[Atlasphere] Vadim Perelman?s ?House of Sand and Fog?

[O-Land News Junkie]

Last week I watched the DVD of Atlas Shrugged movie director Vadim Perelman’s House of Sand and Fog.

Since he’s going to be the proverbial “god” of the new Atlas Shrugged movie, I figured it would be worth witnessing his previous cinematic work first-hand.

This is a dark movie, no question about it. I can easily imagine some Ayn Rand fans liking the movie, and others actively disliking it.

The writing, acting, and directing are excellent — but it would be hard, and an act of questionable integrity, to squeeze a feel-good movie out of such a tragic novel.

So instead you’re left with a gorgeously filmed and produced adaptation of a sad and disturbing story.

Personally I would recommend the movie highly — but only to someone with a fair tolerance for psychologically dark films.

If you do rent the DVD, I highly recommend watching it again, a second time, with the “commentary” feature turned on.

I’m not normally a big fan of watching the commentary for a movie — but, in this case, it was very well done and I found my appreciation for the movie deepening even more.

The commentary is by Perelman, Kingsley, and the author of the original book — who was positively beaming about Perelman’s adaptation, for whatever that’s worth.

...And it’s probably worth a lot, because it speaks to Perelman’s ability to remain true to a novelist’s vision, while still making a credible and compelling screen adaptation of his work.

I hope to write a fuller review of this movie for the Atlasphere one week soon.

http://www.theatlasphere.com/metablog/688.php