Joe's Corner: Beyond The Prisoner Of Paradise Sea
Joe's Corner: Mixed Bag
1. "Beyond The Sea". Jamie Fox and Cate Blanchett have done such incredible jobs as Ray Charles and Katherine Hepburn recently that they've set the bar mighty high, and even an actor as good as Kevin Spacey has a lot to live up to. In "Beyond The Sea", Spacey's long-time dream project... a biography of Bobby Darin... he does a decent job, but never quite makes you forget you're watching Kevin Spacey PLAYING Bobby Darin, the way Fox and Blanchett make you forget.
I know Darin's MUSIC, of course, and the fact that he was married to Sandra Dee, but beyond that I don't really know much about the details of his life, or how close this film sticks to reality. I suspect there's a lot of make-believe in this movie. Some of it works, and some of it doesn't.
What works terrifically is Spacey's singing... no dubbing here, folks, Kevin Spacey sings Bobby Darin and sings at least as well as Darin himself. The thorny issue of his being eight years older than Darin was when he died (and 24 years older than he was when he had his first hit) is dealt with rather imaginatively, and Spacey is clearly having the time of his life playing this role, and it's hard not to "catch" his enthusiasm.
BUT... he never quite totally buries his own personality beneath the role of the person he's playing. And the rest of the cast often seems to be struggling with their roles, particularly the bland Kate Bosworth as Sandra Dee. It's also slightly distressing to see performers of the calibre of Greta Scacchi and John Goodman given such nothing characters to play (in Scacchi's case, one of the oldest stereotypes in the book). And the musical numbers? Well, I realize that much of the film is supposed to taking place in Darin's mental fantasy world, but the film still often comes to a grinding halt when Darin suddenly bursts into song in the middle of a conversation like he was in a thirties musical. Understand, I have no problem with musicals... I loved "Chicago", "Moulin Rouge" and especially the "Once More With Feeling" musical episode of "Buffy The Vampire Slayer"... but it takes a real panache to pull off this kind of thing that "Beyond The Sea" doesn't quite have. A great musical makes you feel it's all actually taking place in front of you, and this film is just a little too artificial and forced, a little too often. And it skips over huge chunks of Darin's musical career while giving short shrift to some significant songs of his.
What does it all come down to? Well, have you ever had someone remark about a musical film that you might as well skip seeing it and buy the soundtrack instead? Well, even if you never have, you are now.
2. "Prisoner Of Paradise". The Parkway Theatre, at 48th and Chicago in Minneapolis, has just finished a run of the best American independent film of 2004, "Mind The Gap". Now they're bringing us the equally memorable (for very different reason) "Prisoner Of Paradise".
The Holocaust has been one of the most common subject of documentaries over the past couple of decades, but there are always powerful new stories to tell, and this is certainly one of them. It's the story of Kurt Gorren, German Jew, who was one of the biggest celebrities of the Berlin stage (and German film) in the 1920's and thirties, occasionally mocking the rising Nazi party. This came back to haunt him when they came to power, and Gorren became a prisoner in the Nazi concentration camp, Terriesenstadt. But when the Nazis decided to film a fake documentary "proving" that the camp was a paradise on Earth in which Jews were pampered, they turned to the most logical person to direct it... Kurt Gorren.
If you had to chose between being executed or making such a film, what would you have done? Not an easy question to answer, of course... and this film doesn't make for easy viewing. But it is never less than riveting, asking the viewer to answer virtually unanswerable questions and painting an unforgettable portrait of a tragic time and place, and a man who found it impossible to see beyond his own celebrity and realize what was going on around him until it was too late. This kind of movie is a very difficult "sell"... not many people want to go out to a movie and ponder the kind of issues "Prisoner Of Paradise" raises. But anyone who thinks that movies should at least occasionally ask difficult questions and that films don't always have to make you feel good to be good films will appreciate this film. And they'll also be thankful that independent theatres like the Parkway are still around to bring us little masterpieces like "Prisoner Of Paradise" when they slip through the cracks at the chains.
1. "Beyond The Sea". Jamie Fox and Cate Blanchett have done such incredible jobs as Ray Charles and Katherine Hepburn recently that they've set the bar mighty high, and even an actor as good as Kevin Spacey has a lot to live up to. In "Beyond The Sea", Spacey's long-time dream project... a biography of Bobby Darin... he does a decent job, but never quite makes you forget you're watching Kevin Spacey PLAYING Bobby Darin, the way Fox and Blanchett make you forget.
I know Darin's MUSIC, of course, and the fact that he was married to Sandra Dee, but beyond that I don't really know much about the details of his life, or how close this film sticks to reality. I suspect there's a lot of make-believe in this movie. Some of it works, and some of it doesn't.
What works terrifically is Spacey's singing... no dubbing here, folks, Kevin Spacey sings Bobby Darin and sings at least as well as Darin himself. The thorny issue of his being eight years older than Darin was when he died (and 24 years older than he was when he had his first hit) is dealt with rather imaginatively, and Spacey is clearly having the time of his life playing this role, and it's hard not to "catch" his enthusiasm.
BUT... he never quite totally buries his own personality beneath the role of the person he's playing. And the rest of the cast often seems to be struggling with their roles, particularly the bland Kate Bosworth as Sandra Dee. It's also slightly distressing to see performers of the calibre of Greta Scacchi and John Goodman given such nothing characters to play (in Scacchi's case, one of the oldest stereotypes in the book). And the musical numbers? Well, I realize that much of the film is supposed to taking place in Darin's mental fantasy world, but the film still often comes to a grinding halt when Darin suddenly bursts into song in the middle of a conversation like he was in a thirties musical. Understand, I have no problem with musicals... I loved "Chicago", "Moulin Rouge" and especially the "Once More With Feeling" musical episode of "Buffy The Vampire Slayer"... but it takes a real panache to pull off this kind of thing that "Beyond The Sea" doesn't quite have. A great musical makes you feel it's all actually taking place in front of you, and this film is just a little too artificial and forced, a little too often. And it skips over huge chunks of Darin's musical career while giving short shrift to some significant songs of his.
What does it all come down to? Well, have you ever had someone remark about a musical film that you might as well skip seeing it and buy the soundtrack instead? Well, even if you never have, you are now.
2. "Prisoner Of Paradise". The Parkway Theatre, at 48th and Chicago in Minneapolis, has just finished a run of the best American independent film of 2004, "Mind The Gap". Now they're bringing us the equally memorable (for very different reason) "Prisoner Of Paradise".
The Holocaust has been one of the most common subject of documentaries over the past couple of decades, but there are always powerful new stories to tell, and this is certainly one of them. It's the story of Kurt Gorren, German Jew, who was one of the biggest celebrities of the Berlin stage (and German film) in the 1920's and thirties, occasionally mocking the rising Nazi party. This came back to haunt him when they came to power, and Gorren became a prisoner in the Nazi concentration camp, Terriesenstadt. But when the Nazis decided to film a fake documentary "proving" that the camp was a paradise on Earth in which Jews were pampered, they turned to the most logical person to direct it... Kurt Gorren.
If you had to chose between being executed or making such a film, what would you have done? Not an easy question to answer, of course... and this film doesn't make for easy viewing. But it is never less than riveting, asking the viewer to answer virtually unanswerable questions and painting an unforgettable portrait of a tragic time and place, and a man who found it impossible to see beyond his own celebrity and realize what was going on around him until it was too late. This kind of movie is a very difficult "sell"... not many people want to go out to a movie and ponder the kind of issues "Prisoner Of Paradise" raises. But anyone who thinks that movies should at least occasionally ask difficult questions and that films don't always have to make you feel good to be good films will appreciate this film. And they'll also be thankful that independent theatres like the Parkway are still around to bring us little masterpieces like "Prisoner Of Paradise" when they slip through the cracks at the chains.
posted by Joe Bunce at
4:03 PM
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