Opinions of Portrait of a Lady

[Harrison]

Thanks for your comments on Portrait of a Lady. I was wondering what you
mean by "a thankless role" - and it's by Christian >Bale< not Bayles.:)

H
--
---------------------------------------------------------------
Visit the Christian Bale WWW Site and newsgroup
http://www.interlog.com/~cbale
alt.movies.christian-bale
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"He's a good man, Mr. Verloc."
"I love you, Winnie!"

Ken Rudolph <ke...@worldnet.att.net> wrote in article
<32CB1A...@worldnet.att.net>...
> Iron wrote:
>
> > Could someone give his opinion on Jane Campion's "portrait of a lady"
> > with N. Kidman, B. Hershey and J. Malkovich ?
> >
>
> After seeing the way the cultural slobs on this newsgroup have been
> savaging "The Piano" (a film I greatly respect), I'm not at all sure
> that I want to venture an opinion of "Portrait of a Lady" here.
>
> But I will anyway. Beautiful photography, sets, costumes, an unerring
> period piece about some 19th century upper-class Americans living in
> England and Italy. I can't speak about the script adaptation, since I
> haven't read the book: but the story worked for me, up to a point.
> Kidman gives something of a one-dimentional performance, which seemed to
> be rather weak compared to past heroines in Campion films. Hershey
> gives a *very* strong performance in something of an enigmatic role.
> Malkovitch underplays an evil character; and I found myself disliking
> him intensely (the character must have gotten under my skin.) Admirable
> work by John Guilgud, as usual, Christian Bayles (in a thankless role),
> and a very nifty performance by Martin Donovan as a male version of
> Camille. Plus a nice return to films by Shelly Winters. Altogether
> average plus as these sorts of movies go.
>
> --Ken Rudolph (ke...@worldnet.att.net)
>