Damage (1993) Review

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(More customer reviews)As is true with the novel, _Damage_ the film is not for everyone. If you are easily offended or prudish in any manner, skip this one. I have talked with a few people who rented the film because they were fans of Jeremy Irons but were upset by the premise of the movie. So, as I said, if you are easily offended, skip _Damage_.
Stephen Fleming (Jeremy Irons) is a prominent MP with a career that continues to blossom. He is married to an attractive, blueblood wife and has two healthy children. His son, Martyn (Rupert Graves), is doing well for himself: he has met a new girlfriend and has been promoted to an important position as political writer for a newspaper. Stephen and Anna (Juliette Binoche) meet at a party or get-together of some sort and discover an instant attraction. Stephen finds out shortly thereafter that Anna is Martyn's girlfriend. Within days, a steamy, destructive sexual relationship begins between Anna and Stephen. It continues, growing increasingly passionate, obsessive and harmful. In an odd (even wacky) twist of fate, their affair is discovered. Anna flees in her usual pattern and Stephen must return to his wife, Ingrid (Miranda Richardson), to see if he can possibly salvage his marriage.
Aside from the plot being centered around a man cheating on his wife with his son's girlfriend, the intense sex scenes in the film will likely turn some people off. I have seen both the R-rated and the Unrated version of the film and I cannot tell any difference between them so whichever one you choose, you are sure to see plenty of skin. After I watched the film, I read the novel by Josephine Hart and felt that I understood the characters much better. Although Stephen does inspire some feelings of repulsion from me, I do feel sympathy for him. He has lived a life of routine and boredom. As Louis Malle discusses in the "One on One" feature found on this DVD, the family life Stephen has experienced is one built on habit, not on strong emotions. When Anna comes along, something snaps. All of the emotions that Stephen has bottled up come rushing out like a floodgate that has burst. I suppose, all explanations and interpretations aside, that in the end, _Damage_ is the kind of film a person with either love or hate, understand or misapprehend. If you enjoy films about forbidden love or love gone wrong, _Damage_ is certainly for you.

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A middle-aged man enters into a self-destructive affair with his son's fiancee. Starring Jeremy Irons, Juliette Binoche, and Academy Award - nominee Miranda Richardson. Directed by Louis Malle.
DVD Features:FeaturetteTheatrical Trailer

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The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Two-Disc Special Edition) (1988) Review

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(More customer reviews)Phillip Kaufman reached an artistic pinnacle with this elegant translation of Milan Kundera's book about the 1968 Czechoslovokian crisis. Daniel Day-Lewis plays Tomas, a physician, whose life consists in seducing women, one of whom - an artist Sabina (Lena Olin) - is his sexual and spiritual soulmate. Into his life comes another woman, Terezina, (Juliette Binoche) who demands more of a committment to her than he will permit to any woman including Sabina. His crisis between the carefree artist and the more demanding Terezina mirrors the crisis of Czechoslovokia between the "liberation" of the Prague Spring and the Soviet repression of August 1968 although neither Kauffman nor Kundera crudely makes Sabina represent the one nor Terezina the other. Although these characters may lead apparently amoral lives, the film and novel are all about the moral consequences of their choices. Many American critics, similar to the one who provided the first customer review, feel that Kaufmann has simply made a piece of arty Euro-lite soft-core: intellectual and opaque enough to appeal to the high-brow crowd yet tittliating enough to strike at their lowbrow desires. While I'll concede that this judgement applies well to his follow-up film "Henry and June" (1990), it's grossly unfair to characterize this film as such. The narrative and themes are presented clearly, the cinematography is gorgeous but never in an overly-arty way like in "Henry and June", and his whirling direction keeps this film moving along at an effervescent 172 minutes. The actors - especially Day-Lewis and Olin - do phenomenal work and contribute mightily to bring Kaufmann's evocation of late 1960's Europe to life. In a strange way, the film compliments the book rather than adapts it and stands on its own as a fully realized cinematic work.
People conditioned to see sex on the screen as a smutty joke or leading to painful reprecussions had problems with Kaufmann's playful sensuality here. He compounded their discomfort by coating all these goings-on with a veneer of class, larding the film with literary references and putting Janacek on the soundtrack. And it was easy to dismiss the film as nothing but a bunch of amoral European sophisicates who make love in between bouts of literary discussions or fighting political repression. But the film pulls us into these character's lives in a much more impassioned and alive way than European art cinema does with its deliberate distancing effects and pretentious moralizing (good recent example: Lars Von Trier's interminable "Breaking The Waves"). The film weaves its larger concerns about freedom and responsibility seamlessly through the narration - we can follow the film without knowing all the allusions and references. Some may see the characters and their bed-hopping as shallow and affected but they are forced to deal with their country's politics and history and have to come to terms with their own lives in ways that Euro-fluff soft-core comedies like "French Twist" never have to. Indeed, the moral choices placed on these apparently frivolous characters gives the film its greatness.
In other words, "Unbearable Lightness" has a sophisticated air because it is sophisticated: in its ideas, direction, writing, and acting. Kaufmann's work since has generally disappointed but here he's made one of the richest and intelligent films of the decade.

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Let others in 1968 Prague fret over liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Prague surgeon and avowed womanizer Tomas is focused on the happiness of pursuit. He's determined to live with a lightness of being unfettered by things like commitment and Communism. A young doctor's quest for sex and his stumbling into love are part of the rich storyline of this lyrical film from the landmark Milan Kundera novel, produced by Saul Zaentz (The English Patient, Amadeus) and directed by Philip Kaufman (The Right Stuff, Henry & June). Daniel Day-Lewis, Juliette Binoche and Lena Olin indelibly form the romantic triangle at the center of Tomas' world. It's a shifting world of hope spoiled and renewed, of lives blighted by oppression and reinvigorated by deep, maturing love. DVD Features:Audio Commentary:Commentary by Philip Kaufman, Jean-Claude Carriere, Walter Murch and Lena Olin Audio Commentary:Commentary by Philip Kaufman, Jean-Claude Carriere, Walter Murch and Lena Olin Documentaries:Emotional History: The Making of Unbearable Lightness of Being Theatrical Trailer

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