Sunday - Movies

The Age

Thursday July 10, 2008

Scott Murray

The Golden Bowl (2000)

ABC1, 8.30pm

This adaptation of Henry James' celebrated novel is one of the lesser collaborations of director James Ivory and scriptwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. It is visually exquisite but narratively dull. However, with the Tour de France banishing movies from SBS for three weeks, this is a rare arthouse offering on free-to-air.

Orchestra Seats (2006)

World Movies, 8.30pm

Orchestra Seats, from writer-director Daniele Thompson, is the story of a country girl, Jessica (Cecile de France), who gets a job at a cafe on Paris' Avenue Montaigne. She meets a world-weary pianist (Jean-Francois Lefort), a loudly neurotic actress (Valerie Lemercier in full flight) and a wealthy art collector (the great Claude Brasseur). Jessica's provincial innocence will help catalyse each of these (and other) disparate characters into more directed behaviour. At the beginning, the film is a storytelling mess, with voice-overs from one story played confusingly over visuals of another. But be patient, because the film's insistently cute charm will ultimately have many in tears. It is especially recommended for those who swooned through Alain Resnais' Private Fears in Public Places. -- SCOTT MURRAY

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