JEFFERSON In Paris (Monday, Pearl, 9.30 pm) is a bit like the handover: lots of meticulous preparation, plenty of spectacular stuff to look at but as soon as it starts, you can't wait for it to finish. Set 10 years after he drafted the Declaration of Independence, the film is about Thomas Jefferson's visit to Paris as America's first ambassador to the court of Louis XVI. There he saw the decadence that led to the French Revolution and, according to this James Ivory movie, fell in love - twice.
The movie's central theme is standard Ivory period-piece 'conflict between heart and head' stuff. But Ivory's direction is too sluggish. Jefferson's internal struggle and the hypocrisy of the time are not really explored. And Nick Nolte's (left) portrayal of the great man, like Ivory's direction, is just too stiff.
The media swarms descending on Hong Kong for the handover probably long for a character like Jefferson to throw them a soundbite or three. He knew as much about turning a phrase as he did about running a former British colony. That said, Emperor Pu Yi would probably pull more crowds than Jefferson at a pre-handover press frenzy. While Jefferson knew about the effects of British colonialism, Pu Yi knew probably more than anyone about the tragic effects of foreign interference on China.
Bernardo Bertolucci tells his story in The Last Emperor (both Monday and Tuesday nights, Pearl, 9.30 pm). The last of China's Manchu rulers, he was crowned at the age of three, forced to abdicate at six when China became a republic, and from then until his expulsion to Japan was a prisoner in the 9,999 rooms of the Forbidden City.
This spectacular film won nine Academy Awards and it's easy to understand why. It's visually stunning; much of it was actually shot inside the Forbidden City. And John Lone (left), as the sad and lost puppet emperor who drifts mournfully from being ruler of half the world's population to an at-odds gardener in the PRC is, at times, superb.
Marlon Brando is always superb. If they ever make the Hollywood version of Hong Kong's handover, he should get the lead role as Chief Executive - supported by Steve Martin as the last British Governor and Madonna as Anson Chan. Tung Chee-hwa is the new master of this house; Brando has for a long time been the master of the movie house.