For my considerable sins, I did not even know this film existed, even though Cinema Paridiso is my favourite World cinema film, and in my top five of all time.
Catching it late on Film 4, I was especially interested and keen, as Radio Times' David Parkinson awarded a rare five stars and so was expecting a true gem to magically unfold before my receptive and captivated eyes.
Firstly, it's no good folk saying not to compare it with Paradiso when so many scenes, specially near the start are of town market squares and night and shots of old films in cinemas with young boys being naughty - but instead of making me feel at home these seemed to me to be more of re-hashing than their obvious desire. Whilst Paradiso had a few main characters that we soon grew to love and cherish, Baaria unfolds so quickly and overwhelmingly, it's like a floodgate and as more than a few other reviewers have noted, makes the narrative difficult to follow.
All those Euros thrown at it somehow do not enhance the character or soul of the film, the letterbox widescreen losing connectivity on TV and whilst it was undoubtedly very impressive in the cinema, I feel detached from both it and the characters - indeed, the story as a whole, in fact! So earnest is Tornatorre to make an epic, it remains that - and frankly, a bit of a lame beast, hopping rather clumsily from scene to scene. And, just as soon as someone says something profound, long before the subtitles have sunk in and related to the story as a whole, we are then whisked off to another, often un-associated scene.
I'm not the only one to say that it'll take another, if not three views to follow the story, you feel that you should, somehow but whilst one is all too happy to do that when the film deserves such, my initial viewing does not tell me that that to be the case, which is a pity.
True, the typically larger than life characters and robust humour is ever present but they do not seem to connect with anything that's memorable and so all this leads to are a lot of linked-up snippets of excitable Sicilian life that do not gel. Maybe the fault lies in the fact that I re-watched the original The Godfather the very day before and am comparing (in pace and character and narrative development, not the story) and frankly, the two are legions apart.
So, believe me, I am really rather disappointed with Baaria. I will try again with it and hopefully it will appeal to me more.
Catching it late on Film 4, I was especially interested and keen, as Radio Times' David Parkinson awarded a rare five stars and so was expecting a true gem to magically unfold before my receptive and captivated eyes.
Firstly, it's no good folk saying not to compare it with Paradiso when so many scenes, specially near the start are of town market squares and night and shots of old films in cinemas with young boys being naughty - but instead of making me feel at home these seemed to me to be more of re-hashing than their obvious desire. Whilst Paradiso had a few main characters that we soon grew to love and cherish, Baaria unfolds so quickly and overwhelmingly, it's like a floodgate and as more than a few other reviewers have noted, makes the narrative difficult to follow.
All those Euros thrown at it somehow do not enhance the character or soul of the film, the letterbox widescreen losing connectivity on TV and whilst it was undoubtedly very impressive in the cinema, I feel detached from both it and the characters - indeed, the story as a whole, in fact! So earnest is Tornatorre to make an epic, it remains that - and frankly, a bit of a lame beast, hopping rather clumsily from scene to scene. And, just as soon as someone says something profound, long before the subtitles have sunk in and related to the story as a whole, we are then whisked off to another, often un-associated scene.
I'm not the only one to say that it'll take another, if not three views to follow the story, you feel that you should, somehow but whilst one is all too happy to do that when the film deserves such, my initial viewing does not tell me that that to be the case, which is a pity.
True, the typically larger than life characters and robust humour is ever present but they do not seem to connect with anything that's memorable and so all this leads to are a lot of linked-up snippets of excitable Sicilian life that do not gel. Maybe the fault lies in the fact that I re-watched the original The Godfather the very day before and am comparing (in pace and character and narrative development, not the story) and frankly, the two are legions apart.
So, believe me, I am really rather disappointed with Baaria. I will try again with it and hopefully it will appeal to me more.