Reviews of films, books and CDs that deserve a second look

FILM

THE TRIAL
Director: Orson Welles
Image Entertainment
Theatrical Release Date: January 1, 1963
DVD Release Date: March 7, 2000

The brilliant Czech writer Franz Kafka was obsessed with totalitarianism (for obvious reasons) and the misuse of power. The equally brilliant — and equally abused and slandered — Orson Welles shared these obsessions, as well as Kafka's fascination with the nature of illusion. In this remarkable film, Anthony Perkins delivers what may well be his best performance, aside from Hitchcock's Psycho, and is joined by a cast laden with 60s female icons — Jeanne Moreau, Elsa Martinelli and Romy Schneider.

The film begins with a Welles voice-over (ponderous ê la "we will sell no wine before its time) which, despite its heavy-handedness, manages to create a haunting foreshadow of what's to come, thanks to artwork by pioneer pinscreen animators Claire Parker and Alexandre Alexeieff. The acting overall is superb, but best of all is the masterful filming throughout — look for the paranoia Welles weaves with endless faceless labyrinths, gigantic looming figures who wield enigmatic power (including Welles himself as the hapless Perkins' attorney) and numbingly bland and vaguely threatening architecture.

Like Dostoevsky, Kafka creates a world where the protagonist labours under an unmistakable if undefined guilt — he suspects he's done something but can't for the life of him figure out what it is. As with virtually every Orson Welles movie, this is an occasionally maligned masterpiece which belongs in every serious film buff's collection.
— Madeleine Partous

BOOK

BAUDOLINO
Umberto Eco
Harcourt, 2002 $17.85

Umberto Eco likes to play with your mind. Those who've read Foucault's Pendulum and The Name of the Rose already admire him for his pseudo-historical/intellectual approach to writing. This romantic tale of the fourth Crusades, his 14th novel, won't disappoint. The real challenge will be trying to grasp all the twists in the tale — and to believe them. The problem is our hero, Baudolino, is a chronic liar.

The book is a recollection of the life of an Italian shepherd boy. Along the way he meets up with Emperor Frederick Barbarosa who supports him and loves him like one of his own sons. From the point of view of their relationship, we get to appreciate the conflicts inside an empire and the facile way decisions are sometimes made. Naturally love interests pervade the book and Baudolino ends up falling in love with the Emperor's young wife. Knowing that the author is a prevaricator doesn't prevent it from feeling realistic, especially considering the youth of the boy and the wife.

His real love will be discovered in the second half when he embarks on his own odyssey with his band of disciples to find the people of the priest king Prestor John and falls in love with Hypatia, the Alexandrian neo-Platonist philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer. The ending feels rushed, as though Mr Eco was in a hurry to conclude what cannot be concluded. After all, fairy tales have no ending.

Another oddity of this book are the ten study questions at the end. An example: How does the green honey relate to the novel's core struggle between illusion and reality? Theses have been defended on less.
— Dr Marcus Martin

POP

PURPLE RAIN
Prince & The Revolution
Warner Music, 1984

Anyone who lived through the 80s can't help but be familiar with His Purple Highness, His Royal Badness, the artist once again known as Prince. The eclectic and eccentric songsmith redefined music during the 'decade of excess' with his own brand of funk, rock, soul, and pop-fusion. The album that gave him international fame was Purple Rain. The album was the soundtrack to Prince's feature film debut of the same name, now a cult classic. The film's slick, stylized look and the appeal of its sexy star had young women swooning in the aisles, but it was the album that was really a huge commercial success. It spent 24 weeks at number one and sold 10 million copies. What is it that made this record so pivotal? One just needs to a listen to tunes like "When Doves Cry" or "Let's Go Crazy" to understand that Prince captured the 80s with his own brand of musical excess —matching his fashion statements of skin-tight pants, frilly shirts, and high-heel boots. His songs, although obviously pop, combined a mix of styles and influences; psychedelic undertones and an urban edginess can be heard from track one to nine, along with danceable beats and a wired mood. Prince's influence stays with us today. This year's Grammys proved that when the tiny rocker from Minneapolis pranced around stage with bootylicious Beyoncé Knowles. So, with the 80s back in style it's time to either dust off your vinyl copy of Purple Rain or head out to the local record store to pick up the CD and rediscover this classic.
— Carla Sparks

Calling all doctors! Do you have a classic film, CD or book that you love? Would you be interested in sharing it with your colleagues? If so, why not submit your review to the National Review of Medicine. Send your reviews to [email protected] and we'll send you a gift if we publish it.