Word: passionate
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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...
...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 discovers a gigantic facade of columns and stairs...
...chatting with callers on a radio show in Communist-ruled China about ways of getting Japan's stagnant economy restarted seems almost outlandish. Even more so, perhaps -- the Prez was asked about one of his areas of expertise: fast food. A local leader at the morning roundtable bemoaned the passion for McDonald's and KFC among China's children, wondering if it might lead to problems of obesity...
...Bimini, lost his nerve and lost a great fish. She didn't know him, she writes, and wasn't able to comfort him, or help him laugh it off, or pretend that the failure was O.K. She certainly did not understand what became apparent later, that Greg's real passion, his father's ghost mocking him cruelly, was to dress in women's clothes. And in middle age, sober, married, a mother and a novelist (Walking into the River), she still can't quite accept this joker in the hand life dealt her. She writes, "There are no greeting cards...