ecn-ec:mj@pur-ee.UUCP (08/03/83)
#N:ecn-ec:7000052:000:718 ecn-ec!mj Aug 2 19:40:00 1983 I just got back from taking a date to see "Class". I was not impressed. The acting on the part of the not-as-rich- not-as-good-looking-not-as-classy roommate was excellent, but, overall, I didn't like the movie. I think it is aimed at a high school audience - porn for kiddies, rather than kiddie porn. The dialogue was terrible, the plot was predictable, and the timing was bad. The cinematography was good to very good. I'd place this movie in the same boat with 'Private Lessons'. I was rather disappointed, because both the idea and Mme. Bisset have a lot of potential, and I don't think either was realized. ________ Mark A. Johnson Purdue University decvax!pur-ee!mj
tgd@floyd.UUCP (Tom Dennehy) (08/04/83)
Time to get out the ol' key- board and do some flaming: At the risk of compromising my credibility as a serious moviegoer I will admit to have seen "Class" ( a misnomer if ever there was one). Start to finish we have ourselves a baaaaad piece of 35mm doubly perforated celluloid. A couple of weeks ago I saw J. Bisset on Entertainment Tonight (another secret vice revealed - honestly I thought the Yankee game would be on). She was peeved about the final cut of the film, saying they had stripped out all the "subtext" of her performance. The clip they ran with the interview was the plot-thickening seltzer bottle scene, which had all the subtext of your average MTV video (a favorite target for culture flames everywehre). Now, JB can't seriously say that her career has been studded with landmark performances - she has spent most of her time as window dressing in macho action flicks (e.g The Deep), and her character here hasn't been written with much more depth. How many times has Meryl Streep made her screen entrance by drinking an instant Marguerita (also known as an upside-down M[]ita if that helps the uninitiated visualize the process). The biggest problem with Class is its reluctance to resolve either of the major plots, the affair and the cheating scandal. The first is discarded by writing Ms. Bisset out of the script (more to follow) and the second is never resolved. We simply have Stuart Margolin playing the same sort of slime he's played every- where else fom "Love, American Style" to any Blake Edwards effort, being shown up by the students at every possible turn of his inves- tigation (including the films only climax if you'll excuse the phrase). He also gets to say "We'veall done things we're ashamed of" only so it can be put out of context in the trailer and com- mercials. Now the fact that she disappears just when we have the potential for some acting to be done leads me (horror upon horror) to believe that there were some scene filmed with JB and her young paramour trying to sort out their affair that were conveniently left out in case they might make the audience think a little. If that's the case Ms. Bisset has a legitimate beef with the producers, and as compensation she should be selected to play the aging dancer in Flashdance II. The film's almost documentary grip on reality is frightening. We are seriously asked to believe that a high school kid who is so petrified at the thought of a date with a high school girl that he throws up in the car (almost in her lap) can cooly and calmly carry on a cross country affair with a woman so shy and reticent that she seduces him in a glass elevator. He is introduced as inept and socially backward when compared to his peers, but can pass himself off as a graduate student from Northwestern. Where has Cliff Robertson been all these years, and why did he do this film? A final flame - I'm tired of movie after movie, made-for-TV and otherwise, about tragic affairs between young men and older women. The only representatives of the flip side of the coin I can think of are "Baby Doll" and "Lolita", both of which stand head and shoulders over Class's sort of nonsence, but were scandalous at the time of their release. Each of these gave different views of obsession, deal- ing mainly with the (often dire) consequences. These new efforts deal only with the affairs and gloss over anything else. The resolution is easy and the effects neglible. What gives? Tom Dennehy BTL Whippany {...floyd!tgd}