Beauty

“Venus” was shot by the same person who made “Notting Hill”, Roger Michell. His London pictures are always beautiful - this is one advantage of the film. Another advantage is good cast, but unfortunately there are no others. This is a fault rather of the writer, Hanif Kureishi, who created a very dubious plot. What did he want to prove? That English youth has nothing in common with the ‘old school’? That any person after all (‘all’ means real meanness) is good and caring? That nothing is more important than physical beauty? That old age is hard to live and disgusting to see? What was all that about? The film is depressing not because of some idea but because of its absence.

Peter O’Toole is indeed a remarkable personality in the cinema. He is from that golden era when both talent and beauty were the must to start a career. He was rather careless and managed to become a heavy drinker and even underwent a surgery to cut parts of damaged stomach, but his extreme luck brought him back to long life and respectable career. His chart well explains this: he has Jupiter on Regulus and strong Sun in Leo providing excellent vitality.
Mr O’Toole is ironic about health. “My idea of heaven is moving from one smoke-filled room to another”. “The only exercise I take is walking behind the coffins of friends who took exercise”. This might be less funny for those listening to him, because they might have been living without that powerful support of the stars.