Rejoice! Stephen Fry's THE HIPPOPOTAMUS adaptation arrives on screen via John Jencks

Attention, please: For anyone who savors the English language in all its succulent, incisive, trippingly-off-the-tongue glory, Stephen Fry -- one of the great humorists of our time -- is back with an adaptation of his comic novel THE HIPPOPOTAMUS, brought to the screen by director John Jencks and a quartet of writers that includes Blanche McIntyre, Tom Hodgson, John Finnemore, and Robin Hill. It is, from first scene onward, a non-stop delight, one that Mr. Fry himself calls, "Frankly terrific. In fact, probably better than the original source material."

Not having read the novel (TrustMovies knows Fry best from his film and television work), I can only say that Mr. Jencks (shown at right) and his crew have captured Fry's sense of humor -- quirky, mad, inclusive, smart, satirical, and hugely funny -- quite well, and have managed to tell a rather complicated tale of mystery and miracles, life and death, creativity and sensuality, desire and need extremely well, drawing fine performances from a cast that includes actors both known and not-so on these shores, and a great one from the movie's leading man, Roger Allam, below, who would immediately become an "Oscar" contender in any just universe.

Mr. Allam portrays a "blocked" poet named Ted who has now morphed into a slovenly, cynical theater critic. One of the movie's early and juiciest scenes discovers him, drunk (as near-usual), sitting in a London theater observing a truly awful performance of Shakespeare by a no-talent director and his cast (shown below, chosen clearly for its looks and maybe fame, certainly not for its talent) that Allam's character rightly, loudly and vociferously -- in the very best Queen's English -- boos off the stage. This scene is so funny, shocking, intelligent and deserved that it immediately becomes a "classic."

Then Ted is asked by a dying member (Emily Berrington, below) of a family with whom he has long been involved to look into the occurrence of miracles on the family's estate. This he does, for payment of course, and soon he is chock-a-block in plots and schemes, all of which allow Mr. Fry (together with his adapters) to explore everything from religion and science to language and desire, which he does in his own surprising and commanding manner, which is then brought to great life by the assembled crew and cast.

This would include some folk we've often seen, for instance the wonderful Fiona Shaw (below, right, with Allam) and John Standing, along with some actors new to us but sure to be seen again soon, such as

a young fellow by the name of Tommy Knight (below), who plays a relative who may be key to these "miracles," and a young actress named Emma Curtis, who just might become the new subject for our miracle worker.

Along for the ride are such fun actors as Tim McInnery (below, left), playing an over-the-top theater director with major health problems, and Lyne Renee (below, right), in the role of Ms Curtis' sexy mother. Everyone from Russell Tovey to Geraldine Somerville to Matthew Modine make appearances here, and they're all just fine.

But mostly it's Mr. Allam, with his spot-on delivery of Mr. Fry-and-adapters' delightful dialog, that makes this movie such an amazement. You, as were we, are likely to come away from The Hippopotamus with a renewed appreciation of the English language -- and what can be achieved with it by folk who really know and care about what they're doing.

From Lightyear Entertainment and running a lean 89 minutes, the movie -- after playing around the country on the theatrical and "special engagement" circuit (two of its final stops are here in Coconut Grove and Naples, Florida, this coming Monday, July 31 at the Silverspot Cinemas) -- will make its debut on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital this Tuesday, August 1, for purchase and rental. However you choose to view, do make sure you see it.

Note: Once you've viewed the film, be sure to watch the wonderful Q&A included in the Blu-ray's Special Features (and as part of the theatrical program, too). It features actor Allam, the film's director and lead writer, and Stephen Fry himself. What they all have to say about the filmmaking process, transforming a novel into a movie, creativity, and how things get done (or don't) 

is very nearly as delightful and edifying as the film itself.

The blind are leading the blind once again in Ido Fluk's film about faith, THE TICKET

Down the decades we've seen a number of films that track the journey of a person from the world of the sighted into that of the blind (the most recent would probably be the documentary, Notes on Blindness, while one of the best narrative versions would have to be Eskil Vogt's amazing Blind). In THE TICKET, the new movie written and directed by Ido Fluk (shown below), however, we go in exactly the opposite direction, as a blind man suddenly and rather miraculously wakes up one morning with his sight completely intact.

Once the change occurs, the big questions that soon arise are whether or not our "hero" -- played by Dan Stevens, shown above and below, the most ubiquitous actor currently around, with two films opening just this week (the other is Colossal) plus another huge hit already in theaters and a hit TV show currently unspooling) -- will change and grow or simply become even more of the the prick he most definitely seems to already be.

The answer that filmmaker Fluk gives us is "yes" to both, as well as to several other questions raised by this earnest and all-too-obvious film.

These further questions involve why the miracle man's wife (Malin Akerman, below left) chose this guy with whom to make a life. There were other blind folk at the center she visited. Was he simply a "project" for her?  And what about his blind best friend and work mate, played by Oliver Platt (below, right)? Is this guy jealous of our hero's new eyesight, not to mention his wife and son? Yes, and yes again. But so what? All this is not really Mr. Fluk's point. No, his movie is all about faith, and what the lack of it can do, as is apparent from the story/joke told about god, prayer, and a lottery ticket, which is handed to us as the film opens, is repeated again midway and then once again -- just in case we didn't get the point.

You can pray all you want but you can't win the prize if you don't have enough faith to first purchase the ticket. There is undoubtedly a way to make this lesson apply and adhere to a fictional story, but Fluk has not found it. The characterizations of everyone -- hero on down -- are paltry and the movie is glacially paced. The performances are part and parcel with the characterizations: only as good as the enormous lack of detail that the filmmaker provides. This includes those of Kerry Bishé (as the "other woman") and Skylar Gaertner (below, left) as the protagonist's young son. Worse, we have no clue what kind of guy our protag was before he got his sight. In terms of real characterization, this movie comes as close to running on empty as any I've recently seen.

Mr. Stevens is a very committed actor, and he is always as good as the role he is given. This is true here, too, though he's been handed the most embarrassing "breakdown" scene on film since poor Ewen Leslie's in The Daughter. As Stevens cries and moans and writhes and blubbers, you just want to scream, "Cut -- for Christ's sake, Cut!" If this movie is indeed about faith, it is so poorly conceived and executed that, by its end, audiences will find whatever faith they possess sorely tested -- if not knocked for a complete loop.

From Shout! Factory and running a too-long 100 minutes, The Ticket opens this Friday, April 7, in New York City at the Cinema Village and simultaneously On Demand most everywhere else.

UNDER THE SUN OF SATAN: Volume 2 of The Films of Maurice Pialat hits Blu-ray/DVD

Maurice Pialat made UNDER THE SUN OF SATAN (Sous le soleil de Satan) toward the end of his 44-year career, and the film exhibits nearly everything that fans love and detractors call out about this divisive French filmmaker. The film proves episodic and rather clunky (smoothness of any kind appears not to have been among Pialat's filmmaking characteristics), yet it deals with subjects so interesting and appealing/appalling -- god, the devil, faith, religion and miracles -- that it is difficult not to become, well, pretty quickly hooked.

Further, Pialat's knack for casting ensures that the leading roles will be played by actors who are not simply believable and talented but who possess a certain charisma that keeps one glued. Here, these includes the likes of Gérard Depardieu, Sandrine Bonnaire, and the director himself (shown at left) who plays one of the three leads with impressive seriousness and strength. The film is based on a novel by Georges Bernanos, which was adapted by for the screen by Pialat and Sylvie Pialat, his wife. Not having read the novel I have little idea how true the Pialats were to the original, but what has come out is a film about a very odd priest named Donissan (Depardieu, shown on poster, top, and below ), his vocation and career as, it turns out, some kind of miracle worker.

Initially, it seems that our priest is simply unsure of himself and maybe in over his head. But as the film progresses -- clunkily, it must be said -- pretty soon he's raising the dead. We also meet Ms Bonnaire, below, playing a young woman who clearly gets around some, having had affairs with two of her town's prominent males -- one a nobleman going bankrupt who would like her to live with him in something close to poverty, the other a married man who doubles as town bigwig.

Before you can say murder-or-maybe-accident-and-then-a-suicide, one of these guys is dead, and soon the responsible person is, too. And then the miracles -- or whatever -- begin.  The film if full of talk, much of it involving religion and faith, god and the devil. We even get a scene with Satan himself -- or maybe it's just Donissan's imagining of him -- who turns out to be gay (appropriate for a priest's fantasy, no?).

Bonnaire is, as always, riveting, while Depardieu has rarely looked sexier than here, in a cassock. And Pialat, as Donissan's mentor and friend, brings enormous caring and concern to the film, which certainly helps us some ways toward feeling that all this is somehow important.

The religious talk/philosophy is interesting but not terribly memorable. And the reactions of Donissan's parishioners to him and his healing powers seem pretty typical of any congregation exposed to "the Lazarus effect."

But is all this simply magical stuff in the guise of religion? Or maybe the reverse. Well, hey -- god works in mysterious ways, right? Because of the film's abrupt and episodic structure, we must piece together certain events and ideas, which is tolerable, I suppose. For some, this sort of filmmaking will seem "rigorous". Others will find it merely clumsy.

TrustMovies joins the latter camp, but due to the strength of the three lead performances (the rest of the cast comes off well, too), he did not find it difficult to stick with and enjoy the film on one level, at least.

From the Cohen Film Collection, Under the Sun of Satan -- running just 98 minutes and carrying the series title of The Film of Maurice Pialat, Volume 2 -- offers a Blu-ray featuring a very good transfer as a two-disc set, the first featuring the film itself, with the second disc containing a wealth of interviews. Both Blu-ray and DVD are available this coming Tuesday, June 14 -- for purchase or rental.

Sylvie Testud in LOURDES, Jessica Hausner's "miracle" movie at Film Forum

It's the quiet accretion of detail that may get to you first regarding LOURDES, the new film from writer/
director Jessica Hausner about that storied place where miracles are said to occur. From the opening shots of a dining room being set up for the infirm to take their meals, it is clear that we're in for something a little different.  Or a lot -- as it turns out.  First we see the room being arran-
ged, then the guards, the nurses, the patients and finally the routine.  All this is accompanied by such anachronous music (think The Song of Bernadette set to elevator muzak) that you might expect some nasty satire in store -- except that the filmmaker's style seems so calm and caring. Or perhaps simply observant?

Ms Hausner, shown at left, uses middle distance and long shots about as well as any filmmaker TrustMovies has seen in some time.  Her slowly roving camera (cinematography by Martin Gschlacht) takes in so much, and her choice of what to show us keeps insistently making us think about what we're seeing, and why, and what it means.  She doesn't provides easy answers, but rather a kind of consistent, continuous search.

Because the film is set in Lourdes, the town of Saint Bernadette, who is said to have experienced that miracle "vision," we of course expect something of the kind to happen here.  We are not disappointed, though neither are we made to feel particularly "good."  Because the film's central character is essayed by the very fine and very smart actress Sylvie Testud (La France, Fear and Trembling, A Loving Father), whose face quietly mirrors the world around her (her body is held in thrall to advanced Multiple Sclerosis), what happens here is anything but simple.

Ms Testud (above, in wheelchair) captures each moment with her slightly mousy face so fully and well that it is hard to imagine any other actress in this role.  She does not simply hold the film together, she makes it work equally with the writer/director by turning the miracle into something so odd and personal that we viewers are forced to confront it on her terms alone.

There are plenty of others here, whose terms we note, as well.  These include the head nurse, played by the still gorgeous Elina Löwensohn (above), who brings severely contrasting moods to the occasion, a middle-aged guard who is drawn to Ms Testud's character (Bruno Todeschini, below); the other sufferers, hoping for help; onlookers during the event, mostly women who evidently come here yearly (or more often? I'm not that acquainted with Lourdes' lore); and the "nurses" who look after the patients and sometimes look after the younger guards on duty (two photos below).  This interesting cast has been assembled with care and Ms Hausner uses it to good advantage.

In the end, we're left left with questions and yearning. We hope for the best, even as we probably reject the very notion of miracles. I wonder if Ms Hausner is exploring the idea of the sacred against the profane?  If so, it seems we're condemned to a state of blessed profanity.  This is such an interesting and unusual film.

Lourdes plays NYC's Film Forum beginning this Wednesday, February 17, for two weeks daily at 1, 3:15, 6, 8, and 10pm.