Derek Jarman's former muse is the hottest property at Cannes with her tour de force performance in the film of Lionel Shriver's bestseller
The word last week in Cannes was that Tilda Swinton is perfectly cast in We Need to Talk About Kevin, Lynne Ramsay's film of Lionel Shriver's novel that is one of the favourites to win the Palme d'Or. The news comes as no surprise because Swinton is one of those rare actresses who never leaves an audience wondering what another actor might have been like in a part she has played. As soon as you see her, it's impossible to imagine anyone else taking her place.
This is due in part to the way she looks – like no one else. A whole thesaurus of adjectives – haunting, androgynous, ethereal – has failed to describe her singular appearance. Better to imagine the offspring that would result...
The word last week in Cannes was that Tilda Swinton is perfectly cast in We Need to Talk About Kevin, Lynne Ramsay's film of Lionel Shriver's novel that is one of the favourites to win the Palme d'Or. The news comes as no surprise because Swinton is one of those rare actresses who never leaves an audience wondering what another actor might have been like in a part she has played. As soon as you see her, it's impossible to imagine anyone else taking her place.
This is due in part to the way she looks – like no one else. A whole thesaurus of adjectives – haunting, androgynous, ethereal – has failed to describe her singular appearance. Better to imagine the offspring that would result...
- 5/15/2011
- by Andrew Anthony
- The Guardian - Film News
TORONTO -- "The Proposition" is a fascinating, mythological western set in the hot, dusty, fly-infested desolation of the Australian Outback of the 1880s. The violence of the landscape reflects the violence of the savage men, who roam this frontier devoid of civilization and of God. The film is the creation of music icon Nick Cape, who wrote the script and composed much of the music, and director John Hillcoat, a top music video director who made his feature debut with "Ghosts...of the Civil Dead" in 1988. The film deals with morally compromised characters, who fight against but finally yield to destinies over which they have no control.
The film's bloodiness, both suggested and depicted, could limit its appeal. But a western, especially an Australian one, may just seem new again to audiences. That and an outstanding cast, which includes Guy Pearce, Ray Winstone, Danny Huston, Emily Watson and William Hurt could lead to international boxoffice strength.
The story takes place in the aftermath of an outrageous act of violence. The perpetrators are a gang of ruthless bushrangers lead by three Irish brothers named Burns, who see all English and all law officers as their enemy. But the slaughter has so horrified Charlie Burns (Pearce) that he quits the gang in order to protect his mentally fragile and innocent brother Mikey (Richard Wilson) from their psychotic older brother Arthur (Huston).
In a furious gunfight, Capt. Stanley (Winstone), an English policeman brought to the Outback to "civilize this land," captures the two brothers. Knowing he will never be able to track down Arthur in his hiding place in the badlands, the captain makes an despicable proposition to Charlie: To save Mikey from the gallows, he must track down and kill Arthur.
As Charlie heads into the unforgiving desert, the story splits in two to witness what happens to both men. In town, locals are enraged to learn that Stanley released a killer he had in custody. His superior, Fletcher (David Wenham), not only pressures Stanley to do something about the renegade Aborigines, but incites a mob into flogging Mikey nearly to death, which dooms the proposition.
Meanwhile, Stanley struggles to shield his innocent wife Martha Watson) from the harsh realities of this brutal land. Mostly, he wants to keep from her the truth about what happened to her friend during the Burns gang's slaughter.
In the desert, Charlie is attacked and wounded by Aborigines but saved by Arthur, who takes Charlie to his hideout. A bounty hunter (Hurt) nearly captures the entire gang before Arthur again saves his brother. When Charlie finally tells Arthur that Mikey will be hung, the gang rides back to town for a showdown.
Cave's story unfolds with the unmistakable rhythms of a tragedy foretold: Characters advance toward destinies they cannot avoid. Given these people and these circumstances, things are inevitable.
The actors make the most of these juicy roles. Pearce plays things close to his chest, unwilling to show his hand until the last moment, yet grim certitude is writ large on his face. Huston is a larger-than-life figure, a villain of Shakespearian proportions, who glories in blood and needs his enemies as much as his friends. He is a man unhinged long ago by the desert and English oppression.
Winstone unravels shockingly when he comes to realize the untenable nature of this predicament of his own choosing. Long accustomed to separating his humanity, represented by his wife and home, from the authoritarian nature of his job of knocking heads and working with sadists, he falls apart when that division falls apart.
Watson brightens a fairly minor role as a woman who discovers her backbone in this cruel frontier.
Benoit Delhomme's cinematography makes one feel the heat and oppression of the environment. The music by Cave and Warren Ellis has a haunting edge that isn't quite western or blues or period music but a beautiful, original work that supports the action yet stands completely on its own.
THE PROPOSITION
U.K. Film Council presents a Surefire production of an Autonomous and Jackie O Prods. production
Credits:
Director: John Hillcoat
Writer: Nick Cave
Producers: Chiara Menage, Cat Villiers
Executive producers: Sara Giles, Michael Hamlyn, Chris Auty, Norman Humphrey, James Atherton, Michael Henry, Robert Jones
Director of photography: Benoit Delhomme
Production designer: Chris Kennedy
Costumes: Margot Wilson
Music: Nick Cave, Warren Ellis
Editor: Jon Gregory
Cast:
Charlie: Guy Pearce
Captain Stanley: Ray Winstone
Arthur: Danny Huston
Jellon Lamb: John Hurt
Fletcher: David Wenham
Martha: Emily Watson
Stoat: Tom Budge
Mikey: Richard Wilson
Running time -- 104 minutes
No MPAA rating...
The film's bloodiness, both suggested and depicted, could limit its appeal. But a western, especially an Australian one, may just seem new again to audiences. That and an outstanding cast, which includes Guy Pearce, Ray Winstone, Danny Huston, Emily Watson and William Hurt could lead to international boxoffice strength.
The story takes place in the aftermath of an outrageous act of violence. The perpetrators are a gang of ruthless bushrangers lead by three Irish brothers named Burns, who see all English and all law officers as their enemy. But the slaughter has so horrified Charlie Burns (Pearce) that he quits the gang in order to protect his mentally fragile and innocent brother Mikey (Richard Wilson) from their psychotic older brother Arthur (Huston).
In a furious gunfight, Capt. Stanley (Winstone), an English policeman brought to the Outback to "civilize this land," captures the two brothers. Knowing he will never be able to track down Arthur in his hiding place in the badlands, the captain makes an despicable proposition to Charlie: To save Mikey from the gallows, he must track down and kill Arthur.
As Charlie heads into the unforgiving desert, the story splits in two to witness what happens to both men. In town, locals are enraged to learn that Stanley released a killer he had in custody. His superior, Fletcher (David Wenham), not only pressures Stanley to do something about the renegade Aborigines, but incites a mob into flogging Mikey nearly to death, which dooms the proposition.
Meanwhile, Stanley struggles to shield his innocent wife Martha Watson) from the harsh realities of this brutal land. Mostly, he wants to keep from her the truth about what happened to her friend during the Burns gang's slaughter.
In the desert, Charlie is attacked and wounded by Aborigines but saved by Arthur, who takes Charlie to his hideout. A bounty hunter (Hurt) nearly captures the entire gang before Arthur again saves his brother. When Charlie finally tells Arthur that Mikey will be hung, the gang rides back to town for a showdown.
Cave's story unfolds with the unmistakable rhythms of a tragedy foretold: Characters advance toward destinies they cannot avoid. Given these people and these circumstances, things are inevitable.
The actors make the most of these juicy roles. Pearce plays things close to his chest, unwilling to show his hand until the last moment, yet grim certitude is writ large on his face. Huston is a larger-than-life figure, a villain of Shakespearian proportions, who glories in blood and needs his enemies as much as his friends. He is a man unhinged long ago by the desert and English oppression.
Winstone unravels shockingly when he comes to realize the untenable nature of this predicament of his own choosing. Long accustomed to separating his humanity, represented by his wife and home, from the authoritarian nature of his job of knocking heads and working with sadists, he falls apart when that division falls apart.
Watson brightens a fairly minor role as a woman who discovers her backbone in this cruel frontier.
Benoit Delhomme's cinematography makes one feel the heat and oppression of the environment. The music by Cave and Warren Ellis has a haunting edge that isn't quite western or blues or period music but a beautiful, original work that supports the action yet stands completely on its own.
THE PROPOSITION
U.K. Film Council presents a Surefire production of an Autonomous and Jackie O Prods. production
Credits:
Director: John Hillcoat
Writer: Nick Cave
Producers: Chiara Menage, Cat Villiers
Executive producers: Sara Giles, Michael Hamlyn, Chris Auty, Norman Humphrey, James Atherton, Michael Henry, Robert Jones
Director of photography: Benoit Delhomme
Production designer: Chris Kennedy
Costumes: Margot Wilson
Music: Nick Cave, Warren Ellis
Editor: Jon Gregory
Cast:
Charlie: Guy Pearce
Captain Stanley: Ray Winstone
Arthur: Danny Huston
Jellon Lamb: John Hurt
Fletcher: David Wenham
Martha: Emily Watson
Stoat: Tom Budge
Mikey: Richard Wilson
Running time -- 104 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 9/12/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
SYDNEY -- Emily Watson, John Hurt, Ray Winstone and David Wenham have been cast alongside Guy Pearce in the Australia/United Kingdom feature The Proposition, which began shooting Monday in Queensland, Australia. The film, set in the early 1800s, was written by singer Nick Cave for director John Hillcoat. Chris Brown is producing in collaboration with Jackie O'Sullivan in Australia and Cat Villiers and Chiara Menage of Britain's Autonomous Films. Financing details for the independent picture are yet to be revealed.
- 10/12/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Subtitled "a study for a portrait of Francis Bacon," writer-director John Maybury's tedious composition about diabolical artists and the models and lovers they abuse premiered at Cannes, with stateside distributor Strand Releasing looking at a minor attraction on the art house circuit.
Starring Derek Jacobi as Bacon, "Love Is the Devil" is heavy on atmosphere, and its distorted visuals approximate the bleak imagery of Bacon (1909-92), one of the better-known British painters of the century. While it concentrates on just a few years in Bacon's life, Maybury's film is still overly ambitious and busy, essentially going through a laundry list of woes and mean little activities but not pursuing the often nasty subject matter to its most unnerving revelations.
Alas, one is more shocked by the conventional storytelling and hokey approach to what could potentially have been a searing experience. Chronicling Bacon's intense relationship with George Dyer (Daniel Craig), a thief who breaks into his residence and stays when the artist invites him to bed, "Love Is the Devil" has several striking sequences, but its grand and grim vision is disappointingly slim and unengaging.
While Bacon uses him as a model, Dyer slowly unwinds and goes bonkers, having abattoir dreams with bloody apparitions. Hanging with the exceedingly corrosive artist and his rotting pals, Dyer develops a taste for boozing and brooding and nearly commits suicide. Misanthropic and sociopathic, needy-in-his-own-way Bacon keeps Dyer around because the younger man is handy in the bedroom.
Typical of this sketchy film, one scene is set aside to show that Dyer is adept at inflicting pain with cigarettes and belts. Showing Bacon the sexual masochist is so easy, the cocky filmmakers overstate the opposite truth -- in social and personal relationships he's a sadistic SOB. In case we're having trouble getting the message, there's helpful narration and voice-overs, with Bacon's "optimistic about nothing" attitude carried to an irredeemable extreme in his ignoring Dyer's pleas for help.
Tilda Swinton, Anne Lambton and Karl Johnson fairly ooze across the screen as horrid pub pals of Bacon. But this grotesque chorus of upper-crust ghouls becomes tiresome, and so do the predictable class conflicts between Bacon and Dyer.
Through it all, Jacobi and Craig give passionate performances that almost redeem the film.
LOVE IS THE DEVIL
Strand Releasing
BBC Films, Premiere Heure, Uplink
A BFI production
In association with Partners in Crime
Writer-director: John Maybury
Producer: Chiara Menage
Executive producers: Ben Gibson, Frances-Anne Solomon, Patrice Haddad, Asai Takashi
Director of photography: John Mathieson
Production designer: Alan Macdonald
Editor: Daniel Goddard
Costume designer: Annie Symons
Music: Ryuichi Sakamoto
Casting: Mary Selway
Color/stereo
Cast:
Francis Bacon: Derek Jacobi
George Dyer: Daniel Craig
Muriel Belcher: Tilda Swinton
Isabel: Anne Lambton
Daniel: Adrian Scarborough
Deakin: Karl Johnson
Running time -- 90 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Starring Derek Jacobi as Bacon, "Love Is the Devil" is heavy on atmosphere, and its distorted visuals approximate the bleak imagery of Bacon (1909-92), one of the better-known British painters of the century. While it concentrates on just a few years in Bacon's life, Maybury's film is still overly ambitious and busy, essentially going through a laundry list of woes and mean little activities but not pursuing the often nasty subject matter to its most unnerving revelations.
Alas, one is more shocked by the conventional storytelling and hokey approach to what could potentially have been a searing experience. Chronicling Bacon's intense relationship with George Dyer (Daniel Craig), a thief who breaks into his residence and stays when the artist invites him to bed, "Love Is the Devil" has several striking sequences, but its grand and grim vision is disappointingly slim and unengaging.
While Bacon uses him as a model, Dyer slowly unwinds and goes bonkers, having abattoir dreams with bloody apparitions. Hanging with the exceedingly corrosive artist and his rotting pals, Dyer develops a taste for boozing and brooding and nearly commits suicide. Misanthropic and sociopathic, needy-in-his-own-way Bacon keeps Dyer around because the younger man is handy in the bedroom.
Typical of this sketchy film, one scene is set aside to show that Dyer is adept at inflicting pain with cigarettes and belts. Showing Bacon the sexual masochist is so easy, the cocky filmmakers overstate the opposite truth -- in social and personal relationships he's a sadistic SOB. In case we're having trouble getting the message, there's helpful narration and voice-overs, with Bacon's "optimistic about nothing" attitude carried to an irredeemable extreme in his ignoring Dyer's pleas for help.
Tilda Swinton, Anne Lambton and Karl Johnson fairly ooze across the screen as horrid pub pals of Bacon. But this grotesque chorus of upper-crust ghouls becomes tiresome, and so do the predictable class conflicts between Bacon and Dyer.
Through it all, Jacobi and Craig give passionate performances that almost redeem the film.
LOVE IS THE DEVIL
Strand Releasing
BBC Films, Premiere Heure, Uplink
A BFI production
In association with Partners in Crime
Writer-director: John Maybury
Producer: Chiara Menage
Executive producers: Ben Gibson, Frances-Anne Solomon, Patrice Haddad, Asai Takashi
Director of photography: John Mathieson
Production designer: Alan Macdonald
Editor: Daniel Goddard
Costume designer: Annie Symons
Music: Ryuichi Sakamoto
Casting: Mary Selway
Color/stereo
Cast:
Francis Bacon: Derek Jacobi
George Dyer: Daniel Craig
Muriel Belcher: Tilda Swinton
Isabel: Anne Lambton
Daniel: Adrian Scarborough
Deakin: Karl Johnson
Running time -- 90 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 10/7/1998
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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