anordall Reviews

The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999)

The floppiest flop of all flops!

[1/10 · 25 June 2016]

Was Jeanne d'Arc a supermodel? Did she, at least, look like one? Miss Jojovich does, and perhaps this is the reason why she can't keep her mouth closed - she thinks she is in a sensual performance for a TV ad. She is blonde in the beginning of the movie, yet she has dark-brown hair in the end, quite appropriate for a supermodel. Together with the ultra-British English of all actors and the use of modern jargon and slang, these are items that add to this total disaster I had to witness during 2 and a half precious hours of my life. Besson should be ashamed of signing such a film. Not being able to follow Victor Fleming in his 1948 version of the story, duly and truly metaphysical, he cooks up a hard-to-digest mixture of baby and middle-aged Christs, angels, demons, ghosts and the like. To say nothing of Jojovich's hysterical shouting, which adds to her very poor acting. All my sympathy to Cassel and the few others who give a decent performance, but this does not save the film.

Martha (I) (1974 TV Movie)

Soap Opera with style

[8/10 · 24 November 2014]

A great movie, made in a special way. Not only was it made for TV, it has the style of a soap-opera. Those who have seen it must have noticed that there are a number of "episodes", separated by a gradual darkening of the screen (till completely black, then lightening up again). The acting, the decor and so on are pure soap-opera. Some reviewers have seen a touch or two of Douglas Sirk, but there's more than that to it: when Martha gives her German address in the embassy, the name of the street is "Douglas Sirk"! Pure melodrama, but with great results. Fassbinder gives the movie the necessary pace to portray a convincing tragedy resulting from fatality mixed with individual characteristics. The final words appropriately are "When God takes a step, man cannot change it".

Certified Copy (2010)

A companion to La Dolce Vita

[10/10 · 4 November 2014]

This movie stands up to the greatest ones in movie history. It shows to the best what movie language is - a movie is made to be seen by you, the spectator, and the author gives you what he has in his mind, in a way that will seize your attention from beginning to end and, also, will please you, will make you think or even will make you feel uncomfortable. Light, sound, movement, all this is substance for creation. Everything, from the reflections of the old town's buildings on the car's windshield to the irrational mixing up of languages (he doesn't speak Italian, but suddenly is is speaking Italian!), serves to the purpose of building up a piece of fine art while telling a story - and what a story! She plays a joke on the old lady (an excellent actress) in the cafeteria but soon she and his recently-made friend are playing the same joke on themselves and they no longer know that they are half-strangers, they believe they have been married since long! He (un?)willingly becomes the "perfect copy" of her ex-husband and has to abide to his own theories that a copy will serve its purposes as well as the original. The movie will open a thousand new doors to your mind - if you agree to join the play!

Cidadão Boilesen (2009)

Boilesen controversial?

[10/10 · 14 September 2014]

Can't you identify a Nazi when you see one? If you cannot, see this documentary and you'll learn how to easily do it. Even if this Nazi has become a little "tolerant" after discovering that Brazilian half-bred women are much more savory than his pure whites... You'll also discover that the 1964 Dictatorship was as much military as it was civilian, and a genuine product of capitalism. You'll learn that the Danish democracy, this pasteurized product of spotless Denmark, can breed such monsters, perhaps with the same easy with which Denmark accepted the Nazi rule - and you'll go deeper in this stuff, if you have an inquiring mind, to learn that Nazism was bred in Sweden, first officially adopted in Finland (the first country whose national symbol was the Swastika) to finally reach its summit in Germany. Oh, those great democracies, still venerated today! This documentary is a service to Mankind!

The Thing (1982)

A great movie EXCEPT for one thing

[8/10 · 21 July 2014]

Carpenter is a great director, and this is a great movie. The acting, the cinematography, the timing, everything contributes to make it a masterpiece. Carpenter shows us that he knows how to use closes, wide- views, fast and slow action, all in order to portray the misery and grandeur of men facing danger. But the goo, the gore, the trash, in one word, is absolutely ridiculous. Childish minds will tremble with terror and shrink down in the couch while seeing it, but adult people will just laugh at it. Why not create a "reasonable" monster, with no harm to the story? Or perhaps it wouldn't even be necessary to show it. The knowing that it is present and acting would be horror by itself.

The Purple Plain (1954)

An excellent movie!

[10/10 · 24 May 2014]

Convincingly done, above all. We can believe the characters, they are real and moving. This movie is "British to the marrow" (thanks, Ringo Starr), and is an astonishing feat of Parrish, an American, that he has been able to so beautifully direct it so as to capture the British/colonial spirit of the story (the same for the acting of American star Gregory Peck). Only those addict to modern-day violent "action" movies will find this movie slow-paced; it goes exactly at the pace it should go. The cinematography is GREAT, so is the acting and the correctness of the technical details, only that I don't believe AT-6s were employed by the Southeast Asia Command; also, the crew of the crashed plane doesn't seem to have received a reasonable training on jungle survival. Peck is a handsome hero, but also humane and fragile; the final scene, when he lies down on the bed alongside the sleeping girl and also falls asleep is deeply touching!

Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

About the reality of the soul

[8/10 · 18 December 2013]

Most people seem to be accepting the notion that the girl's fantasy world is a form of compensation and/or escape mechanism for/from the brutal world that surrounds her, but there is much more to it! Those familiar with psychoanalysis, and mainly Jung's deep psychology will recognize a plethora of symbols in the film's images, from lingams to mandalas, archetypical characters like the king and the queen and so on. But what has touched me the strongest is the solemnity and depth of the words pronounced by an unseen priest (?) at some moments, about fate and the wisdom and mercy of God. Some of the most basic religious issues are present in the movie (even the forbidden fruit), as is Jung's concept of individualization. Del Toro wanted to make us think about these issues; the movie is not a contraposition of reality vs fantasy, but an insight into the human mind/soul, and that reminds me of a quote from Herzog's Fitzcarraldo: "life is a succession of illusions (including violence, I say) that won't allow us to perceive the reality of dreams".

The Wave (2008)

It is not so simple

[6/10 · 28 July 2013]

Politics happens at society, not at a person's brain. All forms of political regimes serve a purpose, and those ruling a given society are the ones who say what purpose is that. Nazism was an autocracy, but its essence was and still is to fight socialism, because the ruling classes of Germany (though it was born in Sweden, Nazism reached its peak in Germany) were and still are the capitalists. Today, Germany fancies it got totally rid of Nazism, but the truth is that only the forms are different, the essence is the same. Just look at what German capital is doing to Greece, Spain and other weak economies - and how Germans explain the economic troubles of these countries: they are "lazy", undisciplined peoples. Gansel plays on us the same trick Hitler played on Germans: it doesn't matter what class you belong to, you can reunite with all the other persons that have the same "blood" as you, even if this "blood" is an "ersatz" one. You only need to be careful with your personal idiosyncrasies... The film only proves that anarchism and fascism are birds of the same feather.

Summer Affair (1971)

Mutti but not Nudi

[20 November 2012]

On those days, Europeans still believed in the built-in good nature of Man. So, the boy is a healthy, sympathetic guitar player who won't force the little girl into sex unless she is willing to be initiated in this sole reason to exist (the goddess Reason was long gone, after the reason-shattering slaughters of WW1 and WW2, and god Hazard hadn't been put in her place yet). Anyway, only extreme examples as this (the film) will proof such empty theories... Also: much to the contrary of what "sheenafilm" states in his (her)review of Il Sole nella Pele, Ornella Mutti doesn't appear in the nude scene. The credits clearly say that the scene was taken with the sole participation of an over-eighteen model.

Mosquito Squadron (1969)

A mysterious poster

[16 December 2010]

This film succeeds in being as poor as "633 Squadron", only that there is no character to be so ridiculous as Chakiris' with his rock'n'roll player hairdo in the latter, nor a sedan from the sixties to appear in the background in that moving love scene. But "Mosquito Squadron" has an intriguing scene, and I profit from this opportunity to ask if someone else also noticed it. When Quint enters the empty room of his deceased pal with his now widow,the camera shows a poster on the wall reading "ASI / NBG ? QBI (in red)/ R.I.P.!". "R. I. P.", of course, stands for "requiescat in pacem", rest in peace. But, all those remaining letters, what do they mean? Does anyone know or have any idea?

Eastern Promises (2007)

Some hidden or unconscious aspects of the plot

[8/10 · 10 March 2008]

The baby is born on the Eve of Christmas, her body all covered in blood like so many other characters in the story. The story ends on New Year's Eve, the beginning of a new life, and now the child is clean and safe. Anna is also the name of the mother of the Virgin Mary, besides being the nurse who cares for the child of the dead ex-virgin. And England is the country where God is viewed as a female, in the collective unconscious - by the way, that is why the English people give such long lives to their queens. The movie is a story of Hope - "Eastern Promises", and East is the place where the sun comes from. Like so many other artists, Cronenberg has buried his Christian myths in his Unconscious, from where he now draws the images for such fantastic movies.