Take two Oscar-winning actors, a gloriously sun-soaked Tuscan village, a savvy writer/director who just happens to be the wife of Bernardo Bertolucci and an 18th century French comedy with shocking relevant insight on modern-day sexual politics. Mix liberally. Sound like an eclectic entrée? It is–and we haven’t even mentioned how Captain Kirk and Danny Kaye add flavor to the mix.
The film is The Triumph of Love, a lighthearted, androgynous romp in which Mira Sorvino plays a beautiful princess scheming to restore her throne to its rightful owner, a handsome young man (Jay Rodan) with whom she’s fallen in love with from afar and hopes to marry. To get to him she disguises herself as a male courtesan, even going so far as to disguise herself like a man disguised as a woman to seduce his caretakers, a rigid anti-female philosopher (Ben Kingsley) and his lonely, put-upon spinster sister (Fiona Shaw). Somewhere amid the disguise and deception, the princess and her intended dupes discover the overwhelming power of true love.
Academy Award winners Sorvino and Kingsley sat down with Hollywood.com to explain the enduring allure of French playwright Pierre Marivaux’s 300-year-old comedy, brought to the screen by film director Clare Peploe (Rough Magic).
Sorvino revealed she was first attracted to the part of the cunning Princess, who plots to keep the throne from her rival until she unexpectedly falls head-over-heels for him, because of the great range it offered. She had a chance to play a beautiful French royal and the several aliases she assumes to keep her enemies (and aspiring lovers) off balance.
“Initially I thought, Wow, what a tour de force role to take on. In fact, it’s almost four roles–but I also worried that the character was sort of unlikable because of the dastardly things that she does in pursuit of her goal,” Sorvino said. “Clare convinced me, ‘No, no it’s all for love.’ That pardons a lot of sins. You can get swept up in ‘What would you do for love? What hearts would you trod over in order to get that true love, that lifetime of happiness?'”
For Kingsley, who plays an arrogant philosopher living in self-imposed isolation from women in order to achieve greater scientific enlightenment, it was the chance to explore narcissism through a character he compares to a strutting peacock.
“I just loved playing a man who was unafraid of making an idiot of himself in the presence of falling in love. I find that admirable,” he said. “I think that very few are able to
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take the risk of saying, ‘OK. I’ve fallen in love. I have got to surrender to this. I have got to be vulnerable to this. This is bigger than me.'”
Sorvino, the daughter of actor Paul Sorvino, said her family’s influence made it more difficult for her to identify with the Princess’s high-risk romantic deceptions. “I’m more guilt-ridden…My upbringing made me very conscious of trying not to hurt other people, so I think I would not be able to do that sort of triple-seduction thing.”
She resorted to some playful methods to get in touch with her character’s macho masquerades. “I worked on the physical side of it, [like] trying to walk in a more masculine way,” she said. “Legs further apart, more of a stride rather than a step. I went to the Louvre and looked at the 18th century room and saw all the wild poses that the men would take. I threw some of them into the characterization…it was sort of a tip of the hat to that exaggerated, courtly look.
That both actors have Oscars to their credit certainly adds a prestigious heft to the film, but the awards don’t weigh heavily on either of their minds.
“It was an early accolade that I greatly appreciated and did not expect…I think now the big impact of it has worn off and I’m back to business as usual,” said Sorvino. “The year after I won I did any sort of movie that would not be thought of as an ‘Oscar-caliber’ movie,” she explained. “I was like ‘Oh, let me try some butt-kickin’ action. Let me do some crazy teenage comedy about two geeks that think they’re superheroes like Romy & Michelle.’ Now I think I’m doing things that are more artistic and closer to the material that I love.
“Part of the comedy in Triumph comes from watching [my character] overdo it or mess up,” she continued. “I tried to make it a bit of caricature of a macho guy…. There was a little bit of John Malkovich in Dangerous Liaisons, a little bit of Tom Jones, Albert Finney, a little bit of Captain Kirk.”
Captain Kirk? How exactly does a TV starship captain resemble an 18th century Frenchman?
The actress insisted she wasn’t kidding. “There is Captain Kirk in there, because he’ll walk on to any given planet–‘James T. Kirk, from the starship Enterprise‘–very bold, very much stating his case and sleeping with every alien woman possible. I felt that that worked for this film.”
Although Kingsley admits comedy has not exactly been a large part of his film oeuvre (“The Holocaust–it’s difficult to get the jokes in there,” said the recently knighted star of sobering fare such as Schindler’s List and Anne Frank), he has a hard time viewing himself as an ultra-serious thespian and certainly isn’t without comedy chops. “Fifteen years before I became a screen actor, I was in the theater and a lot of my work was comedy. Which is harder, but is equally rewarding.
“I don’t perceive myself as a ‘serious’ actor at all,” he revealed. “I see myself as Danny Kaye.”
Danny Kaye? How exactly does a multiple award-winning actor with “Sir” in front of his name resemble a goofy, redheaded comedian who got his start in the Catskills?
“I see myself as an entertainer through who can come stories that are worth listening to, as was the case with Danny Kaye,” Kingsley explained. “Through his clowning and his rather absurd Walter Mitty-ish journeys there was always a truth…However I get to that truth in the story doesn’t matter, providing that it’s honest, sincere. Maybe since Sexy Beast and this, I’ll enjoy more of a shift. There is a fairly wide range of work for me to consider right now.”
The Triumph of Love opens April 17.
