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Under the Volcano (1984) Plus avec IMDbPro »

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25 utilisateurs sur 30 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
When Albert Finney is good, he's very, very good., 5 mars 1999
Auteur : Doctor_Bombay de Lucas Buck, NC

This is one of those movies that is always in the discount pile, "Any Rental--99cents'. You find it at garage sales and the like, although I never know why. Perhaps it's the atrocious artwork. Seems a lot of video store patrons base their entire rental decisions on the cover art-I've never heard so many uninformed and ludicrous remarks as have been made in the `User Comments' column for the movie `What Happened Was'-a very smart adult drama. Seems the provocative pose of star Karen Sillas on the cover suggested some sort of couples-therapy Skinamax special. Ooh the disappointment of it all.

Anyway, Under the Volcano is also a very smart adult drama. To begin with, Albert Finney's Oscar nominated performance (he did garner an LA Film Critics award), is superb (1985 was the year Amadeus swept). As the terminally alcoholic Geoffrey Fermin, Finney plays quite a different sort of beast than those played famously by Ray Milland (Lost Weekend), Jack Lemmon (Days of Wine and Roses), and Nick Cage (Leaving Las Vegas).

Fermin is adrift in his alcoholism-an educated man, an English Consul, no less, whose losing battle with booze has cost him his job (Consul to Mexico), and his wife. He is at that stage when the bottle is his last and only compadre as it may. He has succumbed to it, long before this drama begins. His resignation is complete, any pretense of normalcy is only a whisper. He is waiting for it to take his life.

Under John Huston's direction, Under the Volcano is basically a one-man show. In support, as Fermin's wife Yvonne, Jacqueline Bisset gives for me the strongest performance of her career.

Highly recommend, but don't expect to come away with sunshine on your shoulders.

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21 utilisateurs sur 26 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
One Hell of a Shocking Finale, 8 avril 2003

Auteur : nbott de Washington DC

It is the finale of this film that redeems any possible weakness of the story one may entertain in one's mind as one views this film. The ending is so overwhelming, I had to watch it again at once. I then rewatched parts of the film just to luxuriate in the brilliant acting of Albert Finney. This is truly a masterpiece. There have been some criticisms of Ms. Bisset's acting etc, but this is small potatoes compared to the sheer genius of this story and its' realization. The music in the opening credits sets the tone and immediately draws you into the film. You know something profound will happen in the film and to you as you watch this film. Highly Recommended.

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17 utilisateurs sur 23 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
fantastic portrayal of alcoholic depression, 17 avril 2005

Auteur : Raegan Butcher de Raincity, Pacific Northwest

I saw this film several times in the late 1980's and always thought that Albert Finney's performance was great but now, watching it all these years later in the very city in which it was set and shot I am convinced that Finney's performance is one of the greatest depictions of alcoholism EVER! Only Nicolas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas has done as well of a job of capturing the emotionalism and physical mannerisms of a drunk. I haven't read the novel (yet) but I think John Huston (no stranger to the effects of massive alcohol consumption himself) was probably the right choice to direct this tale of an alcoholic British consul drinking himself senseless in Mexico on the eve of WW2. Anyone interested in top-notch acting should see this film. Albert Finney was nominated for an Oscar, and in my opinion, he should have won! BRAVO, Mr Finney!

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12 utilisateurs sur 14 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
The real deal, 31 mars 2006

Auteur : ekw ekw de Etats-Unis

*** Ce commentaire peut contenir des spoilers ***

This film is to Leaving Las Vegas as The Howling is to Little Red Riding Hood. Under The Volcano is the most grindingly real portrayal of the true devastation of alcoholism ever put on film (I've seen them all from Lost Weekend forward). This is no romantic movie where a guy decides he will go to Vegas and drink himself to death in 6 weeks then meets a devastatingly gorgeous chick who takes care of him the rest of the way. In this film the real horrors of alcohol are convincingly portrayed as the main character loses all track of reality and cannot tell whether his wife is really her or a hallucination. And because of that intermittent fading out and in, he loses the one chance he might have had at redemption. There is no romance here. There is no fabulous girl to have sex with while he's dying. This guy lives in a world so much more terrifying than Nic Cage's world in LLV as to be about two entirely different human experiences.

Not everyone will be able to stand this. It's almost unremittingly awful. But for anyone who is an alcoholic, recovering or otherwise, or who has lived under its shadow as someone related to or in love with an alcoholic, this is textbook stuff. Malcolm Lowery was an alcoholic and died of the disease. He put all he had into this book. No punches are pulled. The benchmark of the genre.

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16 utilisateurs sur 23 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
It does something, 16 janvier 1999

Auteur : Ard Michielsen (miranard@westbrabant.net) de Etten-Leur, The Netherlands

An ex-colleague of mine once recommended this movie to me. When it was released in the cinemas he watched it several times, and he said that if i really was a movie freak, this was something i had to see. So, when a few weeks ago this movie was shown on TV in The Netherlands, i did. When i watched it i didn't know where the story was going, but when it ended and a week after it, it didn't get out of my head. After that week when i was doubting about it was a good or an average movie i ended up with the idea that it really is something special. Albert Finney is really great in this picture as an alcoholic (better than Nicolas Cage in "Leaving Las Vegas") and i totally agree with my ex-colleague that he is one of his favourite actors. It is not a movie for the masses, but when you are a movie-fanatic it is a must.

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7 utilisateurs sur 7 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
a man's alcoholic descent into hell over one day's time turns out as superlative film-making and acting, 28 décembre 2007

Auteur : MisterWhiplash de Etats-Unis

Under the Volcano could have made as just another 'Lost Weekend' film if not for the attention to a simple narrative (though one that has a lot underneath the surface), and a performance to compellingly take us through the unbalanced emotional state of its protagonist. From what I've read about what the novel became by this adaptation, Huston took out the big poetic bits that made it such an unclassifiable (and as many claimed unadaptable) work and made it into a tale of a man's downfall from grace and good times. The story is as such: Geoffrey Firmin (Finney) is a recently retired consul in Mexico who has that big, admirable personality that comes with those who have lived- or boasted to live- quite a life, and have taken now to mass consumptions of alcohol. It's not even about the enjoyment of it, but a compulsion for 'balance' to drink just to get sober, as it might be. He's also divorced, recently, but his wife (Bisset) comes to him again, wanting once more to patch things up.

This is set in the backdrop of the 'Day of the Dead' festival, and on the brink of world war 2, but these things are, however brilliantly and as a kind of delicate lining around, a backdrop for the emotional and mental and, it should be noted, spiritual struggle of Firmin. Huston never preaches about this man's rotting addiction, and there's no easy sympathy either. We see his emotional state rock from happy and hopeful to the pits of despair following the bullfight his half-brother Hugh (Andrews) takes part in, where he can't basically grasp his own reality anymore. Underneath this surface of the film though, where we're given this proud, unstable character, there's chaos riling about, attached in a way to the mood around, with rumored Nazi collaborators in the midst of things, a near-murdered body on the side of the road, the matter-of-fact metaphors of the symbols of death that (as Huston makes in one of the most Gothic openings to a movie I've ever seen) opens the film with marionette skeletons to an eerie Alex North score.

But lest to say that all credit should go to Huston for his storytelling. It's an interesting film for the first three quarters, though in a way feels like it has to be building for something; here and there, even as we're with these character wandering in a state of mind of disarray (will Firmin and Yvonne stay together, split apart, who will run away are the basic questions, as well as how Andrews might have something to do with it on either side), it starts to feel like it could become meandering. In that last quarter, however, Huston lays on a feeling of dread, maybe not entirely with coincidence, that hasn't been seen since Treasure of the Sierra Madre- something bad just HAS to happen, and it will come out through the worst devils of the protagonist's nature. There is that for Huston, the power of that brothel sequence, the terror and even the dark humor.

The best reason above all else, even as it's one of Huston's most challenging films, is that Finney is so terrific in the role. It's a startling work of an actor taking down his guard, making himself vulnerable and naked, so to speak, to the discord booze has brought to his mind. He gets depth to a guy that should be just another Hemingway figure, of the sorrow that really lies in every little moment and gesture and inflection. It also goes without saying he's one of the top three or four convincing drinkers in modern film. And at the same time it's not easy to peg what he'll do next as an actor, which step he might cross or double-back on. While his co-stars are very good in their parts, he dares to overshadow them with a tour-de-force. Under the Volcano pits its character into hell, and Huston brings us, without going overboard with stylistic flourishes, right along with him.

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8 utilisateurs sur 9 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
One man's ruin, 30 mars 2006

Auteur : larrybb de Etats-Unis

Albert Finney's performance of alcoholism is shattering and spot on. This movie should be required as adjunctive therapy in the field of alcoholism recovery. The feeling of hopelessness that permeates this movie makes it an experience the viewer should be advised about.

This movie packs a punch and Finney's performance is as exact and nuanced as is possible. His posture, his mental states, emotions, facial expressions, use of language, clothing, physicality are completely consistent with those of an alcoholic in an advanced stage of the disease.

Although it's a one-man movie, the other main players act exactly as real people do when dealing with alcoholics and portray the emotions and feelings that surround alcoholic situations.

This movie is definitely not a walk in the park.

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10 utilisateurs sur 13 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
A strong adaptation of an extremely complex novel., 10 juin 1999
Auteur : Sdrawde de Toronto

Under The Volcano was originally a complex novel written by real-life alcoholic Malcolm Lowry. Film director John Huston also had a passing acquaintanceship with the bottle and a sensibility for grasping the dark, mystical side of Mexican culture. This all adds up to potent cinematic symbolic imagery underlining terrific performances from Finney, Bissett and Andrews. 8 stars

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6 utilisateurs sur 6 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
One of Huston's best, 13 février 2008

Auteur : jcorelis de Etats-Unis

A very fine film indeed, and fascinating from a number of viewpoints: for one of the truly great characterization performances ever filmed, by Albert Finney, for its grim, unromanticized, portrayal of extreme alcoholism, for a career-defining performance by Jacquilene Bisset (she often looked this beautiful but she never looked so good,) for the stunningly effective portrayal of its Mexican setting, for memorably excellent supporting roles by a collection of grotesques that could have taught Fellini a thing or two, for the way Huston transforms the material into another episode in his obsessive theme of men from cold countries going too far in hot ones, and, in its last twenty minutes, for what has to be absolutely the sleaziest bar/brothel ever put on the screen. Highly recommended so long as you understand that what "happens" in this film is that you're given an embarrassingly intimate vision of people destroying themselves and each other. Definitely not for children, or for anyone who wants to come away from it with renewed optimism about the possibility for human happiness.

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2 utilisateurs sur 2 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
A Magical Mexico Tourof Tragic Fatalism, 2 octobre 2008

Auteur : ennyman de Minnesota, Etats-Unis

*** Ce commentaire peut contenir des spoilers ***

"The novel explores the Consul's past and present, relates his private doom to the tragic fatalism of the Mexican scene…" ~ Stephen Spender Under the Volcano was a novel written by critically acclaimed Malcolm Lowry. The book eventually became a film starring Albert Finney and Jacqueline Bisset, directed by critically acclaimed John Huston. Both the film and the book failed to reach a wider public despite the brash, braying praise of critics.

Like Lowry, I lived in Mexico for a time, from fall 1980 till late 1981. During that time we traveled to a number of places including two trips to Cuernavaca. I loved Cuernavaca, the city where this story primarily occurs, the Land of Eternal Springtime where Cortez established his winter palace. Like Lowry and the tragic hero of his novel I, too, was present in Tepotzlan on a holy day when the dark-faced peasants in loose white clothes and wide hats brought out Christ and the Virgin from the shadows of monasteries, parading, holding high large displays and brightly colored pillars, burned incense, celebrating intently the blended religion of the peoples.

This story covers 24 hours in the life of an alcoholic, his last 24 hours, with his singular preoccupation on where he will get his next drink, simultaneously immersing the reader into his internal despondency, hopeless self-wreckage, introspection and hallucination. It is a tragic life culminating in a tragic end, perhaps intended to be the mirror of a forlorn culture shrouded in apparitions of death.

I originally took an interest in the book because I'd read that it was supposedly structured like the Cabala, the chapters being a series of steps toward enlightenment. My first effort to read it in the late 80's left me flat, however, and I placed it back on the shelf for a couple years. I was not convinced that the effort would yield a sufficient reward. The second attempt ended about a fourth of the way through with the same frustration. A couple more years past, and upon beginning the story I was transported inward to the heart of the characters, the culture, and the bleak futility of the hero's quest.

John Huston took this very complicated bundle of soiled images and attempted to iron it out into its essential story. The film, inadequate to the task, did capture the book's essence. There is no way it could capture the spinning surrealistic writing, compelling inner monologues, and painfulness of Lowry's heartfelt bloodletting.

Malcolm Lowry wrote the first draft in Mexico while living in Cuernavaca in 1938. Director Huston does an outstanding job of giving the feel of Mexico during this time frame. And the film brings to life many vivid memories of our time there… Despite its shortcomings, I found myself still moved by the film. This is the second time I've watched it and this time I enjoyed the performances of Finney and Bisset, whom a few here have been especially critical of. Finney is nearly perfect throughout in his portrayal of a wrecked man. Bisset is equal to the task she must perform, confused, frightened, compassionate, pained.

There are two scenes especially perfect. The one of Finney as Geoffrey Firmin searching desperately for a bottle, a search that leads him into the garden where he immerses himself in the object of his quest. This scene is a summing up of the man's lost life. And the last scene revealing that his own self-destruction hurts more than himself... hurts all who are around him.

The weakness of the film for me was perhaps the feeling that it was put together by a nostalgic older director who could have done more with the music, the camera work, the edits. Great films often grab you from the opening images, credits and soundtrack. Despite what a few have written here, I found myself having to overlook what I considered a weak appetizer that insufficiently lured me into the depths of our hero's heart, mind, soul, struggle.

Huston could have done more with the film, but did not. Perhaps it is because of the era. He did not feel it necessary? I can't say. The grandeur of his foreign setting is hollow. I cannot blame the actors for this. Finney was remarkable throughout, almost over the top. Bisset's broken heart shone through with clarity.

It's a good film based on a rich, but difficult, book. If it is too depressing or too convoluted and enigmatic, you're under no obligation to finish either.

If you find yourself stimulated by old Mexico, the companion documentary based on this film is wholly worthwhile. Watch the film first, though.

"Time is a fake healer anyhow. How can anyone presume to tell me about you? You cannot know the sadness of my life…. Alas, what has happened to the love and understanding we once had?" ~ Geoffrey Firmin, Under the Volcano

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