Wasn’t planning on posting this now, but an historic moment has arrived: my first blog post while airborne, thanks the the good people at Google and Virgin America. Too bad the movie sucks.
Two from Robert Benton, two days in a row, starting with the more recent of the two: Feast of Love. A weird film; one would expect something quite a bit more substantial and not so stacked with sophistry from an experienced director and pretty solid cast. Morgan Freeman is basically “God” again, offering the hollow voiceover about the Greek gods and how they invented love, what a mess it turned out to be, etc., etc. Could be argued that the camera work is trying to mimic the way in which Greek gods might observe us silly human lovers: constantly moving in and out, side to side, giving that transient quality to everything it sees. Life occurs, then rinses itself off, then repeats. The movement isn’t as fluid as an Altman or as jagged as a Cuarón; seems overall noncommittal, confused. The film professes to profess wisdom, and thanks to Freeman it might well get away with it for gullible audiences. The actors, the clichés, and the nudity factor are likely to keep plenty interested in this truly uninteresting film. Hard to value something for pointing out facts that a day in the real world with an ounce of common sense makes quite obvious. Sounds like the definition of “pretentious”.
Precious Bodily Fluids 
The film seems to make heroes out of Sandro and Claudia while never rising above the sentimentality of a Hallmark film.
That’s fascinating. Would have never thought to compare (contrast) this one with L’Avventura. You’re so right, though. Whereas Antonioni has the sense to see the “feast” as a sickness or malaise, Benton raises it to the level of a beautiful sine qua non.