Harem

This film is very beautiful, and Sir Ben Kingsly acts outstandingly. The film is huge in France, and with good reason. It is an intriguing, unique, and magical film. The film is on French TV I hear like every other week, still to this day! PS Don't be thrown off by the title, the film is, in fact, a sincere love story. I think it deserves a re-release in theaters in America. The only critique I have is the orchestrated music, which is a bit melodramatic. But other than that, the cinematography is beautiful, the acting is subtle and brilliant, and the direction is excellent. I suggest to rent it! Voila! I think that it is a breath-taking film.

We the poor public have to watch the contents of someone's sexual fantasies up there on the silver screen.

An American girl, who - by design or otherwise - looks strangely like Michael from The Bangles - is given a drugged hot drink on a cold day and wakes up in the heat of the Arabian desert minus her pantyhose. She discovers she has been captured not by a Valentino-type, but by a middle-aged man with a bald head and a moustache. The rest of the film is a seduction and a motor tour through the desert, punctuated by this poor girl being painted with henna.

Unless you are looking for a cure for insomnia, you would do well to give this film a miss and watch Valentino in The Sheik instead.

Back in the eighties I was a floor trader on the NYFE where the opening trading scenes were filmed. We filmed in the late afternoon\early evening after the exchange had closed. Remember facing forward toward the camera in the center of the trading ring as the fellow traders had their backs to the lens, and upwards at the camera when the director said action. I can distinctly recall how beautiful and large Ms.Kinski's eyes were, as we mock traded with her in the futures pit. The movie was somewhat dry (maybe the second location in the Arabian desert had something to do with it) otherwise only the personal memories would make me have the slightest interest in it.

An American woman, Nastassja Kinski, is kidnapped off the streets of New York and ends up in a harem. This movie is not to be confused with Rudolph Valentino's "The Sheik" essentially because "Harem" is dead once the scenery moves into an unknown Arabian desert where the shifting sands seem to have caused time to nearly stop. Poor Ben Kingsley plays a lifeless role that is in marked contrast to the more meaty role that Nastassja has been given. Without Nastassja, there is no movie and even she cannot save this very slow, dull, when-is-it-going-to-end movie. Except for Nastassja, the picture lacks life. The script is DOA and one wonders how these sorts of movies ever see the light of day. At least it is comforting to know that no amount of money in the world will buy off Nastassja's character - American women can be feisty and independent even if they have to rely upon their feminine wiles. "Harem" is a movie that is so bad that one cannot forget it.

I wasn't expecting anything when I rented this, except maybe good performances of both the lead actors - Ben Kingsley and Nastassja Kinski, both of whom I think are very good at what they do. I expected it to be avant-garde (which as far as I know usually implies a rather complicated or stretchy movie that might be strenuous to watch at parts), and it turned out to be just that - little dialog to make the images work, and some scenes the movie could have done very well without. What separates this from a GOOD avant garde is the notorious lack of any meaningful plot, or idea that the director wishes to convey. And if there's something I can't stand it's an old-as-the-hills story cosily cloaked in a directors' slightly demented vision. "susceptive foreigner falls in love with a man from foreign culture, and learns to love and understand this foreign culture after initial struggles". That's it. Not more and not less. This movie may be slightly less kitchy than other movies with the same theme, but the price for this is high - many endless and dragging scenes portraying things previously shown enough times. That just makes you want to grab your remote and fast-forward a little bit. However, this movie does have some rather original "twists" to the plot, and it's good enough to keep you watching throughout. It's also straight-forward enough to appeal to people who usually avoid avant garde and "the artsy". No prior knowledge of the theme is needed before watching this movie, which is a bliss.