Pianist envy: Juliet Stevenson steals Food of Love from the virtuosi. (film review).Food of Love * Written and directed by Ventura Pons * Starring Juliet Stevenson Juliet Anne Virginia Stevenson (born October 30, 1956) is an English actress. Stevenson was born in Essex, England. She studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, which led to a stage career starting in the early 1980s with the Royal Shakespeare Company. , Paul Rhys Paul Rhys (December 19, 1963), is a Welsh actor, best known for his television work. Rhys was born in Neath, and studied at RADA. While there, he obtained his first major screen role, in Absolute Beginners (1986). , Allan Corduner, and Kevin Bishop * TLA (Three Letter Acronym) The epitome of acronyms! While two-, four- and five-letter acronyms exist, there are more three-letter acronyms. Obviously, three words to describe a concept or product is the most popular. TLA - Three-Letter Acronym Releasing Adapting David Leavitt's The Page Turner for the screen, gay Catalonian filmmaker Ventura Pons shows himself to be very comfortable in Leavitt's twee cerebral world, where a 60-ish music impresario wears a silk dressing gown to greet the hustler out of the back pages of Unzipped and seduces a young musician to a Scarlatti harpsichord harpsichord, stringed musical instrument played from a keyboard. Its strings, two or more to a note, are plucked by quills or jacks. The harpsichord originated in the 14th cent. and by the 16th cent. Venice was the center of its manufacture. piece. Out actor Allan Corduner plays the impresario, just one point of a romantic triangle that includes an acclaimed younger pianist (Paul Rhys) and a doe-eyed 18-year-old aspiring performer (Kevin Bishop) who has caught the eyes of the other two. But the anchor of the story winds up being the boy's mother, and not just because of the powerful performance from Juliet Stevenson. (The British actress starts out with one of those American accents that seems condescending, but she grows on you.) While the character initially comes off as a twit, she matures--a hilariously awkward PFLAG PFLAG Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (since 1972; Washington, DC) meeting seems to help--to become the beacon of sanity that her son so desperately needs. Stevenson has the same effect on Food of Love. Whenever the movie's puffy discourse about classical music or true love starts getting a little thick, she anchors the film, making it more touching and powerful than it might otherwise have been. |
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