite a bit.

lucy tartan said...

The Life Aquatic rocked. I expected not to like it -- quirk overload -- but it totally won me over. I'm trying to think of a way to sneak it into my dissertation chapter on Herman Melville movies.........

Phantom Scribbler said...

Just sneaking over to say hi. Even though I haven't seen any movie that didn't involve animation or children in so long that I can't remember.

My friend the filmmaker (because of her, I can prove my existence by finding my name in the IMDB) wants to adapt "The Diary of Helena Morley" someday, though.

lucy tartan said...

Hi Phantom. You know you've hit the big time when you're listed in imdb.

Scrivener said...

No way, Phantom! You're in imdb? You are so, so one of the cool kids. Can I be your groupie?

I'd expected based on the previews for the Life Aquatic to be full of more Moby-Dick schtick, but if there was all that much there, I missed it. I think about pretty much all of his movies that I won't like them because they're too quirky, but then I end up finding them not just quirky and funny, but actually touching. Plus, how can you not like Bill Murray?

By the way, at the end of 1999 the NYTimes did some kind of looking ahead to the 21st century feature and they asked a bunch of people abou a bunch of stuff. On one column, they asked a bunch of people to identify the contemporary movie that would be remembered throughout the next century. Stanley Cavell's answer: Groundhog Day.

Scrivener said...

Oh my goodness, Phantom is not lying! She is in IMDB! Now I'm reall jealous.

lucy tartan said...

I was looking forward to it as well. Now I think it would have been better to spend the ticket money on his new novel.

I think it is one of those adaptations that looks a lot worse if you're mentally comparing it to the novel than if you haven't read the book. There are lots of little changes that seem really shallow and done for reasons of fairly empty visual glamour rather than because of wishing to point out something about the book. Sometimes this actually interferes with the storytelling. Like, the widow in Oxford is acted by a quite young, very pretty English Rose type, not the middleaged bluestocking in the book, and it just sounds weird when she wonders about her husband's fidelity to their marriage, and in turn that interferes with the way the theme of love and faith as irrational but desperately important is developed. Stuff like that is what made it disappointing or me.