The Children of the Century (Diane Kurys, 1999)

Benoît Magimel and Juliette Binoche in The Children of the Century

Cast: Juliette Binoche, Benoît Magimel, Stefano Dionisi, Robin Renucci, Karin Viard, Isabelle Carré, Patrick Chesnais, Arnaud Giovaninetti, Denis Podalydès, Olivier Foubert, Marie-France Mignal, Michel Robin, Ludivine Sagnier. Screenplay: Murray Head, Diane Kurys, François-Olivier Rousseau. Cinematography: Vilko Filac. Production design: Bernard Vézat. Film editing: Joëlle Van Effenterre. Music: Luis Bacalov. 

Handsomely mounted and splendidly acted, Diane Kurys's The Children of the Century ultimately goes the way of all biopic costume dramas: history and fact bumping up against dramatic and narrative imperatives, and opulence overwhelming story. It's fun to watch Juliette Binoche throw herself into the role of George Sand, but it's more fun to watch her in films in which she has to create a character from scratch rather than from what books have already us about the character. Benoît Magimel goes grandly over the top in giving us the mood-swinging Alfred de Musset, but at the cost of making us wonder why Sand would have put up with his excesses as much as she did. Still, there's magnificent chemistry between the actors in the best scenes and even if the film doesn't do much to illuminate the works of Sand and de Musset, it's easy on the eyes.  

Sunday Bloody Sunday (John Schlesinger, 1971)

Murray Head and Glenda Jackson in Sunday Bloody Sunday

Daniel Hirsh: Peter Finch
Alex Greville: Glenda Jackson
Bob Elkin: Murray Head
Mrs. Greville: Peggy Ashcroft
Mr. Harding: Tony Britton
Mr. Greville: Maurice Denham
Answering Service Lady: Bessie Love
Alva Hodson: Vivian Pickles
Bill Hodson: Frank Windsor

Director: John Schlesinger
Screenplay: Penelope Gilliatt
Cinematography: Billy Williams
Production design: Luciana Arrighi
Film editing: Richard Marden
Music: Ron Geesen

Seeing John Schlesinger's Sunday Bloody Sunday so soon after Call Me by Your Name (Luca Guadagnino, 2017) made me question how far we have really come in the 46 years that separate the two films. In writing about the later film, I noted the compromises that filmmakers still feel constrained to make in mainstream movies that deal with same-sex relationships. But Schlesinger's film is blithely nonchalant about the fact that one of its protagonists is a gay man sleeping with a bisexual man who is also sleeping with a woman. I remember seeing Sunday Bloody Sunday when it first came out, and there were no ripples of shock running through the Dallas theater when Daniel kissed Bob. This was, after all, the early 1970s, when the full effect of the sexual revolution was making itself known; Stonewall was two years behind us, and even in Dallas being openly gay was possible if not always practical. So Sunday Bloody Sunday engendered little talk other than about the fine quality of the acting -- with some expressing reservations about Murray Head ("I don't know what either of them saw in him," said one mostly closeted gay friend) -- and the general feeling that it was a satisfying entertainment for grownups. I think the film has grown in stature over the years, as few of Schlesinger's movies have: Darling (1965) and Midnight Cowboy (1969) have dated badly. Much of the credit for Sunday Bloody Sunday must go to Penelope Gilliatt's screenplay, which seems to have held in check some of the sourness that afflicts those earlier films. Even in the scenes that satirize the chaotic permissiveness of the Hodson household, in which among other things the unruly children are allowed to smoke pot, the point of view is provided by Alex and Bob, who are babysitting these little monsters, providing them with the affection and attention they so clearly need. Granted, some of the maturity in the film's portrayal of then-unconventional sexuality may lie in the fact that it was made before AIDS tested the straight world's tolerance for nonconforming behavior. But having weathered that long crisis, we can now see Sunday Bloody Sunday for what it is: a film about love and lust and loneliness, and a very good and moving one at that.