Close your eyes?

[espresso_addict]

I wasn't going to write anything about Close My Eyes (which I rented in my Rickman retro), but then I realised that it's actually on tomorrow (Sunday) in the BBC4 Stephen Poliakoff season (aka puff for his latest, Gideon's Daughter, also on Sunday).

Comments

[the_wild_iris]

I saw it many years ago - I was vaguely intrigued by the trailer, which turned up on a couple of videos from Artificial Eye - and found it very dull and uninvolving. As in, I think Virginia Andrews has probably written more interesting and human-believable incest stories! Saskia Reeves was about as animated as a hatstand. I found her also a weak link in the Dune mini-series, where she played Jessica with a similarly disappointing lack of gusto.

[espresso_addict]

The interviews discussed how the characters' motivations were deliberately left open, but the result to my mind was simply unconvincing, and as you write, dull. I didn't invest in either Reeves' or Owen's performances, though I don't think the stilted dialogue can have helped them. (It's telling that it's the first portrayal of (attempted) suicide since October that hasn't had any emotional effect on me.)

I've not seen Dune; very little I've read about the adaptation makes me want to.

[the_wild_iris]

The Dune mini-series isn't half bad, I think. The TV budget shows (which is a shame), but it's a very coherent adaptation, well paced and quite impressive in terms of managing to get everything essential in. The direction is competent rather than visionary, but after the David Lynch film, not being visionary was OK by me.

[espresso_addict]

I think I might be conflating the two versions.

[ninebelow]

I remember liking Close My Eyes a lot but then that was a long time ago.

[espresso_addict]

It might be one of those films that spoke to the times.