Lavish, but uninvolving musical about a film director trying to assemble his latest movie. He doesn‘t have a script or even a story yet. Ironically, this update of Fellini’s 8 ½ has barely a thread of a story itself. The drama’s raisin d’etre appears to be the extravagant musical numbers. The problem is, they just aren’t very good. Songs “Be Italian” and “Cinema Italiano” both appear midway through the film to add some needed life. They are at least vibrant set pieces. As for the performances, they’re underwritten. The various women in his life (wife, mistress, star, costume designer, etc) wander into his life to sing a number and then wander off just as soon as they had appeared. Only actress Marion Cotillard playing his neglected wife, evokes any sort of emotional response from the viewer. She actually gives what could be called a performance. For awhile, when she’s on screen, the audience begins to care.
Menu
4 Responses
From your review, I think the lack of storyline and all the characters wandering in and out are in essence Fellini-esque. La Dulce Vita was like that with Marcello and his long suffering neglected girlfriend and the endless cast of rich characters wandering in and out. I think perhaps that kind of avant garde “lost” doesn’t resonate with today’s instant gratification society who views that kind of psyche as cliche. Hmm, I’m still dying to see the movie though! ;P
The reason the film didn’t resonate with me had nothing to do with being avant garde or needing instant gratification. A Single Man was a quiet, low key charcater study and I loved that. This film had a poorly realized story with uninteresting characters.
As you might’ve been able to tell from my list of the best films of the year, this just makes the cut for me because I felt like it picked up around the middle and even though I acknowledge its flaws and basically agree with the points in your review, I still think it’s a pretty terrific film. Not as good as CHICAGO though… (even though I relate to this more)
Yes, perhaps the memory of his having directed Chicago was also in my mind. This film suffers in the comparison.