![]() In particular, there is one needless, lingering shot of a full-frontal Marceau which is pure cheesecake. Marceau's sequence is the lamest of all, but its gratuitous nudity will please.well, just about anyone who enjoys looking at naked women. In this artificial world, sexual chemistry between strangers is a given, mainly based on heavy breathing, solemn walks, ponderous gazes and stilted philosophical musings such as "Voices never become part of you like other sounds" and "It's strange - we always want to live in someone's imagination." Otherwise, the motivations for hopping into bed can be hard to understand, particularly in the case of world-class beauty Sophie Marceau being immediately drawn to pale, wormy Malkovich. Peter Weller and Jean Reno add further star charisma, but not much else. ![]() The stories just drift into view, then fade away again. Typically for Antonioni, none of the segments except the last one (starring Irene Jacob as a pious woman being pursued by an oily suitor) have any real payoff. This simple premise provides the framework for observing various romantic vignettes - five central ones, plus a short, sentimental scene with old pros Marcello Mastroianni and Jeanne Moreau. He doesn't have many lines, and mostly just looks vacantly inquiring. Right," John Malkovich plays an American director wandering the rustic streets of Italy, seeking inspiration for his next film. In what may be his most embarrassing role since "Making Mr. The corny use of mood music - including poor Van Morrison - doesn't help, and is truly appalling at times. Just another made-for-cable softcore flick. At worst, it's like Antonioni channeling Zalman King. Malkovich is often seen onscreen with himself in this movie, but I never noticed any seams or glitches, and I was also quietly grateful to Seidelman for not providing any moments that were intended merely to exploit the trick.At best, "Beyond the Clouds" is a multi-angled look at the delicacy of romance. Right," we see a theater marquee in the background advertising " The Parent Trap." That was, of course, the movie where Hayley Mills played twins, thanks to trick photography. You may remember him as the smarmy, sweating porno store operator in " 52 Pick-Up." The distance between these two good performances is impressive.Īt one point in "Making Mr. Seidelman also has fun populating the outskirts of her plot with good character actors, especially Robert Trebor as the tuxedo salesman. It makes all the difference in the world. ![]() Right," there are scenes where the scientist and the android are mistaken for one another, and Seidelman uses the misunderstandings to make comic points about the personalities of her characters: They make wrong assumptions because of who they are, instead of because of how stupid they are. "Secret" has lots of moments when characters don't realize exactly who they're talking to, and it creates those moments out of the stupidity of the characters. Seeing the two movies in the same week is instructive because they take such different approaches to the challenge of identity. With this film, she hits her stride as a comedy director who would rather be clever than obvious, who allows good actors such as Malkovich to go for quiet effects rather than broad, dumb cliches.Īlso around right now is " The Secret of My Success," another comedy depending on dual and mistaken identities. Right" was directed by Susan Seidelman, whose previous credits are "Smithereens," which I didn't much like, and " Desperately Seeking Susan," which was much more assured. She has an instantly combative relationship with the scientist who invented the android, and it's made trickier because as the android grows more human, the scientist subtly grows more robotic. Magnuson is fun, too, with her high heels and designer outfits, clipboards and speculative looks. Like Jeff Bridges in " Starman," he's able to meet the tricky challenge of moving in an uncoordinated way without looking merely ridiculous. Malkovich provides just the right amount of inept clumsiness for the android, which sometimes has trouble getting its mind-body coordination in line. That's true, for example, during the sweet, tentative moments when the android begins to fall for the woman.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |