Illuminata (1998)

The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

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.

It's partly bad luck for "Illuminata" that it comes out after "Shakespeare in Love" as it deals with virtually the same themes of life as art, art as life and the Magic of the Theatre and the same archetypal Foibles of Theater Folk, but a whole lot more ponderously.There are scenes that come alive, as a play develops and gets reinterpreted by a writer's life, but there's a whole lot of Orson Welles-ish ego in this produced by/directed by/lead acted by John Torturro as a vehicle for his wife Katharine Borowitz (with an adorable cameo by their son).Each actor gets his/her moment literally in the spotlight, but there's so many "masques" or set pieces that seem like 19th century parlor games. Bill Irwin Talks. Susan Sarandon gets to be a diva. Christopher Walken gets to be a different kind of villain - a gay critic. The women have to disrobe unnecessarily because this is an Art Film.The art and set direction are marvelous, though quite dark. This should get an award as the Best Use of a Jersey City Theater as A Set Ever In a Movie. (originally written 8/21/99)

While I'm normally a big fan of John Turturro's work as an actor and director, ILLUMINATA is a great disappointment. Although the film has some charming moments, overall it falls flat. Worst of all, the film is confusing. Where is the movie set? Italy or an Italian troupe in New York? Why bother making a historical film if it fails to convey a setting? If you want to see a well-made, inspiring historical film also about theater, go see Tim Robbins' THE CRADLE WILL ROCK. This movie has many pluses, including a fine performance by John Turturro.

'Illuminata' has expanded the limits of John Turturro's mediocrity from second rate actor to third rate director, writer and producer. This film was dreadful. It is disjointed and flits from scene to scene with little flow or meaning relevant to the main story line.We are served with a smorgasbord of fragmented scenes, each a non sequitur to all the others. The only thread that seems to run through them is that they occur in the lives of the members of the same theatre repertory company. The few scenes that do matter to the plot are so convoluted that you frequently can't tell if the dialogue is from the story or the actors running their lines for the play within the story. If this story were a person it would be a schizophrenic with mulitple personality disorder. It couldn't decide if it was a drama, a romance, a comedy, a tragedy, a sex farce, or a parody of theatre. It came closest to being bearable as a sex farce. Turturro was lifeless and impassive as Tuccio, supposedly a complex and passionate writer whose play gets its big chance when the currently running show needs to be cancelled due to the illness of the lead actor. Susan Sarandon gave a good performance as the aging actress trying to seduce Tuccio for a role. Unfortunately, she found it necessary to go topless which only goes to illustrate that the hardware of aging sex symbols is much better left to the imagination. Christoher Walkin gave a delightful performance as the uppity theatre critic who makes impassioned overtures to a member of the cast. Beverly D'Angelo and Ben Gazzara also had minor roles.I gave this film a 2. Other than Walken's vignette, there is really not much to recommend it except that the puppets used in the opening and closing credits were phenomenally lifelike and beautiful. Avoid this movie like the plague that it is.