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Jemima Bucknell

Jemima Bucknell

Tag Archives: London

Hysteria

25 Sunday Nov 2012

Posted by Jemima Bucknell in 2011, Film

≈ 1 Comment

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Cronenberg, Date Movie, Hugh Dancy, Hysteria, Judd Apatow, Kiera Knightley, London, maggie Gyllenhaal, Meet The Spartans, Rupert Everett, sexual frustration, Twilight, vibrator

The costumes for Hysteria were something out of A Christmas Carol (coats and hats and warm sort of nonsense) and the plot resembled a sex-comedy of Hollywood’s golden age but despite all its charming drapery – and you will observe some flamboyant drapery! – this is a film about the implementation of the vibrator by a doctor who developed carpal tunnel from manually relieving several women daily.

It’s a tricky idea to take on because all humour on the subject of masturbation has been exhausted, and the comedy relies heavily on odious puns, which were evolved and retired with the rise of Judd Apatow films and are only now viewable on d-grade releases like Date Movie, Meet The Spartans and the latest Twilight parody, Breaking Wind: Part 1.

The only actor at home on set is Rupert Everett, whose character is instrumental but appears only to be along for the ride. Gyllenhaal and Dancy are repellent. Maggie’s talent was completely dried out in her exceptional performance in Happy Endings and has been absent from all subsequent work.

The film is exceedingly silly, and any audience risks being too mature for its unsophisticated jokes, and at the same time, too conservative for some of its content. In any context outside of comic ridicule, the “treatment” performed on most of the women in the film, is voyeurism, but these women are made ridiculous – they are all old and/or frumpy – and then pacified with a new kind of shock therapy. These particular scenes in Dr. Dalrymple’s (Jonathan Price) practice are out of place. It is really two films: a morality tale, about a physician evaluating his sense of duty and the invention of the vibrator and how it was used in experiments on women suffering diagnoses of hysteria. I do imagine it looked much better on paper, as its framework does so strongly echo the great cinema of the forties.

This demonstration of hysteria, vastly different from Cronenberg’s more accurate telling through Keira Knightley’s contorted vessel, seems to be boiled down to mere sexual frustration. Women can’t relate to this anymore, well not the type of women who will ever respond to it. All this film will accomplish is vibrator sales to old ladies. You’re advised to stay at home. Please yourself.

* a version of this post originally appeared at filmblerg.com

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Cassandra’s Dream

24 Saturday Nov 2012

Posted by Jemima Bucknell in 2007, Film, Woody Allen

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2007, Cassandra's Dream, Colin Farrell, Ewan McGregor, London, Match Point, Tom Wilkinson, Tragedy, Woody Allen

The third of Allen’s London films, Cassandra’s Dream, much like Match Point is a film within which what we know as “Woody Allen” is completely absent. It is the third London film, and the third consecutive film that deals with a murder plot. This calls into question Allen’s interest in the city as a character, and while Match Point and Scoopmade an exhibition of London’s bourgeois beauty, in this film London’s grey banality is something that the characters seek to escape from.

The film opens with the eager purchase of a sailboat by two brothers Terry (Colin Farrell) and Ian (Ewan McGregor) but before this scene, Philip Glass’ score plunges us into a grand, dark spiral over the affectionate Allen font credits. The music is a palpable, sinister presence throughout and it takes sometime for the plot to match this, and then, somewhat suddenly become absorbed by the tragedy which it relentlessly suggests.

Terry and Ian are bound by a familial estrangement to the previous generation, and their differing dependence on money. Terry works for a mechanic and has a gambling problem. Ian works for their father’s restaurant and needs a loan to pursue his own enterprises. When Terry’s losses get him in trouble with loan sharks, the brothers turn to their Uncle Howard (Tom Wilkinson), a self-made millionaire who, in exchange for his financial support, asks his nephews to commit murder in order to protect him from an unknown, but significant, financial crime.

The film sees family as a great moral complication to its characters. Their mother constantly reiterates blood loyalty; her regard for her wealthy brother is something to which she expects her sons to aspire to – money, like family, demands a certain kind of respect. The pursuit of wealth is also in the interests of building families. Terry wishes to buy a house with his long-time girlfriend, and Ian’s new love for an actress, and his business venture in Los Angeles becomes a dream for both their futures.

In its tragedy, it is much like a play, and Allen reflects this by drawing curtains with the camera several times throughout, and in particular, concealing its most violent scene: we retreat behind a hedged fence, reminding us that we are not a party to this crime, our own moral questions are not invited – this crime is strictly between two brother’s and we may only observe its dire effect.

It is a great forgotten Allen film, with two exceptional performances from Farrell and McGregor. It was surprisingly not as successful as Match Point, but perhaps its unyielding tragedy, and disillusioning end is not as tidy as its older brother’s.

* a version of this post originally appeared at filmblerg.com

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