Word: soffel
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...host of interpretative intangibles from the guy who's waving a baton at them. If Kaplan at Salzburg did not bring to mind a slick stick like Riccardo Muti or Valery Gergiev, his intense, attentive manner in front of the Philharmonia, the Vienna State Opera Chorus, mezzo-soprano Doris Soffel and soprano Rosa Mannion bespoke a firm grasp. Mahler's heaven-storming climaxes shook the Grossesfestspielhaus to its granite foundations, and anyone who did not feel a chill at the tremendous peroration must either have been dead or Austrian...
Unlike Judith Hearne, High Tide is not whiny and overexplained. And under the direction of Gillian Armstrong (My Brilliant Career, Mrs. Soffel), the lead actresses have an honest naturalism that almost makes us forget the coincidences and arthritic manipulations of Laura Jones' script. But instead of calming our suspicions, Armstrong's camera work -- all zip pans, fast tracking and erratic boom shots -- reinforces them. Maybe she should take phlegmatic lessons from Jack Clayton...
Since that time, the hero from Down Under has been busy redefining the meaning of the word "cool" in such films as The Year of Living Dangerously, Mrs. Soffel, Gallipoli, and Mutiny on the Bounty. Last week, as part of a massive promotional campaign for his new film Lethal Weapon, Gibson talked to a group of unheroic media folks in a New York hotel room...
What: No--I mean, in fact in Mrs. Soffel, Tim, in all your other American films, and Gallipoli as well...it seems like in this film, if you'll pardon my inference, you've gone back to the kind of role you first...
...frazzled Mata Hari in The Little Drummer Girl. Keaton and Australian Director Gillian Armstrong (My Brilliant Career) might seem to make a good protofeminist match, but the results are dour and disappointing. The film's strongest suit--Russell Boyd's sepulchrally seductive cinematography--ironicall y seals its doom. Mrs. Soffel (rhymes with woeful) is Bonnie and Clyde with the emotional lights turned down, Tristan und Isolde without the saving soaring music...
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