Word: aristocrats
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...being kind and showing respect, by sending the note and the flowers, by being loyal, and cheering a friend. She was a living reminder in the age of Oprah that personal dignity is always, still, an option, a choice that is open to you. She was, really, the last aristocrat. Few people get to symbolize a world, but she did, and that world is receding, and we know it and mourn that...
...tiger hunter of yore was a maharajah or british aristocrat who would take potshots at roaring beasts while perched atop an elephant. Celebrated in prints and woodcuts, this blood sport looked manly but carried with it about as much risk as watching a professional football game from a skybox, since the cats wouldn't attack an elephant. Today the typical tiger killer is more like an Indian man named Raju: a diminutive, ragged farmer who does not even own a gun. Nonetheless, as a member of the Jenu Kuruba tribe, Raju knows how to hunt the big cats...
Grant, who can soon be seen in Sirens and Bitter Moon, is every inch the blithe aristocrat. MacDowell imports her Groundhog Day sweetness to a role that is more a fantasy than a character. And Rowan Atkinson has a cute turn as a tongue-tied cleric. Richard Curtis (The Tall Guy, Blackadder) has stocked his script with transatlantic gags (How many times has Carrie had sex? "Less than Madonna, more than Lady Di"). The movie strains a bit to prove it's all a lark, but because the mood is cunningly sunny, and the cast is so relaxed...
...years pass. Mui (now played by Tran Nu Yen-Khe), a beautiful young woman, is sold to a handsome pianist (Vuong Hoa Hoi). Cinderella finds her Prince Charming, and an aristocrat is ennobled when he falls in love with a pretty peasant. Every fable deserves a happy ending...
...emptier. "I took that," Hopkins says, "and kept it in my head for the entire film. It was simple: just stand still." So much of the comedy in his role, and the sadness, arise from this stillness. Before a hunt, Stevens holds a drinking cup for a horseman; the aristocrat takes no notice of his offer, and the butler takes no notice of the slight. His stillness may mask sexual fear: when Miss Kenton amiably approaches him, he freezes like a bruised virgin. The rest of the film Hopkins carries with a small gnomic smile that means a dozen things...