Last night I saw The Adjustment Bureau, which, until the point it cracks like an egg and goes all sappy, was a kind of silly but at least somewhat entertaining piece of metaphysical burlesque (although I have no doubt its makers intended it as something rather more serious). Anyway, in the middle of the picture Terence Stamp shows up in the role of a rather formidable über-functionary of the film’s titular organization. And although in the film his character IS given a name, still I thought: “This picture’s actually even better if you decide to interpret Stamp’s character as a literal continuation of the unnamed fellow he played in Pasolini’s Teorema back in the ’60s, that decade that ruined everything.” I daresay that if director George Nolfi had been a true man of vision, he might have interpolated actual scenes from Teorema into his own film, the way Steven Soderbergh threw in shots of young Stamp from Loach’s Poor Cow to contrast with the older and less pleasant WIlson in The Limey. But no. Here my own imagination had to do the work, and I gotta tell you, it made The Adjustment Bureau that much more fun. Try it yourself (only, of course, if you’re conversant with the Pasolini; a friend I mentioned this to after the screening looked at me as if I’d lost my mind before sheepishly admitting that he’d never seen the seminal Pier Paolo film) and let me know if you get similar results.
Theorem
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Juxtaposing the old and young Terence Stamps reminds me of ‘The Limey’. Rights issues notwithstanding, I wish more films could manage that trick of retroactively integrating older footage.
This is a high class Adjustment Bureau de Change! Not some two bit silly but somewhat entertaining piece of metaphysical burlesk!
I. too, had that Teorema dream during Adjustment Bureau, Glenn.
This may also work for his uncredited cameo in Neil Jordan’s THE COMPANY OF WOLVES.
I am proud to say that I am, indeed, conversant with the Pasolini of which you speak.
A Blu-ray of Theorem is apparently in the works from the BFI, according to a mole.…
I guess where he’d written OCEAN’S TWELVE, the Matt Damon connection and the material, I thought Soderbergh WAS a producer on this. I do wonder if he gave him any sage advice for this project. But let’s say the TEOREMA suggestion was proposed to him by someone, he may very well have said, “Yeah, but Soderbergh already did that,” thinking if he had inserted the footage, the criticism probably would’ve been the very same: “Soderbergh did it first… and better.” Having said that, more filmmakers should err on the side of rolling the dice, anyway (to bring it back to OCEAN’S TWELVE – a hey hey!)
You may have hit upon a technique for improving any Terence Stamp film! I’m now declaring that Stamp’s performance in Wall Street (as “Sir Larry Wildman”!) is a continuation of his role in Link (Dr Stephen Phillip) and his role in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (Bernadette) is a continuation of his role in Legal Eagles (Victor Taft).
Stamp’s performance as General Zod in Superman II appears to be modeled on Leone Greene’s performance as General Miles Gloriosus in the same director’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.
BOWFINGER and YES MAN.
Did you give a little slap to the friend that was uneducated on Pasolini’s great little film and follow that up with a screening of said film?
I can’t wait to play this mind game of yours when I see the film this week.
I’m generally of the opinion that splicing footage of Terence Stamp into any film – whether he’s “supposed to be” in it or not – will probably improve the quality of said film.
seeing ur reviews i would like to watch it
regards