Though John Malkovich’s new vehicle played a few screenings at TIFF, it was a film I didn’t even know existed. Adapted from Nobel Prize winner J. M. Coetzee’s Booker Prize winning novel (that’s a lot of awards), Disgrace stars Malkovich as South African professor of English David Lurie whose life is falling apart. Twice divorced, his womanizing ways catch up with him when he is dismissed after having an affair with a student. He moves from Cape Town to the Eastern Cape to be with his daughter but while there, he gets caught up in a mess of post-apartheid politics.
A 2006 poll of “literary luminaries” by The Observer named it the “greatest novel of the last 25 years” written in English outside the United States. That’s high praise for any work but it seems that the film adaptation has also won an honour having taken home the FIPRESCI Prize at TIFF. Directed by Steve Jacobs, the film certainly looks good, making excellent usage of the dry and dusty settings which seem to visualize the drying up of David’s life.
I’m guessing this must have been a difficult novel to adapt. David’s character seems to have a whole lot of personal issues to deal with (enough to fill more than one book or movie) in addition to the social and political issues that are brought up so I’m curious to see how Jacobs and screenwriter Anna Maria Monticelli handle the material but aside from looking good, I’m having a hard time liking anything else about this trailer; especially Malkovich. I love the man to pieces but for the most part, he always seems to be channelling Malkovich and that’s not always interesting. I’m willing to be surprised but at the moment, I’m not buying this.
Currently Disgrace doesn’t have a US distributor but the film has been picked up for Canadian distribution by Maximum Film which plans to release it in 2009.
Trailer is tucked under the seat!
I saw it at TIFF and liked it… It is such a strange story, a strange world it depicts and it leaves you with all of these invested emotions wanting retribution and it doesn’t provide catharsis.
That interests me a little more but I’m still not sold. I am really curious to see how the various stories play out.
Disgrace was a fantastic novel, and, though I have not read it in about five years, I can imagine Malkovich as the lead fairly easily. I am not sure how well the source material will translate to the big screen, as the subject matter is tremendous in scope, but I will certainly be checking it out as soon as possible.
I highly recommend the novel to anyone that finds this intriguing, as well.
I think you’re right – Malkovich looks like a bad fit. I read and loved the book, and he doesn’t match up with Lurie at all – his coloration, bone structure, coloration, body language are all wrong. (Lurie wasn’t bald, for one thing). And, right, from what they’ve chosen to spotlight in the trailer, the photography is drawing out different affects than the texture of the book’s language (it ‘feels’ different). I haven’t seen the film of course but this does not look great.
Saw the movie last night; loved the novel but had not read it for 5 years or so, so was prepared to accept the adaptation. I thought it was very good, got the S African situation very well, and the location (not the real setting of the novel) was very well chosen. As an ex-S African I thought they captured the various racial subtleties extremely well; how much it will mean for anyone who has not grown up in that unhappy country I really don’t know!