Word: depardieu
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MOVIES . . . HAMLET: "If Kenneth Branagh doesn?t win an Oscar for his four-hour, uncut ?Hamlet,? " says TIME's Richard Corliss, "he should at least cop a Chutzpah Award." Here's the most eclectic cast in movie history -- Julie Christie, Billy Crystal, Gerard Depardieu, John Gielgud, Rosemary Harris, Charlton Heston, Derek Jacobi, Jack Lemmon, John Mills, Robin Williams, Kate Winslet and the Duke of Marlborough, to name but a dozen -- in the second longest film released by a major studio (after ?Cleopatra?). To his credit, the actor-director-adapter approached this job not as a solemn duty or an egotistical...
...expectation. Those not killed by the cholera are reduced to panic-stricken animals, ready to turn on anyone suspected of spreading the dread disease. Oddly enough, this aspect of human nature is portrayed in a purely comic manner, highlighted by a brief but very funny cameo appearance of Gerard Depardieu as the harried mayor of a cholerastricken town. However, this humor doesn't really lighten the rest of the movie, which is pretty plainly meant to be taken seriously...
GEOMETRY FOR A ROMANTIC COMedy: triangle involving a married couple and another woman. The French do this in their sleep, maybe in their dreams. Since the formula is so familiar, they know the trick is to tweak it. Remember Too Beautiful for You, where Gerard Depardieu spurns gorgeous wife Carole Bouquet for dumpy secretary Josiane Balasko? This time writing and directing as well as starring, Balasko has wrung another variation on the old gag. Husband, wife, lesbian interloper. French Twist...
...legend of Amphitryon, whose body Zeus inhabited to seduce Amphitryon's wife. In the Godard version, God, a presence with a terrifying, gravelly voice straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon, decides to manifest Himself in the guise of ordinary Simon Donnadieu, played by ubiquitous French film star Gerard Depardieu. (Donnadieu means "given to God," and Depardieu means "on behalf of God," Get it?). Simon starts using "thine" and "thou" in conversation, much to the astonishment of his wife, Rachel (Laurence Masliah), who, not surprisingly, has qualms about their relationship...
...photographed on the banks of a Swiss lake, with vivid, rippling blue water and fields of poppies, the film looks gorgeous. The cinematography, combined with the Bach, Beethoven and Tchaikovsky soundtrack, makes the movie a sumptuous, sensual experience. The performances are also superb. Instead of being loud and bombastic, Depardieu's performance is unusually restrained and quite compelling...