CINEMA: William Pretorius
BLUE SKY, in which Jessica Lange plays the=20 unconventional wife of an army officer, is British=20 director Tony Richardson’s last film. Working in=20 Europe, Britain and the United States, Richardson’s=20 career has veered wildly from brilliant (Tom Jones) to=20 awful (The Hotel New Hampshire), with seldom a dull=20
He has a definite eye for the bizarre, and even managed=20 to turn hack action into comment on a decaying, fascist=20 America, as in The Border, an American-police-versus- illegal-aliens drama which amounts to more than trendy=20
Set in the early Sixties, Blue Sky opens with some=20 riveting contrasts: Carly (Lange) frolics topless in=20 the sea while her husband, nuclear engineer Hank (Tommy=20 Lee Jones), sinisterly hidden in protective gear,=20 searches for radiation in a blighted landscape after=20 secret nuclear testing.=20
The contradictions of the atomic era are summed up:=20 sex, freedom and death. Carly, a free spirit, conflicts=20 with the military mentality represented by her=20 husband’s job. He enjoys her refusal of accepted=20 notions of behaviour, but the army community considers=20 her either a cheap lay or scandalous.=20
But Carly’s freedom comes at a price: she’s neurotic,=20 imitative — she turns herself into a Marilyn Monroe=20
Richardson’s direction is calm and assured, but Lange’s=20 performance carries the movie. She doesn’t turn Carly=20 into a muddled-headed bimbo but shows how Hollywood=20 glamour and fantasy can be used as a liberating defence=20 against repression.=20
Lange deserves her Golden Globe as best actress. She=20 has also been nominated for an Oscar. I hope she gets=20 it, even if the film does become a fluffy, housewife- against-the-army melodrama instead of allowing the=20 issues to play themselves out through the characters.=20 Still, that’s Hollywood — if its glamour can be=20 liberating, its story-lines are highly constrictive.
Bruce Beresford’s A Good Man in Africa was filmed here=20 in South Africa, and its credentials couldn’t be=20 better: a recognised director takes on William Boyd’s=20 dark, hysterically funny novel about the downfall of a=20 British diplomat, Morgan Leafy, in the newly=20 independent African country of Kinjaja. He belatedly=20 rediscovers his morality through “a good man in=20 Africa,” the incorruptible doctor Alex Murray (Sean=20
This country, though, seems to defeat even the best=20 directors. The film has shortcomings — while the novel=20 is densely funny, the film skims through the plot’s=20 mechanics. And Colin Friels isn’t an ideal choice as=20
But if Beresford hasn’t made one of his best films, he=20 hasn’t made a total cock-up either. The film is often=20 entertaining, undemanding fun. And among its pleasures=20 are recognising the local members of the cast, and=20 watching stars like Connery walking around=20 Johannesburg. Now, if only we could make our own movies=20