This movie was released in 1985. It won seven Academy Awards, including best picture, best director, best writing, best art direction, best music, best sound, and best cinematography.
Karen Blixen was a Dannish writer, who was later known Isak Dinesen. She studied painting in various European cities. In 1914 she married her cousin, Baron Bror Blixen, and went to live in British East Africa (now Kenya) on a coffee plantation. Out of Africa (1937), was based on her experiences on the plantation.
The Life of a Storyteller (1982), the biography of Karen Blixen, by Judith Thurman inspired Sydney Pollack. He chose Meryl Streep to do the role of Karen Blixen. An ingenious choice.
The movie starts with old Karen dreams of her past in Kenya. She remembers her lost love. “I had a farm in Africa at the foot of the Ngong Hills.” She tells how she has been cheated by her former lover and decided to marry his brother Baron Bror Blixen out of convenience. She goes to Kenya to start a dairy farm and to start writing to escape the rigid European social structures of the time. When she arrives she finds to her dismay that instead of starting a dairy farm her husband has decided on a coffee plantation though experienced people and the natives has suggested that coffee may not grow at that height. Alarming her, he leaves her without a word on the next day following the wedding night. Her servant tells her that he has gone for hunting and would return only when the rain comes, which will be many days from then.
Anyhow she starts the plantation. She contacts venereal disease from her husband and returns to Denmark for treatment. She realizes that her husband is a playboy and decides to stay away from him. In his absence, she falls in love with adventurer Denys Finch Hatton. However, he too opposes to her idea of possessing him. He also leaves her. Her dream to raise a plantation fails when the new coffee harvest catches fire. Penniless, she sells her possessions. Hatton is killed in a plane crash. After his burial (a memorable scene), she returns to Denmark. Her farewell scene with her faithful servant Farah is an unforgettable one.
Director: Sydney Pollack
Direction is profound. This is not a comedy or a movie developed on a light subject. Sydney asks for your attention and sensitivity.
Photography: The frames are beautiful with backlight, which David Watkin used to reduce overexposure in Kenyan terrains. The figures without many shadows create an eerie atmosphere. It’s lyrical from the first to the last frame.
The sets are beautiful and take you precisely to the concerned location. You think that you are familiar with the location though you know that it’s Africa.
Actors Characters
Meryl Streep Karen Blixen-Finecke
Robert Redford Denys Finch Hatton
Klaus Maria Brandauer Baron Bror Blixen-Finecke
Mallick Bowens Farah
Meryl Streep is my beloved actress. So any comment on her acting would be biased. It’s simply superb. Watch her.
I liked the acting of Klaus better than that of Robert Redford though he also did well.
One word about Mallick Bowens. A face without much expression. But you won’t forget this actor. The relation between Karen and her manservant is a deep but virtuous one. In the last scene she wants to hear him say her name. “You’re Karen, Msabu.” He says.
The other actors also did well, even the child that puts its hand inside Karen’s pocket for sweets.
What do you need for watching such a great movie? Well, not a pair of eyes only. But a sensitive heart and the love for the best.