Belle Toujours
September 27th, 2006
The day was redeemed by Manoel de Oliveira’s playful homage to Luis Buñuel, Belle Toujours. Inspired by Buñuel’s Belle de Jour, de Oliveira’s film revisits the characters, 38 years later. Michel Piccoli reprises the role of Monsieur Husson, and Bulle Ogier plays Catherine Deneuve’s Séverine. Once again, secret desires, sadism, and a mysterious box feature prominently, and de Oliveira succeeds in giving Buñuel’s themes a brand-new spin without sacrificing any of the original’s mystery. Piccoli’s bemused laughter forms a haunting refrain.
Belle Toujours. Manoel de Oliveira, 2006. ***
[tags]film, 3 stars, maoel de oliveira, nyff, paris, luis bunuel, sequel, hommage[/tags]
The Indian Tomb
February 23rd, 2006
Arrgh. All considered, this was about as bad as Elizabethtown, so I’ll have to stop lording that miserable pick over Marcy’s head. It was all me who insisted we watch this sequel to The Tiger of Eschnapur… I remembered a fantastic finale, tragic and grandiose, and we were already two hours invested, so why not finish it?
Because I remembered the wrong movie. Whatever I had in mind, it must have been some Egyptian thing, it certainly wasn’t this. The climax was two men in brownface showing each other their sweaty chests. The one and only highlight is Debra Paget’s snake-charming dance, which she performs practically nude.
