Nataile Portman location FireBird
EVE a short film by Natalie Portman
On location at the Firebird Restaurant NYC 365 west 46 st 8th avenue 212-586-0244
- First directed short film By Natalie Portman
Age against AgeBy Maria CafagnaThe honour of opening the Corto Cortissimo section of the 65th Venice International Film Festival of Venice has fallen to the “short shortest” Natalie Portman, the actress of Closer and Léon. Favourite of the public and critics, appreciated for skill and elegance, her debut as a director has quickly aroused curiosities among fans and professionals: never had I seen a longer line to the Sala Perla for a screening reserved for short films. Available and smiling, the actress comes into the room between flashes and applause.The meeting between two generations, melancholy, love, beauty fades, love: the directorial debut of Natalie Portman and surprisingly convincing.The short she presented does not disappoint expectations: the grace and skill of the actress transpires from the screen through her first job as director and screenwriter.Eve tells of a date of three: grandmother, granddaughter and a charming widower. The grandmother is not any grandmother but the fascinating Lauren Bacall, symbol of femininity that survives the passing of years, despite the wrinkles, guardian of pride and elegance. To make an impression on an attractive widower (Ben Gazzara) Lola (the character of precisely Bacall) invites granddaughter Kate (Olivia Thirlby, already seen in Lost) to her first date. In the first part of the film takes place the meeting / clash between the two women: the first is a lady in love with life that despite age, still experiences the pleasure of pleasure, loves her jewellery and wears them with great naturalness, wants love, or at least to find a good companion for the bridge. The second, Kate, a girl of our times: disillusioned, cynical, too taken by all and all to think of her femininity. Both are women, each in its own way, his own generation. Characters are well constructed and even more direct.The date of three presents one of the hilarious moments, from the other melancholy moments, skillfully calibrated to each other. Lola is amused to act valuable, playing her cards of a cultured and charming woman, as if she had not even a wrinkle, as if the youthfulness was never gone, fair and conscious of pleasure. She is a cheerful figure but also very melancholic: behind the make-up and jewelry, in fact, there are hidden conflicts with her daughter but above all the heaviness of time passing. Certainly, when crossing the threshold of her room, Lola is still an attractive and witty lady, but within her there is a disturbance: read mainly through her eyes.Bacall’s performance is extraordinary, Gazzara and Thirlby convince. The public is involved and amused. The “emotional” message is clear and does not exercise use of easy gimmicks or the usual rhetoric from fiction.In short, thumbs up for the debut of Natalie Portman, who has not only satisfied the expectations of the public and critics, but gave a beautiful lesson in cinema to his colleagues that, for too much ambition and too many claims to be avant-garde we often forget to move and engage the public.
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Here’s a nice review:The fifth film in the program, however, is not a “short film”. It is a film. It is also a minor masterpiece. It is perhaps the best short film I’ve ever seen. The film is beautifully shot and edited, and brilliantly written and directed, by Natalie Portman (the actress).Eve is the story of grandma who goes on a date with a widower. Her granddaughter, who has come over to visit and talk about her mother (Eve), ends up as chaperone and chauffeur, and otherwise somewhat ignored. Grandma is played superbly by Lauren Bacall, and the widower by Ben Gazzara. The iconic performers give iconic performances that make this an iconic film, a celebration of the power of life as people age.(I thought of Vicki Christina Barcelona (VCB) , when I saw this film. VCB uses the iconic personalities and iconic performances of Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, and Scarlett Johansson to make an iconic film about a summer romance abroad.)Eve (the grandma’s daughter, the young woman’s mother) appears in the film only as a photograph. That is a brilliant device. “Eve” is the perfect name for the film and the photograph is the perfect place for her to appear. The film is in some profound sense not just about the date, but also about the entire backstory and subtext and life that precedes the film. Eve, the missing mother/daughter provides a link to that world.Interestingly, according to the producer, Eve was not the original title, nor was the photo of the mother in the original script. I think that illustrates why in film (as opposed to theater) it works so well to have the writer and director be the same person. In theater, every performance is a different interpretation of the script, so a director needs to let the actors free themselves from the words and own the characters. In a film, the script is just a suggestion, or notes, or a crib sheet. The film is the film. So a director can work with the material as the edit is being constructed and continue to sculpt the project until it is in its final form. The film is the only performance that counts. When the writer and director are the same person, that performance can be perfected.With a rich and beautiful story, outstanding cinematography, and brilliant writing, directing, and acting, Eve is (one of the few times I’ve ever said this about a short) a film not to be missed
Eve. Dirigida por Natalie Portman. by Bolboretayuna
