....through the MIddle Ages in France.A voice over warns us: this is the story of a boy and a girl.Something had begun (the Hundred Years War):they had not seen the beginning and they would not see the end.Who would anyway? It takes place in France and it was not meant to be realistic;its closest relatives are arguably Bergman's "the seventh seal" (1957) and Marcel Carné's "les Visiteurs du soir"(1942) .The three works are fables ,the MIddle-Age being an alibi- ,and the three of them feature a stunning ending:the dance macabre in the Bergman's work,the hearts still beating in stone in Carné's and the "return to the sea" in this one.
Many of the permanent features of the great director emerge in "Walk": the odd pair (Assaf Dayan is childlike ,naive and chivalrous whereas Huston -who was only eighteen- seems a mature woman who still believes in a society which would survive till 1789! those who fight,those who pray and those who work),the absurdity of any quest (what's good going to Paris?the heroine says.What's good escaping again?),the presence of death (which predates Huston's last film -the Dead- by fifteen years;and A.Huston is in that film too),the stranglehold religion had on the minds and on the souls .
The 1965-1975 years were a period of barren inspiration for Huston,they say,but it did provide at least two masterworks :the underrated overlooked "Reflection in a golden eye" which is looked upon as a classic in France and which was very faithful to McCullers' novel and the grandiose "Man who would be king" ."A walk with Love and Death " is second only to these ,being more original than "fat city" and beating hands down the harmless "sinful Davy" and the muddled "Kremlin letter" and "Mackintosh Man" .
Beautiful luminous cinematography.
Many of the permanent features of the great director emerge in "Walk": the odd pair (Assaf Dayan is childlike ,naive and chivalrous whereas Huston -who was only eighteen- seems a mature woman who still believes in a society which would survive till 1789! those who fight,those who pray and those who work),the absurdity of any quest (what's good going to Paris?the heroine says.What's good escaping again?),the presence of death (which predates Huston's last film -the Dead- by fifteen years;and A.Huston is in that film too),the stranglehold religion had on the minds and on the souls .
The 1965-1975 years were a period of barren inspiration for Huston,they say,but it did provide at least two masterworks :the underrated overlooked "Reflection in a golden eye" which is looked upon as a classic in France and which was very faithful to McCullers' novel and the grandiose "Man who would be king" ."A walk with Love and Death " is second only to these ,being more original than "fat city" and beating hands down the harmless "sinful Davy" and the muddled "Kremlin letter" and "Mackintosh Man" .
Beautiful luminous cinematography.