Movies at Home: Ammonite, Eyewitness and Ran

 

Not nearly enough about fossil hunting, Ammonite is just an excuse for a portrayal of  that special relationship between Mary Anning (Kate Winslet) and Charlotte Murchison (Saoirse Ronan). Two heavyweight actresses cannot save this dismal story. The pictures of Lyme Regis were the best things in the film. Far better was the book Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier that we read for book club. (Post 14th March 2017).

William Hurt was the best thing about 1981's Eyewitness. His Daryll Deever may or may not have seen a murder. But it gives him the opportunity to get close to glamorous tv reporter Sigourney Weaver. But does that make him a target for the real killer. Director Peter Yates keeps up the suspense from an original script by Steve Tesich. Christopher Plummer also stars with just supporting roles for James Woods and Morgan Freeman.

I was really looking forward to Ran, the last film made by director Akira Kurosawa. (See Series 1 Episode 9 of The Directors on Sky Arts - posted on 2nd January 2020 and Shakespeare on Film post of 12th April 2022). I knew that it was based on King Lear, but in the end it was all too familiar. Just working out what had been kept and what was new. We do have the Fool and three sons instead of daughters. That worked quite well. The scenery was spectacular and the battle scenes well staged. But the script and dialogue (even with subtitles) was way too hammy for me. Very Japanese. 

Of course, Kurosawa does have a piece in David Thomson's the New Biographical Dictionary of Film. Here it says "The Current Awareness of Japanese cinema in the West began with Kurosawa". And at the end "The late Kurosawa films (including Ran) have enshrined the director in many Western eyes". He is a "superb handler of action". Agreed.