Jukka
This movie is certainly not everyone's cup of tea. Mine it is, big time. Rarely have I seen a movie that I liked more than this one. I wonder why others don't like it. What is it they don't see that I see? Or is there something that bothers them but not me? The pace is slow, yes, but there are a lot of details and twists to keep me easily entertained. And the pace is certainly faster than in Greenaway's movies. When I saw it the first time, I couldn't wait to see what weird happens next.The movie is more strange that intellectual. However, I think it cannot be enjoyed by Americans who expect to enjoy a film also (only ?) if they leave their brains home. You might say there is something European in the whole thing.
Dana Wang
This is a truly refreshing comedy with offbeat humour and I couldn't help laughing so loudly when I watched it. The main characters in the film are Louis (Bob Hoskins), Sybil (Natasha Richardson) and the pianist (Jeff Goldblum). Photographer Louis (who specialises in religious pictures) is asked by an sick friend to do him a favour- voicing a porno movie. At the studio Louis meets Sybil, who also lends her voice to the same film. Then Sybil tells Louis about a pianist (whose real name remains unknown) she met a couple of years ago, where she worked as a waitress. At a rich girl's birthday party the girl asked Sybil to ask the sad-looking pianist to smile because his facial expression was ruining her party. The girl even gave her an expensive, specially designed watch to Sybil for a smile of the pianist...The depressed-turned-crazily-jealous pianist attacked a violinist one night for the violinist's attempt to seduce Sybil. He got jailed. Now he's done his time and is coincidentally discovered by Louis and later hired by Louis' supervisor (Norbert, played by Michel Blanc) as the model Jesus Christ. Louis doesn't realise that he's the pianist, Sybil doesn't know Louis and the pianist work together now and the pianist is totally unaware that Louis and Sybil know each other. The psychologically deranged pianist is gradually convinced that he possesses the power of Christ, and seeks revenge when he finds out he's been 'betrayed' by the man who's given him a job and the woman who's driven him 'mad'...The 'favour' resembles the beginning, the watch is the connection while the 'very big fish' which is purchased by Louis resembles the odd consequences. Funnily acted, funnily filmed, with an eccentricly romantic ending, this movie is quite relaxing and it really makes you laugh. Many, many credits to Jeff Goldblum for his extremely hilarious, magical facial expressions and his acting as the pianist.
Agnes Tomorrow
This is a lovely piece of black humor and non sequitur, and I can't believe I never heard of it until a friend showed it to me last night. While it has some parts which are not absolutely necessary, most of it is splendidly daft and macabre, and seems like the sort of thing I would have heard about, considering my taste for such films as Delicatessen, Brazil, Naked Lunch, Repo Man and so on. Why didn't anyone tell me????
Scoopy
This is a new approach to comedy. It isn't funny.The joke is that this, in and of itself, is supposed to be funny.The story is based on a French short story, located in Paris, and the characters have French names. Louis Aubinard, for example ... played by ... Bob Hoskins? The movie also stars the equally French Jeff Goldblum and Natasha Richardson. The situations are similar to and the characters perform as if in those Carry-On movies from years back.I believe these are also jokes - to cast these actors who make no attempt to act French in any way, to have them cavort in the manner of broad English dance hall comedy, and to leave the whole bloomin' mystery unexplained to the audience.In the humour department, this is practically the Algonquin Round Table, isn't it?The movie tries to be charming and quirky, and I guess these characteristics are sort of funny. Not as funny as Duck Soup or Love and Death, perhaps, but funnier than The Deer Hunter or The Battleship Potemkin.It is an example of personal filmmaking. It makes no real effort to reach out and share with the audience, but stays true to its premise and its internal logic. Although all the situations are unbelievable, they are logical within the film's own bizarro world.I generally like this kind of eccentric movie, but I found this one to be paced too slowly, to be dull-witted, tedious, and to provide too few pleasurable surprises or genuine wit. It just kind of meanders in predictable and sophomoric ways, and wastes some wonderful talents along the way. It has to be the low point in the career of each of the major stars, who are all otherwise distinguished players. I found it to be the biggest waste of talent since The Betsy, and I wish I had never seen Goldblum and Hoskins in this thing.So, call it an interesting miss, and pass on it as a rental unless you really have a lot of time to kill.
AD
