ADVENTURES OF PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT, THE

Source: WIKIPEDIA

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1994 - Australia/U.K. (PolyGram Filmed Entertainment/Australian Film Finance Corporation/Latent Image Productions Pty. Ltd.)


DIRECTOR: Stephan Elliott
SCRIPT: Stephan Elliott
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Brian J. Breheney
MUSIC: Guy Gross

    Oh the shock! Oh the controversy! Oh the 1994, when the world was a very different place indeed! I'm pretty sure that before Priscilla... hit the screens I had absolutely no idea about the existence of drag queens and even once the reviews started to circulate I still couldn't quite get my head around the very concept. I was, in fact, convinced that the idea of blokes wearing outlandish female costumes to sing and dance in them was simply made up for the film by someone with a very original sense of humour. I might have not erred alone on that one... So, with the shock value gone, what's left of Priscilla... in 2015? (un)Surprisingly a lot. Here's what and why.

ADVENTURE, THE (L'AVVENTURA)

source: WIKIPEDIA

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1960 - Italy/France (Cino del Duca/Produzioni Cinematografiche Europee/Societé Cinématographique Lyre)

DIRECTOR: Michelangelo Antonioni
SCRIPT: Michelangelo Antonioni
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Aldo Scavarda
MUSIC: Giovanni Fusco




    When L'Avventura was screened to the audiences of the Cannes Film Festival in 1960 it was actually booed by the large majority of the critics and both Antonioni and the female star of the film Monica Vitti pretty much legged it from the cinema. I guess it tells us a thing or two about those critics. It has happened to so many masterpieces though. At first misunderstood and underestimated, the time and devotion of the fans eventually give those films well deserved justice. It's such a common pattern it's almost a rule. Which, in turn, is unfortunate, since where's a rule, there are bound to be exceptions. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear...

ADAM'S RIB

SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA

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1949 - USA (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)

DIRECTOR: George Cukor
SCRIPT: Ruth Gordon, Garson Kanin
CINEMATOGRAPHY: George J. Folsey
MUSIC: Miklós Rózsa

Oh how cruel can the Gods of Passing Time be! Oh how ruthless the relativism and changing contexts are! Oh how fresh and provocative, and daring the ADAM'S RIB must have been in 1949. Well, that was a looooong, loooong time ago and today, it isn't. And while it's still a lovely film with superb performances from Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, it simply isn't the film it thinks it is any more. And what's worse, in the world of 2013 it also turned into a bit of a bitterly ironic caricature of its own self. Oh what a cruel, cruel trick has the time played on this film indeed!