list http://www.spout.com/ Recent community activity around Cheri on Spout Copyright 2005-9 Spout, LLC Spout RSS http://www.spout.com/images/SpoutLogoRSS.jpg http://www.spout.com/ 136 30 http://www.spout.com/films/Cheri/366799/default.aspx Title: Cheri
Year: 2009
Director: Stephen Frears
Plot: A well known French prostitute (Kathy Bates) sets up her son (Rupert Friend) with a fellow courtesan (Michelle Pfeiffer) to learn the ways of love, but wasn't expecting the two to continue their affair years down the road, when the chance for the man to marry into wealth threatens to destroy their romance. Stephen Frears (Dangerous Liaisons) helms the 1920's period Pathe Pictures/Miramax co-production based on the Colette novella. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide
Number of blog posts: 1
SpoutRating: 1
]]>Mon, 20 Jul 2009 06:00:53 GMTCheri2009Stephen FrearsA well known French prostitute (<a href="http://www.spout.com/players/P_____4516/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Kathy Bates</a>) sets up her son (Rupert Friend) with a fellow courtesan (<a href="http://www.spout.com/players/P____56469/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Michelle Pfeiffer</a>) to learn the ways of love, but wasn't expecting the two to continue their affair years down the road, when the chance for the man to marry into wealth threatens to destroy their romance. <a href="http://www.spout.com/players/P____90460/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Stephen Frears</a> (<a href="http://www.spout.com/films/7946/detail.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Dangerous Liaisons</a>) helms the 1920's period Pathe Pictures/Miramax co-production based on the <a href="http://www.spout.com/players/P____14126/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Colette</a> novella. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide11http://www.spout.com/images/no_image.jpghttp://www.spout.com/films/Cheri/366799/default.aspxFilm http://www.spout.com/blogs/jimbell/archive/2009/11/10/44332.aspxPost By: JimBell
Post To: JimBell Blog
Post Date: 11/10/2009 2:06:25 AM
Body: Cheri (2009) is poorly made movie telling in a remote and detached manner the story of the love affair between a middle-aged prostitute and a spoiled young lover. We do not care much about Lea (Michelle Pfeiffer), although she seems a cut above the other courtesans. Cheri (Rupert Friend) is half her age: she is his unofficial godmother. He is a spoiled brat and womanizer, selfish and beautiful and quite immature. Now that we have characters we don’t like or care mush about, we are further distanced from their heartbreak by prominent and superficial music which contradicts the emotions we should be feeling. Having a staccato, bouncing score drown out a lover’s cries of anguish may epitomize the superficiality of the Belle Époque around 1900 in France, but it also distances the viewer. If that was not enough, we have the classic method of keeping viewers at arm’s length, the voice-over narration. The movie even ends with this narration, and I would be greatly surprised if you felt a twinge of sorrow for the tragedy it tells. Your consolation can be that the movie looks great—lush settings, great costumes, and Michelle Pfeiffer and Rupert Friend looking their best.
]]>Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:06:25 GMTJimBellJimBell Blog11/10/2009 2:06:25 AMCheri (2009) is poorly made movie telling in a remote and detached manner the story of the love affair between a middle-aged prostitute and a spoiled young lover. We do not care much about Lea (Michelle Pfeiffer), although she seems a cut above the other courtesans. Cheri (Rupert Friend) is half her age: she is his unofficial godmother. He is a spoiled brat and womanizer, selfish and beautiful and quite immature. Now that we have characters we don&rsquo;t like or care mush about, we are further distanced from their heartbreak by prominent and superficial music which contradicts the emotions we should be feeling. Having a staccato, bouncing score drown out a lover&rsquo;s cries of anguish may epitomize the superficiality of the Belle &Eacute;poque around 1900 in France, but it also distances the viewer. If that was not enough, we have the classic method of keeping viewers at arm&rsquo;s length, the voice-over narration. The movie even ends with this narration, and I would be greatly surprised if you felt a twinge of sorrow for the tragedy it tells. Your consolation can be that the movie looks great&mdash;lush settings, great costumes, and Michelle Pfeiffer and Rupert Friend looking their best. http://www.spout.com/blogs/kevynknox/archive/2009/7/20/43191.aspxPost By: KevynKnox
Post To: KevynKnox Blog
Post Date: 7/20/2009 2:00:53 AM
Body: (this review was first published at www.thecinematheque.com on 07/18/09) There is a shot at the very end of Stephen Frears' Chéri, where Michelle Pfeiffer stares into the camera, not a discernible speck of make-up on the 50 year old actress's face. This final shot, before the credits roll, sums up all that this film could have been, if only Frears' wasn't afraid to take his characters to the brink and back - just as Colette had done almost 90 years ago. The film's poster tagline asks us to engage in a wicked game of seduction. If only Frears had the nerve to allow us to do so. Based on the Colette novels, Chéri & The Last of Chéri and set in pre-World War I Paris, Frears has the great opportunity to delve into the biting, acerbic mannerisms of said Parisian society just as he and screenwriter Christopher Hampton had done so shrewdly with their eighteenth century-set Oscar-winning Dangerous Liaisons some 20 years ago. Unfortunately for us and for the actors (and for Colette who most likely is spinning around in her grave at Père Lachaise right now!) Frears chickens out and hands in instead, the blandest of period pieces. The giddy, subtle mastication that is Colette's novel(s) - where everyone has a hidden agenda and no one says what they really mean except in snide undercurrents - is barely visible here. Frears' assumption that Chéri is a romance and not a tragedy leads him into creating the most typical of typicalities. Enough to make even the most ultra-staid Merchant/Ivory seem wicked in comparison. Sure, many filmmakers have altered a novel when transferring it to screen (it would be next to impossible to leave an entire book intact and still have a film that could be played in one sitting) but to miss the very essence of a story is nearly inexcusable. Yet that is exactly what Frears and Hampton do here. Where Colette wrote of an aging Parisian courtesan who hands over her young boy toy for the proper marriage that has been pre-arranged for him, Frears and Hampton twists their film into something akin to two long-lost lovers running at each other on the beach with a swell of cloying music behind them. Change the aforementioned beach to a lushly draped Parisian boudoir and that is what this latest version of Chéri ends up being. In fact missed opportunities abound in Frears' movie. Well acted by both Rupert Friend as the titular Chéri and Pfeiffer as his aging paramour (though Kathy Bates is a shrill cartoon in her portrayal) it is Frears' lack of courage that is the real downfall of the film. Not only does he lose his nerve when it comes to the droll, yet scathing dialogue of Colette's characters (the writer said of her book, "For the first time in my life, I felt morally certain of having written a novel for which I need neither blush nor doubt.") but Frears stumbles at the perfect opportunity for showing how women in today's society - and especially those in Hollywood - are treated after a certain demarcation line of age. Though looking as gorgeous as ever (even maybe more lovely than ever) Pfeiffer would be the perfect subject to breach such a thesis, but instead Frears lumbers along oblivious to the whole theme of what Colette was writing. Frears' most memorable films, Dangerous Liaisons, My Beautiful Launderette, Prick Up Your Ears, The Grifters and The Queen do all bear the weight of a certain amount of depth and quite a bit of underlying danger, but here the filmmaker falls flat flat flat. An admittedly pretty film (some scenes elicit memories of Monet and the impressionists) and with two strong, if quite cliche'd performances, but still a film that never goes anywhere and while not going anywhere tends to fall out of fashion even with itself. Add to all this the strangest "international" melange of accents (even among mother and son) and a completely unnecessary, and quite annoying series of haphazard narration, and you have Stephen Frears' Chéri. Even on its own, when not compared to the original novel(s), Frears' film fails on most levels. Perhaps a French version (there were four other versions made previously, two French, one Brit and one Italian - none of which are available today) starring Isabelle Huppert and Louis Garrel, and directed by Catherine Breillat would have better suited Colette's story. Instead all we are left with is that haunting final image of Pfeiffer, aged or not, that only makes us wish Frears had allowed her to give us so much more.
]]>Mon, 20 Jul 2009 06:00:53 GMTKevynKnoxKevynKnox Blog7/20/2009 2:00:53 AM(this review was first published at www.thecinematheque.com on 07/18/09) There is a shot at the very end of Stephen Frears' Ch&eacute;ri, where Michelle Pfeiffer stares into the camera, not a discernible speck of make-up on the 50 year old actress's face. This final shot, before the credits roll, sums up all that this film could have been, if only Frears' wasn't afraid to take his characters to the brink and back - just as Colette had done almost 90 years ago. The film's poster tagline asks us to engage in a wicked game of seduction. If only Frears had the nerve to allow us to do so. Based on the Colette novels, Ch&eacute;ri &amp; The Last of Ch&eacute;ri and set in pre-World War I Paris, Frears has the great opportunity to delve into the biting, acerbic mannerisms of said Parisian society just as he and screenwriter Christopher Hampton had done so shrewdly with their eighteenth century-set Oscar-winning Dangerous Liaisons some 20 years ago. Unfortunately for us and for the actors (and for Colette who most likely is spinning around in her grave at P&egrave;re Lachaise right now!) Frears chickens out and hands in instead, the blandest of period pieces. The giddy, subtle mastication that is Colette's novel(s) - where everyone has a hidden agenda and no one says what they really mean except in snide undercurrents - is barely visible here. Frears' assumption that Ch&eacute;ri is a romance and not a tragedy leads him into creating the most typical of typicalities. Enough to make even the most ultra-staid Merchant/Ivory seem wicked in comparison. Sure, many filmmakers have altered a novel when transferring it to screen (it would be next to impossible to leave an entire book intact and still have a film that could be played in one sitting) but to miss the very essence of a story is nearly inexcusable. Yet that is exactly what Frears and Hampton do here. Where Colette wrote of an aging Parisian courtesan who hands over her young boy toy for the proper marriage that has been pre-arranged for him, Frears and Hampton twists their film into something akin to two long-lost lovers running at each other on the beach with a swell of cloying music behind them. Change the aforementioned beach to a lushly draped Parisian boudoir and that is what this latest version of Ch&eacute;ri ends up being. In fact missed opportunities abound in Frears' movie. Well acted by both Rupert Friend as the titular Ch&eacute;ri and Pfeiffer as his aging paramour (though Kathy Bates is a shrill cartoon in her portrayal) it is Frears' lack of courage that is the real downfall of the film. Not only does he lose his nerve when it comes to the droll, yet scathing dialogue of Colette's characters (the writer said of her book, "For the first time in my life, I felt morally certain of having written a novel for which I need neither blush nor doubt.") but Frears stumbles at the perfect opportunity for showing how women in today's society - and especially those in Hollywood - are treated after a certain demarcation line of age. Though looking as gorgeous as ever (even maybe more lovely than ever) Pfeiffer would be the perfect subject to breach such a thesis, but instead Frears lumbers along oblivious to the whole theme of what Colette was writing. Frears' most memorable films, Dangerous Liaisons, My Beautiful Launderette, Prick Up Your Ears, The Grifters and The Queen do all bear the weight of a certain amount of depth and quite a bit of underlying danger, but here the filmmaker falls flat flat flat. An admittedly pretty film (some scenes elicit memories of Monet and the impressionists) and with two strong, if quite cliche'd performances, but still a film that never goes anywhere and while not going anywhere tends to fall out of fashion even with itself. Add to all this the strangest "international" melange of accents (even among mother and son) and a completely unnecessary, and quite annoying series of haphazard narration, and you have Stephen Frears' Ch&eacute;ri. Even on its own, when not compared to the original novel(s), Frears' film fails on most levels. Perhaps a French version (there were four other versions made previously, two French, one Brit and one Italian - none of which are available today) starring Isabelle Huppert and Louis Garrel, and directed by Catherine Breillat would have better suited Colette's story. Instead all we are left with is that haunting final image of Pfeiffer, aged or not, that only makes us wish Frears had allowed her to give us so much more. http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/relationship/MemberTagFilms.aspxrelationship
Number of films tagged: 1090

Number of people who tagged: 50

Number of times used: 189

]]>Sat, 24 Oct 2009 19:18:01 GMT109050189Tag http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/france/MemberTagFilms.aspxfrance
Number of films tagged: 932

Number of people who tagged: 42

Number of times used: 97

]]>Wed, 25 Nov 2009 02:12:04 GMT9324297Tag http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/starcrossedlovers/MemberTagFilms.aspxstarcrossedlovers
Number of films tagged: 257

Number of people who tagged: 9

Number of times used: 11

]]>Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:03:08 GMT257911Tag http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/prostituteprostitution/MemberTagFilms.aspxprostituteprostitution
Number of films tagged: 1655

Number of people who tagged: 7

Number of times used: 8

]]>Fri, 17 Jul 2009 13:02:52 GMT165578Tag http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/marriagearranged/MemberTagFilms.aspxmarriagearranged
Number of films tagged: 462

Number of people who tagged: 2

Number of times used: 2

]]>Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:03:08 GMT46222Tag