NOTE: This commentary may contain spoilers, if you haven't even seen the trailer for the movie.
It's All About Love seems strangely like a very talented filmmaker's first ambitious try to make a 'real movie'. If I knew nothing about Thomas Vinterberg, I would say, that he has a promising future... However, he has already made 3 impressing movies, so this one seems like a strange step backwards. In many ways it reminded me of Donnie Darko, both in structure and subject - and presumably in the creators' wish to entertain, while telling the audience, exactly what is wrong with this world.
And that might be "It's All About Love"'s problem, it is too exact. There is thick obvious symbolisms, as we in the first minutes are told that people drop dead on the streets, because of something with their hearts. Human beings /people are no longer important in this world, they are only regarded as means for other people to increase their income. Yes I understand that, and I totally agree with Vinterberg and Rukov in their view of the corporate world. But thats about it - there are nothing more, no conflicts, no drama, no personal involvement from any of the characters, even the two main characters, John and Elena, never get down and personal - they too seem cold and forlorn in this doomed world, so what's the point ? Maybe it's me, maybe I am too cynical, maybe it is too long time ago I've felt love inside, but I had expected something more, something a bit more engaging, enraging - something along the lines of Terry Gilliam's Brazil - something like Kubricks 2001 - something that I could discuss with friends for the next couple of years...
But instead I get this half-a-movie. It is indeed very promising. Vinterberg seems a big Hitchcock fan - The movie is somewhat reminiscent of North by Northwest (which has a strange coldness and don't-case-ness in all its actors, that Vinterberg seems to have recreated here) - He is also a big Kubrick fan, there is a lot of Eyes Wide Shut in this movie, apart from the sexual fantasies. And he has some very creative ideas all by himself, but they aren't really used for much more than showing the audience that he has some very creative ideas.
I've been told that Mogens Rukov (cowriter, and professor of screenwriting at the National Filmschool of Denmark, doesn't like completed movies. He prefers an unfinished story, that he himself can edit and change into something better. Maybe It's All About Love is a bit more Rukov than Vinterberg. Because, in spite of my general disappointment of this movie, it inspired me. It made me want to write another story about the coldness of this world. If that was the premise of the movie, then it most certainly has succeeded, if it was meant to entertain, and provoke, then it has not.
I still hope that Vinterberg will go on and make movies that we don't expect, but I also hope that he'll remember to make them entertaining.
-Peter Lind
It's All About Love seems strangely like a very talented filmmaker's first ambitious try to make a 'real movie'. If I knew nothing about Thomas Vinterberg, I would say, that he has a promising future... However, he has already made 3 impressing movies, so this one seems like a strange step backwards. In many ways it reminded me of Donnie Darko, both in structure and subject - and presumably in the creators' wish to entertain, while telling the audience, exactly what is wrong with this world.
And that might be "It's All About Love"'s problem, it is too exact. There is thick obvious symbolisms, as we in the first minutes are told that people drop dead on the streets, because of something with their hearts. Human beings /people are no longer important in this world, they are only regarded as means for other people to increase their income. Yes I understand that, and I totally agree with Vinterberg and Rukov in their view of the corporate world. But thats about it - there are nothing more, no conflicts, no drama, no personal involvement from any of the characters, even the two main characters, John and Elena, never get down and personal - they too seem cold and forlorn in this doomed world, so what's the point ? Maybe it's me, maybe I am too cynical, maybe it is too long time ago I've felt love inside, but I had expected something more, something a bit more engaging, enraging - something along the lines of Terry Gilliam's Brazil - something like Kubricks 2001 - something that I could discuss with friends for the next couple of years...
But instead I get this half-a-movie. It is indeed very promising. Vinterberg seems a big Hitchcock fan - The movie is somewhat reminiscent of North by Northwest (which has a strange coldness and don't-case-ness in all its actors, that Vinterberg seems to have recreated here) - He is also a big Kubrick fan, there is a lot of Eyes Wide Shut in this movie, apart from the sexual fantasies. And he has some very creative ideas all by himself, but they aren't really used for much more than showing the audience that he has some very creative ideas.
I've been told that Mogens Rukov (cowriter, and professor of screenwriting at the National Filmschool of Denmark, doesn't like completed movies. He prefers an unfinished story, that he himself can edit and change into something better. Maybe It's All About Love is a bit more Rukov than Vinterberg. Because, in spite of my general disappointment of this movie, it inspired me. It made me want to write another story about the coldness of this world. If that was the premise of the movie, then it most certainly has succeeded, if it was meant to entertain, and provoke, then it has not.
I still hope that Vinterberg will go on and make movies that we don't expect, but I also hope that he'll remember to make them entertaining.
-Peter Lind