Belgium-based mime artists Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon and their collaborator Bruno Romy create another whimsical, Tati-inspired farce seemingly out of thin air and, like L’Iceberg and Rumba before it, The Fairy is imaginative, articulately planned, and more often than not, down right bonkers.
Gordon, an intensely-interesting performer who seems a hybrid of Karen Kain and Shelley Duvall, plays a waif who shows up at a hotel in the French port city of Le Havre telling the harried night desk clerk (Abel) that she’s a fairy who can grant him three wishes. Soon they’re sharing a romantic evening on the beach and dancing in a surreal underwater sequence complete with a giant clam. Dreamy, weird and not quite a real film, the trio certainly know how to use the big screen to great advantage. They share Tati’s knack for naturally staging movement and action in different parts of the frame. The two extended chase sequences in the film are a hoot.
Sooner or later Abel, Gordon, and Romy will create a masterpiece because they’re amongst this era’s best non-verbal comedians. That the Fairy isn’t it doesn’t take away from the experience, it just means we have to wait a little longer to get it.
The 92% Fresh rating it got on Rottentomatoes.com is much too high, but if you’re in the mood for something a quirky, The Fairy might just fit the bill.
*** The Fairy (2011)
Gordon, an intensely-interesting performer who seems a hybrid of Karen Kain and Shelley Duvall, plays a waif who shows up at a hotel in the French port city of Le Havre telling the harried night desk clerk (Abel) that she’s a fairy who can grant him three wishes. Soon they’re sharing a romantic evening on the beach and dancing in a surreal underwater sequence complete with a giant clam. Dreamy, weird and not quite a real film, the trio certainly know how to use the big screen to great advantage. They share Tati’s knack for naturally staging movement and action in different parts of the frame. The two extended chase sequences in the film are a hoot.
Sooner or later Abel, Gordon, and Romy will create a masterpiece because they’re amongst this era’s best non-verbal comedians. That the Fairy isn’t it doesn’t take away from the experience, it just means we have to wait a little longer to get it.
The 92% Fresh rating it got on Rottentomatoes.com is much too high, but if you’re in the mood for something a quirky, The Fairy might just fit the bill.
La Sporgenza
Tuesday, July 17th, 2012 at 5:56 pm