A new masterpiece by Polanski, and a visual treat by Madonna

Where Roman Polanski’s Carnage takes Venice by storm, Madonna’s second feature film W.E. plays out like a visually breathtaking and very long music video, and where Paul Giamatti steals my heart. And where I am unfortunately, unintentionally rude to Philip Seymour Hoffmann.

I sort of had the feeling, it would be great, and it was. Roman Polanski’s new film based on Reza Yasmin’s play, is an extraordinarily well played, poignant film, and so, so, so funny. Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz are a couple whose 11 year old son hit another boy with a stick at Brooklyn Bridge Playground, making him lose two teeth. One of which was severely hurt in the cap, as his mother, a highstrung writer, working on a book on the Darfur tragedy, finds it necessary to point out, as the four parents meet to sort out things ’in a civilized way’.

The first part of this film takes place mostly in the hallway of the Longstreet-couple, ’ the wronged party’, but it never becomes dull, as the meeting develops into a, for the most part, verbally, aggressive fight over who has the right values. This fight has Waltz, an attorney for a big medical company, who is constantly on the phone dealing with the defense for a not so healthy new project, speculate: ”When you grow up with a certain John Wayne idea of manhood you are not into talking things over”. And Winslet’s stock broker ending up screaming “I am glad our son hit your fucking kid!” and barfing all over Jodie Foster’s politically correct ideas as well as her limited edition art books.

So far, Carnage, is my favorite, and I love it for making me think of Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf, and because it so cunningly demonstrates the hypocrisy of the so called creative class, a term, to which I guess I myself also subscribe.
To be continued …