Talk of Angels (1998)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Nick Hamm

Writers:

Ann Guedes (screenplay)
Frank McGuinness (screenplay)

Release Date:

30 October 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

Some passions cross all boundaries.

Plot:

This is the story of a young Irish woman who comes to Spain to escape from the pressures she feels about...

Plot Keywords:

Spain | Irish | Governess | 1930s | Irish Civil War

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Polly Walker	...	Mary Lavelle
Vincent Perez	...	Francisco Areavaga
Franco Nero	...	Dr. Vicente Areavaga
Frances McDormand	...	Conlon
Ruth McCabe	...	O'Toole
Marisa Paredes	...	Doña Consuelo
Francisco Rabal	...	Don Jorge
Penélope Cruz	...	Pilar (as Penelope Cruz)
Ariadna Gil	...	Beatriz
Rossy de Palma	...	Elena (as Rossy De Palma)
Britta Smith	...	Duggan
Anita Reeves	...	Harty
Veronica Duffy	...	Keogh
Leire Berrocal	...	Milagros
Jorge de Juan	...	Jaime

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for some politically motivated violence.

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:L | UK:12 | Australia:M | Argentina:13 | Singapore:PG | Spain:13 | USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Spain

Company:

Kan Zamia-a

Fascist Passion

It may be the oldest storytelling device in the world.

You take external events, usually a war or some political oppression. You draw grand sweeps that show passion and scope and boundless consequence.

And in this opulence of effect you place a love story, folded within if you wish.

After all, there is no emotion in existence that is stronger than romantic love and all its twists and perversions. But these are impossible to display because they are internal. So these internal locomotives are given the external clothes of the other fold.

How many of our great stories are thus framed? How many films?

Well, here's one. I suppose you judge these things on how powerful the emotions are that the love story evokes. This is a sort of "Casablanca" with the genders reversed. The woman needs to stunt her passions and "give" her lover to the higher fold, and live forever with the memory of one encounter.

I admit, this rings solidly for me. I shake when I shape it in my heart.

Back to the judgment: how effectively is this expressed in a way that the film plumbs and guides the waters of the heart it pulls. Does the thing give us tides?

Well, the people are beautiful. But oddly, we know these actors from elsewhere and they have been more beautiful there. In particular we depend on Polly Walker here. She has an extraordinary appeal in other projects. "8 1/2 Women" was a difficult movie to survey, but once it sticks, it is Polly who pulls us through the canals of desire. "Enchanted April" was slight but she was powerful.

She acts with her brow and has one of the most appealing brows in film.

But, alas. Although lots of money was spent. And the sets are effective, we have something like "Head in the Clouds" where we know what we are supposed to get. And we might get it by mere suggestion but the film actually gets in the way.

So the bad guys win this time. No passion.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.