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FILM NIGEL ANDREWS
By Nigel Andrews
FT
August 21 2006
De Niro and Pacino, together at last: at least in two scenes of Heat
(BBC1 10.35pm), Michael Mann's 160-minute cop opera. The film's
full-orchestra verismo and strong performances are fun, especially
compared to the tin-whistle impact of Mann's new Miami Vice. Pacino
mesmerises as the detective needing one last notch on his career
belt, while De Niro is moodily effective as the notch. Pity about
the conjugal psychobabble (Pacino's walk-out wife wanting emotional
'closure') that extend the film to its roadshow length.
Sergei Paradjanov's The Colour of Pomegranates (Artsworld 4.10pm) is
a modern classic. Notionally the screen biography of an 18th century
Armenian poet, this 1969 Russian film is more a moving mosaic:
a near-abstract homage whose jewelled tableaux honour not just
an artist's life but the landscapes of his mind. Russia honoured
Paradjanov, a homosexual as well as nonconformist filmmaker, by
shoving him in jail: at least till the world's pleas won a reprieve.
Frankenstein (Film4 4.55pm) is a classic more honoured in homage and
citation than in the observing. How often do we get to see James
Whale's peerless film? Here is a chance. Boris Karloff glumps and
glowers, amid the thunder, lightning, shadows and screams, as Mary
Shelley's great gothic novel births a great gothic movie.
By Nigel Andrews
FT
August 21 2006
De Niro and Pacino, together at last: at least in two scenes of Heat
(BBC1 10.35pm), Michael Mann's 160-minute cop opera. The film's
full-orchestra verismo and strong performances are fun, especially
compared to the tin-whistle impact of Mann's new Miami Vice. Pacino
mesmerises as the detective needing one last notch on his career
belt, while De Niro is moodily effective as the notch. Pity about
the conjugal psychobabble (Pacino's walk-out wife wanting emotional
'closure') that extend the film to its roadshow length.
Sergei Paradjanov's The Colour of Pomegranates (Artsworld 4.10pm) is
a modern classic. Notionally the screen biography of an 18th century
Armenian poet, this 1969 Russian film is more a moving mosaic:
a near-abstract homage whose jewelled tableaux honour not just
an artist's life but the landscapes of his mind. Russia honoured
Paradjanov, a homosexual as well as nonconformist filmmaker, by
shoving him in jail: at least till the world's pleas won a reprieve.
Frankenstein (Film4 4.55pm) is a classic more honoured in homage and
citation than in the observing. How often do we get to see James
Whale's peerless film? Here is a chance. Boris Karloff glumps and
glowers, amid the thunder, lightning, shadows and screams, as Mary
Shelley's great gothic novel births a great gothic movie.