They deserve to bloom once
Movies
Forget about film criticism
for a moment. It’s totally subjective, as well as a bit of a scam; let’s be
honest.
Every movie fan has that one
actor that they would watch in anything, quality be
damned — it could be a great movie, an awful TV show, a staged reading of the
Magna Carta, or even a court-mandated trash pickup
along the side of the highway. And it’s not just a physical thing, though the
object of this adoration is usually quite swoonworthy.
Whatever “it” is, they’ve got it. For me, this person is Chow Yun-Fat.
I’ve devoured Hong Kong classics like John Woo’s The Killer and Ringo Lam’s City on Fire, endured stateside swill
like The Replacement Killers, and
bawled my way through the repressed romance of the awesome Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and the not-even-that-good Anna and the King. Chow’s been absent
from American screens for a couple of years, and before he plunders the
multiplex this May in the final Pirates
of the Caribbean installment, he’s portraying a charismatically evil
emperor in Curse of the Golden Flower, the latest eye-popping epic from arthouse mainstay Zhang Yimou,
director of Hero and House of Flying Daggers.
Zhang calls upon his former
leading lady Gong Li (last seen in Miami
Vice) to play opposite Chow as his formidable Empress, whose husband is
plotting her ruination by plying her with a rare fungus designed to relieve her
of her sanity. The reasoning behind the betrayal becomes clear as we meet the
Emperor’s three sons, each more weak-willed than the last. The Empress learns
of the plot against her from a surprise ally with secret ties to two of the men
in her life, leading to a vicious power struggle between the resourceful
Empress and the cruel Emperor and climaxing with a majestic, Two Towers-worthy
battle scene pitting the forces aligned with each half of the warring couple.
Comparison to Zhang’s
flawless Hero is understandable
though possibly unfair, as Golden Flower couldn’t possibly measure up. The former is a heartbreaking exercise in
elegance, while the latter features over-the-top performances serving an
occasionally puzzling storyline with no clear protagonist, making emotional
investment tough. But Zhang’s visuals are dependably astonishing, whether it’s
the Day-Glo opulence of the Tang Dynasty palace, the Emperor’s silent,
gravity-defying henchmen, or the buttery cleavage brimming over yards and yards
of rich brocade.
So Chow-wise, does Golden Flower attain Hard Boiled heights or sink to Bulletproof Monk depths? Truthfully,
this frustrating film falls somewhere in between, a melodramatic mix of
Shakespearean tragedy, John Sayles’ Lone
Star, 1944’s Gaslight, and The
Doors’ song “The End.” But then Chow fills the screen, all lusty glower and
serene power, and I resign myself to the fact that no matter how sudsy or
excessive this nonetheless stunningly shot film is, I
will likely make time to see it again.
Before the nouvelle vague swept over the French
landscape in the mid ’50s with its discreet sensibilities, Christian-Jaque won Best Director at the 1952 Cannes Film Festival
for Fanfan La Tulipe,
a bombastic swashbuckler about a loveable rogue who stirs up trouble by defying
authority and enchanting the ladies. Charming GérardPhilipe stars as Fanfan, the
guest of dishonor at a forced wedding until he meets Adeline (Italian siren
Gina Lollobrigida, her abundant allure on full
display), thought by Fanfan to be a gypsy but instead
a deft military recruiter. So Fanfan joins Louis XV’s army and fantasizes about marrying the King’s lovely
daughter, much to Adeline’s growing dismay.
Of course you know how Fanfan La Tulipe will end, and it is sweetly dated in its broad, unsubtle comedy and harmless
misogyny. Plus we’re so used to cinematic combat bolstered by wire-fu and Foley
artistry that earthbound swordplay that doesn’t sound like an underworld iron
forge seems somehow lacking. But it’s such fun, with
popular French actor Philipe (he would succumb to
cancer at age 36, just seven years later) doing all his own stunts and looking
as though he’s having the time of his life. They don’t make them like this
anymore. Well, they do, but they cheat.
Curse of the Golden Flower (R), directed by Zhang Yimou, opens Friday, January
12, at Little Theatres | Fanfan La Tulipe (NR), directed by Christian-Jaque, plays the George Eastman House’s Dryden Theatre
Friday, January 12, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, January 14, at 4:30 p.m.
This article appears in Jan 10-16, 2007.
