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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
GREAT, December 28, 1999
By A Customer
How interesting can it be to film people's responses to loneliness, loss of love and women's liberation? New York filmmaker Henry Jaglom ("New Year's Day," "Eating") has taken the route of doing just that - filming people's responses to those subjects, and the result is one of the most profound, exciting and personal films of the 1980's. Henry Jaglom plays a film director named Danny who is shaken and perplexed by his girlfriend, Helen (remarkably played by Andrea Marcovicci) who wants to be left alone, much to Danny's chagrin, when she sleeps. After she brushes her teeth, Danny has to leave so she can sleep in peace. On that note, Danny flies to Santa Monica to see his brother (Michael Emil) who is in the real estate business, and who deplores Danny's profession insisting it isn't work, it is "play." His brother is co-owner of an antique theater that is about to be demolished after having sold it. Danny gets the creative idea to stage and film his old friends and acquaintances in the theater, and so he makes invitations to all who are lonely on Valentine's Day to attend. A surprising number of people show up including his emotional companion Helen, a singer; Dave Frishberg who plays the piano in a beautiful montage sequence; Sally Kellerman as a distraught, popular movie star who all the men flirt with; Kathryn Harrold as an actress who wants to have a family; Steven Bishop who gets to play the guitar; and even the sage Orson Welles, in his last role, as a film director who delivers profound insights on women's liberation, loneliness and filmmaking. And for avid film buffs, Oja Kodar makes a pleasing guest appearance as a Yugoslavian woman who admires Danny for his truth and honesty (Oja was Welles's longtime collaborator and companion and appeared with him in "F for Fake"). "Someone to Love" is an eye-opening pseudo-documentary of relationships and what it means to have a companion, and the benefits and hazards of being lonely. It is the only film from the 80's to deal honestly, and with startling candor, on such issues. The question of Danny's credibility as a filmmaker is brought up at one point when he films Helen while dancing with her and she gets visibly upset. To quote Michael Powell, is all this filmmaking healthy? Is Danny asking questions that are too personal, or does he really want his brother to mingle and meet people at this offbeat party? Could it be that Danny is the only miserable person at this party? "Someone to Love" has no real ending but it does have a stirring conclusion with Welles smoking a cigar and cracking up as he expounds on what Jaglom may or may not have accomplished in his film. "Your films are very different from mine," says Welles. "You like happy endings because you are a sentimentalist." "Someone to Love" is never sentimental but it is a love letter to all artists (and people) who are miserable, happy or unhappy about life and love, and to those who consider loneliness a virtue. Are women better off without a male companion or a marriage? Are men also plagued by the same questions? These may be questions you ask yourself everyday but rarely are these questions ever explored in a film. "Someone to Love" is a sad, passionate, funny, messy film of great magnitude by a great director. And yes, his films are very different from anyone else's.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Moderately Successful Return To Form For Jaglom, May 19, 1999
"Always" (1985) is Henry Jaglom's masterpiece, and his most commercial and accessible work; "Someone To Love" (1987) represents a return to form for the iconoclastic filmmaker, where Jaglom (playing "Danny," a caricature of himself) invites his real-life, unmarried friends to a party and films conversations at the event in cinema-verite mode. "Danny" asks his friends a series of questions about why they have chosen to spend their lives alone. Guests include lyricist Dave Frishberg, actresses Kathryn Harrold and Ronnee Blakely, and singer/songwriter Stephen Bishop. As Leonard Maltin notes, some of the "actors'" thoughts are interesting, others dull. The film, however, becomes a gem because lengthy commentaries by the late Orson Welles (on the subject of... what else?... relationships) precede and follow the party. From moment to moment, Welles is completely stunning, the views he espouses intriguing and controversial (at one point, Orson raises the question of whether or not slavery is wrong!!!). Moreover, Jaglom frequently splices gorgeous musical interludes (by Frishberg, Bishop, and Andrea Marcovicci) in-between his guests' thoughts. Near the end of the picture, Jaglom (either intentionally or unintentionally) raises the question of whether or not his method of filmmaking entails an invasion of privacy. These elements alone make the picture a must-see.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A final bow for a grand theater and for Orson Welles., February 26, 2005
In the waning days before the demolition of the Mayfair Music Hall in Santa Monica, California, the brilliant and unconventional director, Henry Jaglom, created this unique film featuring the final screen performance of Orson Welles, and utilizing Jaglom's customary methods of actor improvisation coupled with perceptive editing, with the result being a moving tour de force of romantic sensibility. A gathering of single entertainment types meets by Jaglom's invitation at the theater on Valentine's Day, sharing perceptions of relationship success and failure as the director's powerful sense of angst rises to the surface with the camera being his investigative companion. Acting honors shall go to Sally Kellerman, whose performance explores most deeply of all her self-awareness of vulnerability and emotional need, and to Andrea Marcovicci, who plays a part as Jaglom's current love, and who sings beautifully as well, and as always. Jaglom's output has been remarkable because of his steadfast determination to create genuinely independent cinema and SOMEONE TO LOVE is a prime example of his talent for showcasing a personal point of view in such a manner that it touches upon the universal.
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