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gest1969
Reviews
Arrivederci Saigon (2018)
A hidden gem!
I came upon this documentary by accident, checking the "Vietnam War" films on Netflix. It moved me beyond words, it's a discreet little gem of a film, a bittersweet and even funny in its absurdity tale that touches upon many things, life and war, music and bombs, youth and old age, innocence and disillusionment, men and women, civilians and soldiers, whites and blacks, then and now. These elderly Italian ladies, these small town music teachers, may seem like they don't have much of a story to tell but trust me, you don't want to miss it!
Bridge of Spies (2015)
Mr Smith goes to a bridge
I am a Cold War child, born in a country which did have common borders with a Warsaw Pact member but was never a target of thermonuclear destruction. I was still at primary school when I came across a couple of serialized excerpts from Powers' memoir. He really caught my imagination. I saw "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" and "Across the Bridge" (with Rod Steiger), films in which the bridge is both the passage and the frontier, a no-man's land in which destinies can be decided in a split second of hesitation or bad luck.
Bridge of Spies was a great disappointment. Cars and costumes were fine but the spirit and the people of the era was absent. I don't understand why, when I think of "Munich" or "Schindler's List", when there are so many novels to consult for the atmosphere and so many memoirs to consult for the facts. Why was Powers pictured with such unkind shallowness? Why were CIA men and DDR functionaries such caricatures? No matter how great Mark Rylance was, where was the motivation and the ideology of the Soviet spy? Where were the political leaders of the two superpowers? How did the little lawyer from the Bronx become such a cool operative behind the lines, from one day to the other, without experiencing any fear or trepidation?
There is nothing wrong with high morals or nostalgia in cinema but when a film tries to portray an episode from a complex political and ideological conflict serving only these ingredients, then I can only be disappointed at the waste of means and opportunities. Pity.
Zvezda (2002)
Putin's Great Patriotic Film about Stalin's Great Patriotic War
I believe that war films should try to convey the terror of war, avoid idealism and respect some rudimentary military principles. Zvezda barely does the first. Zvezda being a Russian war film, I was expecting patriotism, sentimentality, beautiful poetic pictures, a lush score, Slavic cheekbones and cruel Germans. What I didn't need was the naive love non-affair, the unrealistically silly war scenes and the abuse of the syrupy soundtrack in a film which avoided carefully all historical or political references (Stalinism, Nazism, Holocaust) only to end on a passing but nonetheless insulting to our sense of history endnote about "liberating Poland". A missed opportunity as a film but not as propaganda apparently.
FC Venus (2005)
Women are from FC Venus but men are not from FC Mars...
Disclaimer first: there is no way I will refer to football with the S-word. With this out of the way, I will say that this was a sweet and nice little comedy, with some really, really, REALLY funny scenes and lines, that manages to make a few interesting points about men, women and relationships. Actually, the only parts of the movie that require suspension of disbelief are those related to football, but it s a comedy, not a documentary, and the rest is straight, honest fun. I don't understand why our Finnish friends are so hard on it. Watch this movie with your girlfriend, preferably in the summer just before the World Cup, and, apart from a pleasant evening, you may find in the coming days, that the fight for the remote wont be that intense. For the first couple of games. At least. Maybe.
The Shield (2002)
Some people need to be shielded from The Shield ... why???
I am not a fan of police dramas or detective stories and when I switch the TV on is for sports and films, not for TV series. But I was hooked on The Shield from the start. The Shield tramples on every single known convention about TV police shows because its characters are not exclusively good, bad, clever or stupid. The Shield is not a "show", and that is not FX's hype, which we didn't get here in Europe, it is a feeling and it is an experience. Yes, I am talking about the hand-held camera and the gritty cinematography, denounced by many here as sheer incompetence and nothing else. Well, in Europe we have been exposed to Lars Von Trier's work and therefore we are more familiar with the concept, but still. To all these people complaining I have a couple of questions: have you ever driven a car in a bumpy road? Have you ever ridden a bike? Have you ever been in an aeroplane? Have you ever left your couch in front of the TV? Yes, you have. So what exactly is the problem with a shaky camera??? Do you get dizzy?
Hip hip hora! (2004)
I saw this film as "The Ketchup Effect" in Copenhagen and ...
... this was NOT a good teenage movie: this was a good movie, period! A very good movie. Looks like there is a very fine tradition for intelligent and sensible teenage movies on the make right now in Sweden, and I am thinking of Lukas Moodysson's "Show Me Love" (everybody knows the original title I suppose...). Anyway, back to Teresa Fabik's film. Poignant, forceful, amusing, clever, well-structured. Amazing direction, amazing young actors, not to mention a gorgeous Amanda Renberg. With great performances. Not for the faint-hearted who are afraid to face to what their children have to face every day, not for those who are looking for some light-weight entertainment, and certainly not for people who want their movies like their lives: black or white and nothing in between.
Alexander (2004)
Divine!
If there have been five films in my life that left the most indelible impression on me, holding me immobilized on my chair watching until the last credit has disappeared while everybody else is already leaving, talking to myself while going home, three of them were connected to Oliver Stone one way or another (Midnight Express being the first). Alexander is the latest one. Why Alexander is Great? Because it was made by a visionary about another visionary, because it is true to itself, to the legacy, to history, because it doesn't sell off, because it is not your typical popcorn blockbuster, and most of all because, steering away from creating a cartoon-like, hollow and fake "Super-Man" (Troy's Achilles) it focuses on the Man Alexander. The Hu-Man Alexander. Without concessions to what's popular, what's expected, what's commercial, what's understandable. This is a director that doesn't mince words or films. You can tell I am still under the spell. People mention the sexual orientation thing, either to complain about too much or too little. Don't judge the Ancient World by today's or yesterday's standards. Men in Ancient Greece had Friendships (albeit not necessarily platonic ones), not Relationships. People mention the accents. Alexander was born in Ancient Macedonia (not to be confused with today's Balcan state of the same name, please) and therefore would have spoken heavily-accented Greek, Olympias was born from Epirus, Roxanne could muster very little Greek since she was a "barbarian" (meaning non-Greek back then) and Alexander's soldiers came from all over Southern Balkan, Minor Asia etc. I found the choice of Irish over British or American (reserved to Athenians for instance) accent, and the use in the film of many different accents a particularly clever one. People dismiss the eagle's overflight. Read about omens from the gods, they were very important for the Ancients. People want full visibility during the battles (why don't you see a John Wayne film then, all the dead are hidden from view and the heroes are never afraid or confused), people want more battles or events (and yet complain about how long the film is), people want their money back. I could go on and on here but there is no use. See the film again. Read a book. Open your eyes. Ask questions. Undefeated yet mortal, great yet flawed, larger-than-life yet human, Alexander has left a mark in the histories of so many peoples for a reason, and yet, the film has no more chances to be understood by his viewers than the king himself from his soldiers and childhood friends. Typical and sad.