Chilly Scenes of Winter.

Review #2193: Chilly Scenes of Winter.

Cast: 

John Heard (Charles Richardson), Mary Beth Hurt (Laura Connelly), Peter Riegert (Sam), Kenneth McMillan (Pete), Gloria Grahame (Clara), Nora Heflin (Betty), Jerry Hardin (Patterson), Tarah Nutter (Susan Richardson), Mark Metcalf (Jim Connelly), and Griffin Dunne (Mark) Written and Directed by Joan Micklin Silver (#1818 - Hester Street and #1988 - Between the Lines)

Review: 

 ''I was determined not to violate the book, which I loved. I wanted the general action to be the same, but my ending was too triumphant. People in the crew kept coming up to me when we were shooting and telling me, 'This is the story of my life.' But when I asked them if it turned out like it did in the movie, they would always admit that it hadn't.''

In 1976, a novel called Chilly Scenes of Winter by Ann Beattie was released into stores, with her having been a regular author in The New Yorker. Three actors in Mark Metcalf, Amy Robinson, and Griffin Dunne were interested to produce the book as a film by purchasing the film rights (after a whole bunch of studios rejected it), much to the interest of Joan Micklin Silver (who read some of Beattie's stories) and liked the book. Claire Townsend liked it when she worked at Fox and when she moved to United Artists to be a production executive, she eventually got them to finance the project and also eventually get the idea of Silver to be the one to direct (the group had liked her anyway). The group stayed with their favoring of John Heard to play the read (rather than cast someone like John Ritter as favored by UA) while going with Mary Beth Hurt to act opposite him when Meryl Streep apparently wanted...Sam Waterston to play opposite her. It was United Artists who botched the film when it came for original release in 1979 that had the title of "Head over Heels" because they thought it was a more viable title, with the Heels title coming around as a joke suggestion when UA wouldn't go with the original book title because of some sort of perception that "Chilly" and "Winter" wouldn't sell well as a title. The ending of the film and the one you see now are different in the inclusion of one more thing, namely the idea of a romance that isn't as over as it seems, which actually matched the novel but was not what Silver had in mind. Silver wrote the film herself after approaching Beattie and getting a no (Beattie instead wanted a small part in the film, which ended up with her playing a waitress with no lines). In 1982, United Artists Classics approached her about re-releasing it under the aforementioned Winter title, complete with keeping the ending she had envisioned (which instead of ending with our lead coming home after a jog to a woman is instead one where it just ends on him immediately after the jog). That version had a decidedly less chilly reception to where there is one of those arguments for calling it a "cult classic" (if one is in the Criterion market, look no further?). Amidst of a handful of television films, Silver's next film as a feature director wasn't until 1988's Crossing Delancey.

Well, it is an anatomy of a chilled romance (being set and mostly filmed in Salt Lake City, no less), so I do wonder what exactly UA thought they were going to get by playing it light? It is a crashing, uneasy sense of comedy-drama that isn't the easiest sell but works just right for 92 minutes. Really you could interpret the film as belonging to the fallacies that come in relationships of the heart and with friends, specifically the one where people really can be their own worst enemy. Consider that this is the kind of movie that has someone make someone go to a skin flick and then have a thing about someone seemingly exalting them. Heartbreak happens, but life goes on, regardless of much it stings (such as, say, a friend who betrayed them or, well, losing a love). Wrapped within a melancholic movie that basically harkens to a noir within its first batch of lines of a man wrapped in what he wants (but doesn't have), is the note that comes in clearly at the end: people are a series of contradictions and opportunities that either never came or skipped them by. It is an endearing movie for all of the failures that happen in life. Seeing it now, it seems totally right that Silver had Heard pegged for this role right then and there, because he really does make this role one to look upon not with judgement or outright sympathy but with curiosity. There is something fascinating in seeing that all-consuming energy come into focus with all of the hang-ups and eccentricities that Heard makes in this tightrope-type of act here. It could've easily just been a film about a guy who simply gets a bit weird about a woman for it to go right in the end or just a straight stalker movie but Heard makes it fit right square in the middle in that amusing anatomy of a fall. Hurt makes that idea of chemistry between people who simply have different ideas in mind of who they are to others. Being trapped between the idea of someone who doesn't seem that particularly interesting to them and the other choice of "obsession in the form of a six-pack". One sees her as a puzzle piece that isn't one to easily peg down beyond first appearances, because nobody is that easy to see through or figure out as if they were an object to chase. That scene they share in which they discuss the ideas of boundaries that goes from playful to eye-raising (whether taken literally or not) is pretty much the whole film served on a platter with how they handle it. Roles like this do make me wonder if I should see more movies that have Riegert in them, because even a role where he is just a playful pal that in one scene moves along with a ploy with Heard to just go with playing a prospective couple looking around just so they can "stumble" upon a certain woman through a salesman. Grahame gets to strut in the eyes of mental feebleness for an interesting act to see with Heard. As a whole, it is a wonderful thing to see this film in the way that Silver and company envisioned play out for people to seek out rather than wonder what could have been because of how delightfully uncomfortable it is. It walks that fine line of comedy and drama for a pretty good effort in human frailitiy. 

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.

Amadeus.

Review #1473: Amadeus.

Cast:
F. Murray Abraham (Antonio Salieri), Tom Hulce (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart), Elizabeth Berridge (Constanze Mozart), Roy Dotrice (Leopold Mozart), Simon Callow (Emanuel Schikaneder), Christine Ebersole (Caterina Cavalieri), Jeffrey Jones (Emperor Joseph II), Charles Kay (Count Orsini-Rosenberg), Kenneth McMillan (Michael Schlumberg), Kenny Baker (Parody Commendatore), Lisabeth Bartlett (Papagena), and Richard Frank (Father Vogler) Directed by Miloš Forman (#1164 - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest)

Review:
"Director is little bit of everything, little bit of the writer, little bit of an actor, little bit of an editor, little bit of a costume designer. Good director is the director who chooses for this profession people who are better than he is."

Milos Forman directed twelve films (and one documentary segment) in his life, one comprised of life in Czechoslovakia and abroad in the United States, recieving stature in both places through his interesting films, which started with Black Peter (1964) after years spent studying at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague alongside writing work in Czech comedies, which served as his genre for the three films he made in his native country (with The Firemen's Ball (1967), the last before he left the country, being considered a key piece of the Czechoslovak New Wave) before he left in 1968 due to changes in the country. His films in America were a mix of adaptations of numerous media or biographical in nature (with measured success), which resulted in successes such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), this film, and Man on the Moon (1999).

The film is adapted from the play of the same name by Peter Shaffer (an English playwright behind works such as Equus that served as writer for the film), which had first been performed in 1979 in London (with a Broadway production in 1980). The play took artistic licence in its depiction of Mozart and Salieri, describing the work as "fantasia on the theme of Mozart and Salieri". This was not the first play to push forward the myth (or to be more blunt, a lie) involving Salieri having a hand in the death of his supposed rival Mozart (with one key point of anger being at Mozart's boorish behavior while being a genius), with famed Russian poet Alexander Pushkin having composed the play Mozart and Salieri in 1830 (with an opera being done by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov 67 years later). The idea that the two composers were such rivals to the point that one of them may very well have wanted to kill the other is absurd, full stop (I am not a history buff by any means, but anything that resembles the reek of conspiracy theory is suspicious). This fundamental point is the first and really only hurdle that stops it from being considered a great film for me. It does have a great design to it in terms of costume design, alongside a great appreciation for music (with Neville Marriner serving as music conductor and supervisor for the Academy of St Martin in the Fields orchestra) and a fairly well-rounded cast to go alongside everything (including natural light and location shooting in Prague, most notably in the Count Nositz Theatre, where Mozart had performed in) that is delivered with precision by Forman to make a mostly successful curiousity on the nature of talent and genius. There exists two versions of the film: the original 161 minute film (rated PG) and a three hour (R-rated) version released in 2002 as a Director's Cut that restored scenes cut originally due to not wanting to test the audience's patience too far in run-time (for a project that was hard enough to finance about a period drama).

It proves fitting to have Abraham and Hulce as the leads (as opposed to any of the stars from the play adaptations, which included Ian McKellen and Tim Curry - Forman wanted American leads for the two roles), since they each had experience in the theater just as much as in film. Abraham proves a tremendous presence, one wracked with desire and regret as a self-described "patron saint of mediocrity" that we can all see a little bit in ourselves that makes the most of his time count with gravitas. Hulce (and his occasional dreadful laugh) does just fine with capturing the complciated essence of a troubled genius, eccentric but captivating to see in a pursuit of greatness with tinges of hedonism along the way. Berridge (who won the role after Meg Tilly injured her way out) makes for a quietly driving force to follow along with at times with Hulce with bright spirit. The others in the cast, such as Doctrice and Jones, make for fair impressions in rounding out a period drama with a good deal of importance and distinct pleasure that retains one's attention just as much as when not on Salieri and Mozart alone. On the whole, the film moves at a careful pace within a curious starting point to generate a fairly interesting look upon music and human nature (namely, ambition) that will keep attention for what is needed with music and a game cast and design to make a mix of history and fiction that makes a solid film for its time of over three decades.

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.