Reviews
From Here to Eternity (1953)
Perfect
In my opinion this film combines several elements that fully explain its success:excellent performances,nice screenplay, fabulous director and a good story. All of these features led to a good entertainment and to one of the best films of all times.
I would like to stress that Montgomery Clift, Burt Lancaster and Debora Kerr gave us a lesson about how to act, how to compose a character. Their performances are among the best ever played in this industry history.
Moreover Zinnemann proves all his talent and competence. The scene of the kiss on the beach is a magical moment of the cinema! It translates all the passion, the search of a true love by the characters and perfectly describes the kind of feelings that dominated the characters.
High Noon (1952)
A summarized interpretation of HIGH NOON
High Noon is really an interesting film and a good entertainment. It is directed by a brilliant filmmaker,Zinnemann, who uses a thriller atmosphere mixed with classical western elements to produce a pearl of the genre. The plot was an innovation itself as I cannot remember other previous film that combined all the elements found in this one. Moreover it is worth to mention Katy Jurado, in my opinion, she does the best job in this film. Notwithstanding Gary Cooper is a star an very familiarized with this kind of film, I did not like his performance in this film. In some moments, where Will Kane was under considerable pressure, he was not able to demonstrate all the tension and doubts that take control of the character. The dialogues are interesting and totally met their aim: to support the atmosphere of fear and anxiety that dominated the city.
Le notti bianche (1957)
Interesting plot, genius directing
This film is very good indeed. Visconti confirms what everybody knows: he is a master! The plot is based on a Dostoievski tale, where a love triangle is explored in the minimum psychological details. Actually, it shows the impact of a powerful passion on human behavior, it tries to explore the incredible power that love has on people's behavior, mainly when passion and irresistible attraction are present. The author tries to show that we are capable of believing anything as well as having childish attitudes when we are confronted with passion. Moreover Visconti is very elegant when dealing with all the elements, combining them with great precision.
Also it is fine to see Maria Schell and Mastroianni acting.
Letyat zhuravli (1957)
The effects of war
This film tries to explore the effects of war on people's lives. It builds a powerful argument to show that under special circumstances, peoples's choices have nothing to do with personal projects,desires or even feelings but are a reflex and are linked to those special circumstances. For instance, Boris decided to go to war in order to defend his country but his real desire was to live with Veronica. Also she married to Boris'cousin but she never forgot Boris, instead her choice was made as a result of lack of perspectives in relation to Boris and the death of her parents. The director is very competent to build a plot that is able to both illustrate his main idea while showing all the horror of war. This is a very good film and for this reason it won Cannes Festival.
Good Bye Lenin! (2003)
Back to the comunist past
This film is really very interesting and gives us a good idea about the life under communist domination in Germany. The story begins when a mother gets awfully sick.Then inspired by love, her son convinces his sister that they must help her mother's recuperation, trying to minimize the huge changes that have occurred during her convalescence period. The boy makes up several strategies and situations not to let her mother to notice the deep changes in her daily life as a result of the end of the communism. I would like to stress Daniel Brühl'work, very well built. Also the direction very secure and concentrated. The director gets a mix of drama and comedy that has a result: an excellent film.
Kako ubiv svetec (2004)
Disturbing,harsh,crude
This film demonstrate how harsh is the reality in the Balkans after the last war. More than unveiling the current state of the conflict it shows the enormous apathy and lack of perspectives that dominated the society, continuously involved in terrorism acts, extreme nationalism motivated by NATO forces presence and illegal activities. The story begins when a young girl returns to Macedonia after living for a couple of years in USA.Then she witness all the transformations that have been taking place in her homeland since she left. She notices that even a simple activity like driving a car with an official ID can be dangerous! Moreover, she realizes that her brother is strongly involved with all sort of illegal activities,ranging from smuggling to terrorism. This film is a crude alert to the terrible effects of the Balkans war and the challenges ahead for European unification.
Seres queridos (2004)
A comedy that explores the differences
This film is an interesting comedy that explores all the differences between Palestinian and Jewish people creating several situations that make not only people laugh but also think about how close these cultures are in fact. The story begins when Leni, a Jewish girl, decides to introduce his fiancée, a Palestinian boy, to her family. After being shortly shocked with these news, Leni's mother decides to support their wedding, blessing their engagement. Then, an accident caused by Rafi gives rise to several comic situations that will keep you laughing all the time. Doubtless the cast is very good, but I would like to mention Norma Aleandro's performance.
Dans le rouge du couchant (2003)
A journey to the past
This film talks about the influences of the past on the current life of the characters. All of them were linked to a sad episode in Argentina and are currently trying to overcome the effects of past facts and happenings. The first character is a young man whose dad flew to Argentina from Europe. After trying to sell an art object he came to conclude that his father could be linked in some way to Holocaust. The other 2 characters are a middle age couple of friends who probably were active terrorist and faced a frustrating experience in the past. The film shows that their daily routine and professional life is still influenced by those experiences. The film is an interesting attempt to show how deeply a fact in our lives can influence our whole life.However it lacks some more expressive conclusion.
Ljeto u zlatnoj dolini (2003)
The emergence of post war
The film is really very good as it brings local actors and presents a crude reality of Sarajevo. It shows a city that still suffers the harmful effects of a recent war. Several ingredients are present to prove this:police corruption, kidnappings,urban violence, drug consumption and lack of perspectives. The film unveils all these elements in a very meaningful way through a boy who needs to dignify his family traditions and honour his father. The city landscape is also shown in the film and this makes it more interesting as people will be able to observe Sarajevo. The big question that the film presents is: how to survive/live in such an environment,dominated by post war scarfs,secular tradition and brand new western influences?
Maria Full of Grace (2004)
A common sad picture of current latin reality
This film is quite interesting as it reveals the lack of perspectives that affect latin youngs and that make them search for "alternative ways". It tells about a girl that decides to adhere to the drug network in order to have a chance of improving its quality of life. The film shows in details the poverty that affects latin countries, the low wage jobs and absence of education that characterize most of latin countries.Surprisingly, it shows that the reason of the recruitment is not only economic but also and perhaps more crucial,social. Also the film shows in details the way the drug organizations treat their carriers and all sort of things that they are able to do to protect their business.