bobscook
The quirkiness that another reviewer objects to is part of this movie's charm. The opening scene, a hanging, where one of the co-participants (a donkey) in an unnatural act is freed upon petition of the townspeople, is simply wonderful and sets the tone for what follows.Not pointed out by any reviewers yet is that the director seems to have reproduced scenes out of European paintings (Flemish, I believe) - the deer in the inn, the man from the inquisition seated in the tavern, the innkeeper's wife and staff gathered to meet the lawyer when he arrives at the in, and more. The lighting, colors, and scene arrangement are faithfully reproduced. This is just one example of the charms of this movie, which is virtually unknown to the public.And one of the most delicious parts is the witch's blessing. Whenever I lend or give away a copy of this, I pointedly give it with my own blessing.
darkteilani
*Warning! Contains some spoilers!*An intelligent story brought to live with a brilliant cast!"Firth" of all of course Colin Firth who is as endearing and convincing as always. He just radiates so much honesty into this character and to us being witty, sexy, passionate, sly and clever at the same time.I regard him as the best English actor of this time!He plays a lawyer looking for peace,justice and a quiet life in the country in order to escape political corruption. And every lawyer in real life will tell you that those are unreachable goals and the quest is just grotesque. But Richard Courtois starts with the best intentions in mind and acts accordingly, even almost completely disregarding his own safety. Partly because he naively believes the law to bring justice and not the money or the political power. A lawyer with ideals, a heart and conscience, a rarity.Ian Holm is beautiful cast as priest Albertus who goes after women nevertheless,twisting everything the way it fits him best while always having a sharp look and the wits to escape the Inquisition and the mighty landlord. The conversations between him and the greenhorn lawyer are refreshing, funny and also frustrating when Albertus denies what he really knows to be right in order to preserve his good life. He betrays his friend Courtois by doing that looking him straight in the eye.The crime, the perpetrator and the mystery are well developed and the truth isn't reveal until the very end. I enjoyed myself tremendously (being a lawyer myself and realizing that the madness brought before court is still the same though the laws have changed... well, a bit... *lol*)
edtyct
Hour of the Pig, or the Advocate, as it is better known outside England in its edited incarnation to avoid an NC-17 rating, is a period piece built around the curiosity of the medieval animal trial. Yes, this strange phenomenon actually occurred; both the Church, and to a lesser extent, the legal authorities in various parts of medieval Europe spend part of their time assessing the guilt of animals in regard to property damage and human injury. Behind their investigations in this heavily Christian world was the idea that the devil might be controlling those who were not Christian or otherwise behaving badly. As you might well imagine, Jews, Moors, animals, and other nonconformists often got the raw end of the deal. The film indulges slightly in the conceit that the sophisticates in society--like the advocate (Colin Firth) and an educated priest (Ian Holm)--were intellectually above these superstitions but were either too powerless or too hypocritical to protest it.Be that as it may, the advocate (based loosely on an actual lawyer, and his cases) comes to a small town in the French countryside to begin a new practice away from the indecencies of Paris. He figures that his knowledge of law will work to both his advantage and that of his new neighbors, whom he is primed to admire for their bucolic virtues. He couldn't be more wrong. The tone is set with his first glimpse of the town, like a scene from Brueghel--the hanging of a man and a donkey convicted of engaging in sodomy. At the last minute, a messenger from the authorities arrives bearing a character reference sufficient to reprieve the donkey; no such luck, however, for her partner in crime.From that point forward, the film gently presents the advocate as mistaken about nearly every conviction that he deigns to express. The serving girl at the inn, whom he admires on first glance for how she "carries herself," so unlike the women in Paris, turns out to be a prostitute. Nor is he aware that this inn, in which he takes up residence, is a whorehouse until his clerk, who is the script's witty voice of common sense, informs him just before he returns to Paris. His first case, the defense of a man accused of killing his wife's lover, in which a pig figures as a material witness, is an ostensible success, though the defendant all but admits his guilt to the stunned advocate after the trial. His second case, upon which he enters with doomed confidence, is an unmitigated disaster because of his ignorance of local precedent, resulting in the death of a woman for witchcraft. As the woman is taken from the courtroom, she offers the advocate some enigmatic advice about a case involving a young Jewish boy recently killed, apparently by a pig belonging to gypsies. "Look to the boy," she tells him. At her execution, she offers the town not the curse that everyone was expecting but a blessing, intended to cure the town of its sins. As it happens, the blessing comes true, but, as this film would have it, the cure may well be worse than the disease.Enter now the plot's hinge. The authorities incarcerate the gypsies' pig, expecting to execute it. Firth wants desperately to avoid the matter, despite his attraction to the seductive owner of the animal, but fate conspires against him. The case eventually gets him mixed up with the local seigneur (Nicol Williamson), a pragmatic businessman who bought his title and wants to buy the advocate as well. We're not quite sure why until much later when the advocate learns how the boy died, but the advocate still has to win the pig's freedom because the facts of the case remain hidden.The film doesn't qualify as a traditional murder mystery, despite the scaffolding of its plot; it's a little too arbitrary for that. But its irony and its flirtation with mystification, if not traditional narrative mystery, maintain interest. Furthermore, its sense of humor doesn't get in the way of the dark, the gruesome, and the baffling, which are the film's true hallmark. The characters are well drawn and well acted. This story is an adventure of a sort that doesn't often make it into film these days. Too bad. The rewards are many.
jasongoy
this is one of my favourite films - then again I do also love Congo, Jack and Joe Versus The Volcano, Bitter Moon and Extreme Measures. I think all these films are very special - unfortunately, most other people and critics tend to think they are crap! And I'm not trying to be quirky, I genuinely like them very much.
