The
 Vincent
PEREZ
Archives

UK/Germany/Austria 2001
99 Minutes

Synopsis: Paramount Classics presents director Bruce Beresford's romantic portrait of an extraordinary woman who inspired, bedeviled and captivated the artistic genuises of her age. Surrounded by the visual riches and musical power of Vienna at the turn of the century, Alma Mahler, (Wynter) becomes lover and muse, first to the great composer/conductor Gustav Mahler, then to the brilliant architect Walter Gropius, then to rebel artist Oskar Kokoschka (Perez), and eventually to the passionate novelist, Franz Werfel. Each man sees in her a source of  inspiration, but her searching heart only finds peace when her own music is performed.

*****

San Francisco Chronicle:
"The only performer who breathes any life into the proceedings is Vincent Perez (Indochine), whose portrait of Kokoschka is extravagantly sexy and demented."

Buffalo News:
"Vincent Perez and Gregor Seberg are haunting look-alikes for Kokoschka and Werfel, and play those roles superbly."

Pittsburgh Post Gazette:
"Vincent Perez is terrific as the jealous, volatile artist whose 'Bride of the Wind' masterpiece canvas depicts Alma and himself in a central sexual oasis, surrounded by tempests and torrents."

Citysearch:
"Wynter, Pryce and Perez turn in well-nuanced performances."

SPLICEDWire:
"With moody and temperamental artist Kokoschka (Vincent Perez), there is heat, but Beresford doesn't seem to recognize their love's most emotional moments - as when he miraculously returns from World War I after being declared dead."

Akron Beacon Journal:
"Kokoschka is played with compelling intensity by Vincent Perez."

Cincinnati CityBeat:
"As Kokoschka, Vincent Perez creates the most lasting impression. His spirited dinner dance with a mannequin of Alma is the wind that propels the film for a few moments."

Audience Magazine:
"Almost stealing the show is Vincent Perez as Kokoschka."

Boston Phoenix:
"Vincent Perez’s Kokoschka is rumpled and intense."

San Diego Metropolitan:
"Vincent Perez is also fine as the tempestuous Kokoschka, whose out-of-control jealousy finally lost Alma."

Daily News Los Angeles:
"Played by the striking French actor Vincent Perez, Kokoschka is far and away the film's liveliest, wittiest presence, especially when he takes to escorting a life-size Alma doll around town after the flesh-and-blood version has rejected him."

Reeltime:
"Pryce and Perez are as good as the script allows."

Thecelebritycafe.com:
"As opposed to glorifying the artistic genius of each man, Beresford and the writer, Marilyn Levy, amplify the shadow cast over Alma's own brilliance by the fame of each of her lovers. This unique perspective is only heightened by the performances of Sarah Wynter, Jonathon Pryce, and Vincent Perez. Each actor affects a striking and complex interpretation of the characters. They truly seem to embody the larger-than-life people they play.

Toronto Globe and Mail:
"Jonathan Pryce's Mahler is a nice blend of the arrogance and insecurity that seems to typify the artistic temperament. And Vincent Perez makes for a wonderfully crazed Kokoschka, enhanced by his getting to deliver the movie's best line: 'Time is the money of love.'"

Eye.net:
"Only Jonathan Pryce as Mahler and Vincent Perez as Kokoschka manage to register a presence."

Indianapolis Star:
" The movie is joyless and dull, colorless and flat, except for the performance of Vincent Perez as expressionist painter Oskar Kokoschka. The movie comes alive with the introduction of Oskar. Though he called Alma his wild creature, he must have been looking in a mirror. He is passion. She is
water on his fire."

Now Toronto:
"Credit Vincent Perez, as Alma's obsessive third lover, with at least trying to set his cardboard character on fire."

Miami Herald:
"Wynter's male counterparts are fortunately better. Vincent Perez trembles with intensity as Kokoschka, the expressionist whose wild jealousy and adoration inspire him to create the masterpiece after which the film is named."

Washington Times:
"Vincent Perez's crazed Kokoschka gives the movie most of its wackier highlights." 

Hybridmagazine.com:
"Only Vincent Perez's Kokoschka, 'the Freud of Viennese painters,' seemed to have warm blood flowing through his veins. The rest of her men seemed more like tableaux vivant than film actors."

Hollywood Reporter:
"Perez and Schmolzer come off the best because they get to play nutty painters."

Pittsburgh Post Gazette:
"Vincent Perez is terrific as the jealous, volatile artist whose 'Bride of the Wind' masterpiece canvas depicts Alma and himself in a central sexual oasis, surrounded by tempests and torrents."

Daily-Reviews.com:
"Vincent Perez offers the best work in the film."

Seattle Times:
"Vincent Perez heats up the screen as dashing Oskar Kokoschka."

Screenit.com:
"Playing the various men in her life, Jonathan Pryce  Vincent Perez, Simon Verhoeven and Gregor Seberg all deliver competent performances, with a few of them getting to add a bit more zest to the characters than others."

Hollywood Report Card:
"Rich, relaxing and nearly passionate, the sequence in which Kokoschka (Vincent Perez) paints the film's namesake painting ends far too soon."

Houston Chronicle:
"Jonathan Pryce delivers a multi-layered Mahler, and Vincent Perez's fiery Kokoschka follows a fascinating story arc. After Alma dumps him he's wounded, and presumed dead, during World War I; when he returns to find Alma married to Gropius, he takes to carrying around a life-size doll in her likeness. Unfortunately, the movie is not about these two characters."