LES MISÉRABLES
Odeon: February 1 to 3 and 6 to 10
A stirring,
ambitious but cinematically uneven adaptation of the world’s favourite stage
musical from the director of The King’s
Speech. Set in early nineteenth-century France, Victor Hugo’s Les
Misérables is a timeless story of broken dreams, unrequited love, passion,
sacrifice, vengeance and redemption. Formerprisoner Jean Valjean is hunted for
decades by the ruthless gaoler Javert after agreeing to care for factory worker
Fantine’s young daughter Cosette. Unusually for movie musicals, the actors sing
their own voices recorded live on set-a feat in itself. ‘Besides being a feast
for the eyes and ears, Les Misérables overflows with humor, heartbreak, rousing
action and ravishing romance. Damn the imperfections, it’s perfectly marvelous’
(Rolling Stone). ‘This “Les Mis” does make you feel, intensely and sometimes
thrillingly, by honoring the emotional core of its source material’ (Wall
Street Journal). ‘Sensitive souls in search of wrenching emotion can be guaranteed
their Kleenex moments; you will get wet. But … you will not be cinematically
edified. This is a bad movie’ (Time).
LINCOLN
Odeon: Fenruary 11 to 13
Fulgor: January 31 to
February 6
Steven
Spielberg’s acclaimed reverential and conventional drama follows his regular
technique of microcosmic focus in order to display the wider picture by
concentrating on the iconic 16th president’s tumultuous final months in office.
In a nation riven by civil war, Lincoln pursues a course of action designed to
end the conflict, reunite the country and abolish slavery once and for all.
Daniel Day Lewis is Lincoln. ‘Lincoln is a rough and noble democratic
masterpiece-an omen, perhaps, that movies for the people shall not perish from
the earth’ (New York Times). ‘Instead of a grand tableau vivant that lays out
the great man and his great deeds like so many too-perfect pieces of waxed
fruit, Spielberg brings the leader and viewers down to ground level’
(Washington Post). ‘Lincoln is also a colossal bore. It is so pedantic, slow-moving,
sanitized and sentimental that I kept pinching myself to stay awake – which,
like the film itself, didn’t always work’ (New York Observer).
DJANGO UNCHAINED
Odeon: February 4 and 5
Quentin
Tarantino’s movie is about a slave whose brutal history with his former owners
brings him together with a righteous bounty hunter. Only Django can lead him to
his bounty, but this can only happen unpredictably and violently. Spaghetti splatter via
Sergio Corbucci and Sergio Leone as only Tarantino can mash. ‘It’s as
unwholesome, deplorable and delicious as a forbidden cigarette’ (The Guardian).
‘[B]loody hilarious (and hilariously bloody) … (Variety). ‘It is a tribute to
the spaghetti Western, cooked al dente, then cooked a while more, and finally
sauced to death’ (New Yorker). ‘Wildly extravagant, ferociously violent,
ludicrously lurid and outrageously entertaining, yet also, remarkably, very
much about the pernicious lunacy of racism and, yes, slavery’s singular
horrors’ (Wall Street Journal). It manages to be risibly cartoonish and acutely
perspicacious at the same time. Unmissable.
THE IMPOSSIBLE
Fulgor: February 7 to 13
This Spanish
film made in English is a fictionalised but very real story of a family caught
up in the 2004 tsunami. ‘Wrenchingly acted, deftly manipulated and terrifyingly
well made’ (Variety). ‘The Impossible is technologically a marvel-the tsunami
experience is harrowingly believable-but also emotionally rich. I hesitate to
use this term, since it is so often equated with hokey, but The Impossible is
life-affirming’ (Time). ‘It’s agony, in a rewarding way, to squirm and cringe
and groan through an ordeal so realistically re-created’ (Entertainment
Weekly). ‘Part of the appeal of this affecting and powerful drama is that it
puts the viewer right in the moment at every stage, using authentic locations
and tsunami survivors to hammer home the reality of this tragedy’ (The
Guardian). ‘A sham realist’s disaster movie, tackily insulting the deaths of
300,000 people by reducing the horrors of the Indian Ocean tsunami to a series
of genre titillations’ (Slant Magazine).
The British Institute’s new film series is focused on
the work of Franco Zeffirelli, film producer, film director, stage designer,
production designer, costume designer and screenwriter.
CAVALLIERA
RUSTICANA+PAGLIACCI (1982)
(Filmed theatrical performance)
Plácido
Domingo, Renato Bruson/Plácido Domingo, Teresa Stratas, Juan Pons Georges
Prêtre,
Teatro alla Scala
February 6, 8pm
Zeffirelli’s
‘Cav and Pag’ double bill. ‘As usual, the noted director’s opulent and grandly
theatrical realism is marvelous to behold… ‘”Pagliacci” and its usual companion
work ”Cavalleria Rusticana” are perfectly suited to Mr. Zeffirelli’s
distinctive staging style… His conception of “Pagliacci” appears to be an
unabashed tribute to another great film director, Federico Fellini. Clowns have
long been one of Fellini’s signature presences, going back to “La Strada” and
the finale of “8 1/2.” But, by setting the opera in the 1930’s, Mr. Zeffirelli
also manages to give, with the help of costume designer Anna Anni, a pronounced
Fellini look. The townspeople of this “Pagliacci” could have stepped right out
of “Amarcord.” … At his best, Mr. Zeffirelli is formidable’ (New York Times).
[on Cav:] ‘As conducted knowingly by Georges Pretre, the cast gives fervid,
nearly overwrought, genuinely Zeffirelliesque performances of unrelenting
intensity’ (Los Angeles Times).
LA
TRAVIATA (1982) (feature
film)
Plácido Domingo, Teresa
Stratas, James Levine, Metropolitan Opera
February 13, 8pm
‘Zeffirelli’s
talents are well-matched to La Traviata…
Teresa Stratas, as that most famous of TB cases, has a suitably angelic face,
though her voice is a touch less seraphic in the higher registers; the
masterful Placido Domingo brings an ingenuous charm to the role of Alfredo;
Zeffirelli directs as he has always done, in a style high on gloss and bravura,
with occasional nods to film realism via exteriors and voice-overs. The
sumptuousness comes close to overkill, but fine musical moments help some magic
to survive’ (Time Out). Zeffirelli’s attention to detail dazzles in the
luxuriant settings, costumes and over all ambiance of the film… And, as in most
of his other movies, Zeffirelli accents the moral implications and spiritual value
of sacrificial love’ (Spirituality & Practice). This screening will be preceded by a presentation by James Douglas,
John Hoenig and Matteo Sansone: A celebration of the work of Franco Zeffirelli
in film, theatre and opera on the occasion of his 90th birthday.
For showtimes, see the websites above.
Odeon
piazza Strozzi, 2 – tel.
055/295051
Astra2
piazza Beccaria – tel. 055
2343666
Fulgor
via Maso Finiguerra – tel.
055/2381881
The
British Institute
Lungarno Guicciardini 9 – tel.
055/267781
