Film review: '4 Million Houseguests'
A triumph in all respects, the newest IMAX 3-D production "Four Million Houseguests" is a joy for the visual wonders it contains and its well-realized agenda -- from the obligatory-but-engaging characters to the philosophical approach to nature and man's place in the cosmos.
Directed by veteran Paul Cox ("Vincent", "Lust and Revenge") -- whose fiction films made in Australia have always boasted evocative imagery -- "Houseguests" starts its premiere run locally at Edwards 21 Megaplex in Irvine, Calif. Unrated, the film has a few scary-looking but inanimate bugs seen in extreme close-up, but there are none of the usual in-your-lap shocks or stomach-upsetting camera moves. Overall its appeal ranges across the board -- from youngsters to oldsters.
Featuring Charlotte Sullivan ("Harriet the Spy") as a bright girl who discovers the beauty of common denizens in the house of her grandfather, "Houseguests" also stars Cox regular Gosia Dobrowolska and C. David Johnson as the parents, while James Garner lends his voice as the playful-but-absent homeowner with a gift for invention and love of collecting mechanical toys and objets d'art.
With a lush, complementary score by Richard Robbins ("The Remains of the Day"), "Houseguests" unfolds gently as a family arrives in a wooded locale to house-sit. Clues are left for the granddaughter to solve, leading to microscopes and eventually the fanciful "illuminator" -- which provides amazing views of grains of salt and moth wings magnified up to as much as 40,000 times. One such image shows a mite on a honeybee. On the six-story-high screen, the minute arachnid looks like a sphinx in a vast desert.
There's a nifty time-lapse sequence showing fruit molding over 17 days and the first use of Schlieren photography in the IMAX format, but the film is a complete experience that makes one appreciate the miracle of life and the intricacy of the physical world without lecturing or resorting to sensationalistic techniques.
FOUR MILLION HOUSEGUESTS
Imax Corp.
ABC/Kane Prods.
Director:Paul Cox
Producers:Sally Dundas, Barbara Kerr, Lorne Orleans
Executive producers:Andrew Gellis, Dennis B. Kane, Jonathan Barker
Writers:Paul Cox, Barbara Kerr, John Larkin, Margot Wiburd, Marc Strange
Director of photography:Vic Sarin
Music:Richard Robbins
Cast:Charlotte Sullivan, C. David Johnson, Gosia Dobrowolska
Color/stereo
Running time -- 45 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Directed by veteran Paul Cox ("Vincent", "Lust and Revenge") -- whose fiction films made in Australia have always boasted evocative imagery -- "Houseguests" starts its premiere run locally at Edwards 21 Megaplex in Irvine, Calif. Unrated, the film has a few scary-looking but inanimate bugs seen in extreme close-up, but there are none of the usual in-your-lap shocks or stomach-upsetting camera moves. Overall its appeal ranges across the board -- from youngsters to oldsters.
Featuring Charlotte Sullivan ("Harriet the Spy") as a bright girl who discovers the beauty of common denizens in the house of her grandfather, "Houseguests" also stars Cox regular Gosia Dobrowolska and C. David Johnson as the parents, while James Garner lends his voice as the playful-but-absent homeowner with a gift for invention and love of collecting mechanical toys and objets d'art.
With a lush, complementary score by Richard Robbins ("The Remains of the Day"), "Houseguests" unfolds gently as a family arrives in a wooded locale to house-sit. Clues are left for the granddaughter to solve, leading to microscopes and eventually the fanciful "illuminator" -- which provides amazing views of grains of salt and moth wings magnified up to as much as 40,000 times. One such image shows a mite on a honeybee. On the six-story-high screen, the minute arachnid looks like a sphinx in a vast desert.
There's a nifty time-lapse sequence showing fruit molding over 17 days and the first use of Schlieren photography in the IMAX format, but the film is a complete experience that makes one appreciate the miracle of life and the intricacy of the physical world without lecturing or resorting to sensationalistic techniques.
FOUR MILLION HOUSEGUESTS
Imax Corp.
ABC/Kane Prods.
Director:Paul Cox
Producers:Sally Dundas, Barbara Kerr, Lorne Orleans
Executive producers:Andrew Gellis, Dennis B. Kane, Jonathan Barker
Writers:Paul Cox, Barbara Kerr, John Larkin, Margot Wiburd, Marc Strange
Director of photography:Vic Sarin
Music:Richard Robbins
Cast:Charlotte Sullivan, C. David Johnson, Gosia Dobrowolska
Color/stereo
Running time -- 45 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 5/9/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
'Erotic Tales'
MONTREAL -- The marketers for this anthology of short films by notable filmmakers have their work cut out for them. Not just because anthology films traditionally don't do well at the boxoffice (not even "New York Stories", with its superstar directors and Disney marketing muscle), but also because most of the films in this collection are not very good and even worse, not very erotic.
Shown in two parts at the Montreal World Film Festival, "Erotic Tales (Part One)" consists of efforts by Ken Russell, Melvin Van Peebles and Paul Cox.
Russell's film, "The Insatiable Mrs. Kirsch", is perhaps the most entertaining, but the thinness of the humor makes it slight at best. A man vacationing at a seaside resort becomes obsessed with a beautiful blond woman who has the habit of eating various foods (corn on the cob, sausages) in a way that stimulates his imagination. He follows her around and becomes even more intrigued by the sound of a vibrator that constantly emanates from her room. Finally summoning up the courage to approach her, he winds up being invited to her room, where he discovers things are not what they seem. Russell seems to be having a good time with the material, but there's only so far he can go with it.
The most egregious effort is easily Van Peeble's "Vrooom Vroom Vroooom", a sloppily made, poorly acted bit of nonsense about a lonely nebbish who befriends an elderly woman who turns out to be a sorceress. She grants him two wishes, the first of which turns out to be a gleaming new motorcycle. Speeding down the highway, he discovers that it is also his second wish, since in mid-drive it turns into a beautiful woman. Although the morphing effect (endlessly repeated) is kind of nifty, the film lacks any point or true wit.
Paul Cox's "Touch Me", about the burgeoning sexual relationship between two women, an art teacher and the nude model for her class, is another slight effort, but at least it provides some heat. In a gentle and subtle progression, the younger woman rediscovers herself and her sexuality, and a scene in which she enjoys a fireside massage is both erotic and tender. The film's more stylistic flourishes, such as emotionally liberating messages emerging from a fax machine, don't really work, but at least it's something more than an extended goof.
EROTIC TALES (PART ONE)
Presented by Regina Ziegler
Mercure Distribution
THE INSATIABLE MRS. KIRSCH
Director Ken Russell
Screenplay Ken Russell, Hetty Baynes
Photography Hong Manley
Editor Xavier Russell
Starring: Hetty Baynes, Simon Shepherd
Running time: 25 minutes
VROOOM VROOM VROOOOM
Director/Screenplay/Editor/Music Melvin Van Peebles
Photography Igor Sunara
Starring: Richard Barboza, Laura Lane, Dewar Zazee, Kim Smith
Running time: 30 minutes
TOUCH ME
Director Paul Cox
Screenplay Paul Cox, Barry Dickins, Margot Wiburd
Photography Nino Martinetti
Editor Paul Cox
Music Ranjit Saha
Starring: Gosia Dobrowolska, Claudia Karvan, Chris Haywood, Barry Otto
Running time: 26 minutes
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
Shown in two parts at the Montreal World Film Festival, "Erotic Tales (Part One)" consists of efforts by Ken Russell, Melvin Van Peebles and Paul Cox.
Russell's film, "The Insatiable Mrs. Kirsch", is perhaps the most entertaining, but the thinness of the humor makes it slight at best. A man vacationing at a seaside resort becomes obsessed with a beautiful blond woman who has the habit of eating various foods (corn on the cob, sausages) in a way that stimulates his imagination. He follows her around and becomes even more intrigued by the sound of a vibrator that constantly emanates from her room. Finally summoning up the courage to approach her, he winds up being invited to her room, where he discovers things are not what they seem. Russell seems to be having a good time with the material, but there's only so far he can go with it.
The most egregious effort is easily Van Peeble's "Vrooom Vroom Vroooom", a sloppily made, poorly acted bit of nonsense about a lonely nebbish who befriends an elderly woman who turns out to be a sorceress. She grants him two wishes, the first of which turns out to be a gleaming new motorcycle. Speeding down the highway, he discovers that it is also his second wish, since in mid-drive it turns into a beautiful woman. Although the morphing effect (endlessly repeated) is kind of nifty, the film lacks any point or true wit.
Paul Cox's "Touch Me", about the burgeoning sexual relationship between two women, an art teacher and the nude model for her class, is another slight effort, but at least it provides some heat. In a gentle and subtle progression, the younger woman rediscovers herself and her sexuality, and a scene in which she enjoys a fireside massage is both erotic and tender. The film's more stylistic flourishes, such as emotionally liberating messages emerging from a fax machine, don't really work, but at least it's something more than an extended goof.
EROTIC TALES (PART ONE)
Presented by Regina Ziegler
Mercure Distribution
THE INSATIABLE MRS. KIRSCH
Director Ken Russell
Screenplay Ken Russell, Hetty Baynes
Photography Hong Manley
Editor Xavier Russell
Starring: Hetty Baynes, Simon Shepherd
Running time: 25 minutes
VROOOM VROOM VROOOOM
Director/Screenplay/Editor/Music Melvin Van Peebles
Photography Igor Sunara
Starring: Richard Barboza, Laura Lane, Dewar Zazee, Kim Smith
Running time: 30 minutes
TOUCH ME
Director Paul Cox
Screenplay Paul Cox, Barry Dickins, Margot Wiburd
Photography Nino Martinetti
Editor Paul Cox
Music Ranjit Saha
Starring: Gosia Dobrowolska, Claudia Karvan, Chris Haywood, Barry Otto
Running time: 26 minutes
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
- 9/8/1994
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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