Product Description

Acclaimed Spanish Director Ventura Pons’ first English language film is a beautiful and faithful adaptation of David Leavitt'Ss novel "The Page Turner." Paul is a promising young pianist, who is hired to be a page turner for his idol, Richard Kennington. They meet again while Paul is on vacation with his mother in Barcelona. Thus begins a love affair that moves from Spain to New York, complicated by Paul's mother and Richard’s agent/lover.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #48632 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-06-10
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 112 minutes

Customer Reviews

freudian mess
I wanted so much to like this film, and I tried very hard to do so. But it is so inept, and has so many flaws, it is hard to know where to begin.

The basic story is simple enough: piano student Paul is seduced by and falls in love with his idol, forty-ish concert pianist Richard; he gets dumped inexplicably and spends the rest of the film trying to make sense of it. But add these extra ingredients -- Paul's neurotic mother also falling for the pianist, Richard's lover/manager seducing Paul while the boy is being kept by yet another older man -- and you have a rather heady Freudian stew, indeed.

What these noxious, self-absorbed characters have in common, keeping the handsome 18-year-old confused and depressed, is their duplicity. Nobody tells Paul the truth, rendering him unable to make a decision in his own interest. His beauty makes him desirable. His ingenuous nature makes him an easy mark.

The dialogue is oddly disjointed though lifted directly from David Leavitt's well-written novel, The Page Turner. For some reason, about half of Mr. Leavitt's lines have been deleted, making those that remain a crazy-quilt of non-sequitors. Adding to the confusion are British actors playing American refracted through the eyes and ears of a Spanish director. Then there are the Spanish actors who have learned their lines phonetically, wildly inflecting words incorrectly. Finally, a classical music consultant could have insured the proper pronunciation of composers' names, or pointed out that most of the pieces Paul plays are embarassingly inappropriate.

The film does a great job in depicting the haute-gay classical music demi-monde of New York, the predatory older men who rule from lofty Central Park West enclaves. This exclusive oligarchy devours the seemingly unlimited supply of hopeful young artists, like Paul, who want to succeed but cannot due to inexperience and inaptitude for the game. A 'civilized' veneer covers, but never quite hides, the self-serving artistic Darwinism.

Exquisite Kevin Bishop, who plays Paul so perfectly, is a real find. He has a low-key style, lovely body, and astonishing blue eyes. Barcelona is exotic, the photography is beautiful, and the original score is well done, but the DVD itself has problems. The dialogue is somewhat out of sync, is overly loud in some places (mainly due to Juliet Stevenson's histrionics), and nearly inaudible in others.

more like a snack
A study in deception. Aspiring concert pianist Paul (perfectly played by Kevin Bishop) is the only character that displays even a modicum of honesty or integrity. The beautiful, earnest eighteen-year-old is duped and used by everyone he encounters.

When the film opens, Paul is turning pages for his idol, turning-forty concert pianist Richard Kennington (ghoulish Paul Rhys). Sparks fly during the Beethoven. After the concert Richard invites Paul out, but his strident mother thwarts them. Richard's manager, Joseph, hit on the tempting young man before the concert. Unbeknownst to popular Paul, randy Richard and geriatric Joseph are long-time lovers.

Vacationing with his mother in Barcelona, Paul meets Richard again. More determined this time, the older man beds the bonny boy within five minutes via that venerable 'sine qua non' of seduction: a back-rub. In a rare moment of candor, Richard wonders if he made a mistake by hopping into the sack so precipitously, but spoils it by adding he just assumed that was what the boy wanted.

They begin a one-week stand and, between some rather lovely rolls in the hay, explore Barcelona with Paul's histrionic mother. Blind as well as boisterous, she takes a shine to Richard and attempts to seduce him. It doesn't work, of course, but her ghastly flirtation does succeed in making the pianist flee the country without so much as a word of explanation or farewell to the hapless boy.

In New York, Paul moves in with rich troll Alden on Central Park West where he runs into Joseph. More determined this time, the agent promptly seduces the eager boy with concerts, fancy dinners, and the hope of management. But, even when questioned about all the pictures of Richard in his apartment, Joseph does not come clean about their relationship.

Though it could just be the appalling acting and insane script, from all the hemming and hawing it seems that Alden and Joseph have also been 'friendly' in the past so -- let's see -- all four male protagonists have slept with at least two of the others! Paul and Joseph have slept with all three. Only the neurotic mother has been excluded from the sexual merry-go-round, not that she didn't try her best to hop on.

Though he's slept with every man over forty in the film, Paul is closeted to his mother. While snooping, she comes upon some rather 'personal' reading material, has a light-bulb moment, rushes off to an outlandish gay mothers' group, and hops a plane to New York. She confronts Joseph and Richard (at his birthday party, no less) with one last shrill whine of consternation. Suffice it to say, actress Juliet Stevenson hasn't left a shred of scenery unchewed anywhere. Now, at least, everyone knows about the spicy sexual potpourri. As for the luckless lad, the reasons for all his needless suffering finally become clear.

Kevin Bishop is adorably preppy in Burberry from head to toe, with a lovely body and incandescent blue eyes. He is ingenuous and sincere . . most of the time . . but, bewildered by the inexplicable and overbearing behavior all around him, he does become a tad truculent. Who wouldn't?! Extra stars for the seductive stripling. His beauty makes it possible to watch this high-flutin' pot-boiler despite all its goofiness, disjointed dialogue, musical ineptitude, and unintentional hilarity.

Ambitious Cosmopolitans' Sex Comedy
"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.