I remember when I first saw it in a small Art Cinema in Amsterdam. After the film ended, the lights came up, but at first, no-one moved. Finally, our row staggered to its feet, but even then there came no movement to exit the row. We stood there stupified for a few seconds until a quavering voice came from the end of the row: “sorry about this, but we can’t leave because the woman at the end of the row has fainted…” We all knew what she had just gone through and immediately sympathised.
It is, as the Dutch version says on the cover: “een gruewelijk mooie film” – a gruesomely beautiful film. Visually, the colour palettes are extraordinary, and the actors magnificent. Whether it’s Michael Gambon spewing obscenties or the unbearable monologue of Helen Mirren on discovering her lover has been killed – the film is a brilliant work of high art.
Votes from me for Twin Peaks and Rocky Horror… I even managed to see the original stage show of TRHPS in 1973 at the Royal Court Theatre in London’s Chelsea…
Same - although I saw it in Melbourne; I assume a similar type of art-house cinema. Arguably Greenaway’s most notorious film. I don’t recall loving it by any means - but the camera work, the colours & Nyman’s soundtrack left an indelible mind print, long after the film ended, mostly because it was callenging or just plain gross!
Definitely a classic…I didn’t like it at all when I was young, just not my thing. Afterall if your parents liked it, you’d hardly like it. These days it’s totally different.
And your previous post by Alexandre Desplat I’ve not heard of him or the movie. So, something new for me to look into. However, me not knowing recent films is fairly standard. I really don’t watch movies all that often; that would mean eating into music time.
The Grand Budapest Hotel soundtrack is quite nice to listen to; there is some alpine folk, some Balalaika music, some chamber music… I like it quite a lot…
I was about to post the ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ cast recording, but this was not really a movie soundtrack but a Broadway musical. I only recently rediscovered this recording and it inspired me to read Sholom Aleichem’s “Tevyes Daughters”, a wonderful collection of mostly funny stories from a world of eastern European Jewish life and culture on which the musical is based.
These days it’s totally different.
