Three new arts films are in Salt Lake theaters this weekend, including the Fellini-influenced "Especially On Sunday," a new Japanese animated feature called "Wicked City" and the winner of the best film prize at the Cannes Film Festival this past spring, the long-awaited Jane Campion drama "The Piano," starring Holly Hunter. (Hunter also won the Cannes best actress award.)
But all three were disappointments to me, including the latter, a highly touted New Zealand film, which swept the Australian version of the Oscars a couple of weeks ago.- "THE PIANO" is getting such uniform praise that I know this puts me in a distinct minority - in fact, maybe I'm alone. But despite elements that I found invigorating, most of the film left me cold.
Writer-director Campion, whose other features "Sweetie" and "An Angel at My Table" also garnered critical plaudits, is a unique filmmaker with a terrific visual sense, and "The Piano" offers some wonderfully structured eye candy.
But what makes this film most notable is Hunter's magnificent central performance, sure to make her a strong Oscar contender.
Hunter plays a mute from Scotland in the 19th century who has packed up her belongings - including her prized piano - and traveled with her young daughter to New Zealand's remote bush country, for an arranged marriage to a taciturn landowner (Sam Neill) whom she has never met.
In the film's early moments, Hunter and her daughter are taken from the ship by rowboat to the shore, where their crates of belongings are set down on the beach. But Neill is not there to meet them, and they are forced to spend the night.
Naturally, the tide comes in and some of the boxes are swept out to sea - but the piano stands, a tribute to Hunter's tenacity and the forum for her passion. Hunter's character chose to become mute as a child and she expresses herself almost exclusively through the piano, pounding out passionate melodies on the keys. (And yes, that really is Hunter playing.)
The next morning, Neill arrives, along with a group of local Maoris and an eccentric, illiterate (and tattooed) Englishman (Harvey Keitel) who lives among them. They carry Hunter's crates through the swampy, mud-laden terrain to Neill's home but are not able to bring the piano.
Neill promises to return for it later but instead he swaps the piano to Keitel for some land. Keitel, meanwhile, has an agenda. He is attracted to Hunter and coaxes her to come and play the piano at his home, then offers to sell it back to her - if she will submit to sexual favors.
Ultimately, Keitel admits his love for Hunter, which leads to tragedy and violence.
Imagery and performances aside (Keitel and Neill are also quite good), the problem here is an emotional distancing I could never overcome. The characters are cold, aloof and underdeveloped, and there was never any emotional or sympathetic connection. There are also a number of questions that are never addressed.
The sexuality here is also quite explicit, pushing the boundaries of the film's R rating. There is also some violence, profanity and quite a bit of nudity.
- "ESPECIALLY ON SUNDAY" is something of a tribute to the late Federico Fellini in style and structure, an Italian anthology film with three separate directors helming stories by Tonino Guerra, whose many screenwriting credits include Fellini's "Amarcord," "Casanova" and "Ginger and Fred."
And the first of the three tales is directed by Giuseppe Tornatore, who also gave us "Cinema Paradiso."
But none of these stories is particularly compelling and at least two are a bit bizarre and abstract for my taste.
The first story, "The Blue Dog," stars Philippe Noiret as a barber and shoemaker who is hounded by a dog with a blue splotch on its head. Obvious and not very successful in its comic overtones, this one is perhaps the biggest disappointment.
Next is "Especially On Sunday," which has Bruno Ganz picking up a man and woman on the road (Ornella Muti, Andrea Prodan), falling for the woman but finding himself unable to get her alone. Alternately vulgar and silly, this is easily the least successful.
And finally, "Snow On Fire" has a woman (Maria Maddalena Fellini, sister of Federico) who surreptitiously watches her son and daughter-in-law making love. This one has a point but it's not at all satisfying.
There is also a wrap-around device that has a young boy capturing a bird and being told that if he lets it go, the bird will bring back a flock to the lad. Though brief and muted, this is perhaps more appealing than any of the main stories here.
"Especially On Sunday" is rated R and contains explicit sex, nudity, profanity and vulgarity.
- "WICKED CITY" is truly awful, a Japanese animated feature about futuristic Earth in negotiations for a peace treaty with a dark parallel world inhabited by mutant creatures.
The plot has a secret agent battling rebels from the dark world while trying to get an old man (who bears a distinct resemblance to Yoda, of the "Star Wars" films) to the treaty negotiations. He is teamed up with a female agent from the dark world and they battle all kinds of monsters.
There is also an abundance of sexual material, as well as a misogynistic streak that is most offensive.
"Wicked City" is not rated but would easily get a very hard R for violence, sex, nudity, profanity and vulgarity.