cover image The Filmmaker

The Filmmaker

Elise Dallemagne-Cookson. Fithian Press, $14.95 (320pp) ISBN 978-1-56474-313-8

While visiting her sister in Spain in 1955, raven-haired Celia Smith takes a job on a film set and meets director/producer Benjamin Rogers. In Dallemagne-Cookson's second novel (after The Ombu Tree), Celia and Ben fall passionately in love, but this paint-by-the-numbers romance fails to infuse life into its protagonists. Twenty-three years Celia's senior, Ben, a former Communist Party leader who testified before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, is now reviled by both sides and can't return to Hollywood unless he produces a hit film. Both Celia and Ben are married, though Celia, upon her return to New York, divorces her cold, intellectual husband and accepts Ben's offer of a job in Hollywood, setting up a new independent film company. Though he wants to be with Celia, Ben feels an obligation to stay with his family, particularly his children. After a series of mishaps, reunions and misunderstandings, Celia flees to Tahiti, but her possessive lover follows her there. Renewing their affair yet again, the couple are caught up in the sensual beauty of the South Seas. But there will be little smooth sailing for this unfortunate pair. Convincing local color and an unexpected ending breathe some life into the novel, but flat characters and stilted, repetitive dialogue undermine what's meant to be an intense, passionate tale of adulterous love. (Mar.)