Friday, December 22, 2006
EPIC
Today's and tomorrow's and the next day's NYTimes Best 1176 Film is/will be Bertolucci's
Bertolucci's career is quite controversial. We have seen Last Tango in Paris and, most recently, The Conformist and liked both.
This film was a commercial and critical flop. It is the victim of high expectations and a radical cut when it was released in the US.
We saw it when it came out. I remember it fondly; all 245 minutes of it. They had cut out an hour.
But the 'real' film is 5 hours and 15 minutes long (315 minutes) and that is the version that we are seeing.
I have 'cut' it into three parts; two ninety minute pieces and a grand finale at 2 hours and 15 minutes.
The first section cuts neatly at the end of a chapter. I am hoping for the same tomorrow.
So far so good. We have seen Burt Lancaster and Sterling Hayden as the patriarchs of two families; noble and peasant respectively. They are great patriarchs!
The whole movie is about their grandsons born at the same time; Robert De Niro and Gérard Depardieu; both young and steamy. They will age during the picture, I assume.
So on to the second part tomorrow. I like it at a 5 so far. Very pretty and grand peasant scenes. Very good.
