June
30
Cheri: Euro-pudding Period Drama
Roman Polanski once told Charlie Rose how devilishly hard it is to get everything to go right on a movie. So many little things can turn a promising project into something that never quite gels. Going in, Cheri, a French/British/German co-production adapted by Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liaisons) from the Colette novel, directed by Stephen Frears (The Queen) and starring Michelle Pfeiffer in the starring role of an aging courtesan, must have looked so tempting.
But several factors doomed this enterprise. While the English-language movie aimed at global audiences has long been a cinema staple, moviegoers now demand too much authenticity. J.J. Abrams on Lost, Mel Gibson and Quentin Tarantino are right. Go for the real language and slap on the subtitles. At least it's real.
While top European craftspeople did beautiful work on this film--the sets and costumes are exquisite--and Alexandre Desplat's score is the Frenchiest thing in the movie, if you put too many people from different countries into one milieu, something starts to go wrong. (Think Tetro.) Here, American actresses Pfeiffer and Kathy Bates don't quite match up with a cast of Brits, including the title character, Rupert Friend. Even the MGM classic Gigi, while patently stylized and shot on a back lot, offered real Frenchmen Maurice Chevalier and Louis Jourdan and singer/dancer Leslie Caron to sell the audience. It worked. Would such a confection work today? Hard to say.
Cheri has already opened to tepid reviews overseas. It might have been better in hindsight for the filmmakers to orchestrate the opening so that Miramax would launch the film stateside first, where it might have had a friendlier initial reception. So far reviews are OK.
Cinematical talks to Frears.
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These are some great movies. I really enjoy just sitting and relaxing with these period pieces. Thanks for breaking them out.
Ashley :)
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Posted by: Ashley | July 01, 2009 at 12:11 PM