Word: bellocq
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1978-1978
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...story line and unidentifiable in its ideology, all in all a pretty big let down. Shields conveys all the mischieviousness of childhood, and none of the mystery. Her mother (Susan Sarandon) strands her in their New Orleans brothel without us ever really understanding why. And although a photographer named Bellocq (David Carradine) comes to save Shields and sweep her into marriage, Carradine is never really all there. Even the cinematography, exquisite as it is, never really hangs together; unlike in his other films, Malle never really uses his colors and compositions to illustrate his theme. But that's the real...
...seedy brothel atmosphere that surrounds Violet is equally unexplored. How Malle will photograph the setting of the Storyville section of New Orleans is an obvious question, since the plot itself draws attention to photography. In his screenplay Malle crosses Violet's path with that of a photographer named E.J. Bellocq, an actual figure who shot a series of photographs of Storyville prostitutes in 1912. (Here he arrives to take pictures and ends up living with Violet and finally wedding her.) Malle also has an acute aesthetic sense; his other films have been very painterly in their effects and often masterful...
...flesh out that theme. She simply ups and weds one of her johns in the middle of the movie--leaving Violet being and leaving us wondering why she did it, and where we missed something. Less self-explanatory still is David Carradine's portrayal of the photographer-suitor, Bellocq. When he first intrudes on them the house madame calls him an "invert"--he begins to just hang around, looking less like a sinister voyeur than a dazed peanut vendor at a ballpark. The scene where he finally admits his love for Violet lacks both preparation and emotion...
...narrative often seems to be languishing somewhere in the film's hazy background. That's a shame, because the screenplay is built around an exciting idea. Malle and Scenarist Polly Platt have hypothesized a romance-and eventual marriage-between Heroine Violet (Brooke Shields) and E.J. Bellocq (Keith Carradine), the legendary photographer of Storyville's glory days. This couple's bizarre March-December affair, like the equally promising relationship between Violet and her prostitute mother (Susan Sarandon), is described only intermittently. Instead of coming to terms with the characters' emotions, Malle dithers away his movie...
Malle tries to make the movie's flavor pass for substance by rilling the film with portentous zoom shots, but the ruse does not succeed. The cast does not do much to flesh out the material either. Be sides having no resemblance to the real Bellocq, Carradine rarely gets a handle on the mysterious photographer-hero. With his sepulchral demeanor, he looks less like an obsessed artist than a constipated undertaker. Sarandon, sputtering like a road-show Tennessee Williams heroine, never creates a credible character. Nor does Singer Frances Faye, playing an ancient madam who does an obligatory...