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Tag Archives: Isabella Rossellini

Death Becomes Her

05 Saturday Mar 2016

Posted by vinnieh in Movie Reviews

≈ 45 Comments

Tags

1990's, Bruce Willis, Dark Comedy, Death Becomes Her, Fantasy, Goldie Hawn, Isabella Rossellini, Meryl Streep, Robert Zemeckis

Film Title

Death Becomes Her

Director

Robert Zemeckis

Starring

  • Meryl Streep as Madeline Ashton
  • Goldie Hawn as Helen Sharp
  • Bruce Willis as Ernest Menville
  • Isabella Rossellini as Lisle

A savagely comedic and satiric look at vanity, bitter rivalry and revenge, Death Becomes Her is one heady bitches brew. Boasting eye-popping special effects and devilish work from the cast, it’s a dark comedy fantasy that is a hoot with the added mix of magic and bitchy one liners.

Madeline Ashton is a narcissistic, bitchy actress who is a real success. She has a rivalry with aspiring writer Helen Sharp and does anything she can to get one up on her. Death Becomes Her PosterBut Madeline crosses the line when she seduces Helen’s fiancée Ernest Menville, a prominent plastic surgeon to the stars and the two eventually marry. This causes Helen to completely break down and she is sectioned. Years later, Madeline and her demanding ways have driven Ernest to drink and he is now a mortician. Madeline is also something of a has been as she is getting older, and there is a demand for younger actresses. It is here that she bumps into Helen again, who is now a successful author and looking just as young as she did all those years before. What Madeline doesn’t know is that Helen has been planning revenge on her and plans to execute it soon. Shocked by Helen’s youthful appearance, Madeline soon finds an intriguing answer to her own age issues in the form of Lisle. Lisle is a wealthy socialite and possibly a sorceress, who has divined a potion that gives the person who drinks it eternal youth. Obsessed with looking young again, Madeline takes the potion. Death Becomes Her PotionYet the potion doesn’t just grant eternal youth but also immortality. Meanwhile, Helen puts her plan to get Ernest back into action and battles it out with Madeline, with poor Ernest stuck in the middle of it all. But the plotting Helen herself also took the potion years before and now as they commence in battle, it is getting harder to get one up on the other as both are in a sense indestructible and neither can die.

Robert Zemeckis directs this lively and darkly amusing film with a fast-paced panache, relishing all the biting lines that the script has to offer. He funnily satirizes society’s obsession with beauty and age with a cutting wit. Let’s just say, this guy knows how to keep a movie eventful and very entertaining as Madeline and Helen go to war. Goldie Hawn Death Becomes HerThe special effects in Death Becomes Her deserve a huge mention as they really are very impressive in highlighting the immortality of both woman and the many injuries they inflict on each other, that only cause a bit of damage like a neck out-of-place or a bullet hole through the chest, that eventually spring back to normal. Some will say that the special effects take precedence over the story, but it actual fact they compliment it very well and lead to black comedy of the highest order. A dazzling, adventurous score provides the backdrop of darkness tinged with a morbid playfulness that is ever-present through Death Becomes Her and makes it a real treat.

What really gives Death Becomes Her that real snap and morbid humour is the performances from the splendid cast. Goldie Hawn and Meryl StreepMeryl Streep is utterly fabulous as the wicked bitch Madeline, constantly obsessed with being young again and finding that it has a price. She obviously savours the razor-sharp put downs that Madeline spews and gives the role a diva like persona of total star quality. Her acting alongside Goldie Hawn pays off successfully as they share a devilish chemistry with each other. Goldie Hawn is equally as good as Streep, playing Helen as downtrodden but deliciously scheming to the hilt. Taking a break from the macho action roles he is mostly known for, Bruce Willis shows his versatility as the much abused Ernest. Exuding a gawkiness and befuddled anxiety, he really shows what a talented actor he is. Adding wickedly sensual support is Isabella Rossellini as the magical woman with the potion that leads to eternal youth and more.

A wickedly gleeful comedy fantasy, brimming with verve and hysterical outrageousness, Death Becomes Her is a dark delight of a movie.

 

Wild At Heart

13 Saturday Apr 2013

Posted by vinnieh in Movie Reviews

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

1990's, David Lynch, Diane Ladd, Drama, Grace Zabriskie, Harry Dean Stanton, Isabella Rossellini, Laura Dern, Nicolas Cage, Road Movie, Surreal, Wild At Heart, Willem Dafoe

Film Title

Wild At Heart

Director

David Lynch

Cast

  • Nicolas Cage as Sailor Ripley
  • Laura Dern as Lula Fortune
  • Diane Ladd as Marietta Fortune
  • Willem Dafoe as Bobby Peru
  • Harry Dean Stanton as Johnnie Farragut
  • J.E. Freeman as Marcellus Santos
  • Isabella Rossellini as Perdita Durango
  • Grace Zabriskie as Juana Durango

Wild At Heart is a surreal, dark and strange road movie directed by David Lynch. Focusing on the intense courtship between a former prisoSailor Ripley and Lula Fortunener and his girlfriend on a deeply weird road trip across America, it is essential viewing for fans of the surreal and Lynch in general.

Sailor Ripley is a rebellious, Elvis loving guy, who is sent down for brutally killing a man with his own bare hands. He is in a raw relationship with the sensual Lula Fortune, who is constantly bombarded by her scary and needy mother, Marietta to end the romance. Disobeying her mother’s orders, Lula picks Sailor up after he is released and together they embark upon a sex-fueled, sinister road trip across many states. All the while, the manipulative and unhinged Marietta has sent a private detective to find them, but also cunningly enlisted the services of a gangster friend as she wants Sailor dead. This signals the cue for the usual Lynchian staples of dreams and surrealism, and also many homages to Elvis and The Wizard of Oz as Sailor and Lula travel down their own sinister yellow brick road and meet many creepy and deranged characters along the way.

Though it is a film that will undeniably divide viewer opinion, the performances from the cast are excellent. Nicolas Cage, clad in a seriously cool snake-skin jacket, embodies the violent, unpredictable lifestyle of Sailor. Laura Dern shows a complex young girl who is confused and sexy, sometimes at the same time. The two actors keep the audience engaged as we watch the strange events unravel around them as they travel. Heading the supporting cast is Dern’s real-life mother Diane Ladd, who creates an Marietta Fortuneunforgettably unstable and resentful  matriarch who surely ranks as one of the mothers from hell in the cinematic archives. Whether calmly plotting Sailor’s demise, painting lipstick all over her face or completely flying off the handle at her daughter’s defiance, she is certainly a startlingly original character. The always interesting Harry Dean Stanton is on scene stealing form as a most unlucky private investigator, drawn into this twisted mess Willem Dafoe also contributes creepiness to the narrative as a scary criminal, who has the strangest teeth I’ve ever seen on film. They are used perfectly to show a sinister side when he smiles with a snake-like glee. Also watch out for a sultry cameo from Isabella Rossellini as the bleach blonde getaway driver for criminals and a creepy performance by Lynch regular Grace Zabriskie as her crazed, murdering sister Juana.

Music plays an integral part to the film, cutting it to old school rock that the two lovers are often seen listening to or discussing. The use of the song Wicked Game is effective as the lovers drive at night and see eerie visions as the melancholy tune plays. Although the numerous references to Oz, especially in terms of visual style, may put off viewers, they contribute an almost darkly, childlike undercurrent showing how supernatural and creepy the road trip has become for the fleeing duo.

All in all, Wild At Heart is not a film for everyone’s taste, mainly because of graphic violence and macabre atmosphere. But if you relish strange, symbol-laden films populated by weird characters and striking visuals, Wild At Heart may just be the film for you.

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