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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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time
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100289
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10028900.038
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1990-09-18
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CINEMA, Page 90Pigstruck
QUEEN OF HEARTS
Directed by Jon Amiel
Screenplay by Tony Grisoni
Hollywood wants to paint an anecdote on a $40 million canvas.
The Brits, in their strapped-for-quid, post-David Lean days, toil
to see how many angels can dance on the head of a penny. For
perhaps a tenth of Black Rain's budget, Queen of Hearts lays out
a beguiling panorama of romance and revenge, coming of age and
coming to terms. Oh, and the niftiest talking pig since Porky.
In the cloistered Italian village of San Gimignano, bold Rosa
(Anita Zagaria) is engaged to a town big shot but loves Danilo
Lucca (Joseph Long). In a suicidal swoon, the lovers leap from the
cathedral tower -- and land, in a flick of Tony Grisoni's supple
narrative, in London's Italian quarter. Ten-year-old Eddie Lucca
(Ian Hawkes) tells the story with a child's wily innocence as
filtered through the memory of a wistful adult.
Jon Amiel has catered this sort of phantasmagoric feast before;
he directed Dennis Potter's magnificent TV serial The Singing
Detective. Once or twice Amiel is hobbled by the conflicting
demands of a sprawling vision and a thin wallet. The movie starts
out of breath and keeps on running. But that's O.K.; in fact, for
a couple of hours it's criminally enjoyable. Who would have thought
that you could transport three roiling generations of Italians and
get Moonstruck in Britain?