This Week: “Period Films”

Now, I know what you are thinking: “Period Films? They suck!” But the fact of the matter is that you, dear reader, are gravely mistaken-may your sphincter become inflamed and your mother be lashed with a thousand cat-o-nine-tails! But seriously, since most of these films have no explosions or bullet-time Tae Bo battles between Nazi robots and Bruce Willis, they rely heavily on a little something called “plot.” You remember plot, right? No, it’s not the sound your face makes when it hits the floor after a long night of what-have-you, but it is in essence a story, or sequence of events that is either poorly done to the point where it basically does not exist at all, or well done to the point where you actually care about the characters and are concerned with their ordeals, their triumphs as well as their tragedies. So without further ado, I present to you a triumvirate of Period Films.

Angels and Insects (1995)Screenplay by Belinda and Philip HaasAdapted from the novella Morpho Eugenia by A. S. Byatt

Natural scientist William Adamson (Mark Rylance), fresh from a research stint in the Amazon, is employed by a wealthy English landowner, Sir Harald Alabaster, to aide in some sort of scientific classification of the specimens Sir Harald had acquired over the years. I’m not sure why the old man wants to classify things, but it’s not really that important. What is important is that Sir Harald has a rather scrumptious daughter, Eugenia, whom William woos, weds, and beds, but then she suddenly grows cold and distant. So, William goes about studying ants and other insects on the Alabaster estate, while contending with adorable children, servants, a casually alluring tutor (Kristin Scott Thomas), and trading polite aggressions with Eugenia’s rather protective and overbearing brother, Edgar. But William soon learns that he is, in fact, in a similar position to the worker ants he studies so carefully, and this revelation has dire consequences, for both him and the whole Alabaster family. A brilliant piece of cinema, both thought-provoking and erotic, that highlights the endless battle of Science v. Religion, Faith v. Logic, all overlayed atop the sexual, moral, and professional struggles of a middle-class man in Victorian England.

Valmont (1989)Directed by Milos FormanScreenplay by Jean-Claude Carrière, Milos Forman, and Jan NovákAdapted from the novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Choderlos de Laclos

This is the umpteenth film version of de Laclos’s novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons), the most famous of which would be the one with Sarah Love Michelle Geller Turlington (okay, I kind of forget her name, but you get the picture) called Cruel Intentions. Even though I’ve only seen parts of a TBS cut-for-commercials-and-content version of Cruel Intentions, I’ll just go right ahead and assume that it sucks, and Valmont is way better (if you think I’m wrong and pompous ass, hit Caps Lock and write me a heated e-mail). In this film, Colin Firth plays the titular character, Valmont, a middling French aristocrat with a penchant for seducing women. When he finally comes across a woman, Madame Trouvel, whose virtue forbids her to reciprocate his advances, the suave masher becomes lovesick, sort of. Well, Valmont’s former lover, Madame Merteuil (Annette Bening), bets him that he cannot break Madame Trouvel’s virtue: if Valmont gets Madame Trouvel in bed, Madame Merteuil will gladly give him her own body; if he doesn’t get Madame Trouvel in bed, then he must go to live in a monastery. Oh yeah, and Madame Merteuil keeps needling Valmont to deflower her 16-year-old niece in order to take revenge on her niece’s betrothed, also one of Madame Mertreuil’s former lovers. Sound complicated? Not really? Well, does it sound sexy? Mais oui! Just your average tale of sexual politics, deceit, and betrayal among the French nobility. Think Marquis de Sade, but sans the buggery or S&M.

Barry Lyndon (1975)Directed by Stanley KubrickScreenplay by Stanley KubrickAdapted from the novel The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq. by William Makepeace Thackeray

Just like every TV show has to, at some point, “jump the shark,” it seems every great director has to do a period film. Martin Scorcese made The Age of Innocence, Roman Polanski made Tess, and Stanley Kubrick made Barry Lyndon. It is the tale of a young Irish lad, Redmond Barry (Ryan O’Neal, who played the the wigger’s father in Malibu’s Most Wanted), whose love for a girl betrothed to another forces him to duel with an English officer, the end result of which forces Barry to flee his home and travel all across Europe to escape the authorities. It sounds similar to the plot of Voltaire’s Candide, but then again most picaresque tales involve similar themes-oldies but goldies. Barry cheats, fights, steals, lies, seduces, all with a straight face, up until the very end when karma pays him back in full. Throughout the film, Kubrick pays an almost painful attention to detail, and anyone who has seen his 2001: A Space Odyssey can atest to this quirk (remember that scene when it’s just some guy breathing really loud in a space suit for like 20 minutes?), but as usual, it paid off. Or at least, I think it paid off. From the acting, especially O’Neal, to the costumes, to the lighting (in one scene the only light source comes from several thousand candles), Kubrick captures the era perfectly. In fact, the only anachronism I could detect is the protagonist’s bluntly American accent. Odd, considering Kubrick’s obsession with authenticity. But, brew some coffee, ’cause it’s just a smidge over three hours long-they don’t call ’em epics for nothing. Don’t worry, this isn’t some boring piece of box-office crap-fest ala Kevin Costner (The Postman is quite possibly the worst movie of all time. Eat your heart out Plan Nine From Outer Space!) because Stanley Kubrick has enough genius to make sacrificing three hours of your life to watch Barry Lyndon an enjoyable and worthwhile experience.