Word: currierized
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Lavinia Currier's Passion in the Desert begins as a historical chronicle of the late 18th-century Napoleonic wars in Africa, but soon reveals more central concerns as a meditation on the ties between man and beast. The central conceit of the picture is a love affair, not as platonic or intellectual as you might think, that springs up between a soldier and a leopard. Yes, that is what I said, and it's a lot of ground for one picture to cover conventions of visual storytelling cannot easily accommodate such philosophical ambitions. It's hard enough to stage this...
Thankfully, Currier has a unique director's eye, and her film clearly demonstrates a deep and committed interest in the issues it raises. On the other hand, Passion in the Desert is at times too earnest for its own good, presenting its unlikely blend of Dances With Wolves and Quest for Fire with so little humor that both the movie itself and our capacity to buy into it are seriously wobbling by the last act. An admirably spare approach and a bold confrontation with heady material save Passion in the Desert, but just barely, from being as arid and unfriendly...
Soon after that touchingly, enlightened gesture, a medium-sized horde of Mameluke warriors stages a surprise attack on the French camp, and Currier orchestrates a battle scene that measures favorably against the fur-flying in Braveheart. As in that film, the fighting here is vicious, bloody, and decidedly unromantic. The Mamelukes eventually retreat, their scimitars proving rather ill-matched to rifles and artillery, but the French men are sufficiently rattled to move quickly on to another campsite. Jean-Michel, however, has not finished his drawings, and he and Augustin lag a bit behind. Inevitably, the two are separated from their...
...duet that ensues between the cat and the cavalier is well beyond what I can describe without inciting unintentional giggles. Unfortunately, Currier has the same problem, though her deadpan close-ups and unrelieved seriousness work hard to wipe those smirks off our faces. In fairness, much of what happens in this central chapter of Passion in the Desert is tense and engaging, Augustin must fight the leopard for water, food and freedom to move, all of which the leopard jealously guards, though it otherwise remains far more docile and generous than Augustin has any reason to expect. When the soldier...
...lost hope of any rediscovery, he gives himself over entirely to the cat's way of life: lapping water, shedding his clothes etc. Dementia and self-abandonment are, however, notorious invitations to over-acting and under-directing, and Daniels' savagery grows almost as histrionic as Nicholson's The Shining, Currier's loss of control with the picture almost as total as Kubrick...