BOGUS
US, 1996, 114 minutes, Colour.
Whoopi Goldberg, Gerard Depardieu, Haley Joel Osmond, Ute Lemper, Nancy Travis.
Directed by Norman Jewison.
Bogus is an oddball fantasy film, focusing on a seven year old child, yet being an adult story about a godmother who is forced to reassess her business life to take care of a child and the strange character from the imagination, Bogus, who talks with the child and then transforms the woman.
The film was written by veteran writer Alvin Sargent (Love and Pain, Bobby Deerfield). The director was also the veteran Norman Jewison (In the Heat of the Night, Fiddler on the Roof, Jesus Christ Superstar, Moonstruck, The Hurricane). The casting is also unusual: Whoopi Goldberg as the godmother who has to loosen up, discover her inner child, get over the resentments of the past and feel free. Gerard Depardieu is the French Bogus. The star of the film is really Hailey Joel Osmond, who was to come to prominence in The Sixth Sense, Pay it Forward and AI. The supporting cast includes cabaret singer Ute Lemper and Nancy Travis as the boy's mother.
The film had limited release and commercial success.
1. The audience for this kind of film? Children identifying with Albert and his experiences? Adults identifying with Harriet?
2. The Las Vegas and New Jersey settings? The cities, the contrasts? The cabarets and hotels of Las Vegas? The business centres of New Jersey? The musical score especially the use of 'The Continental' and 'Dancing in the Dark' for the dance sequences?
3. The title, the Frenchman calling himself Bogus? Albert and the teacher asking him the meaning of the word and explaining that it meant fake? The background of magic, reality and illusion?
4. The circus setting: Antoine and his assistant, their performances, the magic tricks? Albert learning from them? His own performances for the babysitter, for Harriet? His own imagination, reality and illusion? His love for his mother, the essay about the Hoover Dam and Ethiopia? Talking on the telephone? His being supported by the showgirls and the circus people?
5. Lorraine, love for her son, her work, the car crash and its repercussions? Her will? Her appearing in Albert's dreams?
6. The lawyer and his ringing Harriet? The circus people supporting him? Harriet and her work, relationship with her secretary, phone calls, hard deals? Her agreement to take Albert? Being late at the airport and the ticket? At home with him, taking him on the look at the potential building for her business? Taking him to the party? Her unwillingness to take part in the magic tricks? Her serious attitudes? Her concern about Albert and his talking to Bogus? Her pretending to see him out the door? His disappearance, going to Atlantic City to find him? The circus people?
7. Albert, his background, personality? At the grave, not wanting people to be sadder? Going to Newark, on the plane, the kindly flight attendant? Drawing and discovering Bogus? His imagination coming to life? Seeing him in the airplane toilet, their conversations, Bogus continually accompanying him, helping him speak, encouraging him? In the apartment in Newark? The effect on Albert, his imagination, the contrast with Harriet's treatment of him? At school and his explanation of the word as a friend? The party? His dream about his mother? His seeing the ad, going to Atlantic City despite Bogus's advice against it? His wanting to stay with the circus people? The return with Harriet, her mellowing, their going to his mother's grave? His wanting to stay with her?
8. Bogus as a cartoon drawing, coming to life, French? His appearance, advice to Albert, their conversations? Harriet's dream and her ability to hear Bogus? Finally seeing him? Her memories of her past life, her comments about delving into her childhood? 'Dancing in the Dark', 'The Continental', her being liberated?
9. The contrast between Las Vegas life and the circus people with Newark and the business people?
10. A fantasy, for adults, for children? Freedom and imagination? The inner child? Liberation and love?
