directed
by Fernando Meirelles
Germany / UK / Kenya 2005
When diplomat wife Tessa Quale (Rachel Weisz) is found
murdered along with her African driver, her husband Justin Quale (Ralph
Finnes) is devastated. More so when he discovers, that she lived a double life
and that she was him unfaithful. But something isn’t right about her death,
and when his friends suddenly begin to close their doors on him, he begins to
asks questions, which eventually uncovers a truth everyone wants to hide.
Based upon the book by spymaster John Le Carré, “The Constant Gardener”, is
not so much a spy story as a love story, where Carré plays with motifs of the
genre and attacks the international medical industry, based partially on what
happened to one of his friends, French sans frontier worker Yvette Pierpaoli,
who along with two colleagues and their driver was murdered in Albania.
Central in “The Constant Gardener” is the diplomatic virtue, which we would
call passivity; to stand and watch people suffer and die without interfering,
while with stiff upper lip pointing out, that it isn’t part of her majesties
interest. Also central is the calculating greed, based on arrogance,
indifference and cynicism. Just like Harry Lime in “The Third Man” offered
Holly £20,000 for each dot that stopped moving, so does the medical industry
use people from the slums as guinea pigs.
Carré is angry and portraits the diplomatic world as a failure. Justin is
portrayed as a lapdog, who without questions does what his country asks him
to, who looks the other way when people die, as everything has a reason, and
one only interferes when this reason is of interest to ones country. Opposite
to him stands Tessa, a rebel, socialist, who is willing to risk her own life
to help a stranger, and who attacks the diplomatic world Justin clings to by
stating, that is has failed, when the UK and US can put UN resolutions aside
and declare war on a sovereign country because they want to control oil.
With the death of Tessa, Justin’s world collapses. Not only because she was
the only person who ever really loved him, but because she is said to be
unfaithful and worse. But little by little he discovers, that what people say
of her, and what she really was, are two very different things, and thus he
begins a journey to find out what and who killed her.
Fernando Meirelles directs “The Constant Gardener” to perfection, and along
with DoP Cesar Charlone creates a stunning mise-en-scene of contrasts. While
the west is shot in grey and blue, always raining, completely sterile and
clean in its steel and concrete, he composes his African locations full of
colours, full of decay, full of disease... full of life and joy.
Also notable is the use of static compositions versus handheld, as state of
mind is depicted thru the kinetic camera. As Justin and Tessa first meet,
Justin is static and slightly out of focus, while Tessa is shown by handheld
never steady framing. Charlone will also use extreme close-ups, arranging
people to be almost out of the frame, to stress state of mind. In terms of
cinematography, this is in my opinion the best composed and most beautifully
shot film of 2005.
But not just the direction of Meirelles or the cinematography of Charlone
marks personal best. Ralph Finnes gives his best performance since “Quiz Show”
and Rachel Weisz, who one wouldn’t think much of after seeing her in “The
Mummy”, emerges as one of this years best actresses, making Tessa completely
woman, giving Tessa a soul.
One of the best films of 2005, “The Constant Gardener” is a film not to be
missed.
Poster
 |
Theatrical Release: August 31, 2005
Reviews More Reviews DVD Reviews
DVD Review: Sandrew Metronome - Region 2 - PAL
Big thanks to Henrik Sylow for the Review!
| DVD Box Cover |
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CLICK to order from:
Also available at:
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| Distribution |
Sandrew Metronome Region 2 - PAL |
|
| Runtime | 2:03:17 (4% PAL speedup) | |
| Video |
1.85:1 Original Aspect Ratio
16X9 enhanced |
|
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NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes. |
||
| Bitrate |
|
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| Audio | 2.0 Dolby Digital English, 5.1 Dolby Digital English | |
| Subtitles | Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, None | |
| Features |
Release Information: Studio: Sandrew Metronome Aspect Ratio:
Edition Details: Chapters 20 |
|
| Comments | It is not a
perfect transfer. I had expected the colors to explode, but they are not
as heavy saturated as in the theatre. Also there is minute dithering
issues. But aside from this, I have not been able to find anything
worthwhile to point out. It is a near perfect transfer and it does look
sensational. The additional material is your basics, but two are rather good. The first is "Embracing Africa: Filming in Kenya", the second "John Le Caree: From Page to the Screen". But for a film of this quality, I would have expected an audio commentary by at least Meirelles, and then from Finnes and Weisz. So while they two mentioned programs are good, the additional material here is by the book and little more. |
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| Distribution |
Sandrew Metronome Region 2 - PAL |
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Gary Tooze
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Thank You!
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