État de force

Yesterday, I heard about the death of Dennis Hopper. I remembered buying a VHS copy of this film quite some time ago, but never watched it. Hearing it was one of his better roles, I thought it would be a suitable tribute to the man.

"Carried Away" is the sort of film loved above all others by a certain type of audience. There's guilt, tragedy, alienation, and most of all - sex. "Carried Away" is the sort of film that always feels like winter, even if made in the middle of summer. It probably takes place in the 1970s, though that's never specified. This is not normally the sort of film I like. But there's a number reasons why it is so good. Mainly, the actors. Dennis Hopper is every bit as impressive as he's ever been, playing a character of painful reality and depth. Hal Holbrook, Julie Harris, and Gary Busey are all quite welcome as well. Amy Locane is interesting, playing on a complex level of childishness and convincing sexuality.

I got a lot of "Carried Away", because it has a lot put into it. The humanity is a basic thing, the details of ordinary actions, the observation of a slow day. In the end, the film is a little too hard and cold for its own good. It wants to make you feel cold in the summer, but that's just an illusion. Like black & white in colour. This could have been a bright, vivid film to even greater effect. But that's just a minor complaint.

Sometimes it's completely incomprehensible to understand how "Carried Away", the excellent film by Brazilian director Bruno Barreto, is perceived by some of the contributors to this forum. "Carried Away" is a movie based on a novella by Jim Harrison with a fine screenplay by Ed Jones, who does a fine job in adapting it for the viewer. Mr. Barreto is not a timid man, as he has shown in his other films. While most people object to the graphic nudity, it is never in one's face, or something that is done for shock value, like some other directors tend to do whenever they don't have anything better to say.

The story about a sensitive man who has been left somewhat crippled after a childhood accident in the farm where he lives, presents us a man in turmoil. His life, while not completely shattered, is in total disarray as one meets him, years after he suffered the foot injury. Joseph Svenden is basically a decent man. We watch him in the rural school where he teaches, and later on, working in the farm where he lives with his older mother. Joseph is clearly a man whose life has passed him by because since he never married, he has stayed behind with the mother, while his siblings are all settled and living away.

Joseph is seeing Rosalee, another teacher from his school. They have a cozy arrangement. Neither of them is in a rush to formalize their relationship. At this point of his life, Joseph falls for one of his students, Catherine, who obviously is way ahead of him in being sexually active. She seduces the quiet man, who falls head over heels with this young woman, who comes from an unhappy home. In fact, we have no clue until almost the end, when Catherine's parents come to confront Joseph, what's wrong with the young woman.

The kind Rosalee finds out in the worst way about Joseph's infidelity, sending her into despair because she loves the man. Joseph confronts Rosalee and owns up to his transgression. Joseph's feelings for Rosale make him finally see where his priorities ought to be. The last sequence of Joseph and Rosalee at the beach has to be one of the loveliest moments in the film.

Dennis Hopper plays Joseph to perfection. Mr. Hopper is believable in his low key approach to the role. He is an actor who works well with any director, and it seems to us he is responding well to Mr. Barreto's guidance. Amy Irving, an actress of great beauty and inner power, shows a Rosalee that shows no emotion at all, but we know all is well under control inside her, until the explosion at the end when she feels betrayed by the man she loves. Ms. Irving does excellent work in the film. Amy Locane, plays Catherine as a brat who wants to get what she wants, when she wants it. Mr. Locane is a beautiful sight on the screen. The rest of the cast, Hal Halbrook, Julie Harris, Gary Busey, and the rest, are seen at their best.

Thanks to Bruno Barreto for bringing this lovely character study to the screen.

In the countryside of Texas, Joseph Svenden (Dennis Hopper) is a forty-seven-year-old schoolteacher with one lamed leg since he had an accident when he was a teenager, who lives in a farm with his mother that is terminal of cancer. Joey has been dating the widow schoolteacher Rosealee Henson (Amy Irving) for six years but does not marry her. His life is a boring routine, and he has never seen the ocean. When the hot seventeen-year-old Catherine Wheeler (Amy Locane) joins his class, her father Major Wheeler (Gary Busey) visits Joey and rents his barn to keep Catherine's horse there. Soon Catherine seduces Joey, and they have frequent sex in the barn. Joey knows that he is wrong but cannot resist the sex with Catherine. When Joey is fired from the school that is moving to another place and his mother dies, Rosealee learns his affair with the teenager and his life turns upside down.

"Carried Away" is a great and erotic romance directed by Bruno Barreto, about a middle-aged man that has a romance with a seventeen-year-old teenager. The midlife crisis of the lead character, Joseph Svenden, is very well explained by the script. First, it is hard to resist the beautiful body of the Lolita Amy Locane, no matter who you are. His affair makes him think about his boring and routine life in the countryside. The nude is not vulgar, but beautiful, and the sex scene between Amy Irving, who was Bruno Barreto's wife in 1996, and Dennis Hopper, is delicate. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Atos de Amor" ("Love Acts")

Very well acted by Amy Irving, allowing herself to look drab, and older, and especially Dennis Hopper, who gives what might be his most restrained performance ever, and creates an unforgettable character in the process.

This tale of a mid-western, self confessed 'mediocre farmer and schoolteacher' having an erotic affair with a 17 year old student, and the effect it has on his life, especially his long standing, but now somewhat inert relationship with his fellow teacher, is really about taking risks in life, even bad ones, and how we need those to stay alive.

I like and admire that the film neither fully condemns or approves of anyone or any action. Everything is complex.

Sadly, Amy Locaine as the girl, while stunningly beautiful, isn't at the acting level of her older co-stars, nor his her character written with the same kind of insight and precision, which hurts the overall effect. And some of the writing is a little overly poetic and theatrical.

Still, it's an unique film, dealing with sex, aging, morality, fear and self-image in a far more complex, mature way than most American films, and for once treats mid-western farm folks as just as complex, intelligent and tortured as their big-city counterparts.

This is a beautiful and rare look at rural America in the 1960s. Dennis Hopper plays a schoolteacher with a gimpy leg who is quite unexceptional. He's middle-aged but still only engaged (to Amy Irving who is fantastic in this!)and still lives with his aged mother (the wonderful Julie Harris). Suddenly, a young, fresh, beautiful and vibrant teenager arrives at his school and he finds his heart - and other vital organs - stirred beyond endurance. She's technically not innocent (she's not a virgin) but she's no Lolita either. She's the epitome of the young women of Andrew Wyeth's paintings. In fact, the whole film looks and feels like a Wyeth painting: organic and idyllic with an emptiness that's filed with loneliness. The script is intelligent and original, allowing each character to be fully developed, and Dennis Hopper gives the performance of his career.

I've read a few reviews here and elsewhere that complain about Hopper's age and the frontal nudity. I belong to the school of thought that nothing natural is ugly, and that art should not ALWAYS be pure and youthful and beatific (which BTW, was what Hitler's vision was. Art that wasn't beautiful was classified as "degenerate" and banned). If there's room for artists like Michelangeo and Egon Schiele in this world, and there's surely room for Brad Pitt AND Dennis Hopper!

If the nude body is something that you just can't look at then a film like this may not be for you (there's only one very brief scene). But keep in mind that you can't broaden your vision of humanity if you don't have an open mind and are willing to look below the superficial surface that at least in Hollywood, poses as reality.