_LeoTheMaster's Talk

Elegy

After watching Elegy, I'm convinced to read the book on which this film is based, by renowned novelist Phillip Roth.

Always consumately embodying his roles, Ben Kingsley does a fine tune in Elegy as ageing professor David Kepesh, who has no problem charming his much younger students, as he sets his sights on the beautiful Consuela (Penelope Cruz), and soon the two are lovers, with David always resolute about keeping the liaison a casual affair. Having walked out on his wife and son (who's still bitter and unforgiving) many years ago and now denouncing such tie as being prison-like, he wants to remain an island.

What David doesn't expect is to start falling in love with Consuela, who's so much more mature and knowing than he'll ever be, despite her youth. He becomes jealous and possessive of her, which terrifies him and challenges him about his own life ethos. All of these feelings are made known when David frequently meets his old pal and fellow philanderer, poet George (Dennis Hopper), for coffee.

This is a mature film with beautifully evocative music by Spanish director, Coixet, who made the acclaimed My Life Without Me. Possibly dragging a little too much in the final act, it leaves you pondering on its emotional complexities and brilliant performances all round. Kingsley is in danger of becoming the best actor of his generation if he keeps giving performances like this one. Cruz is equal to Kingsley in her moving portrayal, It's heartening to see both in a very thought-provoking role.

The Last Emperor

Documentary, history and monumental epic rolled into one.

The film takes us into the life of Pu YI, the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty. As a three-year-old he ascends the throne as "Emperor for 10,000," eventhough his empire is unstable and crumbling beyond the palace walls.

Oscar-winning director Bernardo Bertolucci's film was produced at great expense, as he employed a huge cast of extras, and was made entirely on location in China.

It's an exotic and fascinating film that would overwhelms Westeners: eunuchs populate the palace, concubines offer themselves, food tasters control the emperor's nutrition, and doctors study his stool. Individual characters are carefully hidden behind faces covered in stereotypical make up. Pu Yi also remains a stranger, even when he dances the Charleston or climbs into bed with two women at the same time.

Taking him to Manchukuo, where Japanese set up a puppet regime in an effort to oppose communism, Pu Yi becomes a toy in the hand of the new powers, and, ultimately, their victim. He ends up in a Communist re-education camp for ten years, from which he gains an early release, and returns to Beijing as a gardener.

The film is a story without a happy ending. Exploring the evolution of a human subject by depicting the transformation from "a dragon to a butterfly" syndrome, Bertolucci has explored a more intimate world of personal relationships affected by the conflicting worlds of different cultures.

At the end of his life, Pu Yi reduced to a broken man in Mao uniform. Although tragic, one cannot help but feel that somehow he is responsible for his own fate.