2009/09/05

A Quietly Noisy Relaxed Intensity


Mademoiselle - (1966)

Directed by Tony Richardson

Starring Jeanne Moreau, Ettore Manni,

Keith Skinner


Man, Tony Richardson. I think I'm all for making fall season about as many Tony Richardson films as I can watch. As a matter of fact, Mademoiselle will be shown at IF:AF on November 18.



Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? -

(1966) Directed by Mike Nichols;

Starring Elizabeth Taylor and

Richard Burton


You'd think there was gold under their skin the way George and Martha tear into each other. Its so merciless and unrelenting. Watching the film, you've very little idea what their limits are until the end. They scalpel into one another with such surgical discipline, that is at the same time as intense as Van Gogh's brushstroke as it is as seemingly spontaneous as a Jackson Pollack. However intense or spontaneous there is subtle method to their madness but even so when they underestimate the other's blows they are at the drop of a dime taken by surprise when the attack billows beyond control from either side.

No comments: