hyped garbage

From my favorite movies..

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

What an underrated film!Symbols: a chair in an open field that survives years, the lure of eyes of a woman/wife, and a bleeding, pregnant rat!This is a film about love between a man and a woman, a husband and a wife--and how it lasts for ever.This is also a film about a dying father and son, of a mute elderly mother and a daughter.The chair, the eyes, and the rat are all essential to the film. The chair is repeatedly shown. Eyes are mentioned by Ivan's father about Ivan's dead mother. Eyes are essential to the song sung twice by Keith Carradine's character. Rats are symbolic of past, present and future of Ivan's sexual life.Into the film, perceptive viewers could compare and contrast the two different reactions of Ivan when two Maria's lovers taunt him. Yet the film is more about Maria and less about Ivan. Very Russian, very European, though the settings are American. The soul of Russian literary giants permeate through the film. A lovely shot towards the end is the silhouette of father (Mitchum) and son (Savage). You can get the feel of Tarkovsky's friend and colleague at work. It is sad the film has not been noticed/applauded better.

Anita Morris was born the year before me.. and unbelievably she's been gone for almost a quarter century now. I'll never forget seeing her in a play on Broadway. And I have absolutely no idea what the name of the production was.. but I will never forget her, at one point sitting on the edge of the stage, performing in one of the many dance numbers. She was an incendiary personality, just like the color of that magnificent head of hair. For young men (and boys) to be seeing her for the first time, there was just this instant attraction. She left the world oh too soon, as many dynamic and enthralling personalities through the years have a proclivity to do. But now, here she is being remembered by one of her longtime admiring fans. Seriously, name another that has in fact even come close to replacing her.

The term "Cannon art film" may seem like a kind of oxymoron if you are familiar with the typical product producers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus made when they ran the Cannon studio. But they did make a few dabs towards artistic productions, this being one of them. And there are some good things to say about this movie. Despite being a low budget movie, the period detail is pretty good, and so are the rest of the production values. The acting by everyone involved is also good, with Keith Carradine the actor who steals the show.Unfortunately, I could not get involved in the central story involving the Kinski and Savage characters, mainly because we are kept at a distance from them. We never really get to see what makes them tick inside their heads. Also, the movie is stretched out far too long (the running time is 109 minutes) - a somewhat shorter running time would have made the movie better.Don't get me wrong - this isn't a BAD movie. It never became boring, for one thing. But it does end up being somewhat of a disappointment.

"Maria's Lovers" is, first of all, a beautiful-looking film. Juan Ruiz Anchía does a fantastic job photographing the film, making wonderful use of light. Scene after scene is brilliantly framed and shot, at times feeling like a series of photographs. Anchía and director Andrei Konchalovsky make a great team. But this is essential to make a film such as this watchable, because the general attitude of virtually every character is endlessly frustrating. Most are motivated by sex, some by fear, some by greed, some by possessiveness, some by misguided innocence.There are no particular flaws in any of the performances. Kinski, Savage, Mitchum and Carradine create characters of real depth. There are times when "Maria's Lovers" has the overpowering sense of being made in the mold of the great classic tragedies. Which is to say, everyone is more miserable more often than is entirely likely in real life. But I could be wrong, and perhaps there are lives which very closely parallel those shown here. Either way, it is a supremely difficult, painful, intense, and ultimately believable picture. To the right audience, it could very nearly be considered perfect. It's a clean, true, human depiction.