Two Words, One Answer.
Helen Mirren
 The Queen $14.99 I did not think I was going to like the film. Had NO Interest in it when released. Being from the United States I have NO interest in the British Royal Family, Princess Diana, any of them. I watched the film 1 day & did enjoy it. Helen did deserve the Oscar for the role. Only other film of hers I had ever seen was I was 1st in the door opening day for "The Mosquito Coast". And, I believe the film. Yep, we knew they did NOT care about Diana. Arranged marriage & she ended up cheating in the marriage as well. Has normal extras on the DVD. I am VERY DISAPPOINTED Helen did not do a commentary. This is HER FILM & won the Oscar for it. WHERE IS SHE? Of course, ruined by the I HATE THEM WHY WERE THEY MADE FLIP THE LITTLE FLAP OPEN DVD CASE.  The Passion of Ayn Rand $9.98 This Showtime film takes up the life of Ayn Rand from chapter 20 in Barbara Branden's biography of the same title. The director and screen writers have effectively transmitted the turn from naive hero worship of Rand that Barbara and her boyfriend Nathaniel experienced in the late 1940s to the subsequent stormy love affair between Rand and Nathaniel with its consequences in the lives of Frank O'Connor (Rand's husband) and Barbara, who had married Nathaniel. When the affair started, Rand was in the middle of writing her magnum opus, Atlas Shrugged, a philosophical novel about unstinting individualists who love whom they will on the way to creating the world they want. Julie Delpy fairly portrays Barbara's "descent into hell" (to borrow from a Doris Lessing title) of psychological intimidation and manipulation and its breeding of guilt, but Helen Mirren appropriately dominates the screen, mastering Rand's intensity down to detailed mannerisms that conform not only to Barbara's account but to filmed interviews. (For excerpts from these interviews and more, see Michael Paxton's "Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life," DVD, 2004, available on Amazon.) Whereas Delpy gives us a woman in tune with social dynamics (including jealousy) as well as ideas, Mirren shows a single-minded pursuit of personal goals that easily ignores the existence of others, a kind of "blanking out" of social reality (to borrow an epithet that Rand frequently used). In the scene where Rand negotiates her affair with Nathaniel in the presence of Frank and Barbara, Mirren's voice, face, and body move inexorably from her assumption that everyone will accept her simple moral calculus--what's best for her must be good for all--to mild indignation that the others cannot see with her clarity what is in her/their best interest. Mirren, like Rand, is in control. Peter Fonda's Frank O'Connor is subdued, sometimes stiff, sometimes baffled, the repressed husband described in the bio. In a scene showing all four walking on a sidewalk, director Menaul has Frank slightly behind the group, ceding the right of way to another pedestrian heading in the opposite direction. Frank seems to take a fatherly interest in Barbara, distantly reminiscent of Jean Val Jean and Cosette. Fonda carries the sense of repression well, showing Barbara kindness and Rand forbearance. Eric Stoltz does an effective job of creating the mixed emotions of a man more in love with ideas than with people, until he finds someone younger, not quite so bright, that he can control without effort. The supporting cast of easily intimidated businessmen (men only) and easily awed young intellectuals (mostly men but some women) accurately conveyed how hangers on can become sycophants or be driven to despair by the presence of charismatic people. When reason is a weapon to inculcate agreement rather than a tool for building understanding, second-hand parroting can often substitute for real thought. One of these characters works as a screenwriter and must compromise to keep his job, and Mirren's contempt for him is vivid and excruciating. ("Contempt" is an attitude high in the Randian social repertoire, and Mirren picked up on it well.) The opening and closing New York skyline scenes recall Rand's fascination with the distinctive tall buildings of American modern architecture, but the nightscape hints at the darkness of the story, which is more sad than poignant. The jazz score adds to this feeling, underscoring the Bohemian mood of New York in the 50s and early 60s. This film has little room for what Rand called the "tiddly-wink" music that she relaxed to, though the Blue Danube Waltz gives some of the exhilaration that she must have felt when she was in control. (Rachmaninov, one of her favorites for "serious" music, may have been either too subtle or too bombastic for this film.) And now for a small quibble... Although Showtime should be commended for making this film, they also undercut the story on the back of the DVD by saying Rand had a "bizarre love life." Though the Victorians were scandalized by Dickens's and Hugo's affairs with much younger women, few today would care; apparently an older woman writer needing a younger man to stay inspired still seems "bizarre" to our Victorian holdovers.  Painted Lady $13.74 Helen Mirren's arguably one of the best actresses today. Who else could make Britain's Queen come to life on the screen with dignity and grace? In Masterpiece Theatre's "Painted Lady," she plays Maggie Sheridan, an aging rock star who's taken shelter in the guest house of a family friend and father figure. When he's murdered over a painting, she goes undercover to solve the crime. This is an intricate mystery that takes some deliciously unpredictable turns before the story comes to its conclusion. Definitely not a film you will want to see uninterrupted, you do not want to miss a thread or you will be lost. Warning -- this is not family fare. You have nudity, gore, and some torture depicted in this film. "Painted Lady" is definitely an art treasure on its own, well worth watching and owning. Rebecca Kyle, September 2009 |
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