sabato 21 marzo 2020

The Whisperers - Bryan Forbes

la signora Ross (Edith Evans) vive sola, aiutata dai servizi sociali.
è una solitudine pesante la sua, parla con qualcuno che non c'è, riceve la visita, dopo molto tempo, di un figlio che ha bisogno in un nascondiglio per i suoi soldi (sporchi?), fa credere di essere una donna importante, viene a casa il marito, dopo anni (è un sogno?), litiga con la vicina, che la minaccia, insomma non è una bella vita.
il film, in bianco e nero, è ambientato nella periferia di Manchester, dove i btutti sporchi e cattivi abbondano.
se vuoi ridere, questo non è un film per te, ma se vuoi conoscere una grande attrice il film (un gioiellino sconosciuto ai più) ti aspetta.
buona visione - Ismaele








La réussite de “The Whisperers” doit beaucoup à l’incroyable prestation d’Edith Evans, impressionnante et touchante dans le rôle de cette vieille femme qui se créé un monde rien qu’à elle pour échapper à une dure réalité. Sa prestation lui a d’ailleurs valu un Bafta, un golden globe, un ours d’argent à Berlin, et sa troisième nomination aux Oscars (pour la première fois pour un rôle principal).
La banlieue de Manchester des années 60, vérolée de terrains vagues est un cadre parfait pour ce drame. La très belle photo de Gerry Turpin et la superbe musique de John Barry font le reste. “The Whisperers” dégage une véritable ambiance.

…For years we have been brainwashed into expecting "significance" and "a story" every time we go to the movies. Only occasionally does a director reject conventional plots and melodramatic adventures in order to give us all of the depth of common human life. Satyajit Ray's splendid "The Big City," which closed at the Hyde Park after only a week's run, was such a film. "The Whisperers" could have been another.
Still, it is well worth seeing exactly as it is because of the superb performance by Dame Edith. She is a beautiful woman and a great actress. Eric Portman plays her husband, reunited with her after a long separation, and brings a delicate mixture of pride, anger and diffidence to their marriage relationship.
I wish Forbes had been content simply to work out the conflicts between those two people and the daily threats of poverty and old age. Instead, he inserted some cops and robbers. They serve the purpose of bringing the old lady briefly into the outside world. But at the end of the film, abandoned once again by her husband, she is still peeking into corners and whispering, "Are you there?" And those private fears are really what the film is about.

What distinguishes The Whisperers from many archetypal cinematic representations of ageing is the utter refusal of an emotional outlet for the character’s central predicament and consequently, for the audience. The story features no companionship as in Harold and Maude (Hal Ashby, 1971) and The Sunshine Boys (Herbert Ross, 1975); no heroism such as in Ikuru (Akira Kurosawa, 1952) or Gran Torino (Clint Eastwood, 2008); and no discernible emotional or physical journey such as in Wild Strawberries (Ingmar Bergman, 1957) or The Straight Story (David Lynch, 1999). Even in a punishingly melancholy film like Amour (Michael Haneke, 2012) which depicts two birds in a cage growing old, while outside the cage is a wasteland, at least the birds have each other. In The Whisperers, when the government blackmails Mrs Ross’s husband into moving back in with her, he accepts purely on financial grounds, using her meagre funds to sleep with prostitutes. Their marital interaction, beyond one or two banalities about money, is completely void. On one occasion he climbs into bed with her, saying, icily: “are you awake?….never mind, you’ve got nothing I want”…

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