Portrait of a Lady/Retrato de Una Dama
(Britain, 1996; Dir: Jane Campion; Starring:
Nicole Kidman, John Malkovich, Barbara Hershey)
(From El Pais, August 22, 1998; Translation by J. M. Rojas)
Larga. Hay peliculas bellas, peliculas intensas y peliculas, simple
y llanamente, interminables. Campion (El Piano) adapta a
Henry James y consigue un meticuloso, brillante y bien
interpretado homenaje a la eternidad. Son dos horas y parecen cien.
Isabel Archer (Kidman) es joven, arrojada,
inteligente y, por encima de todo, muy
independiente. Ella es una heroina atrapada entre las decadencias
del viejo mundo y el desbocamiento de un
universo que solicita espacio. Pese a los
excelentes trabajos de los actores (aqui, Malkovich y Hersey [sic]), los
despliegues productivos acaban naufragando en un mar de sopor.
Lo dicho, todo ocurre a finales de un siglo y
parece terminar a finales del siguiente.
Long. There are beatiful films, intense films, and films that
are, simply and undeniably, interminable. Campion (The Piano)
adapts a Henry James novel and creates a meticulous, brilliant,
and well-acted homage to eternity. Its two hours feel like one
hundred. Isabelle Archer (Kidman) is young, well-studied, intelligent and,
on top of it all, very independent. She is a heroine trapped within
the decadences of the old world and the opening of a new world in
search of space. In spite of the excellent work of the
actors (here, Malkovich and Hershey), the production capsizes
into a sea of sopor. This story is set at the end of one century
and seems to finish at the end of the next.