September 3, 2017

‘Victoria & Abdul’ Review: Judi Dench-Starring Historical Drama Is Only Half a Story — Venice

Stephen Frears’ “Victoria & Abdul” is an otherwise benignly toothless, pleasantly glossy affair, but it does force us to confront one tricky question: When treating a subject as fraught as British imperial rule, when does a film’s benign inoffensiveness become offensive in and of itself? Still, that’s about the only food for thought in what is at once a breezy, lion-in-winter vehicle for Judi Dench in queen-mode and a “Lifestyles of the Rich and Noble” bit of wealth porn, and not much more.

Dench is back as Queen Victoria, returning to a role she had previously played in John Madden’s “Mrs. Brown,” a film that must have not only inspired Frears and screenwriter Lee Hall, but acted as their foundational text. Little is known about the very real relationship that existed between the aging monarch and her advisor Abdul Karim, and so Hall has essentially grafted their story onto a broad strokes retelling of Madden’s 1997 film. In both versions, an underling servant grants the withdrawn Widow of Windsor a new lease on life, much to evident displeasure of her numerous attendants, political appointees, and children. Swap out the Scot John Brown for the Indian Muslim Abdul, fast forward a few decades and here we go.

The film picks up on the unhappy queen as a prisoner of her own court. Trapped in an endless cycle of luncheons, ceremonies, and royal visits, Old Vic seeks solace in food. Every day brings another ornate banquet, and every banquet brings countless lavish courses. The rich preparations are about the only thing worth paying attention to, at least until she locks eyes with Abdul (Bollywood star Ali Fazal, though recently of “Furious 7”).

A lowly prison clerk sent from his native Agra to present the queen a coin, Abdul brazenly breaks protocol by staring the Empress of India in the eyes. And yet it seems to work out. She warms to his moxie, speaks of his good looks, and takes him on as her right-hand man, at least until the protocol-rigid chamberlains complain about a commoner spending so much time with the ostensible most powerful woman on Earth. So she makes him a royal advisor, there to teach her all about the entire subcontinent where she has long ruled if never actually stepped a foot, and life is sweet again.

“Victoria & Abdul”

That sweetness is laced into the very character of the film, which wants to be taken as a light confection. We breeze through all the royal real estate, marveling at the opulent décor. We titter at Dench’s withering put downs and saucy asides, grateful to see a venerable performer doing what she does best. And we snicker at those upper class power dynamics, familiar to all thanks to the seemingly endless deluge of aristocrat-dramas that have proliferated since “Downton Abbey” and are all over our aunts’ Netflix feeds.

When one obsequious doctor tries to cure the queen’s constipation, he uses the incredible formation “perhaps the royal colon could stand a bit more roughage.” We smirk. That’s the kind of movie “Victoria & Abdul” wants to be.

Except, it can’t be, thanks to that damned question of colonialism, the legacy of which is still being felt today. In the film’s formation, both Abdul and Victoria are innocent actors, two parties on the far extremes of a troubling system run by callous white men (represented here by the likes of Eddie Izzard, Michael Gambon, and Tim Pigott-Smith). But that structure never stands up because the film never grants the slightest interest in Abdul’s perspective.

While Dench gets a number of speeches and confrontations, dramatizing Victoria’s position as both all-powerful and basically powerless, Fazal is just asked to smile. Abdul is good-natured and charming, happily there to serve. He’s eager to teach her Urdu, or recite from the Koran, much to Victoria’s delight and her advisor’s dismay, but what’s going on inside his mind? What’s it like to go from the basement of colonial prison to a seat of Imperial power? Well, aside from the fact that he seems to appreciate the wallpaper, we never really know. The film is called “Victoria & Abdul” but it only ever lives up to one half of its title.

You can’t really make a pro-colonialist film in today’s political landscape (and thank god for that!), but by refusing to confront the real historical factors that make an essential part of the plot, “Victoria & Abdul” comes awfully close.

Though painted in a sympathetic light, Abdul is only ever used as tool both in the film’s plot and construction. By lavishing him with praise and attention, the queen is able to needle her scheming, racist coterie. By showing how earnestly devoted he is without stopping to ask why or what that would mean, the filmmakers essentially treat him as a prop in a white woman’s road to awakening. Despite a number of frilly charms, the film uses a figure of an oppressed class as a pawn in the larger games of the oppressors, and never stops to consider who he is as a person. There’s a name for that.

Grade: C-

“Victoria & Abdul” premiered at the Venice Film Festival. It will hit theaters on September 22.

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Source: IndieWire film

September 3, 2017

Angelina Jolie Speaks to ‘Very Dark Time’ in Current Culture at Telluride Panel

At this year’s Telluride Film Festival, the “Wonder Woman” effect continues to send ripples throughout the industry. Case in point: Saturday’s hugely attended “Wonder Women” panel, moderated by director Peter Sellars and boasting a panel that included actress and filmmaker Angelina Jolie, lauded chef and restaurateur Alice Waters, tennis champ Billie Jean King (the subject of the Telluride premiere “Battle of the Sexes”), and actress and filmmaker Natalie Portman.

Jolie was at the annual Colorado film festival to bow her latest directorial effort, “First They Killed My Father,” which debuted the night before the panel. It will be available on Netflix later this month, after screening at TIFF next week.

In our review, Eric Kohn praised it as being “a more focused, involving work than any of her earlier efforts, a taut wartime tale about surviving the Khmer Rouge that’s rooted in a child’s perspective rather than a simplistic, westernized gaze. Despite a few missteps, it’s the clearest illustration of her filmmaking talent to date.”

Jolie, who has long been outspoken in her political beliefs and currently serves as a Special Envoy to the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, spoke out about the “very dark time” unspooling in current culture. For Jolie, the parallels between the current political climate and other historical instances that have seen countries and groups devolve into hatred (and worse) was top of mind, as her latest film is centered on the true-life stories of Cambodian refugees who were massacred by the Khmer Rouge.

“First They Killed My Father”

The film is based on the non-fiction book of the same name, penned by Loung Ung, who was just 5 when Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia. As Jolie noted, that horrific period of history is “not unlike even some situations we can recognize today: there’s a country [arming itself] on the border; there are bombs that enter the country; there’s a vacuum left; ideologies rise; hate rises; and [there’s] a lot of lies and encouraging people to come together and rise up against outside influences.”

She added, “But in doing so, they are also rising up with a certain kind of ideology that is very hateful and aggressive.”

As horrific as the experiences of Ung and her family were, Jolie also pointed out that not only did Ung survive, she has thrived, and in one of the few places where a displaced immigrant could accomplish so much: America.

“She was forced into labor camps. But she and some of her brothers and sisters survived, and she is extraordinary, and she came to America,” Jolie said. “And this morning I heard her thank America for embracing her as an immigrant and explain how much she hopes she has given back to America, and remind us all what is the best of America.”

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Source: IndieWire film