hugofreitasxavier Reviews

The Crown Jewels (2011)

A much darker Amelie - still a great movie!

[8/10 · 24 November 2011]

Great directing, great acting, magnificent script.

Just way too sad. The redeeming of the characters in the end comes too late and is a little unbalanced - only that leads me to give it 8 stars.

For everyone who has enjoyed Amelie, or Big Fiss, or Mr. Nobody, this will be a great movie.

It has it all, passion, death, innocence, humor, crime, life's roughness and life's lessons, a little magic, some sad poetry and a story so strong and so original you will be able to unglue your eyes from the screen.

A High Wind in Jamaica (1965)

A forgotten masterpiece

[9/10 · 24 November 2011]

Alexander Mackendrick's cut was a lot longer than the studio edit. Yet, still this holds up as a fabulous story on the redeeming power of innocence.

A group of children on their way to England to get a civilized education that their parents feel is they are lacking in wild and superstitious Jamaica, when the ship they are in is assaulted by pirates.

In the confusion the children end up in the pirate ship. Much to the distress of the crazy captain (Anthony Quinn still overacting much from the recently successful Zorba) and second-in-command James Coburn.

If the leading actors are perfect, the children steal the show and prove once again that Mackendrick is probably one of the best children's director ever.

(just out of curiosity try and spot the you writer-to-be Martin Amis among the children - curiously the less interested in acting as it turns out) Mackendrick does this with great realism: his pirates don't speak the hollywoodesc Spanglish, the scenarios are really shot on location (mostly in high sea ships). he had great problems with the studios and still it turned out a great movie.

A fabulous tale of innocence and how it can change the hearts of hard men - and the movie shoes this, as the book by Richard Hughues, without falling for the sentimentalistic side of the story. It's a tough movie for it's time.

What this movie could have been if the director's version could have been released. Even so, magnificent.

Toto the Hero (1991)

Someone living my life

[24 November 2011]

Thomas has a clear memory of being swapped with another baby during a fire when he was a newborn in the hospital.

The movie goes back and forth in the life of Thomas as mostly follows the revenge he has planned against the guy who lived his life.

All of his life's difficulties and joys seem to originate and be stolen - respectively - by his mortal enemy.

As in all of Dormael's stories, there is a moment in childhood where you loose your innocence: this is the moment you understand the world and for your vision of life. This can happen mostly through trauma and so the loss of innocence in this movie happens when Thomas is a newborn.

But it also keeps happening at each turn of Thomas' life and at every choice. We can't change who he decided to be.

And the life his enemy has lead is one of luxury, love and happiness - or could it be that it is not so much what Thomas thinks? Great soundtrack with the magnificent Trenet singing Boum Boum.

In a way that sort of fable that modern french cinema has given us with Amelie but somewhat darker and much more complex and profound.

You will laugh and cry. You'll feel like your heart is being squeezed and in the end it's let gone and you feel free with the last scene.

Mr. Nobody (2009)

Another great masterpiece from Dormael

[10/10 · 24 November 2011]

Again Dormael tells another life-long story about destiny, love and the choices we make trying for happiness and that clearly tear us apart from that very happiness.

As in all Dormael's movies there is a moment in childhood where the loss of innocence dictates your vision of life, your way of seeing things and therefore the choices you make. And every choice leads you further and further away form that golden age of childhood innocence.

In Dormael's movies the soundtrack clearly illustrates that notion. Cheerful music for the childhood scenes.

He also implies that the use of fiction as a way of escaping reality and even trying to change it. all of this is, obviously, unfruitful.

Most of the reviews for this movie that are not good come from people that either looked at the big argument of the movie or followed the small episodes, not understanding that both are vital and should be understood as a whole.

For those that like this movie: check out Dormael's great Toto, Le Heros - the story of a guy who lives his whole live with the certainty that he was swapped as a child and he should be living someone else's life instead. Magnificent.