Customer Reviews

Triumph of Love (Widescreen)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The choice of the early 18th-century play "Le Triomphe de l'amour" by Pierre Marivaux is a rather odd choice for adaptation into a modern film for several reasons. I was thinking that the idea "Triumph of Love" is either second rate Shakespeare, or even second rate "Shakespeare in Love," was off point because since Marivaux was the second most popular playwright in France after Moliere I thought it might be more likely it was second rate Moliere. But it turns out that this particular love comedy is much more like the romantic comedies of Shakespeare (e.g., "Twelfth Night") than any of the neoclassical comedies of Moliere (e.g., "Tartuffe"). Once you hear the basic storyline you can see why the Shakespeare comparisons are inevitable.

We begin with a Princess (Mira Sorvino), who is wandering through the woods when she spots Agis (Jay Rodan) rising in all of his naked glory from a swim. He turns out not to be just any naked Adonis, but the true heir to the throne, taken from his family when her father had his parents executed. This is certainly an impediment to possible romance, so the Princess and her companion Corine (Rachael Stirling) dress up as young men and rename themselves Phocion and Hermidas respectively. Agis is in the custody of a philosopher named Hermocrates (Ben Kinglsey) and his scientist sister, Leontine (Fiona Shaw). Together they have been raising the young man to be a true rationalist, which should exclude anything as irrational as women and romance. But the Princess is trying to become friends with Agis by pretending to be a man. When Leontine wants to get rid of Phocion, the Princess pretends to be in love with her, and when Hermocrates sees through the disguises of the two women, the Princess now gives her name as Aspasie and declares her love for him as well.

The irony here is that as a general rule I like it when classic plays are performed in a more realistic style and less following the conventions of the time in which it was originally written and produced. However for me this movie just did not click and I kept thinking if there was an audience for the players to react to it might have helped. After all, you have veteran actors like Kingsley and Shaw dong their art, which makes up for the limitations of the Sorvino and Rodan. Certainly Sorvino is game, but her performance is just a bit too staged and way too limited in range to really make the story work.. We tell Phocion and Aspasie apart not by what Sorvino is doing in her performance, but rather because of who she is talking to at any given time. The ending comes across as being rather modern in its sensibilities, representing neither the simple unmasking we find in the comedies of Shakespeare nor the roi ex machina Moliere employed in "Tartuffe." But I do not know if this is originally to Marivaux or attributed to director Clare Peploe or her co-writers Marilyn Goldin and Bernardo Bertolucci. I wanted to round up on this one, because there are some interesting things happening here for an 18th-century French love comedy, but overall it just did not work for me and I found myself losing interest over and over again, which is not a good thing. At least there is a nice moment with the cast's "curtain call" at the end.

Actually, all things considered, in the end I think the problem is that so much that this is second rate Shakespeare but more that "Le Triomphe de l'amour" is second rate Marivaux, whose better known plays would include "Arlequin poli par l'amour" ("Harlequin Brightened by Love"), "Le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard" ("The Game of Love and Chance"), "L'Ile des escalves" ("Isle of Slaves"), "L'Ile de la raison" ("Isle of Raison"), "La Nouvelle colonie" ("The New Colony"), and "L'Ecole des meres" ("School for Mothers"). The defining characteristics of Marivaux's love comedies are a romantic setting, a sense of nuance, emotional shadings, and witty wordplay. Where he differed from Moliere (and Shakespeare for that matter) was that he presented more realistic characters, most notably the servants are given more realistic feelings than we usually find in French farces, and his realistic depiction of the society of his day. Actually, he is probably best remembered today as the author of the 1731 novel "Marianne," but this movie is going to be all most people will ever see or know of his work and after what happens here, it is doubtful there will be any more of Marivaux's plays adapted to the screen.

Doubtless the title of this movie will ring a bell with those who remember the short-lived Broadway musical of the same name, which featured Susan Egan, F. Murray Abraham and Betty Buckley. Based on an early eighteenth century play by French playwright Marivaux, this work can quite easily be compared to Shakespeare in its plot. A young and beautiful princess (sometimes called Leonide, but not here) has fallen in love with the rightful heir to the throne--and her sworn mortal enemy--Agis. Agis has been kept secluded from the outside world by his aunt and uncle, both of whom are serious, strict philosophers who have no time or patience for anything that does not have to do with logic and thought. This, of course, includes love. In order to get close to her beloved, the princess must first get through to both of these characters. She does so by first posing as a young man called Phocion; she succeeds in seducing Agis's aunt, Leontine, but cannot fool her brother, Hermocrates. The Princess then passes herself off as a young woman named Aspasie and works her way into his heart, while still diligently pursuing Agis. As with all plays like this, things are bound to come out, and they do.

The casting in this film was all first-rate, particularly that of Mira Sorvino as the scheming Princess. The costumes, scenery, and music add a whimsical touch to an already whimsical story. One must applaud the creativity of the director/screenwriters, in choosing to make it appear as though this is not a movie, but a play performance captured on film. Highly recommended.

I thought Triumph of Love was simply one of the best DVDs I've seen in awhile. The style of the film is unique, and it has many fun twists and playful turns. The cast is outstanding. Very funny, romantic, classic.

i just can't finish it. the whole thing just looked like a pretentious staged farce. the dialogue would drive you crazy. why the screenplay had to be like this is beyond my reach. so unnatural, so pretentious. it's just like sit in a small theatre, watching several figures using exaggerated dialogues to convey the very untrue feelings. i just can't finish it. sorry.

I, frankly, had never heard of this movie, despite the stellar cast and director. My wife brought it home from Blockbuster, and I sat down with low expectations -- here would be yet another stiff period piece, a la Howard's End, I thought. Boy, was I wrong. This risque farce is barrels of sweet fun. I laughed harder than I have in a long time, and just fell for the sweet, sultry performance of Mira Sorvino. She lights up the screen.

Bravo!

How funny! We rented this recently because we had just ordered the musical also adapted from the same play (which is also excellent, by the way). We couldn't stop laughing! The plot just kept getting thicker and thicker as the princess sunk deeper and deeper into these webs she was spinning, and the reactions of everyone around her just made for a very good story. The acting in this is superb by all involved. Ben Kingsley, as always, was brilliant, and I've never liked Fiona Shaw more! Sorvino was a new one for me, but she too did a wonderful job.
This movie does have the feel of a stage play, in the way it's filmed and the clips and angles chosen, but I do not think that it detracts from the film at all. On the contrary, it's nice to see a recent film made in this fashion - few films do a play justice anymore.
Highly recommend!

"Triumph of Love" is a lighthearted romp, a farce, very sweetly presented in this production of Marivaux's 1732 play. Clare Peploe, wife of producer Bernardo Bertolucci, directs this zany cast through its labyrinthine plot. Mira Sorvino is enchanting as the beautiful princess going to great lengths to secure her throne and fall in love. Her maid Hermidas is intelligently played by Rachael Stirling, Diana Rigg's daughter. Ben Kingsley as Hermocrates does a great job of moving from stoic philosopher to melting schoolboy in love. Aunt Petunia -- or excuse me -- Irish actress Fiona Shaw, who may have a hard time overcoming the recognition from her Harry Potter appearances, positively shines as the uptight Leontine who falls for the romantic murmurings of Phocion, who is really the princess disguised as a man. Newcomer Jay Rodan plays Agis whose bare derriere sends the princess' heart aflutter. Completing the cast are Ignazio Oliva as Harlequin and Luis Molteni as Dimas, the two servants who are comically bribed. I didn't quite know what to make of seeing the modern day audience flash in and out of frame or the modern day curtain call at the end. It seemed a bit artsy and jarring for me. But I found the film to be quite endearing and well-performed. Enjoy!

This is the kind of play you usually see only on college campuses. It's an eighteenth century romantic comedy in which crowns are at stake, women dress up like men, an old philosopher with a servant named Harlequin and who hates women and love as a central tenant of his philosophy goes batty but remains likeable. The choreography, staging, direction and, above all acting are great. Mira Sorvino and Ben Kingsley are hilariously intelligent, and Fiona Shaw is perfect and sympathetic. There are a few questionable whimsical touches and some point, about the time Sorvino's character admits "I've lost track of my own plot" the story begins to drag a bit. But all in all, it's quite funny.

Another movie missed in the theatrical release, this DVD caught the eye because of the sterling cast and the fact that Bernardo Bertolucci was connected to it. Happy accident! TRIUMPH OF LOVE is a fine period piece which, though thoroughly cinematic, plays (before an occasionally glimpsed modern day dress audience in the garden)as a theater piece. The oft-used altered identity technique (woman dresses as man dresses as woman etc depending on the object of the game of courtship)is well traversed by Mira Sorvino who manages to stand tall (!) in the company of such fine British actors as Ben Kingsley (as a delicious fudd of a philosopher who can make a 180 degree turnaround of character a true acting feat), Fiona Shaw, Rachel Stirling, and Jay Rodan. The settings are beautiful, the costumes creatively correct and the music score is additive. The only flaws are in the rather glichy editing that makes the movie a bit broken at times. But overall, this is a fine outing courtesy of Bernardo Bertolucci. Highly recommended.

The silly, dopey, and terrifically fun "Triumph of Love" is the latest point on Mira Sorvino's bizarre career trajectory. A sweet treatise on the power of love to transform and enlarge us, the film features gorgeous visuals, sumptuous costumes, and the
hopelessly beautiful Jay Rodan as Sorvino's love interest. The supporting cast includes the always welcome Ben Kingsley as a stoic philosopher, Fiona Shaw as his buttoned down sister, and a stunning European Villa where our story unfolds.

The plot concerns the machinations of a young princess (Sorvino), who, anxious to right a family wrong, tracks down the sole survivor of the previously disposed royal family. She finds him, he looks like Rodan, and she crashes head first into love. The problem, though, is this; he has been raised to hate all women in general, and the princess in particular, by his guardians, the aforementioned Kingsley and Shaw. Naturally, then, the only thing for Sorvino to do is soften them both up by making them fall in love with her (while disguised as a boy!). That way, she gets to stay near her prince, while simultaneously wrecking her revenge on them for poisioning his heart.

Of course, everything goes completely awry, feelings are hurt, hearts are broken and souls are opened up before love does indeed triumph in the end. The message here is that it does not matter so much who you love as that you open yourself up to the experience, and that even love thwarted carries the rewards of joy and inspiration. It is a beautiful message for a beautiful looking film, and Sorvino in particular simply glows with the idea of it.

A well-made movie, perfect for a rainy Saturday afternoon, "The Triumph of Love" is an unexpected treat and well worth seeking out.