A risible and idiotic movie, "The Blood Oranges" is a maladroit adaptation of a novel that should probably never have seen the light of day, given the ridiculous dialogue that, one assumes, the scripters Philip Haas (who also directs) and Belinda Haas (who also produces) have taken from the book.
Charles Dance and Sheryl Lee play a 1970s sexually liberated couple residing in a small unnamed European town. They allow each other extramarital affairs but their meeting with a pair of travelers, in town with their children, changes their traditional patterns. In flashbacks, narrated by Dance, the audience learns something bad has happened in the couple's fantasy land...given the context, Dance and Lee (who irritatingly calls him Babe throughout) are terrible.
But of the quartet, only Dance renders a credible and emotionally resonant performance. Basically miscast, Lee interprets her role as a babe whose sole motivation is to get Hugh into the sack. As the victimized couple whose experimentation in lifestyle leads to tragic results, Robins and Lane are no more than decent
this
erotic drama, a couple who have devoted themselves to sexual freedom discover
that their open relationship may have led them into dangerous waters. Fiona (Sheryl Lee) and Cyril (Charles Dance) are a married couple with an open
relationship; they allow each other to pursue erotic pleasures with other
partners at will, and they're eager to make the most of the opportunities that
present themselves as they vacation in Italy. While in town, they meet Hugh (Colin Lane), a photographer travelling with his wife
Catherine (Laila Robins) and their children. Fiona and
Cyril discover that Hugh likes to photograph nude couples, and they eagerly
invite him along for some fun and games at their rented villa, with blood
oranges scattered around the floor. Before long, Fiona and Cyril discover that
Hugh has a secret they never counted on. Based on a novel by John Hawkes, Blood Oranges has rather ornate dialogue that
earned it some unintended laughs in its early screenings, especially when Cyril
uses his favorite euphemism for having sex, "Tasting the love lunch."
~ Mark Deming, Rovi
the movie has been presented at the Toronto film festival in 1997, click to read
broadcast on 11–13 March 2007, Fallen angel was based on Andrew Taylor novels. It tells the story of Rosie Byfield, a clergyman's daughter, who grows up to be a psychopathic killer. It has a narrative that moves backwards in time as it uncovers the layers of Rosie's past.
Emilia Fox plays his daughter here, in 1997, she played his wife in Rebecca.....
from a fan of James D'Arcy
Charles Dance talks about the incredible thriller
why-dunnit Fallen Angel
Playing an Anglican priest was a challenging role for Charles Dance, who has no
interest in organised religion.
I had to film a communion sequence during a mass scene, so I had the full
clerical regalia on and I did think, what a load of old rubbish, he says.
I spent a little time researching the role with a vicar, and I had been a
choirboy as a kid and so I know what happens around an altar….the theatricality
is quite impressive but the whole paraphernalia of organised religion doesn’t
interest me one iota.
Charles doesn't believe his character David Byfield can be separated from the
religion that has shaped his life.
They are interwoven. He seems to be able
to separate himself not from his own clerical self but from the congregation's
perception of a priest. People see a dog collar and words like pious and good
come into their minds. This is why people get such a shock when yet again a
case of child molestation by a Catholic priest is exposed in the media…they
believe men of the cloth are above human failings.
I know one vicar who swears like a trooper, has no truck with Christmas, and is
not far off David Byfield.
Talking of his character, Charles continues: David starts out with his eye very
firmly on climbing up the career ladder within the Anglican church, but he is elbowed out of a key job by someone else. People think that a
priest with ambition is an odd thing, because the job is usually considered to
be a vocation.
For the people in his parish, he is a shepherd to their flock and perhaps they
wouldnt consider for a minute that a vicar wants to become a dean and that dean
wants to become a bishop and that bishop might like to become an archbishop;
it’s a bit like a back bencher thinking I want to become the prime minister one
day.
It’s an odd dichotomy for someone in a vocation. In Fallen Angel I show
ambition and how the priesthood is a job. Words like pious and good don't
necessarily apply to David.
And a lack of understanding of the opposite sex does not help David.
I think circumstances provoke a crisis in David. He is a very human priest, he
just has the misfortune to marry women who aren’t interested in much sexual
activity, he doesn’t have a lot of luck in that respect. I think he has a
problem understanding, but he doesn’t actively dislike women, on the contrary….
But in religious terms he certainly is a traditionalist, which is why he is
involved in a high Anglican church. I don’t think Anglican priests dislike
women, even if many are against women priests - I think it is to do with the breaking
of tradition.
David is opinionated and he has a very strong belief, at the beginning, (which
is the last of our three films) in his sense of rightness. He is a bit pedantic
but he believes in his opinions and what he is doing and he certainly believes
that he is right most of the time. In the first film (the last chronologically)
he is a broken man because he has had those beliefs shaken so many times, by
either his family or his career not turning out how he had hoped it would - and
especially by his daughter and the terrible person she has become.
David blames himself for Rosie, as I think all parents would. There is
something claustrophobic about a vicar’s household.
A vicars
wife and children might not be as devoutly religious as him and I think it
would take a very strong, understanding family not to be cynical about the head
of the household’s beliefs. It might also encourage what is a naturally
rebellious period in a child’s upbringing (the teen years) because of that
claustrophobia.
Davids dragging guilt around with him, like the ghost of Jacob Marley. He takes
it all upon himself, of course he does, but circumstances are such that
they conspire against him really, so I think he must share some of the blame
but not all.
The role of David Byfield reunites Charles with co-star Emilia Fox.
This will be the fourth time we've worked together. We did Rebecca for ITV back
in 1996. Then I did the first episode of Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) which
she was in with Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer and we were on stage together at
the Donmar Warehouse in Good. So we're very relaxed acting with each other now.
The part also requires Charles to play a vast age range on screen.
This put a lot of demands on the skills of make up designer Caroline Noble. I
grew a beard to play the older David, which was useful as it put 10 years on me
straight away. There's a lot of white in it now!
The second film is more or less who I am but for the young David, a man of
about 40, I spent a couple of hours in make-up with pins and clamps
and elastic bands under the wig. I could have had many early nights, drank
sensibly and done all the right things but I couldn't have carried that off
without Carolines help!
Charles has just returned from Sydney, Australia where he appeared alongside
Penelope Wilton in Samuel Beckett’s short play Eh Joe.
Seasoned actor Charles Dance had no qualms about getting involved in his latest TV drama Fallen Angel - particularly as it meant teaming up with Emilia Fox again.
The duo have worked together before on ITV1's Rebecca, Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) and a stage play called Good.
"I couldn't go through it again," he jokes. "No, we've known each other since Rebecca, which was her first job. Since then, I've watched her become more and more savvy.
"She's a very bright girl indeed, and she knows how to use those big eyes of hers. They can either melt you, or in this case, chill you. You know, I think there are echoes of Myra Hindley in this which is quite alarming."
But unlike Hindley, ITV's trilogy focuses on a beautiful female murderer.
"We associate beauty with goodness, don't we?" Charles says. "I think it's easier to accept horrible crimes from women if they're not beautiful.
"You look at pictures of all those female guards at concentration camps, and most of them are pretty horrendous, mostly large Germanic masculine-looking women, and you kind of accept the fact they're going to do horrible things. But if you see somebody who has great beauty and has committed some appalling crimes, it's confusing."
Charles talks about Fallen angel on ITV1 on the show This morning
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