January 11, 2008
Pénélope Cruz in film adaptation of Roth novella
Here at Jewish Literary Review, we don’t often have an excuse to put up a picture of Pénélope Cruz. But today happens to be the rare exception.
Ms. Cruz stars in a new film adaptation of the 2001 Philip Roth novella, “The Dying Animal.” The movie, directed by Isabel Coixet, is called “Elegy” and it was recently added to the line-up for next month’s Berlin Film Festival.
In the film, Cruz plays the beautiful young Consuela Castillo, a Cuban-born student who becomes the love interest of David Kepesh, a 62-year-old literature professor played by Ben Kingsley.
On second thought, it might be a stretch to call her a ‘love’ interest. It’s more of a lust interest. And, to followers of Mr. Roth’s work, this spring-fall sexual tension will be nothing new. Here’s the plot summary from Wikipedia:
Kepesh is fascinated by the appearance of the beautiful young Consuela Castillo, a student in one of his courses. An erotic liaison is formed between the two; Kepesh becomes obsessively enamoured of his lover’s breasts, a fetish developed in the previous novels. Despite his fevered devotion to Consuela, the sexually promiscuous professor maintains a concurrent affair with a previous lover, now divorced. He is also reluctant to expose himself to the scrutiny or ridicule that might follow from an introduction to Consuela’s family. It is implied that he fears such a meeting would expose the implausible age gap in their relationship. Ultimately, Kepesh limits their relationship to the physical instead of embarking upon any deeper arrangement.
In the end, Kepesh is destroyed by his indecisiveness, the fear of senescence, his lust and jealousy. Consuela never subsequently finds a lover who can show the same level of devotion to her body as Kepesh had done. After some years of estrangement, Consuela asks David to take nude photographs of her because she will be losing one of her breasts to a life saving mastectomy.
I think it’s safe to say this will be one DVD we don’t turn on at Jewish Literary Review headquarters until after the kids go to bed.