Haven't read the book in years and was very much looking forward to watching this but from the opening shot I knew I was in for a big disappointment. It looked and felt like an episode of a period TV series, even making the first shot a quick flashback to last weeks episode. It felt like a cheap dated effect.
Drab lifeless lighting throughout the film managed to make some beautiful sets and costumes look flat and uninteresting. Surely the warmth of candlelight would give someone in the lighting department a bit of inspiration, a chance to increase the sensual feelings necessary for a lot of the laughable debauchery scenes? Pedestrian, bland, painted by numbers, adequate acting but it all lacked a decent script, an editor who gave a damn and grr maybe a bit of soul? Occasionally it lifted itself up out of the mire (probably scenes from the beginning of the project) only to come crashing down again as everybody got bored and even more disheartened.
I was astonished to find how quickly I got bored watching this which is such a shame as it could have been something so much better.
Drab lifeless lighting throughout the film managed to make some beautiful sets and costumes look flat and uninteresting. Surely the warmth of candlelight would give someone in the lighting department a bit of inspiration, a chance to increase the sensual feelings necessary for a lot of the laughable debauchery scenes? Pedestrian, bland, painted by numbers, adequate acting but it all lacked a decent script, an editor who gave a damn and grr maybe a bit of soul? Occasionally it lifted itself up out of the mire (probably scenes from the beginning of the project) only to come crashing down again as everybody got bored and even more disheartened.
I was astonished to find how quickly I got bored watching this which is such a shame as it could have been something so much better.