Word: films
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...sounds as though all of the elements for a great romance/mystery are here, and for the first 20 minutes of the film, they are. Drenched in period atmosphere (due in no small part to the smoky score by Michael Nyman and Roger Pratt's dark, haunting photography), the film seduces the viewer with Fiennes' bloodshot intensity and Jordan's creative visual ideas. One shot in particular stands out from this first act: the image of a lonely Bendrix mounting a spiral staircase intercut with flashbacks of Sarah seductively leading him up the same stairs to their conjugal hideaway. The changes...
...rights, Neil Jordan's new film, The End of the Affair, should be dazzling. So many of the pieces are in place--first-rate actors, a great wartime love story, a seasoned director (The Crying Game, Interview with the Vampire). But the inconsistently inspired director falters here, and what should percolate into a fine cinematic brew instead comes out as a disappointingly sludgy ode to what might have been a great work...
Adapted from a Graham Greene novel, the film certainly has an enviable pedigree; Greene's works have been made into outstanding movies, most notably the 1949 classic The Third Man. But with Affair, many of the problems can be traced back to the source material. Few contest Greene's virtuosity as a prose stylist, but there's a reason you probably haven't read The End of the Affair. It's a sour, neurotic little novel, and in many ways uniquely ill-suited to film adaptation...
...Moments such as these, however, are too scarce in a film that ends up expending most of its energy working through two major structural problems: an increasingly absurd plot and the difficulties of adapting a novel that consists primarily of first person interior narration. Jordan unadvisedly takes a literal approach here, employing the most drab, extensive set of voiceovers since the awful pre-director's cut version of Blade Runner. (Haven't seen it? Don't.) Fiennes, a subtle actor, is forced to explicitly identify every emotional state his character enters. Does Bendrix really need to tell us how "tortured...
...central relationship of the film is similarly troubled. Bendrix and Sarah assure each other (and the viewer) that their relationship is built around a profound love. But we barely even see them chat; the film's only way of investigating the seriousness of the relationship is via the physical act of love--and in this sense, The End of the Affair has love to spare. Rarely in an American film has sex been depicted with such frankness and frequency. Crotches are grabbed, hips are rhythmically thrust and even Ralph's pale, well-formed bottom makes an extended appearance. But something...