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Elegy (2008)

Elegy (2008)

GENRESDrama,Romance
LANGEnglish,Spanish
ACTOR
Ben KingsleyPenélope CruzPatricia ClarksonDennis Hopper
DIRECTOR
Isabel Coixet

SYNOPSICS

Elegy (2008) is a English,Spanish movie. Isabel Coixet has directed this movie. Ben Kingsley,Penélope Cruz,Patricia Clarkson,Dennis Hopper are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2008. Elegy (2008) is considered one of the best Drama,Romance movie in India and around the world.

David Kepesh is growing old. He's a professor of literature, a student of American hedonism, and an amateur musician and photographer. When he finds a student attractive, Consuela, a 24-year-old Cuban, he sets out to seduce her. Along the way, he swims in deeper feelings, maybe he's drowning. She presses him to sort out what he wants from her, and a relationship develops. They talk of traveling. He confides in his friend, George, a poet long-married, who advises David to grow up and grow old. She invites him to meet her family. His own son, from a long-ended marriage, confronts him. Is the elegy for lost relationships, lost possibilities, beauty and time passing, or failure of nerve?

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Elegy (2008) Reviews

  • Erotic, touching and beautiful

    seawalker2008-08-17

    Everybody is allowed to do a job just for the money, I know that I do, but when it comes to the acting profession, I irrationally think that I expect a little bit more from our finest thespians. I don't know why. I just do. Take, for example, the actor Ben Kingsley. Ben Kingsley sometimes annoys the hell out of me. He is one of the best actors in the world, but sometimes plys his trade in the likes of films like "Thunderbirds", "A Sound Of Thunder" and "The Love Guru". Such a waste. Such a shame. Thank God he occasionally realises how good he is and signs up for a movie as sublime as "Elegy". "Elegy" is a great movie. Ben Kingsley is supreme in it. He plays David Kapesh, an expat British teacher and writer. Kapesh is selfish. He is a player and a commitment phobe, who takes and drops lovers at the drop of a hat. That is until he meets Penelope Cruz's Consuela Castillo, with whom he begins a pretty standard affair and, against all expectations, and much to his dismay, falls in love with her. "Elegy" has some seriously good, sure footed performances. Ben Kingsley is on Oscar worthy form. It is as different, but as good a performance, as his Oscar nominated turns in "Sexy Beast" and "House Of Sand And Fog". Patrica Clarkson, as Kapesh's long standing mistress, defines hurt and betrayal, Penelope Cruz completely puts word to the lie of one daft critic who said that she simply cannot act in the English language, but the surprise here is Dennis Hopper: His performance as Kapesh's best friend is light years away from the eye rolling villain that he normally portrays to make a crust. "Elegy" is erotic, touching and beautiful. I think that it is a cracking movie and deserves a bigger audience.

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  • Dignity and Sensuality: Intoxication

    gradyharp2009-03-20

    'When you make love to a woman you get revenge for all the things that defeated you in life.' Few American writers have been able to examine the fear and rage and desperation of aging as eloquently as Philip Roth, and as with another of his novels brought to life on the screen ('The Human Stain'), here Nicholas Meyer has beautifully adapted Roth's 'The Dying Animal' with all the visceral immediacy and poetry of the novel about the terror and compassion of May/December relationships. Isabel Coixnet has managed to guide her gifted set of actors through this story as though it were a ballet. The result is one of the more beautiful 'love stories' ever filmed. David Kepesh (Ben Kingsley, in a performance of tremendous power and sensitivity) is an aging author, teacher and art critic, a man who has not learned the secret of lasting relationships but who retains his animal sex drive despite his passing years: he survives time's passing by a patterned assignation with Carolyn (Patricia Clarkson), an aging successful traveling business woman who drops in for sensual gratification when in town. David's closest friend is Pulitzer prize winning poet George O'Hearn (Dennis Hopper) who serves as his alter ego and as his confidant in David's problematic life. Into David's classroom comes Consuela Castillo (the ravishingly beautiful and gifted Penélope Cruz) who gains David's focus not only for her radiant beauty but also for her intelligence. Struggling with his advanced years (David is over thirty years older than Consuela), a courtship dance begins and it is the emergence of this romance that forms the story. How Consuela alters David's behavior and his discovery of the need for connection outside of the bedroom is related as a journey through David's mind. The manner in which the transformation changes every member of the story is what makes this film so very memorable. Kingsley is brilliant in this probing examination of the aging man's psyche, Cruz SHOULD have received her Oscar for this performance rather than the film that honored her, Clarkson continues to be one of our best actresses on the screen, Peter Sarsgaard makes a brief but important appearance, and David Hopper manages to step out of his predictable past roles and offer a character of true compassion and finesse. The film is magnificently photographed (Jean-Claude Larrieu) and the music score thankfully is almost completely devoted to the works of Erik Satie (Gnossiennes), Beethoven (Diabelli Variations), Vivaldi (cantatas with Phillipe Jaroussky) -all edited by the director Isabel Coixnet. It all works well. This is one of the finer films of 2008 and deserves a wide audience of people who love quality film-making. Grady Harp

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  • The Biggest Surprise in a Man's Life Is Old Age

    claudio_carvalho2009-03-26

    In Manhattan, the middle-aged writer, art critic and professor and aspirant piano player and photographer David Kepesh (Ben Kingsley) questions that his age does not affect his sex drive and recalls words of Bette Davis ("Old age is not for sissies") and Tostoi ("The biggest surprise in a man's life is old age"). Despite of his great culture, the intellectual David is a man that has grown old but never grown up, and he is unable to last a relationship, including with his oncologist son Kenneth Kepesh (Peter Sarsgaard). The exceptions are his old poet friend and confident George O'Hearn (Dennis Hopper) and the independent businesswoman Carolyn (Patricia Clarkson), with whom he has an affair for more than twenty years. When he meets the elegant, educated and gorgeous Cuban student Consuela Castillo (Penélope Cruz) in his literature class, he feels a great sexual attraction for her and seduces her in the end of the period. They have a love affair for one and half years, but David is always insecure being thirty and something years older than the student. When Consuela forces David to come to her graduation party and meet her family and friends, he takes a decision that affects their relationship forever. The Spanish Isabel Coixet is certainly one of the most sensitive directors of the cinema industry. "My Life without Me" and "The Secret Life of Words" are among the most beautiful, touching and heartbreaking movies I have ever seen. "Elegy" is another wonderful movie of this awesome director that deals with another real theme, the aging of men, which could be difficult for a female director to understand and correctly disclose on the screen. However, the romance works mainly because the lead male role seems to be tailored for Sir Ben Kingsley (it could be Sean Connery a couple of years ago). I can not imagine any other actor that could personify David Kepesh as portrayed in the story. Further, Penélope Cruz deserved the Oscar for her performance, with a more realistic character than in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona". The Academy wrote right through wrong performances. She is incredibly gorgeous in the role of Consuela Castillo. The always excellent Patricia Clarkson, the irregular Dennis Hopper and the "disappeared" Peter Sarsgaard have also memorable performances in this outstanding romance. The cinematography and the music score complete this beautiful work of art. My vote is eight. Title (Brazil): "Fatal" ("Fatal")

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  • A Monumental Cruz

    dboyleukgroup2008-09-19

    Perhaps the most moving aspect of this very moving adaptation of Philip Roth's "The Dying Animal" is Penelope Cruz's extraordinary performance. Ben Kingsly is also superb but we're kind of used to see him explore different universes with absolute ease. From "Ghandi" to "Sexy Beast" Penelope Cruz is a whole other story. From "Volver" to "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" to "Elegy" in rapid succession have transformed this Spanish beauty into one of the best actresses of her generation. She gets under your skin and transmits the emotional journey of her characters with a powerful strength that lasts and lingers. The truth she carries is all consuming and makes the experience totally unforgettable. Her performance alone makes "Elegy" a must see.

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  • "Old age is not for sissies", said Bette Davis...

    Benedict_Cumberbatch2008-09-29

    ... and David Kepesh (Sir Ben Kingsley) knows it, as he quotes her in the beginning of "Elegy". Kepesh is no sissy, but old age isn't for him either. He's a professor who's had a "friendship with benefits" with a woman (Patricia Clarkson) for twenty years, as he begins a torrid affair with the beautiful Consuela (Penélope Cruz), thirty years younger than him. Consuela and David fall in love with each other, but harder than finding the right person is the fear of losing them, and they will find some obstacles to their relationship. This is an adult film about love, fear of commitment/loss, and death. Isabel Coixet proves again to be the most exciting name to come from Spain since Pedro Almodóvar – after "My Life Without Me", "The Secret Life of Words" and her segment "Bastille" from "Paris, je t'Aime", she delivers another mature, sensitive, and very peculiar film (her next project, "Map of Sounds of Tokyo", looks very promising as well). Sir Ben Kingsley and Patricia Clarkson are exceptional as usual; Dennis Hopper, as Kingsley's best friend, gives his best performance in a long time (he has a fantastic scene with Kingsley and Deborah Harry, who plays his wife). Peter Sarsgaard is also pretty good as Kingsley's son, and although Cruz doesn't shine as much as in "Non Ti Muovere", "Volver" or "Vicky Cristina Barcelona", she fits the role and makes you believe any man would be easily infatuated and obsessed with her. The ending might seem a little melodramatic at first, but it's both poignant and adequate. Although not a perfect film, "Elegy" is easily one of the most poetic, rewarding experiences you'll have this year. Don't miss it. 9/10.

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