Disgrace
He is what he calls himself, a monster.
In a landmark performance, Oscar nominee John Malkovich (In the Line of Fire, 1993) stars as Professor David Lurie, whose world is shattered when he is fired for seducing a college student. He finds peace at his estranged daughter's modest farm in South Africa until a horrific incident of terror and violence forces Lurie to confront his beliefs and the disturbing racial complexities of the new South Africa. Based on the Booker Prize-winning novel, Disgrace stands out as a gritty, gripping drama of brutality, survival and hope.
Member Reviews
Très bon - Patdess
J'ai bien aimé ce film. Il nous porte à réfléchir sur la nature humaine. John Malkovich est tout simplement fameux dans son rôle d'un homme tourmenté pas ses pulsions. La culpabilité, le remord et les prises de conscience sont omniprésentes dans ce film. Les paysages d'Afrique sont magnifiques, à couper le souffle. On voit aussi les difficultés que peut vivre un blanc de rester là-bas.Haunting film - quotagirl
This is one good film to watch if you want to to see the horrors of day-to-day life in South Africa. The movie starts off slowly, depicting the selfish acts of an educated man who is middle-aged and realizing that his life is winding down. Moving to the country to live with his daughter, he finds a quieter way of living, but discovers the division between black and white is still strong and raw. Time has stood still here, and justice does not exist. TIA (meaning This Is Africa) just says it all. I loved and hated this movie at the same time, so I believe that it was very well done. The scenery is breathtaking.Hardly disgraceful, but definitely confused. - cryptosicko
Laboriously bleak and therefore 'meaningful', Steve Jacobs' adaptation of J.M. Coetzee's acclaimed novel suffers, much like the similarly ponderous literary adaptation The Reader, from issues of plausibility when it comes to character motivation. In this case, we are asked to accept that the character of Malkovich's daughter would willingly choose to keep living in a place where she is subject to frequent threats of rape and terror (including the murder of her pet dogs) as a result of some personal stance that actually, of course, represents some larger allegorical point about racism and exploitation in post-Apartheid South Africa. Problem is that, for as much symbolic sense as this makes (or would make, were the film clearer about its murky allegory), it makes zero personal sense. As with The Reader the lack of insight that (I assume) the novels provided renders these characters unfathomable and downright unsympathetic. Worse yet, the film attempts to draw a questionable and possibly offensive parallel between the abuses inflicted upon Malkovich’s daughter and an inappropriate, but hardly criminal, affair that Malkovich’s college professor has with a student. It goes without saying that Malkovich is terrific here, but he’s lost in a deeply confused film.
Member Reviews
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Très bon - Patdess
J'ai bien aimé ce film. Il nous porte à réfléchir sur la nature humaine. John Malkovich est tout simplement fameux dans son rôle d'un homme tourmenté pas ses pulsions. La culpabilité, le remord et les prises de conscience sont omniprésentes dans ce film. ...Haunting film - quotagirl
This is one good film to watch if you want to to see the horrors of day-to-day life in South Africa. The movie starts off slowly, depicting the selfish acts of an educated man who is middle-aged and realizing that his life is winding down. Moving to the country ...Hardly disgraceful, but definitely confused. - cryptosicko
Laboriously bleak and therefore 'meaningful', Steve Jacobs' adaptation of J.M. Coetzee's acclaimed novel suffers, much like the similarly ponderous literary adaptation The Reader, from issues of plausibility when it comes to character motivation. In this case, ...