Blindopolis Reviews

Angels of Sin (1943)

1st full-length feature by the self-described Christian-atheist Bresson...

[2 February 2007]

1st full-length feature by the self-described Christian-atheist, it was made in occupied France after Bresson had done a year in a prison camp.

There's nothing ostentatious i his style. It's sparse, no flashy camera-acrobatics or editing tricks. I always feel the best directors are those whose work you hardly notice.

The story is set in a convent, Sisters of Bethany, it's purpose is to help women in prison rehabilitate. In it we find Anne-Marie, a somewhat proud & middle-class woman who comes to logger-heads w/Mother Superior & this leads to problems. Along the way she connects w/one of the more recalcitrant prisoners & recognizes her pain & need to be reached out to. Upon release the prisoner returns to join the convent under suspicious circumstances.

What we have is a contrast in characters who come to the convent for different reasons & an exploration into spiritual matters. Well worth watching...

Ennio Morricone (1995 TV Movie)

Short & Sweet!

[30 January 2007]

A short documentary on my favorite film composer Ennio Morricone, whom most of you probably know from his ground-breaking work on Sergio Leone's trilogy of spaghetti-westerns w/Squint Eastwood.

It features the usual talking heads, peers in the industry, biographers, producers & directors, such as Brian DePalma, John Boorman, David Putnam, Gillo Pontecorvo & of course Sergio Leone.

There wasn't a great deal of new information, I did find out he used to be an arranger before he became famous for composing & that his work on A Fistful of Dollars, particularly the main theme was taken from an already existent popular Italian album he had written & arranged on which Sergio loved & actually hired him on the merit of.

Prior to A their collaboration on Fistful of Dollars, the traditional way of scoring a film would be to present the finished product of a film (rough-cut) to the composer & he would write something based on what he saw, but w/these two, Leone had the idea to have the music written first & to construct the scenes he would shoot based on the music. That alone created countless copy-cat films & spaghetti-westerns were on their way to worldwide recognition! Probably my favorite score is to The Mission, the Robert DeNiro/Jeremy Irons vehicle which should have easily won the Academy Award but didn't. Morricone was ROBBED I tell ya! This was a fun documentary, it was great seeing the film clips w/some voice-over information being given. It's really not an in depth look at he composer, but worthwhile if you get the opportunity to see it...

Rabu kiru kiru (2004)

Fun movie for the open-minded!

[7/10 · 26 January 2007]

Love Kill is the story about a job-placement office worker who likes to collect porn who falls in love w/a woman who came to him looking for work. He begins spying on her trying to figure out ways to get her to become his wife. Around the same time he meets an odd teenage girl whom he convinces to befriend the woman of his dreams so as to find out what her interests are which he will use to his benefit once he gets a date with her.

Along the way the teenage girl befriends the brother of the girl she's helping spy on & although he's gay & she realizes she is too, they spend time together getting stoned and trying to adjust to the pains of reaching adulthood. They stumble upon a hippie couple having sex in a van & peek through the window. They do mushrooms together & trip out while his sister & the office worker become involved & suddenly the young girl realizes she is in love w/the older woman & problems begin.

It's a lovely coming-of-age story, combined w/varying sexuality & recreational drug use told in a tragic-comedic way. Recommended for the open minded!