Pascali's Island

source: Pascali's Island

This film is a character study of the highest order, Channel 4 made many movies in the early 80's, most have been forgotten but some have become timeless, sadly this beautifully crafted piece seems to be included in the former. The acting and plot are top notch, and you find yourself engrossed in every aspect, from the gorgeous scenery to the intrigues of the time (when western Europeans were sitting by like vultures over a crumbling Ottoman empire). Charles Dance plays a ruthless English conman, but instead of hating his cold and aloof mannerism, somehow you find yourself being drawn to his way of thinking. Helen Mirren is as dependable as always, and Ben Kingsley, playing a double-dyed, almost treacherous, half Greek, spy for the Ottoman authorities, manages to repulse and sympathise in equal measure. A very satisfying movie.

Edit: Good news: It is now on amazon prime. Not so good news It is the version that has about 30 seconds containing the tasteful Mirren * shots removed. Review: Yes, the Western view of the decadent and sensual East is, to good degree, a set of biases. And anyone under 40 with a liberal higher education is going to see Helen Mirren as the quintessential odalisque, which is to say, object of the sin of the "male gaze." But still, let's face it, this film , while hardly flawless in execution, is just beautiful. Mostly beautifully shot, beautiful production design, stunning locations on Simi, mostly well scripted and with three perfectly casted talented actors. Ok, the direction had some intermittent problems, namely with the overwrought church scene, but that can be forgiven. So we can be mindful of Orientalism and the male gaze and still enjoy the film immensely. Frankly I fell in love with Mirren at the moment of seeing this film for the first time and I don't care if it clashes with the modern. Ben Kingsley could have just stepped out of Cavafy's Alexandria. He executes the perfect Leventine (something that has disappeared with the loss of heterogeneity of cosmopolis in Istanbul, Beirut, Smyrna and Alexandria) . For historic context, we are at what looks to be 1905-10 or so, right on the cusp before the Balkan wars and WWI liberating many more Ottoman subjects on occupied area into self determined nation states. And Pacali is a subject, not a citizen. But while not a Turk he is also not a Greek, but rather his only place is as an Ottoman -- something that is about to disappear. His speaking to the Porte (the immensely bureaucratic government in Istanbul), and to us, with his unanswered letters is just amazingly poignant.Just as he has unrequited love, his relationship with the Port is also unrequited. It is interesting that we become sympathetic to an informer for a tyranny. Kingsley also navigates the ambiguity in whether he is jealous of Dance attracting Mirren; or Mirren attracting Dance. Of course that is also part of the western view of the sensual east as well. Exactly who does Pascali really desire? The film is now on amazon prime. It is a decent but somewhat grainy 1.75:1 with ok audio. It is the 143 minute and 42 second version, meaning it has about half a minute less than the R rated version on my VHS version, but is missing two scenes with upper frontal nudity (one closer shot of naked a Ms. Mirren before diving into water, and one of her post coital lounging). Those scenes were among the most natural and unforced nudity I have ever seen in film and it seems a crime to have then missing. Still though relatively good news for we happy few that love this film to see it appear on amazon digital video.

A wonderful lesson in the art of trust, set in an equally wonderful Greek landscape. All performances are subtle yet interesting. Charles Dance is a very convincing cad in the old English tradition, while Ben Kingsly plays a faithful spy beginning to question that faith and his uncertain future. Helen Mirren is cast as an artist with sympathies for the Greek resistance movement fighting the Ottoman administration on the island. Cinematography is excellent with some enticing scenes of a perfect Greek Island town. Though the movie tackles some thought provoking themes of jealousy, trust and fear of betrayal it also works as low key thriller. A great pity this movie is not available on DVD.

Pascali's Island takes place in 1908 on a Greek Island still in the possession of the decaying Ottoman Empire. This movie gave a very strong sense of place and time. It concerns three principal characters; Basil Pascali(Kingsley)--a spy for the Sultan, an English adventurer/swindler(Dance), and an artistic free-spirit(Mirren). In the end it is the story of three middle-aged people who had led lives of disappointment thus far. In the film their lives become intertwined at a critical moment for all of them. Although the film is small in scope the historical period of impending change in which it takes place underscores the longing in each of the characters to find more purpose in their lives. The story is built around Pascali's dilemma: Does he remain faithful to the Sultan who has been the center of his life so far, but who has never even acknowledged him, or does he take a chance with two people who he has come to care for, but cannot trust? The subtle but rich way in which Ben Kingsley portrays Pascali in his dilemma is very moving. Lastly, the music and over all mood created for this multi-layered and thoughtful film are perfect.

The writer responsible for the schlock-shocker 'Fatal Attraction' takes an altogether different approach for his own turn as director, in an old-fashioned, anachronistic bit of foreign intrigue set on a small Aegean island during the last desperate days of the Ottoman Empire. Among the film's many virtues is one neglected in recent years: it actually tells a story, with a rich sense of time and place to help bring it vividly to life. Ben Kingsley is superb in the title role, playing a petty informer on an inconsequential outpost in the Sultan's crumbling empire, who becomes caught in the plots of various foreigners seeking adventure and opportunity during the heady, treacherous years just prior to World War One. The expatriates involved in his inevitable downfall (a metaphor, perhaps, for colonial politics at he time) include a beautiful Viennese aristocrat and a roving English archaeologist out to swindle the local Pasha. The story is simple, subdues and potent, with some unusually literate skullduggery making it a modest but memorable drama of trust and betrayal.

This could have been so much better. The story had great potential, the three leads are all fine actors (and all do decent jobs here), and the cinematography and period features are faultless. Sadly, the heavy melodrama detracts from what was meant to be the poignancy of the situation, and the music is oppressive and at times just ridiculous (particularly in the church scene, which plays like something out of a horror film). Interesting in that many of the same faults attend "House of Sand and Fog" from about fifteen years later, in which Ben Kingsley plays a similar role.

Beautifully acted, wonderfully realized, full of sensual details & the sort of behavioral, moral, political, historical nuances you'll never ever find in american films. Gorgeous to view & review again & again.

There's nothing wrong with this film. Everything in it works. The story, one of frustration experienced by the principle character, the one and only Sir Ben Kingsley in the title role, playing a rather inept informant in an incompetent political system, the Ottoman Empire, in the days before the "Great War," WW1, is solid and poignant. The presence of supporting actors like Charles Dance and Helen Mirren, both great Brit actors round off a delightful movie that is worth seeing again and again.

As schoolchildren we hear the terms World War "I" and "II" -- and then spend the rest of our lives learning why it was called WORLD war. The story is set in the Aegean on the eve of World War I when so many nations lusted to flash their sabers and sound their canons. Ben Kingsley brilliantly plays "Pascali," a bottom-ranking spy for the Ottoman Empire that, after reigning for 900 years, is about to be annihilated by the war. The name "Pascali" is a reference to Judeo-Christian symbols of the paschal lamb, passover, and so forth, and the story incorporates the encounter between Muslim Turkey and the Greek Orthodox Church. Pascali longs for the attention of expatriate Lydia (Helen Mirren) who, being an Austrian, represents the impending war's crushing of the Austro-Hungarian Empire as well. Into the lazy sun drenched intrigue of Pacali's Greek island steps one Antony Bowles (a most poished Charles Dance). A failed archeologist turned world-traveling swindler-sophisticate, Bowles, in classic Anglic fashion, plays the Turks and Germans against one another. (The only thing missing, in terms of dynasties the "Great War" destroyed, is a reference to the Romanovs! But then, actress Helen Mirren is of Russian descent...hmmm.) Even the Americans are involved as distantly glimpsed (for they would not enter the war until 1917) arms merchants. Lest this all seem like a pretentious amount of historical intricacy, "Pacali's Island" is a modest set piece about a handful of people whose gods have deserted them or never heard their plaintive worshipping in the first place. The blinding glare of the Greek Islands is artistically wrapped like bleached gauze around a mood of sweat-and-ouzo-soaked melancholy. Mature, intelligent, and sensitive, this one requires the viewer to be wide awake. View it perhaps on a Sunday morning while the coffee is fresh. Take from it the line (that means nothing out of the movie's context)"The error of their ways." Quality film making!