In my impatience for the CC Mishima, I was searching for more movies designed by Eiko Ishioka, and I came upon this film, which I'd heard zero about. Ron Howard and Brian Grazer (under Imagine) produced it, but it's outside of their usual kind of projects, a seeming variation on 1984 staged as a two-hander. I almost always like Alan Rickman and Madeleine Stowe, so I thought it might be worth a view. However, there's no R1 DVD (there's at least one foreign one, but it's not supposed to be the greatest of quality), and VHS copies are hard to come by: it is owned by Universal, though, so Criterion might not be out of the question (it doesn't seem quite their kind of movie, however). I feel that it'll probably languish in limbo between the two like Kafka, King of the Hill, etc., although I thought that about Under the Volcano and Walker, too. Anways, just wondering if anyone has any info/opinions on this (Ebert didn't like it, Rosenbaum thought it not too bad).
The whole thing's on Youtube
Closet Land (Radha Bharadwaj, 1991)
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Cronenfly
- Joined: Thu Jul 19, 2007 12:04 pm
Closet Land (Radha Bharadwaj, 1991)
Last edited by Cronenfly on Mon Oct 15, 2007 10:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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John Cope
- Joined: Thu Dec 15, 2005 5:40 pm
- Location: where the simulacrum is true
It's one of my favorite films ever. I'm happy that you discovered it. Here's Kathleen Murphy's great 1991 Film Comment assessment, as hosted at present on a Rickman fan page.
I passed this one along to a friend who teaches film for his women directors class and evidently it went over very well. As it should. I always found Ebert's view to be wan.
Unfortunately, Bharadwaj's later career didn't exactly flourish as I had hoped it would. Still, a huge formative influence on me. It was part of a small tidal wave of titles which effected me deeply: My Own Private Idaho, The Reflecting Skin, Vincent Ward's Vigil and Mike Figgis' Liebestraum amongst the rest.
I passed this one along to a friend who teaches film for his women directors class and evidently it went over very well. As it should. I always found Ebert's view to be wan.
Unfortunately, Bharadwaj's later career didn't exactly flourish as I had hoped it would. Still, a huge formative influence on me. It was part of a small tidal wave of titles which effected me deeply: My Own Private Idaho, The Reflecting Skin, Vincent Ward's Vigil and Mike Figgis' Liebestraum amongst the rest.
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Eligius
- Joined: Sun Oct 07, 2007 8:14 am
- Location: Venezia
This film indeed really took my breath away. Especially the acting of Alan Rickman makes the film a must-see for everyone (if one likes Alan Rickman though).
Both the VHS and the DVD (at amazon you can get them second hand) aren't of the best quality. But if you don't mind a blur once in a while I really recommend you to buy it since I don't know if it will possibly ever get a R1 release, or even a re-release on its present label.
I'm not sure if it is really a film CC would release, though it sure deserves a more wide-spread audience than it has now. The film itself hasn't quite a tremendous cinematography. It's mostly the great use of symbolism in the setting combined with great acting from both Rickman and Stowe which makes this film one of my favorite films of the '90's.
If you want a comparison for the impact it had: for me it was exactly like the final chapter of George Orwells '1984'.
Both the VHS and the DVD (at amazon you can get them second hand) aren't of the best quality. But if you don't mind a blur once in a while I really recommend you to buy it since I don't know if it will possibly ever get a R1 release, or even a re-release on its present label.
I'm not sure if it is really a film CC would release, though it sure deserves a more wide-spread audience than it has now. The film itself hasn't quite a tremendous cinematography. It's mostly the great use of symbolism in the setting combined with great acting from both Rickman and Stowe which makes this film one of my favorite films of the '90's.
If you want a comparison for the impact it had: for me it was exactly like the final chapter of George Orwells '1984'.