Love Song for Bobby Long

If you are looking for a love story where boy meets girl and falls in love, pass this one by. If you are looking for some sweet story about a girl that moves into a house with two alcoholics and charms them into totally changing their lives, you’re going to be disappointed.

And that’s what I liked about this movie. It wasn’t the sweet child changes the curmugeon story that I thought it was going to be. The men change, but not that much, for reasons I expected.

A possible alternative title could have been Love Song for Lorraine, because that’s who brought the three of these unlikely people together. Lorraine was Purslane’s (Scarlett Johannson) mother. When she discovers her mother has died, she comes home to the funeral only to find out she’s one day too late. She finds two men (John Travolta and Gabriel Macht) living in her mother’s house who tell her the house is willed to the three of them. Early on in the film, it is discovered this is a lie and they are only allowed to stay in the house for one year.

In the beginning, Purslane is a hard, bitter young woman concerning her mother who left her to be raised by her grandmother. But she is never cruel. It’s more of a “that’s life” attitude. That’s was one of the things I liked about the film, the characters’ attitude about life. Like most people in real life, they accepted their plight until something better comes along to change them. It's their kneejerk response to life that I find realistic enough to make this movie believable and likeable.

Despite the fairy tale ending, which did have an unexpected twist, I enjoyed it.

Rocco and His Brothers

This is only the third foreign film I’ve ever seen. The other two were “La Cage Aux Folles” which The Birdcage was adapted from (and the original is ten times better, I think) and an obscure movie called “Orphee” that aired in the 1990’s on TBS late one night. So if my opinion is simplistic, it’s because I haven’t done that many reviews, let alone foreign films.

It is the story of five brothers as they adjust to the city life of Milan after the country life of Southern Italy. Each brother has his own story, but it is the stories of Rocco and Simone that supply the drama and suspense of the tale.

Simone becomes a boxer and falls in love with Nadia, who is soon finished with him. Her rejection changes him and as the film progresses, his career suffers. Not that Simone was an upright character to begin with. One of the highlights of the film is when Simone visits the drycleaners where Rocco works and steals a shirt. Later he has the audacity to return it and while seducing the widowed owner, he lifts her diamond brooch while she is wearing it. Rocco enlists and after he returns from service, he meets Nadia, and they fall in love. Simone discovers their relationship and seeks revenge with tragic results.

The movie was intensely dramatic. The characters were intelligent, multidimensional and likeable. Their struggle to balance life, romance and family is what gives this movie its brilliance. The dialogue, even in subtitles, was great. In watching this movie, you have to keep in mind that it was Italian, and made in 1960, when the pace was slower in movies and actors were a little more dramatic. Even though the drama was a bit over the top for today’s standards, I still found myself caught up in the story of the devotion these brothers had for their family.

Some of the situations were amusing, like the one that opens the movie. Vincenzo, the oldest brother is at his engagement party with his future in-laws in Milan when his mother and four brothers show up to live with him. The future mother in-law immediately resents the intrusion and the fact that now Vincenzo has to take care of his family and her daughter. She throws them all out of the house. Vincenzo seeks the advice of a friend who convinces him to rent an apartment and pay for it a few months until the money runs out. When they are evicted they can get government housing because, as he puts it, “Milan does not let anyone live in the streets.”

It has enough light moments to keep it from being too somber. The sets were great, the cinematography wonderful, the actors engaging. It took me six months to see this movie and I must say it was well worth the wait.

Effect of Water Crystal

Effect of water crystal hearing "Imagine" by John Lennon
 

The Merchant of Venice

The Merchant of Venice.

Ah, the famous “pound of flesh.”

Much to my discredit and shame, I’ve never read this famous play by the Bard. I leaned more toward the fanciful comedies and romances. Romeo and Juliet, Taming of the Shrew, and Midsummer Night’s Dream were more my speed. But after learning Al Pacino had assumed the role of Shylock, I had to see it.

Right away, I knew my education was about to be enriched. Thankfully, Michael Radford added background via scrolling to the beginning of the movie. I learned that Jews were persecuted even in the 16th century Venice. They were confined to a ghetto (or Geto) at night, which was guarded by Christians, and forced to wear a red hat during the day. Sound familiar? They were forbidden to own property which produced those in the business of usury. Lending of money for profit was against Christian law, which further irked the religious zealots of the day.

Like the best of Shakespeare’s plays, this movie is played well through breathy romantic dialogue and ardent suspense. Joseph Fiennes is adequately dark and brooding as Bassanio, the suitor of the wealthy Portia whose subplot supplies the romantic part of the play. Lynn Collins is wonderful as Portia. Al Pacino evokes both sympathy and hatred as the Jewish moneylender who takes advantage of the merchant Antonio (which is played humbly by Jeremy Irons) by demanding a “pound of flesh” extracted nearest his heart instead of the money he owes him as revenge against his daughter, eloped with Antonio’s friend Lorenzo. In addition, Antonio was one of the ones who has mocked and berated Shylock.

Poor Antonio. On top of it all, the sailing ships which had him in hock up to his eyebrows sink, after he borrows money from Shylock to give to Bassanio. With so much betrayal, berating, and revenge going on, it's hard to know who to feel sorry for in this movie. If anyone, I feel sorry for Jeremy Irons. It can't be easy being the sympathetic character to Pacino's villain, to sit there complacently while uses him as an appetizer for the scenery chewing that later ensues.

I will not summarize the entire movie. These guys do it better.
Great stuff this Shakespeare. And here we have some of his favorite ploys to heighten the suspense...deceit, betrayal, and women dressed as men, and more plot twists than General Hospital during sweeps week. But if you are not a fan of the plays, or have trouble understanding British accents, shy away from this one. No subtitles, except in French.
My favorite passages came forth, nonetheless.
Shylock upon demanding his pound of flesh of Antonio is asked “why? What is it good for?”
To which he replies:

To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted mybargains, cooled my friends, heated mineenemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hathnot a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs,dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed withthe same food, hurt with the same weapons, subjectto the same diseases, healed by the same means,warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, asa Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poisonus, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we notrevenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian,what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villany you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.

I had no idea Shakespeare was so political.