Please allow me to now talk about my favourite film of all time. On watching it again, for probably the third time in 12 months (as I always do) I think perhaps it is better than Withnail & I and Some Like it Hot, and has taken over gaining first place in my personal film chart.The Closet is perfect, it's the right length, it has a Shakespearean plot full of people pretending to be what their not and other people pretending that other people are pretending etc and it has the perfect cast.
Daniel Auteuil is an insignificant nobody, his ex wife and his teenage son aren't interested in him and he is about to get fired. How does he fix this? He pretends to be gay. No, he pretends nothing, he is the same as always, but he lets everyone believe that behind his shy and quiet exterior he is a raving queer. He can't get fired, that's discrimination, but he becomes somehow interesting to everyone all of a sudden, his co-workers, his ex and his son.
It is played beautifully and it is the Malvolio of the piece Gerard Depardieu who brings the most wonderful performance, the homophobic pig forced to be nice to the gay man when he is tricked into thinking his job is in danger, it goes far too far and Depardieu has a breakdown and thinks himself in love with Auteuil, when rejected he goes nuts and ends up in the looney bin.
Brilliant.
No comments:
Post a Comment