In 1990, the Motion Picture
Association of America invented the NC-17 rating to slap on Henry
& June (Saturday, April 16, Dryden Theatre, 8 p.m., 271-4090, $6),
Philip Kaufman’s look at the stormy and steamy relationship between writers
Anais Nin and Henry Miller and their muse, Henry’s wife June. Not explicit
enough for an X rating but too dirty for an R, the MPAA decreed that if you
were under 17 you couldn’t see Henry
& June, no matter what your parents said. This rating became equal to a
cinematic kiss of death, with Henry &
June and Showgirls as the only
NC-17 films ever to gross over $10 million.
Maria de Medeiros, she of the lovely
silent-film face, plays Nin as a woman puzzled and intrigued by the larger-than-life
Millers, portrayed by the coarse, funny Fred Ward. See also a 19-year-old Uma
Thurman, all lush and throaty as the woman who inspired these two literary
giants to great heights. Luckily, the Oscar-nominated cinematography showcasing
1930s Paris distracts from the forgivably hammy melodrama.
Henry
& June serves as an interesting anthropological snapshot to illustrate
what caused knee-jerk reactions in the pre-Clinton era — the swearing, the
sexuality — but 15 years later it all seems so quaint.
— Dayna Papaleo
This article appears in Apr 13-19, 2005.
