Food of Love

Rating:
Summary: Ambitious Cosmopolitans' Sex Comedy
Review: "Food of Love" is a very fine film of sexual politics set in the cosmopolitan world of the classical music concert business.

Paul Porterfield (played by Kevin Bishop) is a talented 18-year-old piano student from the San Francisco Bay Area who wants to make it in the concert world. He takes lessons and wants to go to Juilliard in Manhattan. The film begins with Paul getting to be a page-turner at a concert being performed by his touring hero, Richard Kennington (played by Paul Rhys). At the event, Paul also meets Kennington's manager, Joseph Mansourian (played by Allan Corduner). Both Mansourian and Kennington take notice of Paul.

Shortly Paul and his divorcing mother, Pamela (played by Juliet Stevenson), vacation in beautiful Barcelona. Paul finds an ad for a recent Kennington performance and tracks down the pianist. Paul and Kennington get along extra well. A chance incident lets Pamela, Paul, and Kennington be buddies in Barcelona, touring about.

Six months later, Paul attends Juilliard. Paul has a gay roommate from back home, Teddy (played by Naim Thomas), and a wealthy boyfriend, Alden Haynes (played by Carlos Castanon). It turns out Mansourian lives in the same building as Haynes, and impressario Mansourian still has his attractions. The problems are that Kennington and Mansourian have a long-term relationship and that piano teacher Mme. Novotna (played by Geraldine McEwan) is starting to have doubts about Paul's talent. When Pamela starts getting clues that something is up, she decides to take drastic action, and the cat-fight begins.

It is a pleasure to watch such good acting in the service of a literate script. All of the main characters find themselves in false positions and try to spin their ways out of it. Each has to decide what is really important to him or her. The character who actually grows the most is the mother, Pamela, who starts out oblivious to anything other than her routine self and her son's initial dream, and who has to cope with a number of shocks without messing matters up for good. On display from many characters is an ability and desire to overlook others' untidiness, no matter what the initial bluster might suggest.

Kevin Bishop does a fine job of balancing his projected motivations. With his character in repeated high-stress situations, one cannot be sure whether Paul is a victim of others, a gold-digger, or a weak-willed, go-with-the-flow guy. He is certainly an aggressive flatterer of successful pianists. There is some room for interpretation.

There are substantial skin scenes with Paul and with Kennington, not necessarily together. All is tasteful.

The exterior scenes in Barcelona were especially beautiful. I wish there had been a special feature telling the audience about these shots.

The DVD has excellent special features. There is an interview with director Ventura Pons, coupled with behind-the-scenes shots. The main actors (Stevenson, Rhys, Corduner, Bishop, and McEwan) provide five terrific interviews, especially when they discuss the characters they played. A third feature is an interview with David Leavitt, the author of "The Page Turner", on which the movie is based. He discusses his feelings about the relationship between the book and the movie and about the current state of art by and about gay people. Finally there are trailers for "Food of Love" and for five other films. These were useful features, well done.

Finding fault, one might debate whether Paul would leave the clues he did for his mother to find. I have a memory that the screen version of the movie had a bit of subplot for Juilliard roommate Teddy that does not appear on the DVD. Lastly, I found the fonts used in the chapter listings and in the special features difficult to read.

Still a "Food of Love" good movie that shows sensitivity to a variety of characters going through crises and trying to get along and to move up to the next stage of life.

Rating:
Summary: Worthwhile screen treatment of "The Page Turner"
Review: "Food of Love" is primarily a coming-of-age story about a 18 year old aspiring pianist, concerned about his professional aspirations as well as his repressed homosexuality. It is also a very compelling story about relationships and the conflicts they can cause, including the relationships (1) between the boy, Paul (Kevin Bishop), and his mother (who is recently separated from his father, and becoming a bit codependent on the son), (2) between Paul and his idol, Richard Kennington (Paul Rhys), a 39-ish famous concert pianist who also becomes Paul's first lover, and (3) Kennington's longtime relationship with his older lover/agent/mentor Joseph (Allan Corduner).

The story begins in San Francisco, where Paul had been recommended by his piano teacher for the honor of serving as the "page turner" during one of Kennington's concerts. Both Kennington and Joseph separately express their admiration of the adorable young man, but Mother whisks him away after the performance. Shortly thereafter, Paul and his mother go on vacation to Barcelona (Spain), and Paul finds that Kennington is there as well, tracking him down to his hotel room, where they have sex for the first time. Their affair develops further in Spain, but Kennington ends it. Fast forward six months to New York City, where Paul is going to Juliard and having an affair with another older man, who happens to live in the same building as Joseph (and Kennington, when he is not on tour). Joseph renews his interest in Paul, and Paul tolerates the attention to a point for possible professional assistance. Subsequent scenes shift to CA, where Paul returns home for Christmas, his mother discovers he is gay (Tsk ... bringing home gay magazines in your luggage? What were you thinking??), and also puts together what had happened between him and Kennington, but assumes it is still happening. When Paul becomes uncommunitive and talks about quiting Juliard, his mother makes a trip to see him in NYC. Uh-oh!

I'll admit I did not read David Leavitt's "The Page Turner", the novel from which this screenplay was adapted, so I can't tell you where it deviates from the book. However, the DVD "extras" include an interview with Leavitt, who states that the screenplay essentially tells the same story, with a few minor changes.

I thought the film was excellent, especially that the director managed to make a somewhat predictable story so interesting, as well as having gotten great performances out of the (mostly English) actors, especially Juliet Stevenson as the mother. Talented Kevin Bishop (as Paul) has some rear nude scenes (rated "R"), though the sex scenes with Kennington are rather tasteful and somewhat romantic, though clearly showing the basic conflicts in their relationship and individual needs. The situations portrayed (including the mother going to a PFLAG-like meeting once she found the gay magazines, unsure if she should risk admitting she "snooped" and found them) were quite realistic, and the production quality was excellent considering the limited budget. I was also surprised to learn (in the DVD extras) that the "California" scenes were actually filmed in a small town in Spain, a further testament to the director's magic.

Rating:
Summary: A Snack More Than A Meal
Review: "Food Of Love" marks the debut of Ventura Pons first English language film and is based on the novel, "The Page Turner" by David Leavitt. As the film began I thought to myself, "This is going to be one of the best gay films I've seen in recent memory", and although I really enjoyed it, what began as a really good coming of age love story, midway through it took a completely different direction and became an after school special, centered around a mother dealing with her son's homosexuality. Having not read the book I can't say how it compares, but as a movie, it left me hungry for more. All the performances are great although the mother (Juliet Stevenson) at times seemed too over the top and almost cartoonish. Kevin Bishop who plays Paul, is a cute, blue-eyed, blonde that showed a wide range of emotions throughout the film, from his first sexual encounter, to his disappointments with school, and frustrations with his mom, and so forth. Paul Rhys also gives a wonderful performance and appears sensitive, intimate and charming towards towards the boy and his mom.

It begins in San Francisco as 18 year old Paul Portfield (Kevin Bishop), an aspiring piano player and soon to be Juliard student, gets a job as a page turner for his idol Richard Kennington (Paul Rhys), a renowned concert pianist. During the concert as Paul reaches to turn the pages as Richard plays feverishly, you get the beginning glimpses of the sexual sparks between them. After the concert, Richard invites Paul out for a drink only to be interrupted and taken home by his overprotective and at times manic mother (Juliet Stevenson).

After finding out his dad has left his mother for another woman, Paul and his mom venture off to Spain on vacation. While wandering the streets Paul spots a concert poster featuring Richard and he sets out to find him. Paul tracks him down and drops by his hotel room where he's soon seduced by the pianist in an intimate and gentle way. Paul becomes totally infatuated with Richard and after a week long fling Paul and his mom are off to Granada while Richard, unbeknownst to Paul, returns home to New York and his manager/lover Joseph Mansourian (Allan Corduner). Months go by and Paul is now attending Juliard, seeing an older man, and trying to get over Richard. It's a rollercoaster of a ride especially when a classmate of Paul's gets signed by Mansourian while Mansourian wants Paul to be a page turner yet again at a dinner party. In the midst off all this Paul's mom is trying to cope with divorce and, after finding a porn magazine in Paul's suitcase, her son's homosexuality. This is where the story takes a turn that was not completely satisfying. The mother attends a "mom's with gay sons" meeting and it just seemed totally misplaced and campy. Also, while attending school Paul seems to always be in the company of older men. I considered maybe that was his way of looking to a father figure or something but why wasn't he going out with guys his own age? His roommate looked cute enough. Also the portrayal of the older guys seemed to suggest they preyed on younger men. Those are just a couple of the issues I had with the story and I was a bit disappointed that it didn't stay focused on his relationship with Richard.

Events unfold and secrets are revealed, but many questions are still left unanswered at the end. Overall I would recommend it but still wish the story had centered more around Paul and his relationships than that of his mother and her issues. I'd love to see a sequel that's for sure! The acting is fine and the locales and direction I thought were great. There are a number of scenes with brief nudity and homoerotic touches that give this picture an "R" rating. The picture quality of the DVD is crisp and clear and so is the audio. It also features extras that include interviews with the cast members, the director Ventura Pons and even David Leavitt, author of the novel. Numerous trailers of other features from TLA Releasing as well.

Rating:
Summary: A great and touching movie, excellent in all areas.
Review: .This is a moving and well-made film about a young music student (Kevin Bishop) coming to terms with his sexuality, and his coming of age amid the world of professional music. Juliet Stevenson is brilliant as the boy's mother, who experiences an awakening of her own. It was filmed entirely in Barcelona with British actors, though most of the characters are American and the story takes place primarily in the US. A top-notch cast and production, augmented by an excellent musical score of classical music. This is a movie of subtle nuances and inevitable truths, and is not to be missed.

Rating:
Summary: A Beautiful Love Story
Review: All I can say to really sum up how I feel about this movie is: AMAZING. Being a fan of Kevin Bishop's (Paul Porterfield) is what motivated me to see this movie. And it was definitely worth it. The movie is based on a book called "The Page Turner", by David Leavitt, and beautifully tells the story of an 18 year old, Julliard bound Californian (Paul Porterfield) and his passionate feelings for a famous pianist named Richard Kennington (actor Paul Rhys). The acting was quite phenomenal, and Kevin Bishop kept things realistic. This is a movie most anyone can enjoy; it is simply a story of love and longing. I like to watch this movie over and over again; the emotions are projected so well on all of the actors' parts, and the story really touches my heart.

Rating:
Summary: Of all of David Leavitt's stories to chose for a film.......
Review: David Leavitt is a fine writer and his novels sell well around the world. One, The Lost Language of Cranes, was made into a successful film some years back, but FOOD OF LOVE ( the title comes form the line "If Music be the food of love, play on....") was a slim novel (The Page Turner) and the resulting film adaptation is even more slim. If you love Barcelona, then this is a beautifully filmed travelogue. The story has problems: an 18 year old aspiring pianist is asked to turn pages for a famous middle aged gay pianist and falls in lust and love and begins an affair in Barcelona where Paul (the tennager) and his mother (who has just been discarded by her husband ) are visiting. Richard (the famous pianist) has an agent/lover back home in New York, a secret kept from young Paul. When Richard finaly realizes he must return to the US, Paul feels deserted and eventually returns to the US with a confused, frustrated mother and moves to New York to attend Julliard. Paul quickly finds another older lover, rooms with a young student who (oddly enough) is also gay and is the son of the women his father deserted his mother for! (I'm not making this up...), and has a brief affair with Richard's agent/lover. Mother, spurned by Richard in an aborted attempt to seduce him, gradually discovers that her son and Richard have had an affair, attends a Self Help class for mothers of gay sons (hosted by her exhusband's new wife!), and travels to New York to confront her son about his past AND his present. This hyperkinetic mother actually is the one character in the film with whom we can identify - the others are just too off the wall. The cast is capable, given the material, and the film is well photographed with some nice classical music tossed in for effect. Not a bad movie, this, just a disappointment that Leavitt let his thin book THE PAGE TURNER become a film before some of his other fine stories saw cinematic life.

Rating:
Summary: Freudian Dream Come True
Review: Food of Love is difficult to sum up in a few words. It is intimate and earnest, but never lives up to its promise. I wanted so much to like this film, but it has so many flaws it's hard to know where to begin in listing them.

The story seems simple enough: boy meets pianist, falls in love, gets dumped. But add in a few other ingredients -- like the boy's hyper neurotic mother also falling for the pianist; the pianist having a lover (his manager) who also sleeps with the boy; the boy having a lover while he's sleeping with the manager -- and you have a real Freudian stew. What holds this fractious story together is secrecy: nobody tells anybody anything about anyone else. Why state a simple truth when a deception will do?

Another problem is that all the leads are British actors playing Americans as seen through the eyes of a Spanish director, which goes a long way in explaining the stilted characterizations. There certainly should have been a classical music consultant to at least tell the actors how to properly pronounce the names of composers and pieces, not to mention how to place a piano in a recital situation. The script is oddly stiff in general, which is surprising since it comes from an American novel. Some of the dialogue is so arcane that it cannot be understood it after repeated viewings.

The nicest thing about the movie is semi-hunky Kevin Bishop who plays the boy, Paul. He is adorably preppy, has a lovely body, and truly startling grey-blue eyes with which he gazes at Richard (tall, ghoulish Paul Rhys as the turning-forty pianist). It's hard to understand why Richard abandons this beautiful boy without a word of explanation, until you remember the mother's ghastly flirtation.

The locations and the music are magnificent but the disc itself has problems: the dialogue is ever-so-slightly out of sync; the sound is over-loud at some points, and inaudible in others. But the film brilliantly captures the classical music demi-monde of New York -- the elegant Central Park West apartments, the predatory older men who run the business, the exclusive hierarchy which devours young artists who want to compete but cannot due to inexperience or inaptitude for the game -- with its thinly veiled artistic Darwinism.

Still, having said all that, I like this movie! Probably only deserves three stars but got an extra, with thanks, for the Three B's: (beautiful Kevin) Bishop, Barcelona, and Brahms.

Rating:
Summary: Food of Love DVD Review
Review: I caught part of this film on pay-per-view and was so intrigued I ended up buying the DVD. It is a very complex coming-of-age story about a young pianist, Paul Porterfield (Kevin Bishop), who falls in love with his idol and mentor.

Certainly NOT a typical gay-themed film filled with quirky, offbeat sidekicks. What a relief!

Shot entirely in Spain, which stands in for San Francisco and New York, the first half of the film is very visual. Some of the stilted dialogue can be attributed to the all-European cast and their "American" accents.

The DVD transfer is a little grainy, but it is in letterbox format. Some great interviews with the cast and director are included as extras on the DVD.

Rating:
Summary: Food of Love DVD Review
Review: I caught part of this film on pay-per-view and was so intrigued I ended up buying the DVD. It is a very complex coming-of-age story about a young pianist, Paul Porterfield (Kevin Bishop), who falls in love with his idol and mentor.

Certainly NOT a typical gay-themed film filled with quirky, offbeat sidekicks. What a relief!

Shot entirely in Spain, which stands in for San Francisco and New York, the first half of the film is very visual. Some of the stilted dialogue can be attributed to the all-European cast and their "American" accents.

The DVD transfer is a little grainy, but it is in letterbox format. Some great interviews with the cast and director are included as extras on the DVD.

Rating:
Summary: freudian muddle
Review: I wanted so much to like this film, and I do, but it has so many flaws it's hard to know where to begin in listing them.

Boy (Paul, played by beautiful Kevin Bishop)meets pianist, falls in love, gets dumped. The story seems simple enough. But add a few extra ingredients -- the boy's neurotic mother (Juliet Stevenson) also falling for the pianist, the pianist having a lover/manager who also seduces the boy, the boy having a lover while he's sleeping with the manager -- and you have a real Freudian muddle. You will NOT believe who ends up in bed together in the last scene.

What keeps these noxious characters going, and handsome 18-year-old Paul confused, is secrecy: nobody but the boy tells the truth about anything. Why state a simple truth when a confusing deception will do? Paul might then make a decision in his own interest, after all. His own honesty makes him their easy mark.

All the leads are British actors playing Americans as seen through the eyes of a Spanish director, which may explain certain stilted characterizations. The smaller roles are played by Spanish actors who seem to have learned their lines phonetically. A classical music consultant might have told the actors how to properly pronounce the names of composers and pieces. The script is surprisingly stiff since it comes from an American novel. In fact, much of the dialogue comes straight out of David Leavitt's novel, but the unfortunate deletion of certain connecting lines render the remaining lines senseless or silly.

The nicest thing about the movie is exquisite Kevin Bishop who plays the boy, Paul. He has a sweet acting style, lovely body, and truly astonishing blue eyes. Barcelona is exotic, the music is splendid, and the original score is perfect, but the disc itself has a few problems: the dialogue is slightly out of sync and the dialogue is overly loud at some points (due, in great part, to Juliet Stevenson's histrionics) while nearly inaudible in others.

Food of Love brilliantly captures the classical music demi-monde of New York -- with its elegant Central Park West apartments, and predatory older men who run the business -- an exclusive hierarchy which devours young artists like Paul, who want to compete but cannot due to inexperience or inaptitude for the game. A thin 'civilized' veneer covers this self-serving artistic Darwinism.