Party
By ice rivers
- 544 reads
I was warned by local critic Adam Lubitow that 'The Party', a film directed by Sally Porter, was both absorbing and forgettable.
Armed with Adam's opinion, I sat down to watch 'The Party' with the bias that since I would forget this film immediately, I better write a review of it ASAP which means I started writing this review while watching the film.
I decided I would compare it to other "party films" that I have seen over the years in terms of
forgettability.
The first film to come to mind after being forgotten for many, many years was 'The Party' starring Peter Sellers as a fish out of water Indian character invited to the wrong party. The only reason I rememberd this film at all is because when I searched for reviews of Sally Potter's 'The Party', I found some reviews of the Peter Sellers 'Party'. I'm pretty sure that the reason I forgot the Sellers' Pafty is because I was 20 years old and expecting more laughs, less subtlety. I had been overly Clousseaud, Strangeloved and Quiltyed. Maybe I should watch it again having been properly Chanced.
Next in line is 'Game Night' which I saw a few weeks ago. My wife doesn't like "games" so she was dialed out of the movie almost as soon as it began. It's always disconcerting when the person that you're watching the movie with has failed to suspend disbelief. I liked the film more than she did. I'd give it a solid 7. I still remember seeing it almost a month later.
Next we arrive at two unforgettables...'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf' and 'The Dead'.
I've watched Woolf at least a dozen times. I'm not gonna forget a movie that I've seen that many times. I showed it to my daughter Mary a year ago. She hated it God Bless her. She's a millenial and didn't enjoy watching the dysfunction, the confrontation, the anger, the abuse, the alcoholism and the debauchery in the film.
I can see her point but she didn't live through the sixties God bless her.
Tied with Woolf as indelible is John Huston's final film 'The Dead'. Just as Woolf is one of my favorite plays...The Dead is my FAVORITE short story. Huston in his swan song perfectly nailed the ethereal longing of the James Joyce story.
I've only seen 'The Dead' once.
Unforgettability is not in direct proportion to number of viewings or repetition.
Now back to today's 'Party'.
About two thirds of the way through I started watching the movie instead of reviewing it and did indeed find it to be " a caviar-black comedy' as it had been described by Variety.
The first image is startling black and white and is also (as telegraphed) the last image of the film.
In the 71 minutes from the first image to the last, we have indeed seen a "fast and furious farce" (Sight and Sound) that required some explanation from my wife for me to grasp.
Additionally, the film has at least one classic line when Patricia Clarkson's character says "I think the worst of everybody in the name of realism".
So those are my Party movies.
Now that I've written about them, I'm unlikely to forget any of them.
That's what writing is all about, isn't it?
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