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3 avis
Toni Morrison's "Beloved" From Text to Film with Oprah
To transform "Beloved" from text to film, Oprah Winfrey collaborated with director Jonathan Demme to adapt Toni Morrison's Pulitzer Prize winner novel about an 1870's African-American Ohio ghost slave story. With that kind of renowned talent matched up, what should we expect but the best of all possible US slave films. Highly underrated & perhaps misunderstood because it takes a good deal of intellectual ability to understand this complex story, "Beloved" the film, exceeds expectations. History will doubtlessly prove future audiences to be much more appreciative of this film's social meaning & value.
Late in 19th century Ohio, former slave Sethe (Oprah Winfrey) lives alone with her daughter Denver (Kimberly Elise). Early on in the show it is quite evident that the house is violently haunted by someone or something. Because of the violent haunting, Denver becomes socially isolated. Sethe keeps doing ordinary household chores even though memories of her life as a slave at Sweet Home, the Kentucky plantation where she was raised & brutalized as a slave, nearly drive her mad.
When a fellow slave friend from Sweet Home, Paul D. (Danny Glover), visits Sethe & Denver, then stays on at the house to start a joyous new life together, their hopes for happiness are spoiled by the frightful arrival of Beloved (Thandie Newton). She's slobbering, covered by insects, wearing a black tattered dress & hat & her words are hardly distinguishable. Paul D. senses immediately that evil's arrived. Beloved literally tears the house apart.
However, Sethe & Denver believe that Beloved is the incarnation of Sethe's dead baby girl who didn't make it across the river to freedom just after she was born in the woods. Sethe's rebellion against slavery produced deep dark murderous secrets about her life at Sweet Home.
Oprah Winfrey's & Thandie Newton's performances of horrific flashbacks & slavery's terrorism at Sweet Home are spectacular enough to re-create the plight of slave life that still haunts America's white supremacist history & current presence especially in the deep South. Kimberly Elise delivers a life-transformative performance as the daughter of relentless endurance. Danny Glover incarnates Morrison's descriptions of black cultural superstitions.
The film version of Morrison's story makes it patently obvious why the book won the Pulitzer Prize. "Beloved" takes viewers to a time & place in the US that seems unimaginable today. Today being November 6th, 2008, 2 days after the black son of an 18 yo single mother became the 44th President-Elect of the very same nation where "Beloved" takes place a century earlier. Look to this past through "Beloved" to fully appreciate the socio-cultural achievements the US has made. If we didn't have films like "Beloved" to remind us of national history, the recent national election wouldn't feel so revolutionary & historically significant!~Lire l'avis complet...
Great Movie!!
I bought this movie "Beloved" because I has seen it before. It was a great performance by the actors/actresses. The movie kind of take you back to slavery times but its not a movie focused on slavery, the movie takes you back by the behavior of a woman and a child that was killed years ago. Wonderful movie. Way to go Oprah!Lire l'avis complet...
Finally Own
I saw this movie in the theater when it first came out, and several more times when it was shown on tv, but I never owned a copy until now. Next to The Color Purple, this is undoubtedly Oprah's best performance. Glad I decided to buy a copy of my own because it's a very good addition to my collection.Lire l'avis complet...