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Post by Deleted on Jul 30, 2018 17:31:52 GMT
This film has many detractors, here and elsewhere - I think largely due to its pacing - but for me, this production is so exquisitely served, I didn't mind lingering in it for over 160 minutes.  So many elements of it I would rank among the greatest of all time, including its cinematography, score, costumes, and one devilishly beguiling turn from Klaus Maria Brandauer. Meryl Streep, equipped with a flawless Danish accent, gives one of her most relaxed, sensual performances here. Streep often does very interesting things with her hands, but there is such an earthy quality to her movements as Karen Blixen: tunneling her fingers through soil, gently caressing a pen from her lover across her face - I love it. And, on a superficial note, 1985 was the peak of her physical beauty - between this and Plenty, I don't think she's ever looked lovelier. "Sexy" isn't usually a word you'd use to describe one of her myriad personae, but I think it fits her Baroness.  And I don't think I've ever had a bigger case of house envy than I did while watching Out of Africa - the antique chintz, the alabaster walls, the loose curtains - has anyone ever curated a more magical, inviting world? P.S. The historical Karen Blixen's house is now a boutique hotel that doubles as a refuge for giraffes! On my bucket list, for sure.  |
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Post by pacinoyes on Jul 31, 2018 12:41:39 GMT
I'm not a fan of it, but it's a hard movie to hate because of the technical specs like you said. Its also hard to fault Streep or Brandauer here at all but sometimes when you love an actor or actress you can forgive a lot of a movies flaws and get caught up in the actors craft or presence even at the expense of anything else happening within the film.
To me though I read what's happening in that film as a weird intersection of a not so good actor (Redford) and a mostly so-so director (Pollack) and their strange passionate bromance - like The Electric Horseman, Out of Africa, Havana are just an insanely lush trio of films where Pollack shoots (and lights!) Redford in an almost fawning style that it's almost a parody.
Have you ever seen Dance With A Stranger? I bring that up because it's the same year and a is very great female lead performance that I sometimes think Streep would have been interesting to take a crack at - although that sounds weird on paper (very British, very historically precise). I would have traded both of her '85 performances, fine as they are, for that one (but then I'd be without Richardson's........but it's an interesting "what if")
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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2018 14:04:04 GMT
Have you ever seen Dance With A Stranger? I bring that up because it's the same year and a is very great female lead performance that I sometimes think Streep would have been interesting to take a crack at - although that sounds weird on paper (very British, very historically precise). I would have traded both of her '85 performances, fine as they are, for that one (but then I'd be without Richardson's........but it's an interesting "what if") I haven't seen it, but I've always wanted to - Richardson is one of my all time favorites. |
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on Jul 31, 2018 19:48:25 GMT
A top contender for most boring movie of all time. Truly struggled to stay awake while watching it on like a Sunday afternoon lol
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Post by ingmarhepburn on Jul 31, 2018 20:44:57 GMT
I liked it, and I had no problems with its pacing. The performances were fine, the score is wonderful/all-time great, and that aircraft scene is the reason why cinema was invented in the first place.
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Post by taranofprydain on Aug 2, 2018 0:01:05 GMT
Its a masterpiece.
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Post by MsMovieStar on Aug 2, 2018 23:09:00 GMT
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Aug 3, 2018 0:47:44 GMT
I feel jealous of the people that enjoyed this, because my experience with the film was decidedly negative. Streep and Redford didn't have any compelling chemistry. I had no reason to care about their melodramatic little love affair. There's next to no conflict with this relationship, certainly not enough to support the lengthy runtime. The husband character is particularly dull. It would have been dull if he was a possessive jealous asshole but it's even more dull that he doesn't seem to care about anything (no way in hell was this performance Oscar-worthy). Total waste of a character. As for Streep, she was serviceable but her natural charisma felt muted underneath the affectatious accent (it doesn't go down nearly as smoothly as her accent-work in Sophie's Choice) which kept me at an arm's length. Redford is just boring as hell. His rugged everyman persona can produce winning performances with the right material and directing (The Sting, Three Days of the Condor), but here he just feels like a fixture. He meanders through the first half of the film with hardly anything to do or say and then becomes Streep's boytoy in the last portion of the film, where the only conflict comes from his unwillingness to be tied down. In so many words (literally soooo many words), he doesn't want to commit. That's drama, folks.
tl/dr
It's unromantic because Streep and Redford have no chemistry, it's unsexy because it feels like the target audience was 60 year-old women (I think there was one very tame sex scene in this three-hour romantic drama  ), and it's tortuously slow because there's almost no compelling tension or conflict in any of the heroine's relationships. |
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Aug 3, 2018 0:49:58 GMT
Have you ever seen Dance With A Stranger? I bring that up because it's the same year and a is very great female lead performance that I sometimes think Streep would have been interesting to take a crack at - although that sounds weird on paper (very British, very historically precise). I would have traded both of her '85 performances, fine as they are, for that one (but then I'd be without Richardson's........but it's an interesting "what if") I probably would have enjoyed Dance with a Stranger more if Streep had played the lead instead of Richardson. Either way, Ian Holm is my MVP. |
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So many elements of it I would rank among the greatest of all time, including its cinematography, score, costumes, and one devilishly beguiling turn from Klaus Maria Brandauer. 
), and it's tortuously slow because there's almost no compelling tension or conflict in any of the heroine's relationships.