This blog entry is part of my "movie recommendation site suggestions". Read more about that here.
La ronde
Filmaffinity and Netflix both thought I would love this one, but they were pretty off. They should have sensed by now my general aversion to films about selfish and promiscuous people. The whole addition of the interlocutor character who brings the movie into the realm of meta-film seems to be called a brilliant move by many critics, but I find it irks me both with its smugness and oppositely its indulgence.
I can't deny that the staging and camera movements have some appeal. The movie is not poorly done for what it is, I just don't really like what it is.
The most interesting thing was discovering through the special features on the DVD the history of the play this was based on. Apparently wild riots broke out at nearly ever live staging of this play. The author Arthur Schnitzler actually then withdrew the right of the play for public performances. Some loop holes allowed this French film version to be made. But there's also an interesting correspondence on the DVD from the son of the author to Lawrence Olivier denying his request to perform the play in London and his reasons for doing so. It's pretty amazing to me to hear about plays and films and other works of art that have caused violent riots in the past. With this film, it's kind of hard for me to see why. Does that kind of thing still happen today?.
Rating: 4/10