Lasse Hallström
102 connections found
Filmography
Chocolat 2000 
What's Eating Gilbert Grape 1993 
A Dog's Purpose 2017 
Casanova 2005 
Safe Haven 2013 
The Hoax 2006 
The Shipping News 2001 
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen 2012 
Dear John 2010 
The Cider House Rules 1999 
An Unfinished Life 2005 
The Nutcracker and the Four Realms 2018 
The Hundred-Foot Journey 2014 
My Life as a Dog 1985 
Hachi: A Dog's Tale 2009 
Something to Talk About 1995 
Once Around 1991 View:
Connections, in both directions
Take Footloose and Like Water for Chocolate , steep the combo in a heaping helping of corn syrup, and you’ll come out with the sticky, sickly-sweet romantic cautionary tale Chocolat.
"Chocolat" is a subdued food-for-the-soul picture on the order of "Like Water for Chocolate" (1992), with a dash of Johnny Depp's effortless charisma added to the recipe.
Though Chocolat presents its title treats as "sinfully scrumptious" -- the same sort of passionate treats as Big Night and Like Water For Chocolate -- Hallstrom never quite conveys the right amount of desire.
Variations on the theme have found their way into a broad assortment of popular films, from "The Sound of Music" and "The Piano" to the Oscar-winning "Antonia's Line" to such classics as "Like Water for Chocolate" and "Babette's Feast," in which the forbidden fruit of the flesh is given a gastronomical dimension.
But these performances are simply not enough to deliver the movie to the level of "Like Water for Chocolate," "Babette's Feast" and other great movies about the magical connection between the gastronomic and the romantic or spiritual.
For it's also the name given to Joan Fontaine as Bob Hope's love interest in the 1950s spoof, Casanova's Big Night.
In the 1954 comedy "Casanova's Big Night," she is courted by Pippi Poplino ( Bob Hope ), a Casanova impersonator who puts on a mask and tries to seduce her.
"Casanova" is pure fluff -- it's "Dangerous Liaisons" or "Tom Jones" with nearly every trace of seriousness scrubbed away -- and director Lasse Hallstrom doesn't try to build it up into anything of significance.
Hallström, in fact, seems to have gone even farther back for his inspiration: Tony Richardson�s 1963 Tom Jones.
Leaning a little extra heavily on the Shakespeare in Love button, Lasse Hallstrom's Casanova is a slight, silly, and entirely frothy little confection ... but I'd be lying if I said I didn't find some really entertaining stuff littered throughout its weirdness.
In that sense -- and many others -- the movie recalls the playful, knockabout verve of Richard Lester's 1970s "Three Musketeers" romps -- or, more recently, the 1998 Oscar winner "Shakespeare in Love," without the soaring glories of the latter's Oscar-winning script.
Basically it's just a big, childish farce--more American Pie than Shakespeare in Love.
Comparisons to “Shakespeare in Love” are inevitable, and while it isn’t better than that, it’s not exactly trying to be, regardless of the myriad of similar themes.
Such obstacles are predictably mined for sub-Shakespearean (or, rather, sub-Shakespeare in Love) identity flip-flops in which Francesca's covert career as a writer of women's lib literature is matched by Casanova's masquerading as Papprizzio (at a masquerade ball, no less).
But those going into Safe Haven expecting The Notebook redux will come out of it terribly disappointed as it quickly degenerates into a Sleeping With The Enemy rip-off and is undone by a convoluted story, contrived characters and a lot of shameless manipulation on the part of the filmmakers.
The set-up's ridiculous (and done much better in Sleeping with the Enemy starring Julia Roberts ) and the characters are of the one-dimensional variety taken to an extreme level.
Though never far from resembling 1991's "Sleeping with the Enemy" and the Stephen King tome "Rose Madder," "Safe Haven" isn't satisfied to exist solely as a well-lit, idyllically-set love story, but further involves by adding mystery, thriller, and other surprising genre elements into the mix.
If you’ve seen the Julia Roberts thriller “Sleeping With the Enemy,” you can add another checkmark to the list of familiar ingredients in this potboiler.
The 1991 film Sleeping with the Enemy featured Julia Roberts as Laura Burney, a nice young woman trying to restart her life after escaping an abusive and controlling husband.
The movie, opening in theaters Thursday, plays like a sanitized remake of "Sleeping with the Enemy," right down to an over-the-top climax set during a fireworks display.
"Chocolat" toddles along pleasantly enough, though the best things are fleeting -- like Hallström's homage to Albert Lamorisse's classic children's short "The Red Balloon" or a whimsical glimpse of Anouk's imaginary playmate.
"Chocolat," an appealing comic fable aimed at those with a bittersweet tooth, is a gourmet treat in the tradition of the more nutritious "Babette's Feast."
Variations on the theme have found their way into a broad assortment of popular films, from "The Sound of Music" and "The Piano" to the Oscar-winning "Antonia's Line" to such classics as "Like Water for Chocolate" and "Babette's Feast," in which the forbidden fruit of the flesh is given a gastronomical dimension.
(December 22, 2000) -- Babette's Feast taught filmgoers that a great meal is heavenly.
But these performances are simply not enough to deliver the movie to the level of "Like Water for Chocolate," "Babette's Feast" and other great movies about the magical connection between the gastronomic and the romantic or spiritual.
Alice in Wonderland (2010)
Directed by Tim Burton
influenced The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (2018)
Plot Characters
What I’m sure was meant to be a fantastical adaptation of Marius Petipa’s classic ballet descends quickly into standard action/fantasy fare with the final product feeling like a clone of Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland , or more correctly it’s underwhelming sequel, and it’s all the more disappointing given that the opening moments of the film promise something quite whimsical.
He offers more than that and sends Clara on a journey – ala “Alice in Wonderland” (1951) and “The Wizard of Oz” (1939) – to The Four Realms, which begins in the Christmas Tree Forest.
Screenwriter Ashleigh Powell has crafted a story that is as rudimentary as they come, casually lifting ideas and scenarios from everything including C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicle of Narnia series, Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland , Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Victor Herbert’s 1903 operetta Babes in Toyland .
It’s my favorite wacky performance in a family movie since Helena Bonham Carter and her large CGI head in the Tim Burton rendition of Alice in Wonderland .
Rather than going into too much detail (which doesn’t deserve our attention), it’s sufficient to say that this movie is a pointless retelling of Alice in Wonderland .
However, rookie screenwriter Ashleigh Powell’s adaptation of both the E.T.A. Hoffmann short story and the Tchaikovsky ballet doesn’t do either of them justice, turning into an Alice in Wonderland -style adventure of self-discovery overloaded with oddball quirks and Rube Goldberg gadgetry.
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)
Directed by Andrew Adamson
influenced The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (2018)
Visuals Themes Plot
Even when Clara stares in wonder at the Realms for the first time, it's reminiscent of a similar scene in “The Chronicles of Narnia” that was done far better.
The whole experience is all over the place; I’d estimate that the 100-minute runtime was about 25 minutes boring exposition, 45 minutes of decent Narnia / Hugo -esque fantasy adventure, 10 minutes of ethereal dancing, and 20 minutes of pure nightmare fuel.
It’s a hodgepodge, a beloved holiday musical based on a musty book from 1816; a shoehorned ballet performance; fantasy elements that feel drawn from a variety of other sources, including The Chronicles of Narnia , The Wizard of Oz , Alice in Wonderland and Babes in Toyland .
Loosely based on the story “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” by E.T.A. Hoffmann and incorporating more than a dash of C.S. Lewis’ “Narnia” tales, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms seeks to fashion a fantasy-based fairy tale for modern audiences.
Instead, she’s chewed up and spit out by the film’s generic fantasy-adventure plot, which includes elements of the Harry Potter series, The Chronicles Of Narnia , and Alice In Wonderland and involves a war between the four realms that only Clara can solve.
For adults who’ve already seen The Chronicles of Narnia movies or Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland , however, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms feels more like a re-gifted Christmas present.
Local Hero (1983)
Directed by Bill Forsyth
influenced Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2012)
Characters Themes Plot
Waked's character is more like a mystic-but-not-overtly religious ("faith" is mentioned; "Allah" is not) riff on, say, Burt Lancaster 's dreamer in " Local Hero ," even with the addition of local anti-Western forces dead set against the salmon project.
As adapted from the Paul Torday novel by Oscar winning screenwriter Simon Beaufoy ("The Full Monty," "Slumdog Millionaire"), this one plays like "Local Hero" crossed with a less profane "In the Loop."
If you like this, try: “Chocolat” and “Local Hero” and the novel by Paul Torday…
Clearly, we’re meant to be back in the (literal) fish-out-of-water territory of “Local Hero,” or “The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain.”
If you've seen "Marley and Me," "My Dog Skip" or "Old Yeller," you know the obligatory farewell pooch scene must come at some point.
“Old Yeller” was a piker compared to Lasse Hallstrom’s adaptation of W. Bruce Cameron’s popular book.
While not quite a dog, "A Dog's Purpose" fails to achieve the goal of a classic like "Old Yeller".
Unlike Marley & Me or Old Yeller , the latter of which is the far superior motion picture even if both tend to get mentioned in the same sentence, the dog at the center of all this fantastical melodrama doesn’t meet its end in some climactic way designed to resolve the story and tug at the heartstrings.
If you enjoyed the endings of "Marley and Me" and "Old Yeller," it may be comforting to know that "A Dog's Purpose" repeats the experience multiple times.
For anyone who didn’t see Ratatouille, there are helpful reminders that "food is memories."
A recurring motif in the movie is the idea of tradition and memories living on through cuisine — the entire film could be based on that scene in “Ratatouille” where Anton Ego tries the ratatouille.
The clunky Parisian sequences disturb the heretofore graceful flow of the piece (a guest appearance by Ratatouille's Remy might have helped), but all is not lost.
Like the food-centric films "Babette's Feast," "Big Night" and even "Ratatouille," the food in "Journey" plays a starring role, but the beauty and romance is in the spirit of the creative process than the consumption.
If we learned anything from food-centric crowd-pleasers like Ratatouille or Chocolat, it’s that unexpected challengers will eventually bend uncompromising traditions and satisfy their opponents’ deepest indulgences.
Granted, such flicks do show up from time to time, such as this summer's "Chef," while other years have offered up the likes of "Ratatouille," "Julie and Julia," "Like Water for Chocolate" and "No Reservations."
The Art of Racing in the Rain (2019)
Directed by Simon Curtis
influenced by A Dog's Purpose (2017)
Themes Plot
A race car flavored companion to the reincarnating puppies of A Dog’s Purpose (2017) and A Dog’s Journey (2019), if you will.
Director Simon Curtis’ decade-in-the-making “The Art of Racing in the Rain” is a simple-minded yet skillfully manipulative answer to that question — featuring the bare-feet-in-loose-gravel voice of Kevin Costner as Enzo, the canine companion to Seattle-based race car driver Denny Swift (Milo Ventimiglia) — that’s not as peppy as “A Dog’s Purpose” nor as droll as “Isle of Dogs,” and nowhere near as inane as “Look Who’s Talking Now” but still effective on its own dog-forsaken terms.
Advertised as being “from the studio that brought you Marley & Me,” The Art of Racing in the Rain is such a story told from the perspective of a wizened old pooch, but this one originates from a bestselling novel by Garth Stein, not one written by W. Bruce Cameron, the mastermind behind the recent slate of dreadfully insulting “inspirational doggo” pictures A Dog’s Purpose, A Dog’s Way Home, and A Dog’s Journey, all of which are reprehensible, and two of which came out this year alone.
Mark Bomback’s script, based on the novel by Garth Stein, takes the structure of Marley and Me, which follows the life of a family during the lifetime of their dog, and infuses it with the voice-over that’s supposed to represent the pooch’s inner monologue, à la recent sleeper hits like A Dog’s Purpose and A Dog’s Journey.
Screenwriter Mark Bomback, like W. Bruce Cameron (whose books and movies include A Dog's Purpose ), tells the story from Enzo's point of view, which should not be a bad thing.
And yet, The Art of Racing in the Rain is the third in a recent string of films (alongside A Dog’s Purpose , its sequel A Dog’s Journey , and the unrelated A Dog’s Way Home ) to grace the canine kind with a little more scholarly insight.
He's playing, to paraphrase Elizabeth Taylor in ''Butterfield 8," the slut of all time -- or at least of 18th-century Europe.
The Inquisition has targeted Casanova for his nonconformist libertinism, but it�s really using him as a patsy to get at his city state�s independence, a situation very similar to that in Ken Russell�s Fellini-esque The Devils.
Culminating in a Fourth of July parade and a life-or-death struggle amidst fireworks over the harbor, "Safe Haven" comes close to mirroring 1997's " I Know What You Did Last Summer " of all things.
But rather than present a more realistic side of life and love, Sparks, who still dresses his stories in the same saccharine garments as the more conventional tales they resemble, has elevated a reclusive genre that can only be dubbed “tragedy porn,” popularized by such films as Love Story, Terms of Endearment and Beaches—a perverted simile every bit as unrealistic and twice as cruel.
So you know a murderous stalker will eventually arrive, in honor of Robert Mitchum in "Cape Fear."
A Dog’s Purpose, based on the novel by W. Bruce Cameron, combines the philosophical belief that living beings are reborn into a different physical body after biological death with the voiceover narrative technique of Look Who’s Talking.
The narrative doesn’t limit its blatant manipulation to canine lovers, as the Josh Gad ( Beauty and the Beast )-voiced, Look Who’s Talking -esque dispatches of the chief hound’s simplistic existential-leaning thoughts stress, in case the plot developments themselves didn’t make that plain.
The Adventures of Milo and Otis (1986)
Directed by Masanori Hata
influenced A Dog's Purpose (2017)
Themes
Thus is announced both the theme of A Dog’s Purpose , and the tone of the script, which veers between Deepak Chopra and The Adventures of Milo and Otis .