today while at the cinema the trailer to the pink panther "prequel" came on - the new one with steve martin, jean reno and kelvin kline. (jean reno wasn't billed in the trailer but beyonce, who twirled and flick her hair about, was. i wonder why.) i like all three of those actors very much, and kelvin kline especially is always terrific, but i just don't know what to think about the movie. a trailer is too short to judge a film by - but i was very uncomfortable during those moments - it all felt - wrong. of course it's hard for anyone to take on a role made so famous by another, of course remakes of old movies always invite criticism, and i'm not trying to be picky on that count - but - it is peter sellers we are talking about. i don't know if it was secombe or bentine who said that it was extraordinary to stand next to sellers when he was reading grytpype's part on the goon show, because "he became grytpype...he changed physically." and that's just him standing on a stage reading. in all his movies peter sellers became someone else. he became clouseau; he was a different man. steve martin, well, still looks like steve martin, just in costume and with a moustache. i suppose his face is too distinctive, whereas peter sellers disappears into his roles.

and the new movie seemed to lack - subtlety. it wasn't that the original movies didn't rely on physical humour - it did, dreadfully. and certainly some of the later pink panther movies became increasingly absurd and slapstick, without the sensitivity and careful pace of the earliest movie. but even there sellers gave an unusual intentness and - one wouldn't call it dignity, but certainly a kind of formal credibility - to clouseau, even when he was at his most ridiculous. he played a very funny role, and he played it very, very straight, and it was marvellous. steve martin seems to be too aware of his comedic role, playing clouseau too silly, too light, too disreputable. in sellers there was clumsy sincerity, a certain child-like seriousness and self-importance - in martin the conceit is overt and the clumsiness exaggerated, contrived. there is a great difference between looking ridiculous and plain overacting. peter sellers was not only a comedian, he was an exceptional actor, and if this movie is supposed to be a celebration of the fourtieth anniversary of the original series, it certainly feels like it had been made in the wrong style and spirit.