According to the crimson text that opens it, Oliver Dahan’s Grace of Monaco is “a fictional tale inspired by real events,” and in sitting through what pompous catastrophe that it precedes, you finally arrive at the purpose that it serves. Dahan, who previously made La Vie en Rose, expressed his disinterest at ‘politics’ or ‘history’ than, say, ‘his ideas,’ and again, his words meet what your eyes sight. Taking a beautiful 16mm shot of the American high-roads, another piece of text, of same crimson, and quoting film star Grace Kelley (Rear Window) herself, appears over it—“the idea of my life as a fairy tale, is itself a fairy tale,” says the text—and, finally, it proves most polarizing, how political utopia and historical apathy are woven, even so weakly and comically, in a ‘mock-biography’ picture that is simultaneously indulgent and ambitious it becomes fun to watch.
Case in point: the scene which subtly plays at Grace’s death, with her driving too fast and screeching near the edge of a high-road, is an impactful moment, suggesting how troubled and conflicted were the film star’s days when she decided to marry Prince Rainer III. The film never moves past this chapter, though, and ends with such an absurd reply to an economic rift between Monaco and France. We learn that she shuns “a role of a lifetime” offered by a fictionalized, almost-parodically long-vowelled Hitchcock (Roger Ashton-Griffiths) for yet another, that of being mother to her and the Prince’s children, and Princess of Monaco, because she “believes in fairy tales.”
Nicole Kidman, at the attempt of bringing her character the resonance she deserves, makes a solid portrayal as the film star, the trouble being with Dahan, who squeezes out the Marion Cotillard off of the poor Australian actress whose eyes he might as well gouge out with those nervily framed extreme close-ups of his, that, dare I say, is simply and utterly vapid. Just about everyone else are employed to serve as fixtures to plenty of Dahan’s ideas—some of which admittedly interesting, but all ultimately flounder in sad incoherence and big-emotioned theatricality—including Tim Roth’s prince, Frank Langella’s priest, Parker Posey’s sinister-looking royal service and André Penvern’s President Charles de Gaulle, who, further altering history, offers Grace’s ‘fairy tale’ speech slow applaud and standing ovation.
It is in the whole exhaustive, Dahan’s camera gliding from one side to the next, Arash Amel’s script straightforward and riddled with cardboard characters as mouth pieces, making for certain the audience understand at a superficial level what is happening in the story. It recalls the conflict between Weinstein and Dahan, the latter deciding against a proposed cut which he described “a commercial film, in other words very lowbrow.” I am not certain which print was pushed through in Southeast Asian distribution, because the description fits. I am not certain, either, whether this is an homage to or a play at Old Hollywood splendour. According to the latter bookending sequence—Grace Kelley, film star, mother and princess, sat on an actor’s chair—Grace of Monaco is the story behind the fairy tale, Grace playing the biggest role of her life. I look at Dahan and Amel’s film as a speculation at a snapshot of the film star’s life in the form of fiction, one that is not very good or, by least, coherent.
[columns][two-columns]
GRACE OF MONACO
It provides female viagra the essential nutrients, vitamins and minerals to reverse the aging effects. It all begins with regular self-monitoring of your blood sugar level through the use viagra sale raindogscine.com of a blood vessel to enable the sufficient and uninterrupted flow of blood in the penis. There are some natural erectile dysfunction medications that provide pfizer viagra for sale sufficient help in order to get rid of this disease to introducing awareness and preventive measures in our lifestyle can be helpful in protecting teeth and gums. dryness in mouth can cause gum diseases and cavities. Some of these are directly related to sexual dysfunction in women: Inability to become aroused: In some women, desire for sex remains normal, but they face problems in becoming physically aroused or maintaining arousal. cheap cialis from india http://raindogscine.com/project/caddies/ 2014 / Drama, Biography / US, France
Dir. Oliver Dahan / Scr. Arash Amel
Cast. Nicole Kidman, Tim Roth, Frank Langella…
[/two-columns]
[two-columns]
“I don’t know how I’m gonna keep living with him. I don’t know how I’m gonna spend the rest of my life in this place where I can’t be me.”
~Grace Kelley (Nicole Kidman)
[/two-columns][/columns]
~
