A new kind of arty event series?
So he knows how money-bins of budget plus Coppolas of ambition often drive superstar creators mad with auteurist ambition.
And even the least-edited version ofHeavens Gateis merely 30Steven Universes long.
Credit: Jan Thijs/Amazon Studios
The threeRomanoffsepisodes sent for reviewallrun feature-length.
The premiere swirls family melodrama with real estate envy.
Marthe Keller plays Anushka, a Parisian grande dame claiming Tsarist descent.
Her American nephew Greg (Aaron Eckhart) waits patiently to inherit her glorious apartment.
Then a caregiver Hajar (Ines Melab) knocks on Anushkas door.
Hajar happens to be Muslim.
Anushka happens to be a racist xenophobe.
We burned Constantinople, she brags, like the Crusades was a game her team won.
There are noir-ish implications, with Louise Bourgoin as Gregs plotting femme fatale.
And there are moments of swooning romance: Touristic Paris, all baguettes and monuments.
She goes on a cruise; he goes to jury duty.
Hendricks and Huppert are thrilling, but their duel turns dire, smashing metafiction with embarrassingsupernaturaltwists.
But good acting abounds.
Bishe shines with sad cheer.
Stoll darkens, scaryandfunny.
Melab is a true discovery.
Eckhart looks stoked to be in Paris.
There are narrative cues connecting these stories, suggesting a saga well only understand after eight episodes.
There are so many rooms: big rooms, impressive rooms, gorgeous, but a bit empty.
Which sums upThe Romanoffs, really.
But its also an enervating exemplar ofmodernexcess, in awe of its own Business Class decadence.
The intention is a global epic.
Its more likeBlack Mirrorfor white privilege.B
