Silk
|
List Price: Our Price: $3.22 You Save: $16.76 (84%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.53 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Silk
Movie Review: Not much of a movie but Nude Scenes Are Worth a View
Summary: 3 Stars
Kiera has three nude scenes though the first is darkly lit, the other two of her in bed with husband are decent though short. The lead Japanese actress has a topless scene and another actress as the geisha/concubine has a FFN and long love making scene ... and both Japanese actresses are cute as a button so worth a look for fans of nudity in film. The Japan scenes are gorgeous and are interesting visually. The movie - still life - though the nudity of the actresses is nice.Movie Review: Vacuous Cocoon
Summary: 2 Stars
Based on the prose-poem novel by Alessandro Baricco, director Francois Girard's `Silk' excruciates its audience by trying way too hard to be a beautiful genre film complete with spectacularly photographed vistas of France and Japan, profoundly symphonic music and the kind of pretty crinoline-d costumes in which most bodice-ripping aficionados would want to be corseted. However attractive, `Silk' wears thin right from the get-go.
Michael Pitt, severely miscast as Herve Joncour (why not James McAvoy?), plays this 19th century purveyor of silk eggs--a supposed intrepid adventurer traveling from Lyon to Africa and Japan--with a spectrum of emotions limited to a flat line expression of distracted cherub-faced banality. Does anything faze this person? Is his cravat tied too tightly? Not really--Pitt spends most of the movie in kimono, so he's definitely comfortable. Nevertheless, when Herve experiences sensual exquisiteness--be it women (two lusciously yet polarly different beauties--the fair Helene (Keira Knightly) and the nameless dark and sultry Japanese concubine (Sei Ashina) or nature--- he flitters through a pastel flower-strewn rendition of Monet's France (Girard's scene at the beach captures in essence the painting "La Promenade, la Femme a l'Ombrelle") and meanders through a misty art house imagining of rural Japan that suggests the fragile Haiku tension of "Snow Falling on Cedars", he pouts with the one-note prissiness that stamps him as a graduate in fine standing from the quintessential "you'll-never-understand-me" school of teen television drama, "Dawson's Creek. With blue-green eyes that are quick to water - his only visual sign of emotion, other than a slackness of his full lips--he stumbles through 20 years of his life on a confused quest for his idea of perfection. Ironically, Helene, his wife, waits at home for the garden and child she has promised herself while he pants over his conceptualization of a woman with whom he has never spoken with the persistence and deadened optimism of a voyeur clicking through mega-sites of Internet porn.
So what's it all about and is it worth two hours of the viewer's time? No. Even for die-hard Knightly fans, `Silk' offers scant opportunity for this actress to really hone her craft and shine in any way other than that of a lovely accoutrement to an already lovely backdrop. She spends most of her screen time in a languorous pre-`Atonement' wait state-- I have come to think of this film as an exercise to her more intense character of Cecelia opposite James McAvoy in `Atonement.' There, too, her angular body is positioned in an ultimate welcoming or goodbye posture. Here, she is less bitter, her jaw still clenched while her arms remain outstretched ready to grab her errant husband to her bosom each and every time he returns from his trek for eggs. Sadly, unfulfilled in her inability to conceive a child or understand her husband's restlessness--of this I conjecture, as the plot of the film reveals little of the underpinnings of her mind--she conveys an overall feeling of the unessential role women, in general, portrayed in life then and perhaps, even in life today.
And just how are women depicted? If we enjoy a football game, we are inundated with glimpses of cheerleader's legs, breasts and swatches of long hair swaying. If we like cars or cameras, well, there is always a model or two glad to sell you the latest technological advancement while allowing a glimpse or two of their corporeal delicatessens. It comes as no surprise that there are certain women who sell their sexuality to make their way in a world that has been designed by men. Are we to believe that that is the only alternative? In `Silk,' a film intended to be appealingly romantic to women, we again are reminded that women hold a secondary role--the concubine does not speak, yet Herve is entranced--by what? Her subservience? Helene is fetching indeed, but as Herve doesn't seem to care, why should we? All those poetic musings in the Baricco novel come off as the usual stereotypical drivel that reduces women to commodities rather than flesh and blood individuals with needs of their own. Shame on you, M. Girard. I might as well watch the Speed Channel.
Bottom line? Don't waste your time or your money on this one. The plot is boring. The actors wallow in self-pity. Yes, the photography waxes aesthetic but you would do better with a picture book of exotic locales. The music accentuates the maudlin nauseating character study of the insipid Herve, but I'd rather listen to something truly impassioned like Rachmaninoff. Personally, I am tired of the mentality of depicting pretty women being flaunted as tidbits to make men's lives more comfortable, be it a Playboy spread or a tea ceremony. Enough already. I can deal with a little manipulation. Just show me some strength.
I awarded this movie two stars, both of which go to Alfred Molina as Herve's boisterous boss man. He is the only player that livened up the so-called action in this snore fest. Not recommended.
Diana Faillace Von Behren
"reneofc"
Movie Review: Two Big Thumbs Down
Summary: 2 Stars
"Silk" was a film that I'd been eyeballing for quite some time, lured by its romantic cover of Keira Knightley in period dress and embracing actor Michael Pitt, their noses touching and suggestive of an imminent kiss. I realized after watching it that I got the most enjoyment out of just looking at the DVD cover. "Silk" is an incredible bore that has the misfortune of two very good actors (Molina, Knightley) trying to propel limp material.
The story takes place in 19th century France - Hervé Joncour (Pitt) is a former military officer who happily abandons his career for another: trading silkworm eggs. Due to a disease that begins affecting and killing off the local population, he is bid by his associate Baldabiou (Molina) to travel abroad for healthy eggs. He travels first to Africa, then to Japan, attempting to smuggle back eggs that will hatch healthy silkworms and produce massive amounts of silk, thereby bringing substantial profit.
His journeys to these strange countries are long and arduous and keep him away from his young beautiful wife Hélène (Knightley), who desperately wants a child. While in Japan, Hervé inexplicably becomes obsessed with a local man's concubine and when given a note from her, he finds a high-end Japanese prostitute back in France who translates it. The note reads: Come back or I shall die.
Despite a revolt in Japan, Hervé insists on returning there due to his urge to find the concubine and encounters hostility beyond what he thought possible. The trip is a lost cause - there is no sign of the woman he sought and all of the eggs he procures hatch prematurely and are therefore worthless. Returning home once again, Hélène finds him a changed man (not for the better) and he finds her a melancholy woman, one who unbeknownst to him is wise to the reason for his return to Japan.
The film ends on a sad note and with not much of a resolution - Hervé never found what he was looking for and in his ignorant obsession, loses what's most important to him. In short, it was a waste of film on several accounts: story, screenplay and acting combined.
Fans of Keira Knightley won't get even half of what they expect from her in this film, the onscreen time largely belonging to Michael Pitt as Hervé Joncour. Pitt is flat, dispassionate and utterly uninteresting - his voice rarely projects above the volume of a private conversation and is sorely lacking in inflection. With a monotone delivery to match his vacant face, the man may as well be an android and it makes me wonder whether this is the kind of performance that director François Girard (The Red Violin) wanted all along (that, or he did nothing to coax Pitt into giving more). If so, it deeply discourages me from reading the novel on which this film was based, as it's high unlikely I'll put up with a dry and lethargic character like Hervé for very long before giving up on the story entirely.
Alfred Molina is the saving grace of the film's many performance issues, managing to take what little he has and still make a good impression. The rest of the cast are largely unknown and blend in with the background, a scene-stealer in its own right; the film's luscious cinematography comes courtesy of Alain Dostie with location shoots divided between Japan and Italy. There are plenty of resplendent and artsy shots of the wintry landscapes in the Japanese town of Sakata as well as a verdant and fairytale-like milieu for the Joncour estate in the medieval village of Sermoneta, Italy.
Sound on this particular DVD is horrid - I found myself cranking the volume WAY up and still had trouble hearing certain people (Pitt in particular, what with his maddening mumbling).
Bottom line: Fans of Alessandro Barrico's novella would do well to avoid this somnolent adaptation - it is a useless companion to the book and does nothing to elevate the Italian author's prose or illuminate the story. If you're in a deep dark pit of boredom, the ennui of "Silk" will keep you trapped there.
Movie Review: Visually Stunning, but Dramatically...Well...
Summary: 2 Stars
"Silk" is like a soufflé; gorgeous to gaze at, but light and insubstantial. A lack of a real dramatic 'core', and the leaden performance of Michael Pitt in the lead, offsets some of the most breathtaking images of Europe and Asia I've seen in recent years.
The plot involves a young Frenchman's quest to bring black market silkworm eggs back to France, before Japan was opened to the West. Newly married to his lifelong sweetheart (Keira Knightley, who is quite good), he finds himself smitten by a beautiful Japanese concubine (Sei Ashina), who, despite never consummating with, he fantasizes about, on the basis of a note in Japanese, which hints she harbors the same feelings toward him.
Thus hangs the 'drama', and on the basis of his lifelong guilt over this unrequited love, we are to feel an emotional attachment to the Frenchman. Sadly, I couldn't, as Pitt's one-note portrayal offered little to sympathize with. I found myself wishing that James Mcavoy had been cast, as he could have provided the kind of depth the role required.
Several good actors are wasted, particularly Alfred Molina, as the visionary who arranges the earthworm missions; the story's failure certainly defeats the fabulous cinematography, as well.
"Silk" offers far more than it delivers!
Movie Review: Did not get it...
Summary: 2 Stars
I must say that part of my problem with this film was that it was so dark. Not subject matter only, but the actual lighting of the film Now I know that there was not electric light in mid-19th century French villages and not in Japan either. But, I actually was peering at the screen trying to make some of it out.
I have not read the book and so am basing my remarks simply on the movie. I do not understand the life-changing attraction between Herve and the concubine. They hardly look at one another, do not share any words, know nothing about one another and yet yearn to be together. Was it just the excitement of someone new, or the allure of someone exotic? For an oriental woman who belongs to someone else to write "Come back or I shall die", there has to be some major reason. Maybe we are to assume it was just love at first sight?
How did Helene know about the concubine? In one scene, she and Herve are making love and she is crying. Is it because she cannot conceive a child, or does she feel that something has changed with Herve? I will say that the twist in the plot regarding the long letter was interesting and touching.