Change Your Image
Laetitiaa
Reviews
Idi i smotri (1985)
Extra credit
This is an incredible film by Elem Kilmov, that takes us inside the truth incident of the world war 2 through a young boys eyes. It is not often I get affected by movies but this is certainly a movie that affected me and opened my eyes. It made me disgusted by the humanity. How can people be such savages towards each other especially towards innocent children, women and old people to lock them inside houses and burn them. I feel a huge sympathy for those people who were killed during this war. I think by doing this movie he expressed his opinions and emotions about the world war 2 through a young boy, because he was a kid when the world war 2 erupted. I believe that this movie shows the truth side of the war. I love the way the movie is filmed, because it makes you feel like you are a part of the movie. Like you are experiencing the incidents that the characters are going through. The camera movement and the iconic picture is so well done and intensive. The close up of the character catches the intensive emotion. The sound effect on the deaf boy makes you go inside his brain.You can feel the pain and confusion he is going through, like he is losing his mind. Even if this movie represent sorrow and cruelty I could still see some moments of joy. One scene in particular is when the character Glasha dances after the Germans bombarded their camp. It was a way for them to show that they are still alive. I think the message of the film has a good connection to the title. The title says it all, come and see how they German soldiers treated us, locked innocent and hopeless unequipped Soviet resistance in their house and burned them. The camera really takes you inside the cruelty of the world war 2. The cast of the film is incredibly talented. The music of Mozart that was used in this movie, lifts the film and gives it a powerful and beautiful sound. The soundtrack and sound is designed in a way to put us through a war so we can feel what the population during the war felt like. You can also through the music hear all elements of sorrow, horror, fear, darkness, despair and in a way happiness all at the same time. Do you think war is cool? Shooting and killing some enemies? Watch this film and then ask yourself the same question. I guarantee you that it will change your view of all the violence. It is an incredibly touching and great movie.
Le fantôme de la liberté (1974)
Enjoy!
I was not really a fan of the film although I don't think it was all bad because it is definitely a surrealism movie that brought up really good meaning of the real life. The movie itself reflects on our everyday life. Luis Buñuel criticize religions, the bourgeois society and the norms and morals of society in this movie. It also shows that we expect things to be in certain ways, but Buñuel shows us that the society does not have to be all black and white. He use humor to show us that. I did not like that movie have so many tableaux which is a french word for the episodes in movies. Although every episode had an important message. One tableaux shows that we people past judgment to fast on things and each other. Buñuel is making fun of us, because I thought and I bet the audience thought it was nasty pictures the parents was looking at. Another episode is the young man and the old lady scene. What this episode say is the idea of a young man and an old lady together gives us "shivering". The reason why is because we has an image of how a relationship is suppose to "be". The fact that people are saying that age do not matter between two people people that love each other. Then why do we get "chills" when we see young people together with old people? In our society when old people are together with young people we instantly think they are together for the goodness of money and we have a hard time believing that they are in love. It is because we have an image of how things are supposed to be in our society. In the same scene we get to see the naked lady body and we the audience expected her body to be all wrinkled but it wasn't, which is typical Buñuel to make fun of us. The classroom episode with the police officers acting like a bunch of children and teasing the teacher is a also an important scene. When you think about this scene and trying to connect with our every day life is that as soon as we see police officers we immediately give them respect. But when you see how they behave in the classroom like children teasing the teacher your respect for them lowers. And for them to have a bigger supervisor watching them is ridiculous. It's like; do we put our safety and trust in these kids"? One of my favorite episode that I think Buñuel did a great job, sending a message is the "Lost girl" episode. The message that he is trying to point out is that, as a child we feel ignored and invisible by our parents. The episode with the commissioner of Police make us ask ourselves. How can this man that is supposed to be the chief of protection, a possible lunatic that talks to his dead sister be a good role model to our society? When both men say they are commissioner of Police. This reflect on our society's political. What makes a politician a politician? They all pretend because who is really telling the truth? Politicians is telling people what they want to hear. That is what I think Buñuel is trying to tell us. According to Buñuel cinema should not necessary avoid the physical world of reality. That is why most of his movie are critical towards the middle class morality and mocking religions. This movie made be see things as it really is in real life. There is definitely a truth in what Buñuel is showing us. Our society, culture creates a picture of what we think is right and wrong that thing is suppose to be like this and that but Buñuel shows us that we need to think outside the box and explore our freedom more. On the other hand have more freedom and exploring it could also create chaos. But I do agree with Buñuel that we should have at least a more open minded illusion of liberty, freedom.
La otra conquista (1998)
The other conquest
This movie by Salvador Carrasco show us the other side of the Spanish conquest of Mexico. I did not really like this movie but I do give credit for the movie for trying to show us fusion between the Aztecs and the Spaniards on screen. This movie reminds me of the old and recent war and genocide in my country. When people of my ethnicity in my own country where hunted and killed. The movie was to dry for my taste. I wanted to see more and understand more. I felt that the movie did not explain the violence surrounding the Spanish conquest of Mexico in 1521 nor the loss and horror when the entire cities were destroyed. I think the movie fail to capture a deeper exploration into the historic moment of the fusion between Aztecs and the Spaniards. The end of the film left me confused because the director in a way fails to explain why the film ended they way it did. I mean why does Topiltzin, son of Moctezuma played by Damian Delgado decided to steal the Virgin Mary and then dies with it on top of him? I though that he left the spiritual conquest unexplained. It did not make any sense to me until we discussed it in class. When we talk about the film in class I got to hear that at the ritual, when they where about the sacrifices Topiltzin they made him look at the Virgin Mary. This made him hate her, but his feelings and spiritual belief changed when he started to see the Virgin as something good and a mother figure. This made me connect why he stole and wanted to die in peace next to Virgin Mary that he saw as a mother. If you paid enough attention you could see blood flowed out came from the Virgins wrist not from Topiltzin. You could also see tears from the virgin. This shows that she was in pain of loosing her "child". If we had not talk about this in our class I would not have connected. And this is exactly what I mean, that you do not really get an explanation. I also did not see how this connects with what the story of the film which is the fusion of the two religion. The cast however, did a great job specially the character Topiltzin, son of Moctezuma played by Damian Delgado considering that it was one of his first movies. I also felt that the light and quality of the movie was very poor. It might had been the directors intention or because this was low-budget film.
Dom za vesanje (1988)
Time of the gypsies
Time of the gypsies is a film I really enjoyed watching. I literally loved this magical realism movie by Emir Kuturica. It shows us events that could happen in real life that does not physical happens in real life. Magical incident but are not acknowledge in real life. It shows us that something extraordinary can happen in our everyday life. What I loved about this movie is that you do not know where the movie is taking you, because the movie itself does not follow a formula. It does have different genres, it first starts of with a humor. Then it takes a turn to a more seriously genres that eventually turns into tragedy. The film represent its own rule, it defined its own logical frame. It does not have the typical happy ending. If you look at another point of view you could see that the movie ends the same way it started with the wedding and a orphan kid. Another thing that I would like to point out is how Kuturica the director shows us how the other characters in the movie build the character of Perhan. You get to see the unconditional love from his grandmother. She is the moral center in the movie. She brings out the moral and reminds him of how good he use to be, a grandmothers boy. From Azra his wife, he felt betrayed because he thought she was carrying someone else child. His sister Danira brings hope to him. Perhan also felt betrayal from Ahmed that he in a way saw as a father figure.
Kuturica made us think that the first Perhan dream of the river sequence, where he imagine getting married to Azra is just imagination, a dream. The amazing thing about this scene is that the director gives us reason to believe that it might not just be a dream nor a imagination, when Azra burns herself under her breast. We get to see her to it again on their wedding night when Perhan rejects her. By Azra writing Perhan's name with burn marks makes the river scene real or felt real. I Love that Kuturica is twisting our minds. This proves the magical realism. What Kuturica is trying to say is that imagining feels real, to imagine is real. There is definitely a theme of self sacrifice is this movie. When Perhan returns to his village and finds Azra pregnant it turns him into a "mean bastard". He brings her to Rome and he treats her badly saying things like "give birth to your child so I can sell him". The self sacrifice that helps Perhan become human again is when Azra dies giving birth to the child and seeing her hovering in the air made him realize that the child was his. One again this movie has truly a powerful storytelling, it is so beautiful, spiritual and tragic. The music is very moving and amazing. It is so beautiful that it fills you with so much mixed emotion. I definitely recommend this movie for people to see. I feel sorry for these children. When someone rich from their village come and visit them, the poor believes that if the children goes with them they'll have that wonderful life they've always wanted, but it just gets worse. It breaks my heart. For Emir Kuturica to make the character Perhan tolerate and bear with awfulness to collect enough money for his grandmother and sister takes courage and I loved that.