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In Reply to: "The Dead." posted by tinear on January 23, 2006 at 15:02:48:
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particular characters predominating. The film is a set theater piece of what Balzac would have termed "manners."
We have a small denouement at the end, several characters bid one another a rather extended, drawn out "good night," and then... we're transported to a private hotel chamber with a searing, soul-baring flood of conjugal emotion. The story was touching, of course, but it almost seemed like another story grafted onto the festive one.
I didn't think it fit, at all.
Kind of like having a pratfall immediately after the evisceration scene in "Braveheart," it just seemed contrived, added on, perhaps manipulative.
All that being said, it was a masterful scene so one is loathe to complain too much.
...the wonderful epiphany that simply crowns it?The old ladies, and the story behind them; the dancing (and the conversation between Gabriel and that nationalist lady); the wonderful dinner with the toasts; the singing (the old lady singing what well could be her swan song, that tenor singing the same song that unfortunate lad sang under Gretta´s window... another swan song, now that I think...); their trip through Dublin in their way to the hotel..., each and every scene is conceived, and developed, towards Gretta´s rememoration leading to Gabriel´s last reflections, where everything in the whole film is recapitulated under a single light, a somber reflection about life, love, and death: a jewel of rare perfection indeed!
Everything in the film is in what well may be the most beautiful short story ever written in English language. But the film stands -and gloriously it does- on its own feet, as one of the best filmic achievements of all times. No less.
Certainly, the author takes his time to let the story develop, in the same way a good conductor sets the right pace for a symphony to grow under his batoon, with every repeat, and the final coda, with the whole becoming much greater than the sum of the parts. As it should be.
Maybe not everybody will appreciate the low pace, the morosity, the sensibility, and the deep love a man whose life was reaching its end put in making this film. It´s the sign of our times:
"As the sensibilities of our age demand less Rimbaud and more Rambo, mass murder and destruction have blunted the imaginations´s ability to face the (probably banal) end which is tailor-made for each of us. It takes sudden tragedy, war or terminal illness to bring real Death (as opposed to its video double) into the twentieth century home. Time´s hand is firmly on the fast-forward button of life until death´s cold finger interrupts the jumble of images with a sudden freexe-frame finale...." (Graham Johnson, in the libretto in vol 11 of the Complete Edition of Schubert´s lieder)
Regards
BF
Have you ever read the J J novel?
I see no break in the continuation of the story! It is an ensemble and every character is played with so much charm and coziness that it is most charming.
Now the only connection I can make with H dr B is with his "Comedie Humaine 2, if any....In my eyes a perfect film, as perfect one can be. BTW A J makes a fine performance all the way down.
In my view.
But it was JH who direct her. And that is the result.
"The Dead" is a short story, the last in the collection called "Dubliners" Like "The Dead", all the stories are epiphanies.
Hélas, in English it is not a " novel " but in French it is. My fault to use basically the same word from one language to the other within a different meaning...What do you say about Tin critic as you know this film as much I do!?
I haven't read the short story for 30 years and it didn't influence me. I stand by my opinion: the second piece is dis-jointed. The work doesn't hold together, there is missing a critical piece of her relationship with her husband.
Suddently to see her so emotional means less than if we knew her better; it almost seems like an affectation or directorial exaggeration.
But the film is based on Joyce' shoirt story whaich has those two parts. The whole point of the party is to set up the hotel scene
which shows how little the husband knows his wife.
How little we all knows us!
it does justice to a book but whether or not it stands alone as a work of art.
Yes, of course the party is setting up the last scene but the film doesn't do it well enough.
Those who are praising the film show their bias by their inability to argue for the film w/out referencing the story.
There is nowhere near enough of the Huston and husband character in the long party scenes to make them seem worthy of center stage later.
I made several points which remain unanswered.
The part you think is disjointed I think is the capper, the top-off to the whole previous shebang.I had read Joyce, but not The Dead when I first saw this film. Not only do I think this movie stands alone as a work of art, I think it is wise and beautiful and eligiac in way that very few other films are.
And ANgelica Houston is fine in it.
So - we disagree.
No one can can deny that it is a beauty of a film, but one that grow on you. maybe Tin will change his mind after the third viewing?!
as
Yes there is a missing relationship, you are fully right.
Like in real life.Ha-ha...
Your un-fairfully,
PS: Just visioning " Withnail ".
.....
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