Softwing Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Dorathen Better Late Then Never

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Frances Chung Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

blanche-2 Illuminata is not to everyone's taste, though it's a beautiful film to look at with a terrific cast who do a great job. It has a rather loose construction, as it concerns the on-stage and offstage antics of actors, as well as a writer, a theater owner, and a critic. The stars are John Turturro, who directed it, Katherine Borowitz, Susan Sarandon, Beverly D'Angelo, Rufus Sewell, Aida Turturro, Christopher Walken, Ben Gazzara, and Bill Irwin.Illuminata takes place in the early part of the century. The film begins with Tuccio (Turturro) and Borowitz (Rachel) rehearsing - though at first it's not clear that they are - and that really sets up the rest of the film. These people are in love and act in love on and off stage all the time, and often, you're not really sure if they're saying lines or are being sincere. "I act all the time," Celimine (Sarandon) says. "I act when I ask for more bread at a restaurant, I act when I tell my mother I love her." That's part of the fun. The actors invest their lives with the same histrionics, passion, and illusion/delusion that they do their stage roles. When Sarandon sees a young actress, she says, "See, that's the way I will look in about ten years. I'm getting to the point where I can play ingénues." She was about 50 at the time.Illuminata is set at the turn of the century. Tuccio is rehearsing his new play, Illuminata, at a theater owned by Astergourd (D'Angelo), but she hasn't committed to putting it on yet. Tonight it's the play version of Cavalleria Rusticana. One of the lead actors, Dominique (Sewell) has been relegated to just being a presence on stage, and he's very unhappy about it. Earlier we see Marta (Aida Turturro) practicing her scream. The critic, Bevelaqua (Walken) has come to see it. When the Turridu collapses, Tuccio announces that his play will be presented the next evening.The actors jump in and out of bed and go through one crisis or seduction or rejection after another. All the characters are vividly portrayed, but Christopher Walken as the outrageous critic Bevelaqua stands out. He goes through a list of all the kinds of plays he hates - I don't think he missed one kind.Truly glorious looking (and you can't go wrong looking at Rufus Sewell) with some lovely prose and a mood fitting for the time period and the type of play Illuminata is. But as I say, it's not for everyone.

johnclark-1 Just saw this on TV. As a lifelong professional actor, and therefore of "the other world" (the other other world is everybody else, the "private people"), I want to say how it seemed to me to be made for actors only. Full of wondrous insights, dealing with the shallowness of actors, and their ever present self-concern that maybe where real life is concerned, they just don't "get it", but want to. (Hence our "method" approach to the craft.)For me it has everything that I've never seen before in films that purport to be about the theatre, but in actuality pander to the ignorance of Private People about things of the theatre, and lie. These guys really don't care about that, but would rather stick to the truth. Yes, it's a huge "in" joke. Like the no-no of breaking up on stage, and destroying the fourth wall, not supposed to do that, it upsets the audience.This exploration of that unreal world will always stand for me to be definitive. If you're one of the outsiders, don't bother, you won't understand. If this sounds elitist, it's not meant to be. Put it down to an actor's insecurity. But enjoy it for its beauty if you wish, don't look for more.

Roland E. Zwick "Write what you know about" has long been the dictum for writers ranging all the way from accomplished published authors to struggling composition class students; is there a playwright then who can resist the temptation to compose a play about composing a play? It has, of course, been done countless times in the past ("Shakespeare in Love" being but the most recent popular example), but, alas, rarely as dully as in "Illuminata," Brandon Cole's tale of a turn-of-the-century repertory company struggling, amid personal conflicts, theatrical roadblocks and even death, to produce an original work (itself entitled "Illuminata"). Cole, along with co-writer and director, John Turturro, centers his story on the playwright, Tuccio, (also played by Turturro), as he copes with temperamental actors, theatre owners and critics, all of whom conspire, intentionally or unintentionally, to sabotage his work.Like so many films that attempt to deal seriously with the creative process, "Illuminata" seems naively to suggest that inspiration can only be achieved after the creator has undergone a series of concomitant life experiences that somehow illuminate the truths hitherto obscured in darkness. Thus, since, in this case, the play-within-the-play deals with the issue of marital infidelity, it is only after the entire cast and crew of the production have participated in a night long sexual roundelay (which consists essentially of switching partners in a style too cute for words) that the play (which failed in its first performance the night before) can come to complete artistic fruition. This cloying and cliched view of theatre as merely a reflection of life (or vice versa) might have been acceptable had the script provided any truly interesting characters, profound insights or satiric wit to carry us through. As it is, though, the characters are both unappealing and woefully underdeveloped, the insights consist of mere self-indulgent paeans to the glory of artistic creation and the humor rests mainly in a series of surprisingly crude illustrations of sexual activity. Furthermore, Turturro is such a dull, uninspiring lead, with his constant sadsack expression and look of pained bewilderment, that he conveys no sense of the dynamism essential to a person capable of producing a work of genius. This leaves the rest of the cast, some of whom are very good, pretty much adrift as they thrash about looking for something solid in the way of character development to hold onto.Actually, the highlight of this film comes during the opening credit sequence, a beautifully done marionette performance that is almost heartbreaking in its otherworldly beauty and delicacy. It is a measure of the failure of the rest of the film that the audience wishes IT were performed by marionettes as well.

beptep Does Turturro want to say something about theatre? Does he want to say something about love? Does he want to make a brilliant film like Woody Allen? Does he want to do all of these things? Probably. But he fails abysmally! The film is the most self-indulgent, pretentious piece of you-know-what I have ever sat through. The DVD version features a director's commentary. This one thinks will provide some glimmer as to what he thought he was doing. But no! Turturro and his young son chatter on in the most inane, inept, and ineffective babble ever recorded. Turturro should open a pizza parlor and leave film to artists. Who ever annoys me most this year will get this film for Christmas.