Change Your Image
albertovico
Reviews
Nuovo Cinema Paradiso (1988)
Sincere, absolutely no money making machine, pure
Tornatore had a genial idea. He would never have expected such a success worldwide. During the Cannes and international awards he was sincerely surprised. It's very very difficult to get such an international recognition with the poor budget of Italian movies in recent years.
What made it big was sincerity, honesty and passion. It's not just another Hollywood billion sponsored movie. This is sincere and true.
Sicily can be Australia, USA or Germany as true people share the same feelings all over the world.
This movie was not "built" but just the passion of feelings of the actors and all of the team. They did just follow their heart, without thinking about money. This is why this movie had such a great international success.
I much prefer these movies like this made in Italy, with an heritage of 2500 years of culture, then "king kong", a pure matter of speculation and multimillion special effects with a multimillion marketing budget to promote it. I prefer passion to money... sure this movie will give you much more true feelings and brain food. Please, if you have the time rent it. You will not be disappointed... it's in the top 100 movies of all time on IMDb, with an 8.4 rating (based on more than 16000 member evaluations)!
Ken Park (2002)
De Sica is "realism"
I can't understand why, but Americans always seem to fail at "realist" films.
De Sica in "Ladri di Biciclette" (Bicycle Thieves) shows you a reality, you really can feel, it's like being there and living there.
Americans seems to like it to show a decadent America and to indulge on long sex scenes. This is not realism! Realism is very very easy to watch (directors just need to step the door out of their Hilton)... but at the same time very difficult to make a movie on.
Please keep on Matrix or 007... fiction is what you do best. Let the "realism" be part of the European Cinema.
Alberto
Reality Bites (1994)
Left-wing in the USA
A picture of left wing-wing generation X in the USA.
These people should look like left wing? In Europe they would be far right-wing and superficial.
As usual nothing made in the US, has any intellectual content, first of all Mr. Allen. Even people who claim to be intellectuals are too brainwashed by TV and hamburgers and 44oz. Colas (as cited in the movie)and MTV.
America has them all in hand. In the end the bourgeois so called "left wing" is always a winner, when it comes to compromising with traditional American values.
Nothing new, nothing well done. I wonder what US Anarchist do different? Do they eat at an "alterantive" fast food chain? Vote: 2/10, as an insult to real European "alternative" intellectuals (not burger intellectuals but real intellectuals).
The Magdalene Sisters (2002)
Ireland, the worst democracy on earth
This movie is a masterpiece, moving, touching and a well and objectively interpreted piece of history. 30.000 women have been segregated in a prison called "Magdalene Laundries", where nouns were brutal, sadistic, without feelings and not respecting even one of the international human rights of people. The shocking thing is that this all ended only in 1996, about 50 years after all other western countries became civilized and started respecting human and womens rights. This movie makes me think of Ireland as a brutal country, where no democracy and human rights exist. I will never go to Ireland in my life, I can't stand people did not make a revolution against this new form of Hitler Lager, that ended only 9 years ago. The movie shows that, as usual, behind all is money, as usual, and none of the silly histories invented by the Catholic Church, in which the nouns never believed. Apart from the physical violence, the movie shows an even greater psychological violence, extended to extremes rarely to be found in human history. I'm wondering how Ireland could enter the European Union and would be happy if they just were thrown out. This is not Europe, this resembles much more the fundamentalist Muslim countries, as far as womens rights are concerned. The last scene, about Crispina, is one of the most touching things I've ever seen in my life and I do not recommend it to sensible people (just close your eyes and don't watch). This scene generates a great anger: the Church, against its fake principles, is sexually very corrupt and does not care about the tremendous traumas a women can have. I personally think the Church is the most false, hypocrite, violent, without scruples, inhuman, cheating and corrupt institution on Earth, even worse than governments. I believe all people involved in the "Magdalene" Scandals should be sued by the state and have to pay for their cruelty with long years in prison (possibly for the rest of their lives) and possibly working full-time in a prison laundry. It's an Italian writing, most people will believe the Church dominates here. Nothing less correct. Italy signed a pact with the Vatican in the '20s. Since then the Church is only subject to the laws of the state and is considered a cultural association. The Church can not be involved in any kind of public institution and can not be involved in politics. We know the crimes the Church has committed in the past and for this reason only 30% of the population goes to Church at least once in a year. To the contrary there is a great movement of opposition to the Church, every day more hated. Only 2% of people aged 18-30 believe in the silly histories the Church continues to preach.
A last advice to the Irish: leave your country, haven't you realized you still live in the middle-ages?
All the economic development you recently had, by creating a fiscal paradise, is just the surface of middle-age value. Now please go to Church, it's late, and possibly beat a prostitute or a women if you find one on your way. And be proud to have had the last Nazi Lager in the history of western countries.
In the Name of the Father (1993)
The UK... another fake democracy
A Masterpiece, a realistic view of the British Violence and Regime.
Emma Thompson is a superb actress, the soundtrack is huge and the movie is realistic and breathtaking.
I just saw "Sacco and Vanzetti" and "Born on the 4th July". I then thought the US are the worst "democracy" on Earth. After this film I can say the UK is just the same, spoiled and dirty. Who started the Iraq war? USA and UK, of course. Bliar and Bush must have a feeling...
A real teaching on the, so called "British Empire" and the "Queen", such a funny joke, filling up the UK tabloids with her family affairs. And the courts... looking more like the '700 (don't they look ridiculous with their blond wig) than a modern democracy.
I am not saying this, the movie says "Fucking Government" (quoted) and they are right. 15 years of Jail and not a pound back, the poor father died and never proclaimed innocent, the corrupt police, using methods, not even imagined in the worst African dictatorships, not condemned for a week of prison.
The film gives you an idea of how UK was and is today... a mass of ignorant people voting for the best looking candidate.
As an European, I really would be happy if the UK went out, as this country has nothing to share with the real Swedish, Finnish, French, Italian and German democracies today.
Just a slave of Bush, just an exploiter of its colonies, conquered with blood, with people slowly working 7 hours a day.
What a beautiful country... I will never ever visit again. A country where you can speak frankly to people only when they are really drunk.
Alberto
Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
4th of July - Peace is just a word
Annie Lennox, an European artist, sang "Peace is just a word".
The best movie by Tom Cruise, one of the best on America's history.
A few points: 1) This movie shows how Americans were brainwashed by politics in the early '60s. 2) It also shows how people can react to a nonsense war in the late '60s and early '70s. In a few years Americans lost their faith in all powers: politics, religion and people victims just of an "image" war, with no sense. 3) Europe entered no wars after 1948, but the US people still love to look at CNN for the newest war, just as watching a soap opera. Maybe most of them don't really realize it's real, with real people and children dying. 4) Nietsche said: "There is no war without a reason" and added "The reason is always the financial interest of a powerful political minority". Of course the IRAQ war is an exception, as the US want to "export democracy", but actually I've never ever seen a single weapon of mass destruction. 5) The victims are always American and other nations dead people or people whose life will never be the same, for heavy wounds and psychological turmoil, without assistance, all life long. 6) This movie shows the US as the worst 3rd World country, when Bronx hospital is portrayed as a Bangladesh public hospital, where "funds are not enough for Vietnam" and people who "served the country" are left there to die, without any kind of assistance. 7) The main message is: "Who cares about them" and there is even a Republicn convention sending Vietnam Veterans to jail, just because they dared to express their opinion. 8) Today the US does exactly the same wars, this time for the sake of oil and arms usage. It's a shame this time people do not protest, where has the end of '60s protest spirit gone? . Instead they voted this mentally retarded president not only once but TWICE. 9) In Italy, where I live, the Constitution says "Italy repudiates war", so this is why we did not take part to the massacre of children, women and citizens, even though the US started without the authorization of the United Nations. 10) Germany, France, Spain and all other EU countries did never take part to your wars, maybe believing "peace is not just a word". 11) A film that makes you think, about the US brainwashing in "serving the country" (or maybe just serving the powerful lobbies) and about the myth of "the land of the free" where people are treated worse than animals in the Bronx Hospital after they "served" their country. 12) I would recommend watching "Sacco and Vanzetti" to see how the US Courts are able to kill people just for their ideas... is this the land of the free?
I hope this movie will make you think beyond the TV brainwashing and that any war needs to be contrasted just like we do in Europe. Don't let somebody kill yourself, for the sake of Bush's dirty business and Huge Bank Account in Switzerland.
Alberto