vidsark Reviews

Canaima (1945)

Fine cinema but all looks and less depth

[7/10 · 17 November 2009]

I've read Romulo Gallegos' book translated in my language (Slovenian) and I was fascinated with deep characterizations deriving from fewest possible dialogs and the philosophy of a life, driven by honest instincts, liberal thinking and wide fan of feelings of a man torn between duty to his roots and environment imposed on him. In the movie, dating 10 years after the book, all those subtle tones are lost in a Hollywood-like display of a black-and-white hero and much much talking. From the technical point of view, the movie is almost perfect, great cinematography, music and direction, even much altered dramaturgy (storyline) is good, as it is adapted to a different medium (film). But it shows here, how written word made much more progress to this point in history than moving pictures. The novel even today isn't out-of-date, whereas the movie plays rather like a curiosity and display of good filming techniques of the time, than a work with some weight, especially intimately expressed ideas, that were also recognized widely by the Venezuelan people after the book was published(Venezuela being homeland of both Gallegos and Marcos Vargas, hero of the novel/movie.) But it is not an excuse to make an average movie out of a perfect book, just because a canon of making movies was such and such in those times. This movie was made in Mexico, so please look at Bunuel's early work and compare, and one other example comes to mind: Mizoguchi's 47 Ronin from 1941 (!) is a great example of how a simple story, told before a hundred times, can live forever on a new medium if there is a genus at work.

If there is someone from Venezuela who wishes to comment on the movie and on my comment, please do so, I would like to hear how you see it.

Corto Maltese: Secret Court of the Arcanes (2002)

A beautiful synthesis of modern arts

[9/10 · 27 October 2005]

This is overall a nice proof that there is enough room in the movie/animation world for something different, concerning almost all factors of animated movie-making: direction, animation, dramaturgy, plot, message, visual narration and least but not last, the thing movies are best at, connecting different means of expression, like music, visual art, literature... etc. This feature animation based on (almost literally) Hugo Pratt's graphic novel Corto Maltese in Siberia encompasses all above-mentioned features beautifully, and I think meets some comic readers' secret expectations about how a cartoon on this subject should look like. Recommended is of course that you look up some historical facts and names appearing in the movie, of course the best you can do is to read the graphic novel. This may be the least effective side of the film, namely the plot and character positioning may be pretty confusing if you're not familiar with at least some of the facts manipulated in the film. The first thing that convinced me in the movie was beautiful transition from Pratt's black&white comics to this full color extravaganza. Even though colors are a totally different medium, here they speak in favor of Pratt's narration, whose main quality is a kind of storyboard organization of the plot. I've always wondered how his comics would look in full color. In contrast to the later editions of his comics in color, here the formula works excellently, whereas in the comics, merely colorized black&white drawings, the charm gets lost. The second thing I couldn't miss, but has no connection whatsoever with Pratts novels, was the music. This is the main addition to the general mysteriously melancholic air of his comics, that the film makers can be credited for. All in all a beautiful achievement, cinematically and literary, mainly for affectionados, but a little bit too short for the ones used to Pratts comics.