DVD Talk review of 'Tempest'
05-25-09 | 10:25 AM
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DVD Talk review of 'Tempest'
I read Jamie S. Rich's DVD review of Tempest at http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=27198 and...
...And although I respect the opinion expressed, I strongly feel like taking issue, and making a case for praising this magnificent and very subtle movie – if for no other reason than the fact that potential viewers tempted to give it a chance on DVD do not deserve to be turned away.
Indeed, Mr. Rich’s review of Tempest for all its savvy criticism of populist banter about acting and screenwriting techniques, seems to reveal that he simply missed its essence as much in his adult years as when he watched the trailer at age ten.
Sadly, Paul Mazursky's Tempest never reached its anticipated audience - that does not make it a weak film, by any means, but more likely an oddity caught between the sad mutation from the daring and mature subversive 70’s to the lobotomized bubble-gum 80’s ( Tempest as a script was set in motion in the late 70’s and was produced in 1980. )
I want to say, first off, that I although I work in the movie business, I have no affiliation with this particular project or its makers, and my emphatic love for the film is based entirely on my appraisal of its depth and its pounding, bleeding heart.
Tempest is a crafty tale of redemption, and forgiveness – it is a layered journey into the midlife crisis of a successful New York architect, Phillip Dimitrious, who has lost all his patience for building slums, and for kowtowing to self-indulgent authority figures.
The story of Tempest is told over one full day, as Dimitrious, who has gone into hiding on a tiny remote Greek Island with his daughter and his mistress, watches his Shangri-La come apart in a sudden storm. Throughout the day, in flashbacks, the protagonists tell us, the viewers, how their complicated lives have conspired to bring them on this collision course with Phillip, at this climactic point in time: the calm before the storm - and why Phillip’s vision of personal paradise is experienced by all others as a form of hell. Played masterfully by the late John Cassavetes, Phillip is not only a wry, disenchanted, cuckolded, former city-dweller gone native, but also a bit of a dabbler in the mystical craft of “conversing with the Gods”…Although his story is tangible in every way, Phillip seems to magically provoke lightening strikes, much in a way a sorcerer’s apprentice can command a broom to walk, but perhaps not always being able to stop it in time to avoid disaster. Much in the style of a Greek tragedy, Tempest summons the invisible power of the Gods to tamper with our fate. Mazursky’s love for theater and his nostalgia for the craft of the bards filters into many subtle references throughout the film, from one-liners, to cameos from superb, and now long gone performers – a wink and a nod to another era of American show business, but most of all, Tempest addresses the stormy seasons of the heart, in the ocean of those couples married for life – There is no better cast imaginable than the real life Gena Rowlands/John Cassavetes tandem to incarnate husband and wife in this mystical semi-urban tale.
Other notable performers: Vittorio Gassmann, and Raul Julia – both sadly also long gone.
Notable moment of pure nuttiness: The Liza Minnelli song "New-York, New-York" set to a musical number featuring flying goats.
The film builds like a mounting summer storm – whose calm can only be toppled – and like a summer storm, the anticipation is often more unsettling than the relief that the downpour finally provides, when the skies open – and THAT is the meaning of Mazursky’s Tempest. There is nothing pointless or “long winded” about the story, unless you were born in the age of Attention Deficit Disorder, and nothing fizzles-out, or falls short in the end, provided that you enjoy contemplating the infinite healing power of forgiveness and redemption. Tempest is guilty of being a mature and adult film in the true sense – all dressed up, and with few places to go…An oddity from the age of the great American reservoir of human stories, lost in the Betamax Eighties – abandoned by film Darwinism.
Treat yourself to this gem of a picture, now beautifully restored on DVD – see Tempest for yourself – give it a chance and treat yourself to its magical powers – whether you like this comment, whether you just read a bad review, or just wrote one.
Sylvain Despretz, Los Angeles.
Storyboard Artist - Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, Harry Potter.
...And although I respect the opinion expressed, I strongly feel like taking issue, and making a case for praising this magnificent and very subtle movie – if for no other reason than the fact that potential viewers tempted to give it a chance on DVD do not deserve to be turned away.
Indeed, Mr. Rich’s review of Tempest for all its savvy criticism of populist banter about acting and screenwriting techniques, seems to reveal that he simply missed its essence as much in his adult years as when he watched the trailer at age ten.
Sadly, Paul Mazursky's Tempest never reached its anticipated audience - that does not make it a weak film, by any means, but more likely an oddity caught between the sad mutation from the daring and mature subversive 70’s to the lobotomized bubble-gum 80’s ( Tempest as a script was set in motion in the late 70’s and was produced in 1980. )
I want to say, first off, that I although I work in the movie business, I have no affiliation with this particular project or its makers, and my emphatic love for the film is based entirely on my appraisal of its depth and its pounding, bleeding heart.
Tempest is a crafty tale of redemption, and forgiveness – it is a layered journey into the midlife crisis of a successful New York architect, Phillip Dimitrious, who has lost all his patience for building slums, and for kowtowing to self-indulgent authority figures.
The story of Tempest is told over one full day, as Dimitrious, who has gone into hiding on a tiny remote Greek Island with his daughter and his mistress, watches his Shangri-La come apart in a sudden storm. Throughout the day, in flashbacks, the protagonists tell us, the viewers, how their complicated lives have conspired to bring them on this collision course with Phillip, at this climactic point in time: the calm before the storm - and why Phillip’s vision of personal paradise is experienced by all others as a form of hell. Played masterfully by the late John Cassavetes, Phillip is not only a wry, disenchanted, cuckolded, former city-dweller gone native, but also a bit of a dabbler in the mystical craft of “conversing with the Gods”…Although his story is tangible in every way, Phillip seems to magically provoke lightening strikes, much in a way a sorcerer’s apprentice can command a broom to walk, but perhaps not always being able to stop it in time to avoid disaster. Much in the style of a Greek tragedy, Tempest summons the invisible power of the Gods to tamper with our fate. Mazursky’s love for theater and his nostalgia for the craft of the bards filters into many subtle references throughout the film, from one-liners, to cameos from superb, and now long gone performers – a wink and a nod to another era of American show business, but most of all, Tempest addresses the stormy seasons of the heart, in the ocean of those couples married for life – There is no better cast imaginable than the real life Gena Rowlands/John Cassavetes tandem to incarnate husband and wife in this mystical semi-urban tale.
Other notable performers: Vittorio Gassmann, and Raul Julia – both sadly also long gone.
Notable moment of pure nuttiness: The Liza Minnelli song "New-York, New-York" set to a musical number featuring flying goats.
The film builds like a mounting summer storm – whose calm can only be toppled – and like a summer storm, the anticipation is often more unsettling than the relief that the downpour finally provides, when the skies open – and THAT is the meaning of Mazursky’s Tempest. There is nothing pointless or “long winded” about the story, unless you were born in the age of Attention Deficit Disorder, and nothing fizzles-out, or falls short in the end, provided that you enjoy contemplating the infinite healing power of forgiveness and redemption. Tempest is guilty of being a mature and adult film in the true sense – all dressed up, and with few places to go…An oddity from the age of the great American reservoir of human stories, lost in the Betamax Eighties – abandoned by film Darwinism.
Treat yourself to this gem of a picture, now beautifully restored on DVD – see Tempest for yourself – give it a chance and treat yourself to its magical powers – whether you like this comment, whether you just read a bad review, or just wrote one.
Sylvain Despretz, Los Angeles.
Storyboard Artist - Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, Harry Potter.
