Best known for the Mad Max series of post-apocalyptic action movies, which began in 1979 (the fourth installment, Mad Max: Fury Roadwas released in 2015), George Miller has displayed a healthy eclecticism for several decades.
Posted at 11:30 a.m.
Of the Witches of Eastwick up to animated feature films Happy Feet 1 and 2 passing by the famous pig Babethe Australian filmmaker is now bringing to the screen a project he has been pursuing for twenty years: the adaptation of the short story The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye (The jinn in the nightingale’s eye), by AS Byatt, published in 1994. Obviously having good resources, Miller offers us, as the title indicates, a kind of revisited tale for adults from the Thousand and one Night, transposed into the modern world. The bet is ambitious, but the result nevertheless leaves a little perplexed.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY ENTRACT FILMS.
Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba are the headliners of Three Thousand Years of Longing (Three thousand years waiting for you), a film directed by George Miller.
Tilda Swinton plays Alithea, a woman specializing in stories related to different mythologies, often drawn from the fertile imagination of storytellers from ancient civilizations. Invited as a lecturer in Istanbul, the scholar brings back to her luxury hotel room a small bottle bought in a bazaar, which, she will discover without too much amazement, contains the purple smoke of a transforming entity. in engineering (Idris Elba). The latter apparently couldn’t have come at a better time, but it appears that the one to whom he has the duty to fulfill three desires in exchange for his freedom is not such a good client after all. Knowing perfectly well that this kind of story rarely ends well, Alithea remains skeptical. And does not show any particular desire.
It lacks a little feeling…
The story is then based on the description that the genius makes to his new mistress of the three previous episodes where, during the last 3000 years, his conquest of freedom ended in failure. Miller thus reproduces these three different periods of history, with a fairly rich visual touch, but the whole is mainly made up of dialogue exchanges between the two protagonists inside the hotel room. The communion between these two beings alone is essentially intellectual.
So it is more difficult to subscribe to the last act, where we then try to direct the story towards an exacerbated romanticism. But it’s a bit too late.
Tilda Swinton is obviously perfect in her role, Idris Elba as well, but it seems that, given the more cerebral aspect that George Miller initially favored in this story, the fire was more difficult to light when feelings begin to arise.
To be honest, it lacks a bit of feeling.
However, we salute this desire to offer an original perspective on a tale that has already been the subject of multiple variations, especially since we can clearly sense the filmmaker’s concern to honor different cultures, in particular through the use of languages. The first common language shared by Alithea and the genie is… ancient Greek!
Not as busted as recent Everything Everywhere All at Oncewhich it sometimes brings to mind, Three Thousand Years of Longing (Three thousand years waiting for you in French version) is nevertheless one of those films where the narration touches several universes at the same time. Lovers of tales and ancient mythology will be seduced; the others, perhaps not so much.
fantasy drama
Three Thousand Years of Longing (VF Three thousand years waiting for you)
george miller
With Tilda Swinton, Idris Elba, Pia Thunderbolt
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