French writer-director Anne Fontaine, known for 2009's art house hit Coco Before Chanel and the sexually provocative Chloe and Nathalie, now makes her English language debut with Adore. It's not hard to see what drew Fontaine to the material: The film, which is available VOD beginning Sept. 6, is based on a Doris Lessing novel and though it's set in a small seaside town in Australia, its sensibility couldn't be more French than if it took place in the French seaside town of Biarritz.
In this mythical Australian paradise, two gorgeous blondes named Roz (Robin Wright) and Liz (Naomi Watts) have been best friends since childhood. The duo have always had each other's back, live next door and are overjoyed when their two sons also become best friends, too. Although Liz has been widowed and Roz's marriage has been on shaky ground for some time, nothing seems to break through the tight bond the two women share.
That is, until the hormones of Liz's now-grown son, Ian (Xavier Samuel), go into hyperdrive and he begins a hot and heavy affair with Roz. Each day, the two friends and their two sons spend their days at the sun-drenched beach, the guys surfing while their mom's suntan their gorgeous, bikini-clad figures. Each night, Roz and Ian get it on and when Tom (James Frecheville), Roz's son, finds out about it, he doesn't waste anytime bedding Liz. The foursome, already focused away from the world at large in their remote seaside paradise, is now hermetically sealed by their voracious, social forbidden passions (and Liz and Roz happily use a cover story that they're lesbian lovers to ward off potential suitors).
But this paradise has a definite shadow—an overriding guilt that begins to bear down on the mothers, knowing their sons should be taking up with ladies of their own age and seeking a life outside their deliciously sexy bubble. And eventually the guilt ends the two affairs, and both Ian and Tom wed and have children. The passion of the quartet, however, hasn't quite ebbed, it seems, as the film moves into its last act.
The film is gorgeously shot and scored and Fontaine—who adapted Lessing's novel, along with Christopher Hampton—is gifted with the tremendously nuanced performances of Watts and Wright as her leads. The deep bond between the friends is no less palpable then their unquenchable sexual thrall to their hot-as-hell sons. (Samuel and Frecheville are male eye candy of the highest order but not nearly as convincing when called upon to act the emotional stuff.) You believe these two women really do suffer tremendously for giving vent to their socially forbidden passions but the melodramatic subject matter ultimately strains credibility to the limit. (It also doesn't help believability that the luscious bods and faces of Wright and Watts don't age a second over the ensuing years.)
If Fontaine had made Adore in her native tongue and set it in on the French coast, as noted, the movie might have been a sensual knockout instead of this rather jumbled movie, effective as it is in fits and starts.
DVD notes:
The week's big home release is director Baz Luhrmann's frenetic new version of The Great Gatsby. Although the film, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan, drew a lot of fire from critics (this one included) for its non-stop propulsive pacing and mangling of F. Scott Fitzgerald's lyrical masterpiece, the movie was a big box-office hit. Now the home release (available in myriad versions, each with bonus features) gives both sides a chance to revisit Luhrmann's vision thanks to Warner Bros. Some other recent DVD releases of note include:
Out writer-director Ash Christian (Fat Girl, Mangus) returned to gay and lesbian film festivals earlier this year with Petunia, his black comedy about an outrageous, dysfunctional family and its various sexual peccadillos. Thora Birch heads a strong cast that includes Christine Lahti, Brittany Snow, David Rasche and out actor Michael Urie. The film is available on DVD with several special features from Wolfe Releasing.
Director Glenn Gaylord's I Do—a gay immigration drama that stars David W. Ross (who also scripted), The Sopranos Jamie-Lynn Sigler (playing lesbian) and Alicia Witt—is another recent gay and lesbian film festival fave that is now on DVD from Breaking Glass Pictures. The disc includes more than two hours of bonus content.
Can it really be 20 years since director Alstair Reid's groundbreaking 1993 miniseries Tales of the City, based on the best-selling books from gay icon Armistead Maupin, wowed PBS viewers and caused an uproar with its hedonistic portrait of freewheeling life in San Francisco in the mid-'70s? The award-winning miniseries has just been re-released in a new two-disc, 20th-anniversary DVD edition from Acorn Media with new special features, an insert booklet, and more. Olympia Dukakis stars as the world's hippest landlady, who presides over the personal intrigues and sex lives of the residents of her Victorian mansion at 2828 Barbary Lane. Laura Linney, Chloe Webb, Thomas Gibson, Billy Campbell, Donald Moffat and Marcus D'Amico as Michael "Mouse" Tolliver the cute gay twink, are part of the expert cast.
Acorn Media has also just released on Blu-ray for the first time the tremendous BBC detective series Prime Suspect: The Complete Collection. The magnificent Helen Mirren starred in each of the seven episodes of the series (beginning in 1991) as Detective Inspector Jane Tennison, the first female DCI in London's all male police force. The crack writing and direction are matched by Mirren, who finally found her breakthrough role with Tennison (winning the Emmy in the process), and a raft of tremendous actors who have gone on to respected film careers—Tom Wilkinson, Ralph Fiennes, Zoe Wannamaker, Mark Strong, David Thewlis and Ciaran Hands among them. The seven-disc set has several bonus features as well.
Film notes:
The 25th Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival, which Festival Director Patrick Friel is curating, will take place Sept. 5-8 at the Gene Siskel Film Center, the Music Box Theatre and at Columbia College. The fest will present more than 60 experimental short films with a wide variety of subject matters. The Sept. 6 program at Columbia College in the Ferguson Theater (600 S. Michigan Ave.) is titled "Portraits, Queerly" and will be of particular interest to LGBT film fans. The evening, which kicks off at 7 p.m., includes three experimental documentary shorts with a queer bent, including Mariah Garnett's encounter with '70s gay porn icon Peter Berlin. Complete list of titles, showtimes, etc. at www.chicagofilmmakers.org_onionfest
Academy Award-nominated director Richard Robbins will attend a screening of his latest documentary, Girl Rising, at City Winery (1200 W. Randolph St.) on Tuesday, Sept. 10, at 7 p.m. (doors at 5 p.m., general admission). Robbins' movie tells the stories of nine girls born into unfortunate circumstances from around the world and the power of education to change their lives and help their dreams come true. The screening event will benefit Girls Supporting Girls, a Chicago-based non-profit raising awareness of at-risk girls in development countries. www.citywinery.com/chicago
