Mira Sorvino is a revelation-- fulfilling the promise she showed in "My Cousin Vinny" -- as the tart who supplied Lenny (Allen) and Amanda (Helena Bonham Carter) with their adopted baby boy, who is a genius. Lenny strives to make Linda Ash (Mira Sorvino) a worthy genetic progenitor, by giving her some culture and training. Meanwhile, his own wife is cheating on him, and a hysterically funny Greek chorus keeps issuing dire warnings about Lenny's course of action.
WOODY ALLEN, MIRA SORVINO, JACK WARDEN, F. MURRAY ABRAHAM, OLYMPIA DUKAKIS, DAVID OGDEN-STIERS
Deserving winner of 1997 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. Katadreuffe is a troubled young man. He has just achieved his goal of becoming a lawyer, but there is an albatross around his neck. He confronts a powerfully built, older man named Dreverhaven in a large warehouse, and tells him that he will never speak to him again. The man argues with him, claiming that he is responsible for his success. Enraged, Katadreuffe returns with a knife. Hours later, Dreverhaven is found dead. The police arrest Katadreuffe and he tells them his story. The murdered man is his biological father. Character is used two ways in this film. On the one hand, Katadreuffe has inherited some of his father's characteristics. On the other hand, he has also developed "character" by the end of the relationship. He is a strong man, capable of great achievements. But his father, who claims to have bestowed this "character" upon him, is a ruthless, vindictive, cruel man-- a monster. The film takes you through the process by which his character is built. His birth to Jobu Katadreuffe, a maid to his father, who vows never to marry the man. His upbringing, amid the cruel taunts of his class-mates. His first business experience, through which he is cheated by his father. His work at a lawyer's office. All of this is lovingly rendered in surprisingly rich detail, filmed in beautiful earthy tones that grow less dim and dark as Katadreuffe grows older. He becomes interested in Lorna, an office assistant, but he is clumsy in romance and, mistakenly believing she has become interested in someone else, vows to singlemindedly-- without distraction-- pursue his education. There a lot of parallels in this film. Katadreuffe's interest in communism, while his biological father-- a bailiff--evicts poor tenants and workers, suggests that his idealism offends Dreverhaven's authority as a father. And Katadreuffe seems no more capable of romance than his father is. Katadreuffe is astonished to find that his father carries out services for the legal firm through which he has risen to office manager. There is a suggestion here that the moderate socialism we have embraced in Canada and Western Europe is possible only because the ruthless capitalism of the 19th and early 20th century has made our nations rich enough to be able to "afford" compassion. In the same way, Katadreuffe is able to be a more compassionate and kind man than his father, because he has absorbed the bitter lessons about betrayal and deceit that his father has taught him. Yet... is Katadreuffe really all that different from his father? Perhaps that is the question Van Diem wants to leave us with, for it is clearly unresolved at the end. The first comment his communist friend makes, after the death of his father is, "now you can become a capitalist". We really don't know if that is, in fact, what he will become. Character is an excellent, rich film. Jan Decleir is a powerful, dominant figure in this movie. When he speaks, he dominates the screen, and you can sense Katadreuffe's terror. Yet, when he has a nightmare about appearing naked in front of a mob of evictees, you get a glimpse of the terrified man that he is, underneath that fearsome visage. Character is about borders, and how we place them, between our abilities to love and feel compassion, and our desires to succeed and dominate.
FEDJA VAN HUET, JAN DECLEIR, BETTY SCHUURMAN, VICTOR LOW, TAMAR VAN DEN DOP, HANS KESTING, LOU LANDRE, BERNARD DROOG
Landmark documentary of Dylan's 1965 English tour, shows the artist backstage, onstage, and on fire, savaging a London Times reporter who dared to call him a "spokesman". One of the most intriguing music documentaries because everything is new-- there were no standards to follow, no landmarks to take off from. The musical performances-- especially of The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll-- are rivetting-- Dylan in his prime really was a compelling performer. The candid view of life on the road for a group of powerfully influential musicians in their prime is irreplaceable.
BOB DYLAN, MARIANNE FAITHFUL, JOAN BAEZ, DONOVAN, ALLAN GINSBERG
Larry Flynt was a two-bit hustler who created a raunchy skin rag in the late 1960's that crossed a few boundaries. There's nothing revelatory in this film. There is an attempt to turn Flynt into some civil rights icon and the discerning viewer should see through that to the heart of issue, which is, that freedom of speech also protects pernicious speech, and savage parody. Larry Flynt stood for nothing so much as himself and only stood for principle insofar as it was to his advantage to do so. One suspects that if the constitution had guarranteed the right to own slaves and he had owned slaves, he would have been equally willing to stand up for that right. In fact, that is essentially what's wrong with this film-- nobody disagrees with the right to free speech. On the other hand, it is also apparent that local authorities frequently interpret this right to mean what they say it means and nothing more. Well-filmed and directed. Courtney Love as Flynt's wife is exceptionally good.
COURTNEY LOVE, WOODY HARRELSON
Drama about a family living in a mining town in Nova Scotia who struggle to survive the various disasters and alcoholism. Helena Bonham Carter is exceptional as Margaret, who extracts a promise never to go into the mines from her new lover. When times get hard, he is forced to go in, and one disaster leads to another. Well-filmed and acted... occasionally stretches things a little.
HELENA BONHAM CARTER
Pictorially perfect, well-written and acted, and fairly interesting. But haven't there been too many movies lately about the British upper class in the 19th century and all their repressed desires and passions? Kate loves Merton, a lower-class writer and socialist, but her guardian aunt wants her to marry Lord Mark, who, of course, is snobbish and unlikeable. Since Auntie holds the purse strings, Kate is forced to forego her desires, until an American widow named Millie appears on the scene. Millie is fabulously wealthy and, great luck, has a terminal illness. What if Merton were to marry Millie, inherit her wealth, and then rescue Kate from the humdrum Lord Mark and repressed Auntie? There is more passion in this film than most of its genre but it is still turning into a genre, which means formality is beginning to overcome invention.
HELENA BONHAM CARTER, CHARLOTTE RAMPLING, MICHAEL GAMBON, ALISON ELLIOT, ALEX JENNINGS, LINUS ROACHE, ELIZABETH MCGOVERN
There are two good movies on the Titanic disaster: A Night to Remember (1955) starring Kenneth More, Titanic (1953) starring Barbara Stanwyk and Clifton Webb. Technology has improved a lot since then, so many people were excited by the news that James Cameron had created a new version of the story, called Titanic (movie names are not subject to the usual rules of copyright). The special effects are indeed amazing. In fact, some of the shots are downright stunning. You will probably want to go see it for that reason alone. As for the rest of the movie: plot, character, dialogue, cinematography---Titanic is an unmitigated disaster. It is an insult to your intelligence. It is a Hollywood movie dressed up in silk and satin like a cheap tart. Now it is one thing to make a movie with brilliant special effects and admit to yourself and the public that it's all just an entertainment anyway, so don't bore me with complaints about substance or meaning or artistic integrity. It is quite another to shamelessly steal and pillage from other people's work and then pass it off as your own original achievement, and Cameron does this repeatedly. The scenes in which Ismay enters the lifeboat, and when the band resumes playing after the life boats have left, and when Molly Brown tries to rally her lifeboat to go back for survivors, are stolen, almost frame by frame, from Roy Baker's brilliant and scrupulous A Night to Remember from way back in 1955. The worst thing about it is that these are the only interesting moments in the film, aside from the special effects. As for the love story, how long will Hollywood continue to pass off this hokum about effete British snobs being out-romanced by down-to-earth uneducated sweaty Americans. We are asked to believe that a beautiful English upper-class girl of breeding and intelligence would turn her back on all her wealth and comforts and blindly follow a penniless boy with a knack for drawing into a new life in America. Well, if all Brits behaved the way her upper-class fiance behaved, yeah, it would be believable, but her finance is a cardboard cut-out, a bald-faced caricature. He even grabs a stray child in a belated attempt to get himself into a lifeboat and you almost expect him to toss her overboard once he's in. Cameron might as well have given him a black top hat and a moustache and had him tie Kate Winslet to the railway tracks. Kate Winslet does the best she can with the part. Leonard DeCaprio does his best Huck Finn imitation, and Kathy Bates is decidedly restrained as Molly Brown, in a role that cries out for Bette Midler. It is reported that Cameron gave up part of his percentage to get Kathy Bates. What? Why? Why didn't the idiot give up part of his percentage for a writer instead? Then we might at least have had a film. So go see it, by all means. The special effects are dazzling and Kate Winslet is pretty. Enjoy the spectacle. Then rent yourself A Night to Remember and ask yourself why they don't make films like that anymore.
KATE WINSLETT, LEONARD DICAPRIO, KATHY BATES, , , , , , , , , , , , , John Jones, , bernice Basly
Sober film about the sober life of Ingmar Bergman's father and mother. Bergman's mother's family opposed the match but relented when her father died. They moved to a small town in Northern Sweden and led an austere life-style. His father turned down a post in Stockholm, to his mother's misery. A miserly little boy joins their family. Full of the heart-breaking little details of real life. A fight on the even of the marriage was particularly searing.
Lena Stolze is Sonja, a popular high school student in the small Bavarian town of Pfilzing, who wins an essay contest and a trip to Paris, and then selects, as her next essay topic, "My Home Town in the Third Reich", under the assumption that she will find stories of heroic resistance to the Nazi regime. To her surprise, she finds the stalwart citizens of Pfilzing reluctant to talk about the Nazi era. Her curiousity piqued, she takes the archives, but when she begins to uncover evidence of complicity, the city government passes new regulations-- to "protect the privacy" of certain citizens. She goes to court and wins but the city continues to delay and obfuscate. When she finally does get access and publishes a book about how the town cooperated with the Nazis, she is beat up by neo-Nazi youths and sued by the editor of the city paper. In the end she wins, but in the moment of triumph, she realizes that the same spineless people who joined the Nazis 40 years ago have seen the wind change direction and now support her. Verhoeven pushes the story along with perky flourishes and odd sets--sometimes using back-projection, and even has the characters sitting in a "living-room" on a moving platform, driving through Pflizer as they listen to the hostile messages on the answering machine. The flippancy of these scenes, and the comedy in some of the confrontations between Sonja and various citizens, don't prepare you for a conclusion that attempts to draw some deeper truth out of the town's sudden embrace of the their young heroine, who has courageously exposed their own shady past. They want to erect a monument to her and she has some kind of epiphany and suddenly turns on them. Why? Because the same shameless weasels would be erecting a monument to Hitler if the wind were blowing the other way? That's a profound, deeply disturbing conclusion, but, coming as it does on the heels of a brisk narrative, and at the end of a film that begins with a rather nostalgiac but enjoyable look at Sonya's life as a teenager in the early 1960's, it seems lighter than air. Based on a true story, that of Anja Rosmus of the town of Passau, who did indeed prove that the local newspaper editor who had claimed to be a resistance hero had once written pro-Nazi editorials, and whose husband did leave her at the height of tension.
LENA STOLZE, MONIKA BAUMGARTNER, MICHAEL GAHR, FRED STILLKRAUTH, ELISABETH BERTRAM, MARTIN GIGGENBACH, HANS-RICHARD MULLER
Audiences at Cannes were apparently very divided about this film. Some booed and some cheered. Then some journalists painted it up as a debate between the tolerant and not-so-tolerant. It's hard to believe that anyone could find this film anything but repulsive or boring or both. James is a movie director who has an accident. His girl-friend, Catharine, is bored with their sex life and likes to experiment with exposure. A woman doctor, who was in the accident, has a weird fascination with the wrecked cars. Vaughn interviews both of them and leads them on a morbid exploration of "using technology to alter humans". And that's about as "profound" as it gets. There is a lot of car thrills and sex but Cronenberg's imagination is as stilted as his taste. What strikes the viewer is how many of the scenes come close to burlesque, which means the audience has a better idea of what to do with the story than the director does.
JAMES SPADER, HOLLY HUNTER, ROSEANNE ARCQUETTE
Paradise Lost is one of the most compelling documentaries I have ever viewed. Film-makers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky were sent by HBO to cover the trial of three teenagers accused of the ritualistic murder of three eight-year-old boys in West Memphis, Arkansas. They expected their story to be about Satanic rituals, the occult, and the struggle of a small town to recover from the trauma of the crimes. Instead, they found Resevoir Dogs crossed with the Beverly Hillbillies. The film-makers were given unprecendented access to the police, the courts, the victims' families, and the accused. The story they tell is not pretty. There is no evidence linking any of the suspects to the killings. In fact, the police ignored compelling clues leading to other suspects. Instead, you have Damien Echols, an intelligent, unique teenager given to meditating aloud on weird topics, having an interest in Wiccan, and dressing in black. He also, foolishly, relishes the attention he receives as a suspect and makes cryptic remarks that only entire the police further. He did not seem to expect the frame-up the police concocted for him by persuading a developmentally delayed youth, Jessie Miskelley Jr., to confess to the crime implicating Damien and his friend Jason. The confession, extracted through very questionable means, is never presented at Damien's and Jason's trial. In fact, there isn't any real evidence at all but the jury doesn't hesitate to convict and the Judge sentences Damien to death. The pervasive igorance, foolishness, and self-importance of all concerned appears to have contributed to a tragic injustice. The film takes you there for the ride and it is utterly fascinating and horrifying. At last report, Damien had filed an appeal with the Supreme Court after the Arkansas State Supreme Court had ruled against him.
Powerful drama about a black cop named Virgil Tibbs (Poitier) who is seconded by his department in Philadelphia to assist southern sherrif, Rod Steiger, in solving the murder of a wealthy industrialist . In the process, he seriously aggravates the good old boys who run the town, endangering his own life, and the reputation of the sherrif. Brooding and suspenseful, beautifully written by Stirling Silliphant, and well-acted. Holds up well after 40 years.
ROD STEIGER, SIDNEY POITIER
More appropriately translated as "Heaven Over Berlin". This is a stunning achievement, an extraordinary film that challenges conventional movie structures and formal design. Don't look for the virtuosity of a Hollywood techno-geek-- look for the poetry... of your favourite painter or musician. Wings of Desire concerns two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, who watch over the citizens of divided Berlin. They love these failed humans, and display enormous compassion for their frailties and despair, but are not always capable of saving them. Damiel becomes intrigued, out of love, with human experience and desires to become mortal. He also has his eye on Marion, a beautiful trapeze artist, who is about to lose her job because the circus she works for is going broke. Peter Falk makes a startling appearance, apparently as himself, an American actor working on a movie in Berlin. He senses the presence of the angels, unlike most others in the film, and becomes a very odd but credible connection between them and the mortals. One of Damiel's first mortal experiences is to drink a cup of coffee. This scene was filmed so beautifully, so movingly, that it affected my feelings about coffee for weeks afterwards: I relished every cup. The film is shot in black & white, and spoken in various languages, sometimes subtitled, sometimes not. If you have the patience for subtle artistry and dense, rich, emotional textures, this could be one of the most intriguing films you will ever see.
BRUNO GANZ, SOLVEIG DOMMARTIN, OTTO SANDER, CURT BOIS, PETER FALK, LAZLO KOVACS, HANS MARTIN STIER
Winner of the People's Choice award at Toronto film festival in 1997, this is an intimate look at a highly dysfunctional family. Father Whiskey Mac is a drunken abuser. His senile mother, Grace, lives in the attic and is obsessed with porcelain statuettes of the virgin Mary. His daughter, Rosemary, cusses like a garbageman, and his son, William, is gay and harbours deep-seated resentments towards his father. The only "normal" member of this family is the mother, Iris, who leaves Whiskey Jack right after the daughter's wedding. Meanwhile, ghosts of the past haunt William, along with memories of abuse, sexual confusion, and his father's garden, which he enumerates name by lovely name. Sometimes the movie veers towards magic realism; other times it inhabits a visceral, edgy naturalism, as when the family members put drunken dad to bed, or feed Grace in the attic. What is the family? A group of people linked by blood and history, or an accident waiting to happen, or both? The conclusion leaves open the suggestion that it may be hell, but it's all we have, and it does matter. There are a few moments that could have been developed better, but this film is also fresh and unusual and deserves a look.
PETER MACNEILL, TROY VEINOTTE, KERRY FOX, JOAN ORENSTEIN, SEANA MCKENNA, TROY VEINOTTE
A gold-digger weds Fester and tries to bump him off to obtain the family riches in this sequel to Addams Family. The usual dark humour, with a few genuinely funny moments-- like when the perky campers sing "Kumbaya" to Wednesday and Pugsly.
RAUL JULIA, CHRISTINE RICCI
Plodding, uneven story about a man obsessed with punctuality who encounters a raft of obstacles on his way to give a speech. Likeable in many ways, but not especially imaginative or funny.
JOHN CLEESE
Soulful portrait of a corrupt city with a multi-threaded plot tracing the activities of a number of people whose lives interconnect and weave through various crises. Joe Morton plays an incorruptible (or is he) counselman who fights for the minorities in his ward. Nick is a discontented son of a wealthy builder, struggling in the shadow of a much respected older brother who died in Viet Nam. A college professor is assaulted by two black teens who then claim he tried to molest them. Sayles is just about the only director who is able to present the depressing grit of a sinking urban landscape and emerge with genuine hope. The hope comes not from brilliant, charismatic leadership, but from a small number of people choosing to do the right thing. Wonderful, likable film, but not as tightly woven as Passion Fish, or as powerful or haunting as Mattewan.
JOE MORTON, KEVIN TIGHE, JOHN SAYLES, VINCENT SPANO, TONY LO BIANCO, STEPHEN MENDILLO, CHRIS COOPER, CHARLIE YANKO, GLORIA FOSTER, ANGELA BASSETT, BARBARA WILLIAMS, BOB NORTH, JOSH MOSTEL, LOUIS ZORICH, JACE ALEXANDER
Co-directed by Marc Caro. One of the strangest movies I have ever seen. Concerns a group of people who live in a subterranean world beneath a small apartment building, and the inhabitants of the building who live in some bizarre tensions of their own. Some astonishing scenes, some breathtakingly funny and jarring collisions of ideas and images. Unforgettable scene of water pouring out of a bathroom down the stairways. Excuse for a plot consists of a butcher who murders repairmen and then serves up the meat to the residents of the apartment building. Subplots include a philandering clown, a murderous father out to protect his daughter's honor, a lonely woman bent on committing suicide through various bizarre contrivances, usually tied to someone opening the door of her apartment or ringing the buzzer, two boys playing mischief on everyone, and a group of men in rubber suits with miner's hats trying to kidnap the clown. Filmed in sepia on what must have been a very interesting set. Remarkable and phantasmagoric.
DOMINIQUE PINON, JEAN-CLAUDE DREYFUS, TICKY HOLGADO, RUFUS, JEAN-FRANCOIS PERRIER
Horrifying German version of the Dracula story (ripped off at the time, and banned from England for that reason), featuring Max Shreck as one of the most frightening monster's of all time. The sets dominate as much as the actors do, with expressionist shadowy settings, dark corners, and sharply contrasting horizons. Murnau is unusually patient (by Hollywood standards) with his story, allowing the actors to build scenes slowly, with subtle gestures and movements. Story ends with a hiss, when a "pure" girl keeps Nosferatu by her side until the sunlight appears and dissolves him. Associates Nosferatu with the plague and rats. This version was later faithfully remade by Fassbinder with Isabelle Adjani and Klaus Kinski.
MAX SHRECK, GUSTAV BOTZ, RUTH LANDSHOFF, GUSTAV VON WAGENHEIM
Disappointing film feature by Rowan Atkinson, whose 1/2 hour television show has earned just acclaim for his fresh, carefully executed physical humour, and his droll man-child expression. Atkinson plays Bean, an employee of a British sent to America to serve as an "expert" on Whistler's Mother for a Los Angeles museum which has just acquired it form France. The expected misadventures occur, including, of course, irreperable damage to the masterpiece, with Hollywood's obligatory "all's well that ends well" conclusion, though this film was not made in Hollywood. Big disappointment, though the kids may enjoy it.
ROWAN ATKINSON, PETER MACNICOL, PAMELA REED, BURT REYNOLDS, JOHN MILLS
Pedestrian retelling of Rasputin legend, with lavish sets but static performances. The way this is filmed, it plays to stereo-types about Rasputin's persona: highlighting his supposed filthyness and audacity, without conveying anything about why the royal family would indulge him. Everything is too expected, too glib.
GRETA SACCHI
Sepia-toned drama about growing up in working class Liverpool in the 1940's and 50's with a domineering, harsh father and martyr mom. Affecting and lovely, with extraordinary choral music throughout, and be-bop and popular music sung by cast characters at wedding and funeral.
Extraordinary film--banned in Britain for 30 years-- about a circus sideshow, featuring real circus performers in the major roles, including a man without arms or legs, dwarfs and midgets, a bearded lady, and so on. The story, as it is, centres on the activities of "Cleopatra", a "normal" woman, a trapeze artist, who, as a cruel joke, allows a proud midget, Hans, to think she is in love with him. When she finds out he is heir to a fortune, her plans take a dark turn. She marries, then poisons him. He survives, but when his fellow "freaks" discover Cleopatra's plot, they take a gruesome revenge on the woman. A remarkable film because you will not see this kind of film ever made again, because modern sensibilities would be revolted by it, and because of medical advances and social changes. Sometimes almost hallucinatory in its immersion in sideshow, freak culture. Unfortunately, the writing is weak and the acting is occasionally stilted.
WALLACE FORD, LEILA HYAMS, OLGA BACLANOVA, ROSCO ATES
Hollywood always did like to play fast and loose with the facts when it comes to recreating history and "Anne of a Thousand Days" is no exception. Anne's sister is pregnant by Henry VIII and Anne resists Henry until she sees he is really determined to make her queen (if that's what it will take to have her). History doesn't record these embellishments. Most of the rest of the story is public record. Henry seeks a divorce from the Pope who, under military pressure from Philip of Spain (Katherine's family) refuses to grant it. Wolsey is dismissed and More resigns when Henry makes himself head of the church so he can seize church property and grant himself a divorce. Anne gives birth to a girl, the future Elizabeth (an irony played upon heavily and without grace in the movie), and Henry's wandering eye finds Jane Seymour. There is not much of explanation here or in history itself of why Henry was so determined to execute Anne. The movie asserts that she never did commit adultery, but historians seem less certain. Well-written and sumptuously filmed, but Burton never could act, and Genevieve Bujold struggles a little with her accent. Most of the supporting cast is good, especially Wolsey.
RICHARD BURTON, GENEVIEVE BUJOLD, IRENE PAPPAS
Slightly entertaining, slightly off-beat comedy about a rich heiress who connives to stage her own kidnapping---without any outside assistance--to get the attention of her neglectful daddy. Unfortunately, her car is stolen with her in the trunk. The car thief wants no part of a felony and tries to get rid of her but they end up following an improbable but deftly handled series of escalating misadventures. More original than most, but relies too heavily on Silverstone's charm. At least they resist the temptation to follow the most obvious course at the end, but then, even cliche's get tired.
ALICIA SILVERSTONE, CHRISTOPHER WALKEN, BENICIO DEL TORO
The concluding installment of Kieslowski's trilogy based on the colours of the French Flag-- fraternity. Valentine is a beautiful model whose boyfriend travels a lot and plays mind games with her on the phone. One day, she accidentally hits a dog with her car. She is obviously a sensitive, kind person and tracks down the dog's owner and ask him if he wants to take the dog to the vet, or if he wants her to. The man doesn't care. Valentine is challenged by the man's indifference and, ironically, is drawn to him, to find out more about him. What she finds out is not very appealling: he is a disillusioned retired judge who uses electronic equipment to eavesdrop on his neighbor's conversations. She is appalled but when he challenges her to do something about it, she realizes life is more complex than she imagined. Meanwhile, Auguste, a man who doesn't know Valentine but lives across the street from her, is involved in a love affair of his own. Eventually, fate, or coincidence, or what-have-you, will mysteriously bring these two together. Kieslowski has a discernible vision about life, about how it works, about the mysteries of human relationships, chaos, and coincidence. And he has a remarkable ability to create strong images of people's lives changing decisively for various reasons. And the sensitive viewer will reflect on how the most significant things in his or her own life might well have never been, or might have been different, if one thing had changed.
IRENE JACOB, JEAN-LOUIS TRINTIGNANT, FREDERIQUE FEDER, JEAN-PIERRE LORIT
Literate but stiff production of Arthur Miller's classic, with Winona Ryder as the deluded teenager who leads a group of children in 17th century Salem to implicate dozens of townspeople as "witches". The story is so powerful that even a limp rendition is interesting, but Daniel Day-Lewis is tiresome as proctor and Scofield seems to be rehashing Thomas More. Luscious sets, but the rhythm is all wrong, the editing is bizarre, and the conclusion doesn't seem to have the power you might think it once had. Three Sovereigns for Sarah was far better at the same idea.
PAUL SCOFIELD, DANIEL DAY-LEWIS, WINONA RYDER
Breathtaking film about "liberty" and love. Juliette Binoche plays Julie, a 33-year-old woman involved in a car crash that kills her famouse composer husband and her 5-year-old daughter. Julie responds by renouncing her life, giving away or selling all her possessions, and seeking anonymity in downtown Paris. The movie follows her struggle to define herself in terms of her new "liberty", her freedom from relationships and love. She meets a stripper, a street musician. She maintains some contact with a former colleague of her husband's, and eventually discovers a mistress. We find out that she may be the real musical talent in the family. This sounds like a Hollywood plot, but Kieslowski peels away layers of Julie's loneliness in ways reminiscent of Ingmar Bergman at his very best. Sometimes frames go out of focus, and become washed in blue light. Sometimes the camera merely freezes on her face, letting us look closely at the psychological scars. There is brief link to "White", another component of the trilogy, when Julie finds her dead husband's lover, a lawyer, in a courtroom where Karol protests that he is not being treated fairly by Dominique because he is a foreigner. A brilliant, powerful film, that is adult in the most important, wonderful sense: it means something.
JULIETTE BINOCHE, BENOIT REGENT, FLORENCE PERNEL
Story about a man who marries a beautiful woman, and then is unable to consummate the marriage. His impatient wife quickly divorces him and takes all his property. He returns to his native Poland, becomes rich, and plots to win her back. This is one/third of Kieslowski's trilogy about Liberty (Blue), Equality (White), and Fraternity (Red). The inequality at the beginning of the film is that Karol still loves Dominique but she doesn't love him. She divorces him and takes his property, and ruins him. His actions that follow are aimed at addressing this imbalance, exacting a revenge of sorts, though he still adores her. The conclusion is ambiguous: did he obtain his revenge? He may have changed his mind but has no choice, because his compadres would be ruined as well if this scheme were exposed. Beautifully lit, wonderfully shot film. Eerie soundtrack. Lingering camera shots create a mood of fatalistic beauty and terrible isolation, but what does it mean? That love is prison? We never sense that these characters have anything but each other, and because they can't have each other, they are extremely lonely. The ending is enigmatic.
ZBIGNIEW ZAMACHOWSKI, JULIE DELPY, JANUSZ GAJOS, JERZY STUHR, JULIETTE BINOCHE
Very uneven study of Brian Wilsonish rock recluse, Desmond Howl, who finds renewed inspiration in a relationship with Claire Lowe, a young runaway who breaks into his decrepid mansion. Howl is the real whale in this film: bloated and wasted, and his only remaining goal seems to be to complete his ultimate composition, his whale music, and play it to the whales. The characters stumble along through various contrived epiphanies until we are induced to believe that Howl has come to terms with his checkered past (including the suicide of his brother) and Claire has come to terms with him. There's a good idea or two lurking in here but Chaykin doesn't bring out demons or the fire in this purported genius and so we don't really care if he finishes his music or not.
Louise Malle, director of Pretty Baby, indulges new sexual fantasies in this exploration of an intimate mother-son relationship that succumbs to a brief, lustful moment. Laurent has a "heart murmur" and goes to a spa for treatment with his mother. When his mother's lover dumps her, they comfort each other. Then he goes off to have sex with another girl. Then next day, his father and brothers arrive and they all, mother, son, father, brothers, laugh at Laurent's barefeet as he tries to sneak back into his room. Light-hearted but a trifle contrived. Well-filmed with the usual luscious earth tones that Malle prefers and are so familiar from Au Revoir Des Enfants. The point, if there is one, is that seemingly perverse sexual relationships can have a healing power if handled correctly, a hypothesis many, undoubtedly, would care to dispute.
AVE NINCHI, GILA VON WEITERSCHAUS, FABIEN FERREUX, MARC WINOCOURT
Michael Collins was one of the first leaders of the Irish Republican Army, and a key negotiator for the treaty that established the Irish Republic--and partitioned the country-- in 1922. As played by Liam Neeson, he is somewhat sanitized in that, though the film acknowledges his role in the terrorism that led to the negotiations, he is shown to agonize over his decisions (whereas the British leaders are depicted as cold-blooded). The film omits that Collins murdered more prisoners at Kilmainham Gaol than the British did. All the correct elements of the history are there, but the portrait is hardly even-handed. Eamon De Valera is portrayed as a snivelling compromiser while in reality he played a key role in Irish politics for 40 years. Julia Roberts is a complete dud Kitty, the obligatory love interest, but the rest of the supporting cast is adequate. Poorly directed, poorly edited.
Charming, low-key vignette about life in a small French town from the point of view of a number of young children, ranging from 2 or 3 to 14 or 15. They go to school, horse around, steal, tease, and experience the joys and tragedies of life on a child's scale.
Tahei and Matakeshi are two bums on the lam from the victorious armies of Hyoe Tadokoro. They have just escaped after having been conscripted to bury bodies, and plan to flee to a neutral country. They hit upon the inspired idea of travelling right through enemy territory because the enemy would never suspect that that's where they would be headed. On their way, they inadvertantly stumble into an intimidating stranger who, unbeknownst to them, is actually the famous Rokurota Makabe, the defeated general. Rokurota is accompanied by a girl, a mute, who actually happens to be the princess Yuki, whom Tadokoro is trying to hunt down and execute. With the princess comes a large pile of gold disguised as firewood. They combine forces and undertake a hair-raising journey, hunted by Tadokoro's soldiers. The brave Rokurota faces down physical threats, while the duo of Tahei and Matakeshi --sort of a Japanese Abbott and Costello--keep trying to escape with the gold. Any film by Kurosawa is likely to be beautifully filmed and this is no exception. No other director has as pure or as grandiose a pictorial vision as Kurosawa does, even in black and white. And Kurosawa's warrior epics also feature a sense of purity about human character: men and women are greedy or stupid or brave or wise, and each plays his part in the unfolding drama. The two fools, Tahei and Matakeshi, are fools right to the end, though, interestingly, they may be shrewder than Rokurota gives them credit for-- they end up with some of the gold. And the princess is difficult to hide because she can't stop being a princess even when surrounded by the colorful slobs of a hotel, or a crowd of ecstatic fire-worshippers. There are some wonderful moments here: the princess watches a wrenching business transaction involving a captured woman, the fools, the general and the princess are forced to join the festival of fires, including a frantic dance, in order to maintain their cover, the two generals battle it out, one on one... and the rhythm of the editing and the action, though slower than a comparable Hollywood film, has a grandeur to it. This is the acknowledged source of much of the Star Wars trilogy, including the two robots, who were based on Tahei and Matakeshi.
Interesting story about a sports agent who writes a memorandum extolling the virtues of high principles in his field, and is fired because of it. He loses all his accounts except for one football player, for whom he has difficulty negotiating a good contract. An accounting staff member follows him to his own business and they fall in love and marry but the story gets muddled at this point. It is suggested that he neglects her and their relationship sours, but the camera spends more time on the football player who suffers an improbably concussion after "the" big play, then recovers to strut his stuff and win the big contract. Uneven and occasionally flimsy, but a wonderful soundtrack--including Dylan's "Shelter from the Storm" rescues a moment or two. Watched again in 2007-06. This is actually a relatively fine film. Yes, it does get muddled in the love story, but Renee Zellweger never improved on this role, and the kid and Bonnie Hunt are terrific, and so is Cuba Gooding Jr.
CUBA GOODING JR., RENEE ZELLWEGER, KELLY PRESTON, JERRY O"CONNELL, JAY MOHR, BONNIE HUNT, JONATHAN LIPNICKI, REGINA KING, TODD LOUISO
Vastly over-rated thriller about an FBI agent who impersonates a terrorist in order to find out where a bomb is located, only to see the terrorist impersonate him, sleep with his wife, and generally sew mayhem. The plot is ridiculously implausible, which is all right, if it makes room for some interesting psychological revelations or character development. But it doesn't, so this is one big (2 1/2 hour) chase scene. Curiously, though rated "X", the sexual tension between the impersonator "husband" and the wife is not very tantalizing. The occasional humour is half-hearted, as if Woo himself didn't see the need but got talked into it.
"Inspirational" true story of David Heligott (sp) a brilliant talent on the piano whose demanding father apparently drove him to a nervous breakdown. Years later, he plays in bars and clubs, novelty tunes, until a relationship with a woman restores his confidence and leads to success on the concert circuit again. This is a decent film with good performances and terrific human interest, but it may fudging a little in terms of his abilities after his recovery: in real life, critics in Boston were not impressed and, in fact, were embarrassed by his debut in that city. As for the film, stylistically it is workmanlike and reliable but not much more. It's the story that counts here and it is a good one and worth seeing. Added 2009: There are very serious issues with the accuracy of this film-- and it is clear that most people don't give a damn about the truth: they'd rather have the inspirational story. But in real life, David Helfgott's own sister alleges that director Scott Hicks and Helfgott's second wife, an astrologer, combined to fabricate the monstrous father and deprived childhood (Peter Helfgott did not "survive" the holocaust-- he never lived it. He was in Australia at the time.) Helfgott's sister claims that Gillian blocks access to David by his sisters, monitor's his communications, and controls his access to medications.
Geoffrey Rush, Lynne Redgrave
Entertaining, tongue-in-cheek sci-fi fantasy about a secret quasi-government agency that regulates the activities of aliens on earth, of which, we are given, about 1500 exist at any given time. Some astute humour, as when Tommy Lee Jones picks up a National Enquirer and, to Will Smith's stunned disbelief, recommends it as a definitive source of information, or when Newt Gingrich is shown on a monitor as one of the aliens being supervised. Terrific special effects, as always, and unusually tight for a free-wheeling extravaganza. This film is more of a comment on other films than a self-contained parody. It relies for its humour on the recent history of Hollywood Sci-Fi, poking friendly satire at films like Alien and Star Trek.
WILL SMITH, LINDA FIORENTINO, RIP TORN, VINCENT D'ONOFRIO, MIKE NUSSBAUM, DAVID CROSS
Stuttering, hesitant, but well-intentioned film produced by a Catholic order to depict the meaning of grace in modern life. Percy, an excon, leaves prison and moves to a small town, Gilead, in Maine, where she works as a waitress for Hannah (Ellen Burstyn). Suspicions are aroused and Nathan, Hannah's nephew, looks for the worst, but Percy is a balm for Hannah and the Spitfire Grill. Misfortune enters, of course, in a not altogether convincing or eloquent manner. A nice film, refreshing at times, at other times disappointingly bereft of artistic flair. Sometimes the camera zigs when it should have zagged, and cuts away when it should linger, and the dialogue could have come from a dimestore novelist.
Expensive but sloppy sequel to Indiana Jones. No redeemable features at all. Occasionally violent and gory, non-stop action, terrible acting. There is also a disconcerting suggestion of racism in the stereo-typed villains who are all either idiots or savages or both, and the film tries to make a virtue of the preposterous ability of the white, caucasian hero to withstand attacks by literally hundreds of enemies, none of whom can shoot straight, throw a knife, or wield a sword with any kind of result.
Modestly intruging whodunit about a man whose wife disappears. Police suspect him of murder but can't prove it. An undercover cop romances him hoping to elicit a confession, while her former-lover detective observes and listens, eating his heart out. Disappointing considering the hype. Concludes with a rather predictable race against time to save the life of the police woman, who, by now, has developed a genuine romantic interest in the villain.
Daring, shocking depiction of the worst excesses of feminism up against a patronizing, manipulative college professor. A student, Oleana, failing a critical course required for her graduate program, visits a professor in his office to seek help. Or does she really want help? It is never very clear what she wants, or what he thinks she should do. He is a humanities lecturer, but one of the weaknesses of the film is lack of definition here. Some of the scholarly dialogue sounds purposely vague. When professor and student fail to understand each other, Oleanna launches an attack, filing a complaint against the professor with the tenure committee, on the basis of sexual harassment. With her complaint, the relationship descends into all-out warfare, add righteous fuel to her fire, and blind rage to his. Is he really trying to sexually harass her? Is she trying to use feminist politics for personal advantage? Consistently surprising and compelling, disturbing, and occasionally confusing. Worst date movie of all time.
Complete version of Hamlet-- 4 hours long-- and sumptuously, if not artistically, filmed in a ravishing mansion. Set in Russia of the early 20th century or late 19th, features a number of cameos by well-known Americans including Jack Lemmon and Robin Williams... but all the meaty parts are taken by people with the "correct" accent. It didn't hold my interest in spite of itself. Branagh charged threw his lines faster than a hockey play-by-play announcer, and some of his judgements are downright sophomoric. Crystal, for example, plays a grave-digger without a cockney accent, which becomes troublesome when parts of his speech are textually linked to it. Ophelia (Kate Winslett) is striking, but anemic. Julie Christie and Derek Jacoby are effective as the king and queen but the film is so dependent on Branagh and he seems so blind to the possibilities of the other characters that it actually drags through long stretches. This may be the first Hamlet to feature nudity-- when Ophelia is confronted by her father about Hamlet and she thinks fondly of their love-making.
There's an interesting concept hiding in here somewhere but the experience of watching this film is annihilated by the bizarre decision to make the entire film with a deliberately jiggled hand-held camera, including rapid back and forth sweeps, jerky pans, and out of focus shots. The story is about a simple girl who falls in love with Jan, an off-shore oil-rig worker. He is seriously injured in an accident and requests that she make love to other men as a way of making virtual love to him. She belongs to an ultra-orthodox sect that frowns even on church bells and eventually ostracizes her. The ending is a bit much, and the film is overdrawn by 30 minutes; there's no way you could recommend this film to anyone unless they were completely immune to motion sickness, and dubious affectation.
Wildly funny slapstick with Buster Keaton trying to rescue his lover from an abandoned ship, cannibals, and wicked war plotters. Outlandish, wild stunts from the master.
Sardonic send-up of family values. Nicholas Cage is a repeat petty offender; Holly Hunter the cop who photographs him after several arrests. When she is jilted by her fiance, he affirms her and they eventually marry and decide to lead a straight life. When she finds out she is barren, they decide to kidnap one of a set of quintuplets born to an unpainted furniture store owner. Cage also grabs the Dr. Spock-- the "operating manual"-- and they set out to be good parents. Features Coen's unique blend of farce and violence. Is this really a send-up, or an absurdist's view of American culture? A bit uneven: sometimes the farce gains the upper hand at the expense of authenticity.
Trite melodrama about terminal illness. Terminally cute. Obligatory birth scene, cutsey father... why did Keaton get messed up in this? Nothing fresh or interesting to say about the subject.
Earnest and well-meaning depiction of racial tensions in South Africa, and father/son relationship. Stephen Kumalo (Jones) is a strict, moralistic preacher in a black church in Natal. His son, Absalom, runs away to the city, gets mixed up with bad people, and, eventually, murder. Rich white landowner nearby (Harris) is the father of the victim, and learns to transcend his personal bitterness to accept the compassion and vision of his liberal son. Not particularly well-acted or filmed, but sincere.
Lively, evocative remembrance of life in Brooklyn in the 1950's, from the perspective of a precocious 12-year-old girl. Her father is a charming drunk; her mother, a severe moralist. Nicely straddles melodrama with sometimes astute observations about human character, family hurts, and bitter memories. Well-written but reviewers rightly seem reserved about it because of it's sentimental aspects.
Superior melodrama but still a melodrama. Film version of Austen's last novel is interestingly shot and well-acted, and Ann Eliot is appealling, but isn't this really a piece of fluff, literary soap opera? Watching these people leading their bored, privileged lives does lead to one to wish for a Marxists revolutionary or something to come along and wreck havoc on their shallow little teas and recitals.
A young black optometrist decides to look up her birth mother, setting off a chain of emotional revelations within her mother's and brother's families. Every one here is profoundly unhappy with themselves and each other, leading unsatisfying lives, because, so the film-maker would have you believe, of the "secrets and lies" that abound in their relationships. Leigh develops his story with patience and delicacy, smartly underplaying the race issue, until he reaches the climatic birthday party for Roxanne. Not a masterpiece by any means, but a substantial examination of family and the need for love and acceptance.
Trenchant "comedy" about a girl-woman married to a pathetic loser and seduced by her husband's competitor the day after he torches the man's cotton gin. This is supposed to be a comedy, Tennessee Williams style, and I have to wonder if southerners understand something about their own culture that makes this film funny. There is so much sexual intensity between the girl and Vaccaro, and the husband, Archie, is such a snivelling wimp of a loser that the comedy is debased and the film is more interesting as a study of sexual repression and sadism than a parody of southern manhood. The acting is good, the cinematography is far too weighty for its subject, and the dialogue is interesting if dissatisfying.
True-life murder mystery based on a New Zealand case. A baby is found in an abandoned home. The parents are later found, shot dead, floating in a nearby river. An overly-zealous police detective is eager to pin the crime on someone and finally finds his culprit: a simple, bewildered farmer living nearby. The film follows the investigation, prosecution, and appeals, up to the point where the government stepped in, in response to a growing outcry. Well acted and filmed, though the sound quality was poor, and made the dialogue-- in New Zealand accents--difficult to understand occasionaly. Bears some uncanny similarities to the Guy Paul Morin case in Ontario.
Sprawling, spectacular recreation of the lives of two opera singers from childhood at the beginning of the century, through the madness of the Cultural Revolution, to the present day. Midway, a woman enters the picture, with diastrous consequences for all three. Brilliantly photographed (Oscar for cinematography) and acted, rich and sensuous with detail. The concubine is the operatic creature who cuts her own throat rather than surrender to her king's enemies. Throughout the movie, the sword appears over and over again as a simple of fidelity between the two men playing the parts, and the rift that develops when Juxian, the beautiful prostitute, becomes wife of the king.
Fidgety, cinema-verite story of a woman whose husband, Donald, dies, leaving her with 12-year-old son and loads of problems. She tries to find herself, moving away from Phoenix to Tucson, hoping to get to her childhood home of Monterey. Along the way she meets various interesting people, of course, and ends up working as a waitress in at Mel's diner with an assortment of colourful characters. She also meets David (Kristoferson), an appealing, divorced man. They don't make them like this anymore: patient, studious, non-exploitive. There is a real heart-rending story here, a slice of life so bitter and unexpected that it makes you bite your lip. Burstyn is terrific. This movie, oddly enough, became the basis of the television show "Alice", which, of course, homogenized the most interesting parts of the movie.
Horrifying thriller about three room-mates who rent space to a fourth, only to find him dead the next morning... and a suitcase of money under the bed. They decide to hide the body and keep the money, leading, of course, to the obligatory moral fable about greed spoiling a good friendship. Reminiscent at times of "Treasure of the Sierre Madre". Graphic violence, swearing, some nudity. Not quite enough of a fresh approach here to salvage what is essentially a conventional story about greed and paranoia.
Riveting, tense exploration of intellectualism and crime. Two friends murder a third and then hold a party in the apartment with the body in a trunk, to prove their superiority to other human beings. Tension increases as former girl-friend of one of the friends-- and present lover of the victim-- begins to get anxious about missing beau, while fending off renewed attentions of former love, manipulated by one of the murderers. Only weakness is Rupert's (James Stewart's) renunciation of his own ideals, the key influence on the murderer.
Slightly revisionest but compelling version of the rock opera by Rice and Webber, featuring Madonna as the astonishing Eva Duarte Peron, whose rise from the rubbish to wife of Argentina's president in 1943 stunned observers. Madonna is far better than anyone expected-- but please don't joke about this being Oscar material: no acting was required, other than the broad gestures and synchronized lip movements. Banderas is terrific as Che, though neither he nor Pryce (Peron) approach the pure vocal technique of the original cast from the recording. Well-filmed and fascinating. Why did they drop the line: "They thought that Hitler had the war as good as won" and others if not to glamourize the role at Madonna's behest? A flawed gem, but enjoyable and witty and intriguing.
MADONNA, JONATHAN PRYCE, ANTONIO BANDERAS
Very unusual film about a middling, financially troubled car salesman who carries out a bizarre scheme to arrange for the kidnapping of his own wife so he squeeze his stingy father-in-law for a million dollars, while paying the kidnappers a small fraction of it. Things quickly go awry however when the kidnappers are forced to kill a trooper. The heat is on and the thugs demand more money. The father-in-law is reluctant to hand over the money. And a pregnant cop, hilariously played by Frances McDormand, is hot on their trail. Odd and interesting combination of violence and humour, with amusing characterizations of colourful local characters. Claims to play close with the facts of a real murder case in 1987. Uniformly well-acted, written, and wonderfully filmed, and the music is original and fresh. One of the best films of 1996.
WILLIAM H. MACY
Earnest, thoughtful, if archaic drama about a poor, blind girl in contemporary south who meets and is attracted to a black man. Humanistic and well-intentioned, but somewhat dated by recent events. Shelley Winters won an Oscar as oppressive mother. Claustraphobicly filmed-- was this a play brought to the screen?
Suspenseful and sometimes intriguing thriller about a woman who claims her daughter is missing. Police are initially responsive, then begin growing skeptical when it becomes difficult to prove that anyone saw the child, or that the child even existed. Tightly-written and reasonably plausible until the last twenty minutes when it descends into stock psychological horror. Supporting cast is superb, and the ZOMBIES make several cameos as a rock band, performing on television or radio.
Boring, trite, predictable thriller about fast-living neighbors making commercial jingle writer Richard Parker's life hell. Parker initially likes the neighbor but eventually he persuades Parker to pull a wife-swap in the middle of the night-- without telling their wives. Then the neighbor, Eddie Otis, murders his wife and blames in Parker, collecting $1.5 million dollars in insurance at the same time. Similar to Fatal Attraction, Hand that Rocks the Cradle, and other trend-bitten films of beourgious paranoia, but this plot is so full of holes you could drive a Mercedes through it. The neighbor's wife is played by Arthur Miller's daughter.
Sneaky good comedy from Kasdan about a woman who pursues her wayward husband to Paris only to be waylaid by a suave French thief. A notch above in script, acting, and editing, and a little poignant, but a touch of slapstick hurt it near the end, and the ultimate predictability of it all didn't help either.
Have we become too sophisticated? Contrast "Ice Storm" with a similar movie from ten, or fifteen years ago, like "Ordinary People" or "Kramer vs. Kramer" and you have something that exists on an entirely different level, and talks to your in an entirely different language. A lot of psycho-babble about generational anxieties is, thankfully, absent. No Judge or psychologist arrives to straighten things out. But what do we have instead? Moral connundrums without apparent solution, and without even the redemptive consolation of self-discovery or actualization. The story centres on the Hood family. Ben is a decent husband and father, but is having an affair with an attractive neighbor. Elena is starved for affection, and shoplifts on the side. Fourteen-year-old Wendy is experimenting with sex, with two brothers, Mikey and Sandy Carver. Paul is a student at a private high school, and lusts for class-mate Libbets Casey. The stories run in parallel, and invite a comparison between the liberating personal values of the sixties and the amoral, anchorless experimentation of the 80's. There is a moment of epiphany, when Ben invites Wendy to say grace at the family thanksgiving dinner. Instead of a nostalgiac expression of religious thanks, she turns it into a diatribe against the inhumanity of her parents' generation. These people are in emotional trouble. The obvious metaphor is the ice storm itself, and the ice cubes the director repeatedly aims his camera at during parties and family gatherings, but it is an image not wholly adequate for what is taking place. There are more than a few kludges in the film: Ben Hood, over at the neighbor's house for an affair with Mrs. Janey Carver--a 70's Mrs. Robinson (who seduced another Benjamin -- Braddock -- and also didn't care for small talk afterwards) --discovers his daughter experimenting with one of the boys, and asks her what she thinks she's doing there. A swinging Reverend signs up for a "key party" (where guests put their car keys in a bowl and go home with whoever fishes them out). Wendy shoplifts, stares down an alert clerk, and gets away with it, but her mother is humiliatingly caught. Ben collapses drunk in a bathroom, while his son experiments with a friends' parents' tranquilizers. What is the point? That the adults are acting like kids, but, unlike the kids, they aren't experimenting: this is what they really are-- dishonest, immoral, and pathetic? So the Hood family is lost in an ice storm, and the pretty little molecules of lost attachments is beginning to freeze them in place. The depressing implication is that their futile efforts to break free consist mostly of wreckless, impulsive gestures. This is a terrific movie in many ways. It is authentic and raw, and rich in the nuances of family life and mature adult relationships. I think it is probably a pretty accurate portrait of where America is at, in terms of ethics and ideas (at least, for the professional class). An interesting thought occurred to me after this film. The church still sends missionaries to Africa, and Asia, and Turkey. Why? There are more Christians in Africa today than there are in America. But think about this: if you were a missionary, how would you try to reach a family like the Hoods? They are far too sophisticated and informed to be persuaded by Salvation Army tracts, or the emotional appeal of swinging-and-swaying outreach services? They are skeptical of miracles and theology. How do you reach them? Is the reason we send missionaries to Africa because we can? Because we know how to communicate the gospel to the poor and uneducated. What does it mean, if this is true, that we have not found a way to make the gospel intelligible to the rich and smart? I don't know.
KEVIN KLINE, COURTNEY PELDON, JOAN ALLEN, HENRY CZERNY, ADAM HANN-BYRD, DAVID KRUMHOLTZ, TOBEY MAGUIRE, CHRISTINA RICCI, ELIJAH WOOD, SIGOURNEY WEAVER, KATIE HOLMES
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