back to the startRecent reviews

• Art in art — for Midnight in Paris
  Written by lovelyT on 07.02.2012

  contains spoilers

  There are only few directors who can pull you into their stories with simple plots and immaculate dialogues. One of the greatest in last 40 years is Woody Allen, who with his brittle and sharp language can either make you fall in love with his movies or force you to never come back. Fortunately I'm the one who will see each movie he makes, because with every new one I see, it makes me search for more. And after this one, I finally understand what makes one director so appreciated and acclaimed. Maybe I can recognise myself in some of his characters, surely I can imagine myself in the perfection of the towns he chooses for his setting, but without any doubt I can relate to the art he puts into everything he does.

  Here we have two fiances who come to Paris. He is a writer who dreams of rainy Paris in the twenties and fantasizes about moving there. She is a spoiled rich daddy's little girl who enjoys fancy dinners and snobbish friends who know everything about anything. They meet her parents and some friends in the city of love, where their adventures begin. Well, his actually. Gil seeks inspiration for his novel, always refusing to ask for someone's advice or ideas about his handwriting. One beautiful night, after having dinner with his fiance Inez and their two friends, Gil decides to take a stroll through numerous Parisian streets and alleys, decisively refusing Inez's suggestions to take a taxi. In the end, he ends up lost and decides to rest. The church bell rings midnight and a beautiful old car stops in front of him and a group of people makes him enter the car. Without thinking a lot, Gil accepts the invitation and immediately realizes that he' s in company of some of the most famous artists of the twenties. He spends the night of his life, witnessing the brilliance of his writing idols, Fitzgerald and Hemingway. But something is weird. The moment he gets out of the ballroom, the city is again normal. The next day, he tries to convince Inez to wait for the car, but after spending the evening on the stairs, she takes a taxi and gets back to the hotel. And then, the clock strikes midnight and everything is same as yesterday. Every night, Gil spends his time with eccentric artists, such as Picasso, Stein and Dali and with every new day he becomes more obsessed with his favourite era and people he admired his whole life. He even falls in love with a beautiful, messy young woman, a muse of many writers and painters of her time and his reality starts to become dreary and boring to him, except the short periods when he listens to translations of his secret crush's memoires, written in the twenties and enjoying Cole Porter's song in front of the shop where he meets a girl who understands his love for this music.

  I could not imagine a better city to put this movie in than Paris. After Amelie, one the most colourful and visually stunning movies, this city again shows its grandiosity and , makes the perfect setting for this wonderful fairytale-like movie. It breathes art, you can feel it on every corner, you can here accordians, violins and pianos playing and you can literally memorize every picture like a painting. Allen knew it when he decided to move from Barcelona and London and settle his characters here, to experience the most beautiful secrets of the most romantic city in the whole world.
  And once again, his choice of actors is flawless. Owen Wilson is wonderful as a naive, artistic young man who still believes in beauty and romanticizes of someone who will share his dreams with him. Rachel McAdams is beautifully irritating as his fiance Inez and Marion Cotillard is magical as always. She simply owns each scene she's in. But the supporting actors are what makes this movie even better. Kathy Bates as G. Stein or Adrien Brody as Salvador Dali and an array of other actors who come and go won't let you forget this one for a long time.

  As a great devotee of travelling and art of any kind, this movie moved me in so many different ways. I was filled with delight, fascination, love and peace. I couldn't keep smiling throughout its every minute. Its dialogues are smart and funny and don't allow you to rest a minute. But who would even want to rest in this medley of lights, music and life. In the end, this movie has an important message which might make you question yourselves, your thoughts and actions. And even if you're not a big fan of Woody Allen, this gem of his might make you change your mind. But even if it doesn't, I think you won't regret these 90 minutes, because if you like any kind of art, you will find yourself here, because this is art in art.

  LovelyT

• Casque d'or — for Casque d'or
  Written by maud93 on 21.01.2012

  Jacques Becker isn't one of the most famous french directors, despite severall very good films and "Casque d'or", which could be considered as a national treasure!
  The film was inspired by real facts, which took place in early 20th century in Paris, and by one real character, whose nickname gave the film's title. She was a prostitute, famous for being very beautiful, and a gangster, probably his pimp was sentenced to death, after having killed a man, who took a little too much interest in Casque d'Or.
  The film has a very simple plot, text isn't very abondant, but pictures are exceptionally beautiful. Most of the characters are prostitutes or "apaches" as french gangsters were called a century ago. They speak in a language that hardly exists anymore, sort of parisian slang, that sounds almost posh today...
  Actors are well known, but a lot of people remember Signoret as a fat and very tired old woman, and Reggiani as a singer. For those who don't know Signoret as a gorgeous young actress, I advise them to watch the film. She is the film, from the beginning to the end.
  No one either cries or complains, even when the worst happens, life being unfairly difficult, and poverty and violence just being the normal surrounding.
  Casque d'Or is very modern, in an unfortunate manner, because things haven't changed so much...
  This is a sad but not depressed film, because women stay there, they are hope.

• Plants vs Humans — for Invasion of the Body Snatchers
  Written by vepro on 14.01.2012

  I'm a huge fan of dystopian movies like this one. It reminds me a great deal on Carpenter's „They live“ and in some segments on Orwell's „1984“. I'll elaborate this. Both „They live“ and „1984“ use fictional plot to detect some of the most important issues in contemporary world. For Carpenter that's capitalism in it's worst and for Orwell it's a totalitarian society, like communism for example. This movie precedes „They live“ and it possibly influences Carpenter but it comes after „1984“ and bares some resemblance. For example I understood this movie as a metaphor for communist society, or rather, the fear of communist society and what would happen if we lived in such a world. The plants from outer space thereby represent the „red danger“, they infiltrate our homes and our lives turning us into something else, something that looks like us but it aint us. It's power is in numbers, in masses, and in the illusion that everything is normal. This way they can easily transform everyone into a human shaped shell. Once they control the communications and authorities it's almost impossible to stop them.

  This is the way that every ideology is distributed, whether we are talking about capitalism or communism, they both use strong and subtle propaganda and relay on masses to be the bearers of their message.
  In one point during the conversation between our main character and his „turned“ friend, his friend is urging him to join them because he will be: „…reborn into an untroubled world…where everybody's the same“. He also says: „Love, desire, ambition, fate, without them life's so simple“. We can see here some of the basic premises of communist society as they were seen by the capitalist western world during the cold war period. And the main character represents here a liberated western man, who refuses to live life without emotions and in subordination, which is thought to be like in communist countries.

  What is great, on the other hand, the other side of the medal is also questioned in this movie. Main character is indeed a true patriotic citizen of USA and defends all what the American dream stands for, but comes across no understanding from most people around him. At the end he's having a tough time stopping somebody on the highway to help him get away, and the doctors want to put him in the mental institution. He is highly alienated and there is no way to prove what he is talking about. Every attempt to show that there is something wrong with the system is claimed insane, just as he agreed in the beginning: it's all a collective neurosis. But this neurosis, caused by „what is going on in the world“ is dismissed as illusions, or rather something unusual, not normal; even though it pinpoints the problem that actually exists. If we take a closer look of what's going around the world today we may see how every kind of protest against neoliberal capitalism is dismissed as the work of neo – communists, hippies, lazy people or something else like that, while in fact the protesters introduce urgent issues such as monopoly of the banks, health care or education.

  So, although filmed in 1956, I think that this movie is still very good piece of work, important for understanding of global tensions today, as I thought of „They live“ or „1984“. And it has a great uncertain and uncomfortable ending. Or you can watch it as another black and white sci – fi movie and wait until you go to sleep, thinking that the morning won't change anything.

• R.I.P. Bruce — for Jaws
  Written by vepro on 13.01.2012

  Steven Spilbergs “Jaws” is truly a groundbreaking movie in every aspect of the word. I watched it last night for at least thirtieth time and was again amazed how great and fresh the movie is. It changed a lot in terms of marketing and movie distribution as well as in thriller – suspense genre. And a lot of it came from malfunctioning equipment and compensating the original ideas, but for the best.

  Alongside “Duel”, “Jaws” is my favourite Spilberg movie because it shows what the film making is all about. Great character development trough the entire movie, great acting and great story – telling accompanied with brilliant usage of camera makes this movie unforgettable in cinema history, while Bruce makes you remember it all so clearly if you swam further from the shore than you planed on some drunken summer night. Character of Quint is great and it truly resembles captain Ahab in his obsession and devotion to catch this man – eating monster against the odds and capabilities of his fellows on board of “Orca”. I usually don’t like it in other movies, but he also functions as a comic relief in stressful situations even though he is this grumpy old man with a lot of fisherman stories in his bones. He is for me the strongest character in this movie alongside great Schneider’s chief Brody. What I also consider very good in this movie is the portrayal of human nature when it comes to decisions which include money and human lives on the opposite sides on the scale of interest, and the hypocrisy of provincials towards “outsiders”.

  Some jump scenes and overall suspense make this movie a true horror flick but what you recall the most is the simple but terrifying score by John Williams which precedes every shark attack. The absence of shark footage, due mentioned mechanical failures, contribute also to chilling atmosphere, because what you can’t see is always more scary than what’s in front of you. One thing I would change in this movie is all known happy ending, well at least for the majority of characters, so deeply rooted in Hollywood blockbuster horror tradition.

  For this movie to have full effect I recommend to postpone viewing at least until June.

• Lady of the Flies — for Phenomena
  Written by vepro on 12.01.2012

  Somewhere in “Swiss Transylvania” there is a “Richard Wagner’s international school for girls”. While the unpleasant Foehn wind is blowing and a serial killer strikes again, somewhat special girl comes to the school, unaware that she’ll solve the case. Well, with a little help of her friends.

  The plot is quite original but what’s the thing for me in this movie is Argento’s brilliant usage of sound and build up of suspense from the very slow beginning to a very dynamic finish. Sound is what keeps you on the edge, especially if you’re Dario Argento fan, whether we are talking about film music or soundtrack. Iron Maiden’s “Flash of the Blade” functions great as our main character is snooping around where she shouldn’t and you know something is going to happen real soon. But when loud music stops and unpleasant silence kicks in that’s where you should expect real shit storm.
  
  It must be said that this movie isn’t so much horror-ish as some other pieces by Argento but is equally thrilling and atmospheric. Except of some gore and explicit decapitation the real horror is happening in the place where cameras eye, (meaning yours too) can’t reach or in girls head. Main character has something similar to Carrie, being misunderstood and rejected by nearly all of her environment and with telekinetic powers that could easily take care of everyone in her way. If you want, you can find here perhaps questions of girl maturing into a woman, or some other growing up problematic that are hidden in sub-text. This wouldn’t take away any of the joy of watching this movie, it could only contribute.

  In conclusion I would say that this movie is more disturbing than it is scary, it is little slow in some parts and with minor plot holes but is nevertheless great piece of horror cinema, although not Argento in his best. Best choice for a warm windy night with speakers on maximum.