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shallownessHotel Portofino - 2.4 Contortions
All the regulars were annoying to some degree, and the ‘comic’ subplots (the dog, Betty and the Italian builders, calisthenics) weren’t funny.
Lucian woke up in Constance’s bed, to find she’d left a sketch of him sleeping. She’d gone swimming and was basking in the sea, the sun and the afterglow. They flirted over breakfast until he got a telegram (Julia having kind of dictated it) from Rose, saying she was coming tomorrow – Surprise! The smile was wiped from Lucian’s face, and I was irked with him for how he let Constance know (leaving the telegraph for her to pick up and read instead of…telling her.) She said they should forget last night had ever happened. He didn’t want that. This is where I was least sympathetic with Constance because this is why you don’t get involved with a married man. (Who is also your boss’s son and, though you don’t know this, was sleeping with your colleague last year.)
Cecil didn’t like the architect bonding with Bella under his nose and standing up to him, so he made it clear that she was his wife/property. The architect responded by kissing Bella later, when she’d gone after him to apologise for Cecil’s behaviour (which was on Cecil). She said ‘not now.’ Cecil would later want Danioni to refuse the socialist architect permission to go on with the solarium, but Danioni wanted to use the fascist decree that husbands were in charge of all their wives’ money so that the hotel could launder money for him, or something. (There was a feminist undercurrent to this episode.)
Cecil would also hilariously accuse Danioni of acting childishly (he was under pressure from his bosses for not finding the terrorists.) Of course, by the end of the episode, he’d done the same, sulking that he wasn’t allowed to eat supper with the guests and that Betty had made up sandwiches for him. So, he overheard Bella making plans with Henry (the off-screen ex.) Cecil’s flashes of jealousy don’t count for much seeing as he’s a total hypocrite.
He was also under pressure from the Mob, who didn’t care that the noble who’d made the whiskey was too busy shooting grouse to agree to increase the volume being imported. Danioni’s suggestion was to give the mobsters grappa instead, which Cecil baulked at, although I didn’t him coming up with a strategy to save his neck. Every time Cecil's neck was threatened, I kept thinking ‘Well, that would be better for Bella.’
She told Claudine that she didn’t trust Cecil at all, but she was accepting his money (whore or wife?) and being forced to share a bed with him because some guests had turned up despite having cancelled, so the place was crammed full.
Bella tried to talk to Alice about whether it was a good idea to marry someone after knowing them for a week. Alice (who thinks she’s the sensible one in the family) claimed that she was going into it with her eyes open in one breath and then revealing her desperation in the next. Count Albinesi was dragged into a conversation with Cecil and The Fiancé (he might be as rich as Alice thinks, or he might not.) I guess Albinesi is still exasperatingly devoted to Alice.
Am I the only one in the audience wondering why everyone is so terrible at reading each other? Bella saw some of the tension between Lucian and Constance, but bought his lie that it was to do with the Nish situation. Rose returned, both hoping for more from Lucian but as frigid and limp as ever. He avoided her (on the one hand, YOU proposed, on the other, she refused to come to Portofino with you.) So, she put Constance on the spot, asking her to teach her to swim. The lower class mistress did the upper class wife a favour, and the swimming lesson seemed to be bonding. Rose grabbed Constance’s notebook and started looking through it even as she asked if she might. When she saw a picture of Tommy, Constance said he was her son, and Rose clammed up. (Not sisterly!)
Rose was acute enough for once to notice at the calisthenics that Lucian was natural and comfortable enough to laugh with Constance, while literally turning his back on her. She stormed off to their suite and found Lucian’s notebook, looked through it, found the sketch of a shirtless Lucian asleep and came to the right conclusion. Probably shouldn’t go looking through other people’s private notebooks (even your husband’s if you’ve kept rebuffing him) Rose. I’m not sure if her psychology makes any kind of sense. Being brought up by Julia only explains some of it.
Oh, and in the middle of all this, Lucian and Billy moved Nish (offscreen), and used the fishing trip with Jonathan (who seemed rather nice in his interactions with Billy and Bella) to visit Nish. Dr Nish did not have good news about the state of his leg. Lucian had had a run-in with Gian Luca, where Lucian was a bit snotty with Nish’s lover (and I get his point, Gian Luca had dragged Nish into danger), but it was Nish’s choice to trust him to get him out of Portofino, ultimately. I thought Nish was a bit biased for Gian Luca, but it wasn’t like Lucian had a good counter-offer. A diligent Italian officer saw the fishermen returning and put two and two together, anyway.
Some of the choices for when we saw characters interact seemed random to me, the script kept skipping the natural time for the next time they'd interact to be when they had an important conversation.
All the regulars were annoying to some degree, and the ‘comic’ subplots (the dog, Betty and the Italian builders, calisthenics) weren’t funny.
Lucian woke up in Constance’s bed, to find she’d left a sketch of him sleeping. She’d gone swimming and was basking in the sea, the sun and the afterglow. They flirted over breakfast until he got a telegram (Julia having kind of dictated it) from Rose, saying she was coming tomorrow – Surprise! The smile was wiped from Lucian’s face, and I was irked with him for how he let Constance know (leaving the telegraph for her to pick up and read instead of…telling her.) She said they should forget last night had ever happened. He didn’t want that. This is where I was least sympathetic with Constance because this is why you don’t get involved with a married man. (Who is also your boss’s son and, though you don’t know this, was sleeping with your colleague last year.)
Cecil didn’t like the architect bonding with Bella under his nose and standing up to him, so he made it clear that she was his wife/property. The architect responded by kissing Bella later, when she’d gone after him to apologise for Cecil’s behaviour (which was on Cecil). She said ‘not now.’ Cecil would later want Danioni to refuse the socialist architect permission to go on with the solarium, but Danioni wanted to use the fascist decree that husbands were in charge of all their wives’ money so that the hotel could launder money for him, or something. (There was a feminist undercurrent to this episode.)
Cecil would also hilariously accuse Danioni of acting childishly (he was under pressure from his bosses for not finding the terrorists.) Of course, by the end of the episode, he’d done the same, sulking that he wasn’t allowed to eat supper with the guests and that Betty had made up sandwiches for him. So, he overheard Bella making plans with Henry (the off-screen ex.) Cecil’s flashes of jealousy don’t count for much seeing as he’s a total hypocrite.
He was also under pressure from the Mob, who didn’t care that the noble who’d made the whiskey was too busy shooting grouse to agree to increase the volume being imported. Danioni’s suggestion was to give the mobsters grappa instead, which Cecil baulked at, although I didn’t him coming up with a strategy to save his neck. Every time Cecil's neck was threatened, I kept thinking ‘Well, that would be better for Bella.’
She told Claudine that she didn’t trust Cecil at all, but she was accepting his money (whore or wife?) and being forced to share a bed with him because some guests had turned up despite having cancelled, so the place was crammed full.
Bella tried to talk to Alice about whether it was a good idea to marry someone after knowing them for a week. Alice (who thinks she’s the sensible one in the family) claimed that she was going into it with her eyes open in one breath and then revealing her desperation in the next. Count Albinesi was dragged into a conversation with Cecil and The Fiancé (he might be as rich as Alice thinks, or he might not.) I guess Albinesi is still exasperatingly devoted to Alice.
Am I the only one in the audience wondering why everyone is so terrible at reading each other? Bella saw some of the tension between Lucian and Constance, but bought his lie that it was to do with the Nish situation. Rose returned, both hoping for more from Lucian but as frigid and limp as ever. He avoided her (on the one hand, YOU proposed, on the other, she refused to come to Portofino with you.) So, she put Constance on the spot, asking her to teach her to swim. The lower class mistress did the upper class wife a favour, and the swimming lesson seemed to be bonding. Rose grabbed Constance’s notebook and started looking through it even as she asked if she might. When she saw a picture of Tommy, Constance said he was her son, and Rose clammed up. (Not sisterly!)
Rose was acute enough for once to notice at the calisthenics that Lucian was natural and comfortable enough to laugh with Constance, while literally turning his back on her. She stormed off to their suite and found Lucian’s notebook, looked through it, found the sketch of a shirtless Lucian asleep and came to the right conclusion. Probably shouldn’t go looking through other people’s private notebooks (even your husband’s if you’ve kept rebuffing him) Rose. I’m not sure if her psychology makes any kind of sense. Being brought up by Julia only explains some of it.
Oh, and in the middle of all this, Lucian and Billy moved Nish (offscreen), and used the fishing trip with Jonathan (who seemed rather nice in his interactions with Billy and Bella) to visit Nish. Dr Nish did not have good news about the state of his leg. Lucian had had a run-in with Gian Luca, where Lucian was a bit snotty with Nish’s lover (and I get his point, Gian Luca had dragged Nish into danger), but it was Nish’s choice to trust him to get him out of Portofino, ultimately. I thought Nish was a bit biased for Gian Luca, but it wasn’t like Lucian had a good counter-offer. A diligent Italian officer saw the fishermen returning and put two and two together, anyway.
Some of the choices for when we saw characters interact seemed random to me, the script kept skipping the natural time for the next time they'd interact to be when they had an important conversation.
