ArthurKaletzky Reviews

Guilty of Romance (2011)

A study of sexual frustration and its relief by depravity.

[22 September 2011]

An excellent film, beautifully filmed and acted, reminiscent in many ways of Bunuel's Belle de Jour and Godard's Vivre Sa Vie.

It's quite difficult to write more than this without including spoilers, but I'll try. The initial plot's very simple: we have a very subservient wife of a famous but somewhat trashy novelist living a very affluent life but not giving her any attention, sexually or in any other way with the possible exception of being extremely demanding of precision domesticity. Naturally this woman, about to turn 30 is frustrated (or rather, very confused by her situation) and when the offer of glamour modelling and a couple of sexually aggressive men come her way, things start to change.

Creation (I) (2009)

Nice Darwin family drama

[8/10 · 22 September 2009]

I saw this film on 19SEP2009 at the Cambridge Film Festival.

The Beagle's only in a couple of short flashbacks, the whole thing is about Darwin's life from 1841 to 1859, when he was ensconced in Kent with his growing family, 200+ pages of Origin had already been drafted and he was wondering whether to complete the book.

The script is based on Randal Keynes's book Annie's Box (Annie, Charles's daughter, died when she was 10). It is mostly a family drama, but does include sex scenes - however, the participants are married, both on and off screen. Not too exciting, not much science but a well-made film that's pleasant to watch and pushes the right emotional buttons. A bit of a romantic weepie, actually. I suppose the conclusion is that you can be an agnostic free-thinking scientist from an atheist family background and still be an emotional romantic as well as an excellent father.

Some of the characters and Darwin himself state or wonder whether he "killed god" but the viewer is able to doubt that. What is beyond doubt, given the deadly struggle for survival and the web of predation on the meadow-bank (well-known before Darwin and completely uncontroversial) and the failure of Darwin's prayers is that the idea of a kind, providential god who loves "his" creatures is untenable.

I really cannot see many Americans objecting to it very much. Some may have problems with the title, which is probably the most controversial thing about the film, or with the fact that Bettany does not have horns, a tail and a pitchfork.

Broken Embraces (2009)

Brilliance from an artist in love with his medium

[9/10 · 10 September 2009]

This is both a great film and a very enjoyable one. A masterful addition to the film-about-film genre, it is a homage to a number of other directors, a thriller, a melodrama but more than anything else, a wonderful studio tour completed by excursions into the cast and crew's (not so) private lives. It stands with Mikhalkov's A Slave of Love and Truffaut's Day For Night as a great achievement in the genre. I've liked a lot of Almadovar's work but this, I think, is his best. See it if you love cinema.

Many will have noticed that Penelope Cruz's character's name, Magdalena, is a reference to Kim Novak's character in Vertigo, but one should also note that her occasional workname, Severine, is the name of Catherine Deneuve's character in Belle de Jour.

Revolutionary Road (2008)

OK, slow film, unbelievably fast sex, < 60sec to orgasm

[6/10 · 5 February 2009]

Now I know why the baby boom happened.

OK, slow film with unbelievably fast sex, < 60sec to orgasm of both participants. Was Mendes having length problems and rather than cutting the novel's text, cut the sex to the bone?

Close to being Winslet's best film work (I thought she was even better, but not nearly as beautiful, in Eternal Sunshine), but Mendes's weakest (I have not seen Jughead).

Other critics have written that the film is very theatrical and I agree. But the ambiance of the 1950s, which I remember from my childhood although that was not in the U.S., was very well done.

The Boss of It All (2006)

Superb, satirical enterprise comedy

[9/10 · 19 March 2008]

What a wonderful surprise this film was! I never expected a pretty straightforward satire from von Trier and Dogme, but I certainly got it. The plot sounds well-used and obvious but the way it was transferred to a Scandinavian IT culture, the distanced approach to character writing, improvisation, and superb acting and direction made it a great comedy. On reflection, what was really hilarious was the massively over-inflated self-importance of each and every character. Ali G. and Borat could learn a few things from these Danes (and one very irate Icelander).

As the end credits voice-over said, "Apologies to those who expected more, and to those who expected less. The others got what they deserved". I was glad to be one of the others.