`Love's Labour's Lost' kicks off film festival
A quarter of a century ago, Cybill Shepherd and Burt Reynolds did it to Cole Porter in "At Long Last Love," an attempt to return to the style of the Hollywood musicals of the 1930s. Exactly what they did to Porter is still a matter of debate.
Now Kenneth Branagh and Co. are doing it to Porter, George Gershwin, Irving Berlin and others in a very loose adaptation of Shakespeare's "Love's Labour's Lost" that opens the Seattle International Film Festival at 8 tonight at the Paramount. One of the stars, Alicia Silverstone, will be here to introduce it.
Whether they're doing it the right way is again open to question. "At Long Last Love" mostly underlined the fact that Shepherd and Reynolds couldn't sing or dance, while demonstrating that that old pro, the late Madeline Kahn, knew exactly what she was doing.
Branagh's film is more carefully choreographed, and it allows such veteran musical-comedy stars as Adrian Lester, Nathan Lane and Timothy Spall their moments. Lane does a somewhat melancholy version of "There's No Business Like Show Business," Lester stands out with "I've Got a Crush on You," while Spall, who came close to stealing "Topsy-Turvy," gets some laughs out of the slapstick schtick he's been given.
Nearly everyone else looks terribly game if not entirely comfortable. Mostly they lack Lane and Lester's ability to make it all look easy; the same could be said of Branagh's direction. Anything goes here: an Esther Williams swimming number, a flying song with four actors cavorting on wires, a "Citizen Kane"-style newsreel that takes us all the way through World War II in this updated treatment of the play.
Finding the right movie to kick off a film festival isn't easy. Strong, serious films tend not to fit into the party atmosphere, and lately the festival has been showing mostly fluff ("Addicted to Love," "The Dinner Game") that doesn't have much of a shelf life.
"Love's Labour's Lost" certainly tries to be festive. We can get around to the really good stuff later.
This weekend, for instance, don't miss the excellent French drama, "An Affair of Love," which makes its debut at 9:30 p.m. tomorrow at the Harvard Exit; the provocative Canadian film, "The Five Senses," at 7:15 p.m. tomorrow at the Egyptian; or the archival showings of Peter Weir's "The Last Wave" (free at 5 p.m. tomorrow at the Exit) and Karel Reisz's "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning" (3:30 p.m. Sunday at the Exit).
We'll have a complete roundup of weekend events in MovieTimes tomorrow.