tramky

I enjoy Charlie's interviews greatly--they represent a rare oasis on television, a quiet half-hour or hour devoted to intelligent, thoughtful conversation. How rare is that?! But it kind of breaks down when Charlie is interviewing celebrities, particularly famous actors. Charlie kind of loses it with those people, becoming a bit fawning and, it would seem, a bit envious. I don't know what accounts for this--perhaps Mr Rose always wanted to be an actor, I don't know.

But this perception usually leads me to skip his interviews with actors, unless it's someone who I haven't heard from before. But there were even a couple of such programs where I couldn't get through the whole show because of Charlie's going ga-ga within minutes of the start. In those times I think of Charlie as a red carpet interviewer before the Academy Awards, except the people who do THOSE interviews usually maintain a better emotional balance.

"The Overture" certainly had a number of flaws, not least of which was for the audience to figure what was when. I had very little sense of time and place for any of it, and, at first, the flashbacks and flash-forwards were unanticipated and difficult to differentiate from the previous scene.

Nonetheless, such movies provide a rare insight into foreign cultures, and this one did just fine in that regard. The strongest element of "Overture" was the acting. I thought the cast did a generally wonderful job in bringing substance to the disparate collection of characters who populated this story.

While, to be frank, much of the music of southeast Asia is difficult to listen to for extended periods, this film did manage to demonstrate the subtlety and beauty of some Thai music. And is the competitiveness shown in this film part of the reality of traditional Thai music? If so, it seems the Thais have also made music, at some level, into nearly a blood sport.

By the way, some have written here of this film in relation to "Amadeus". To me, it is more like "Drumline".

The 'Goof' item in the leading description of this film refers to a scene that I've been unable to locate.

The only scene in which someone's legs are to be seen in a mirror is in Chapter 13 on the DVD, a conversation between Judy & Anne. At one point Judy sits on a table or something; she kind of stretches her legs out and they can be easily seen in the mirror on the wall behind--those shoes are mostly white, and as the scene progresses you can see Judy walking in those shoes as well. It was not above a fireplace, and no one was on the phone. If this is what was being referred to, that 'goof' item should be deleted from this movie's page.

By the way, there were a lot of scenes in which mirrors were on a wall. This had to be a deliberate set design detail to give the scenes dimension and realistic depth.