The Mission
few films have moved me more than this.
Altamirano: What were they saying?
Father Gabriel: They said the devil lives in the forest.
-They want to stay here.
Altamirano: And what did you say?
Father Gabriel: I said I’d stay with them.
25 March, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Have just got back from Iguazu Falls, the home of the Guarani along the Parana. It´s very, very lovely. Have also been doing a tour of the Jesuit Estancias, which are delightful. A few years back I was in Cartagena, where the city scenes were filmed. In my tragic way, I now feel as if I have lived this film.
For me, it´s one of the few movies where Jeremy Irons isn´t too annoying, and where Robert De Niro is contained. Have loved it for decades.
But... (and this is the controversial bit)... don´t you think it´s Ray McAnally´s film? His Cardinal is simply superb, is it not?
Oh, em... greetings from Argentina!
ah yes. heard about your extended trip to that part of the world and envy you enormously.
expect to be regaled with the tales very soon.
as for the mission. well you find me in absolute agreement. first saw it age 10 with rents. i had just left brazil 4 years earlier, in the state of paranama (so quite close to the iguacu) and it devasted us all.
oh and i concur on papal nuncio. the narrations is pitch perfect. and he captures the untenable position of the church and embues his part with compassion and regret and necessary self-loathing. and it is all thanks to ray. i realized only recently it was the last screenplay of robert bolt and have a hankering to revisit his work....starting with a man for all seasons.
ps we love a good jesuit don't we?
so happy you are with us. all the way across the ocean.
With the sad news of the death of Paul Schofield I immediately thought of re-watching A Man For All Seasons (a thought stymied by the fact I don´t have it with me here in Buenos Aires), which was followed by the memory that last time I watched it, it didn´t seem to have aged so well. I did the play at school, and like it enormously. But the film, like so many British movies of that era, seemed to me to be overwhelmed by the text and to ignore that cinema is, essentially, a visual medium.
Having written that, the scene where his wife -- magnificently played by the magnificent Dame Wendy Hiller -- dresses him down for praising her custard... well, that still brought tears to my eyes.
Am still a bit shocked by the death of Minghella (who I met a couple of times since he was, briefly, my boss). Desperately sad, and I liked him, but his films... well, I´m more ambivalent. I loved, loved, loved Talented Mr Ripley, but I can take or leave the rest of them.
Blah, blah. Argentina has not made me less opinionated.
I´m back in London at the weekend and will resume blogging then. You´ll doubtless be thrilled to learn that I have lots of pics of Argentine trains to post.
Post a Comment