jhall-4

I saw this movie a long time ago and liked it, but don't have enough memory of it to write an actual "review." But I thought that the Portuguese setting and characters were very interesting for an adaptation of Dickens, and encourage others to seek it out. The characters are given new (Portuguese) names. I found Janet Maslin's review in the October 6, 1988, New York Times, and want to comment on her review. She makes the common mistake (in my opinion) of confusing the adaptation with the original work (the Dickens novel), and gives a negative review of the movie because it is not the same as the novel. I find that especially troubling for a "professional critic", which I feel sure Maslin would claim to be. I usually have no problem separating the 2 things in my mind and appreciating both works (or not, as the case may be). The critic should critique the movie, not her idea of what the movie should be. It would be helpful for IMDb users if the title Hard Times could be added as an indexing point for the movie, even though apparently it doesn't actually occur in the movie's title.

I watched A Taste of Cherry when recently televised on Turner Classic Movies and felt that part of it was left out. The main character meets two men he asks for assistance with his suicide, both of whom refuse. Then there is a scene where he comes across a big piece of road construction or rock crushing equipment, where he parks his vehicle and sits for a while. A worker asks him to move his vehicle so the construction vehicle can perform it's work, and the man gets up, apparently to move the vehicle. The next moment shows the man in his car talking to someone, who is not seen for a few minutes, but is clearly the third man he picks up to help him with the suicide. But what I assume would be the first part of that sequence, where he meets the third man, is not shown. I wonder if TCM omitted that part, since otherwise the film moves in a perfectly linear fashion.