Word: keitel
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Harvey Keitel, as director Eddie Israel, casts actors Sarah Jennings (Madonna) and Francis Burns (James Russo) as a middle-class couple on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Having undergone some sort of epiphany, Jennings' character has decided to leave her husband and the comfortable yet destructive life of drugs and multiple-partner sex they share. Employing some sort of twisted method-acting technique, Israel allows his principles to really go at each other in order to heighten dramatic intensity. The audience is asked to believe that Burns is allowed to rape and beat Jennings in repeated takes...
...Harvey Keitel is as engaging as always, yet one cannot wonder as to why someone whose star is so on the rise ("Bad Lieutenant," "The Piano") would do a movie like this. We are "Mother of Mirrors" in both a serious and credible tone. At other times, we are appreciative of his presence, for there are some lines only Keitel can cross successfully. keitel is both charming and endearing when, as Israel, he tells Jennings that he once a gave a lover a ruby and diamond ring to symbolize the blood and semen he had exchanged during their lovemaking. Jennings...
...been mute since the age of six and for whom the piano is her only voice, is devastated by its loss. She turns to George Baines (Harvey Keitel), an illiterate neighbor of theirs who has "gone native." Baines eventually makes a deal with Stewart, trading the piano for a piece of land. As part of the deal, Ada is forced to give Baines lessons. He's not interested in learning to play, and so he offers to give Ada back her piano if she allows him to do certain things while she plays, one key for every lesson...
Though his New Zealand accent wobbles a bit at times, Harvey Keitel is, as usual, excellent. He makes a potentially unlikable and thorny man human and sympathetic. Sam Neill, who originally wanted to play the part of Baines, is particularly fine in the role of Stewart, a good man who loses his head because of jealousy and passion. Here Neill has a role that is considerably meatier than the paleontologist he played in "Jurassic Park," and he lives up to the possibilities of the role...
...possible? Is Madonna taking the X out of Sex? No, but her director is. Abel Ferrara, who coupled the singer with actor Harvey Keitel in the movie Dangerous Game, was headed for trouble with Hollywood's rating board. To avoid an NC-17 rating, Ferrara toned down the sex. Now his film has earned a respectable R, which means more money...