Matthias Schoenaerts

FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD: if you’re looking for a bodice ripper

by
Matthias Schoenaerts and Carey Mulligan in FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD
Matthias Schoenaerts and Carey Mulligan in FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD

If you’re looking for cinematic romance with a proto-feminist perspective, you can do worse than Far from the Madding Crowd. Now I’m neither the target audience for a period romance or a fan of Carey Mulligan, but Far from the Madding Crowd is pretty fresh for having been based on a Thomas Hardy novel, and delivers an unusual (for the 19th Century)  female character and sweeping, sometimes operatic melodrama.

Mulligan plays a young woman who is smart, attractive, capable and VERY confident but has the wrong taste in men.  Because she has lucked into affluence, she has no NEED for a husband.  Indeed, under English law of the Victorian period, she would diminish her legal standing and lose her economic freedom if she marries.   A character sings the song “Let No Man Steal Your Heart”, and we know that the stakes are high.

Men DO try to steal her heart, sometimes with cringeworthily abrupt proposals of marriage (with pianos proffered to sweeten the deal).  She is wooed by the “safety” and comfort from a rich guy (Michael Sheen) vs the loyal hunk (Matthias Schoenaerts) who is below her station.  Then a very handsome soldier (Tom Sturridge), who turns out to be shallow and cruel, comes into play with a WOWZA of a first kiss.  We know who is the right guy for her, but SHE doesn’t see it that way, which creates all the drama.

I love the work of Danish director Thomas Vinterburg – 1998’s The Celebration (Festen), 2012’s The Hunt (Jagten).  Here he does a pretty good job keeping the wild swings and improbable coincidences of Hardy’s plot from becoming laughable.  How many ways are there to kill off an entire herd of sheep, anyway?

Far from the Madding Crowd opens tomorrow, and is a good choice for someone looking for a period romance.

Rust and Bone: two journeys join together

by

Rust and Bone is an intelligent drama about a complicated woman and an uncomplicated man.  She (Marion Cotillard) takes pride and enjoyment from her high profile job and lives with a boyfriend, but she is dissatisfied.  A shocking and disabling accident turns her dissatisfaction  into despair.

He (Matthias Schoenaerts of Bullhead) is amiable, carnal and matter-of-fact.   He wouldn’t recognize a plan or a deep thought if it smacked him on the temple.  For him, stress can lead to violent outbursts, which are especially scary because he is a downscale prizefighter.

The two people form a bond, and therein lies the drama.  They engage each other in differing paces at different depths, often doing the same thing for separate reasons.

Director Jacques Audiard (A Prophet) makes excellent choices throughout, especially with very effective moments of silence and near-silence, which work to emphasize dramatic events more effectively than would swelling strings.

There are also non-stock secondary characters.  One is the boxer’s shady friend whose eyes never meet another’s gaze, yet dart about, never missing anything.  Another is the boxer’s sister who stands for a French working class struggling with the increasingly multinational economy.

Key plot plots may sound corny in isolation, but everything in this movie works well together.  It’s an intelligent,  solid and worthwhile drama.