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paolo-35
Reviews
Allegro non troppo (1976)
Bozzetto - Disney 1:0
First of all a warning: my review will be VERY partial... Indeed, I already saw this movie several times, even when it was released (I was a child then). But lately in my favourite movie theatre in the frame of a series about animation I had the occasion to see it again just a couple of weeks after I saw for the first time Fantasia... Well, you already guessed which I preferred. Now actually I could appreciate the Fantasia-spoof part of Bozzetto's operation: when you see Debussy's Prelude a l'Apres-Midi d'un Faune you cannot help thinking for comparison to Beethoven's Sixth in Fantasia, where the Arcadian kitsch of Disney is turned into a funny-melancholic erotic fantasy. And what about my all-time favourite, Ravel's Bolero where a Boschian theory of monsters is generated by the rest of a Coke bottle and migrates toward the ruins of civilisation only to be at the end overwhelmed by man (which turns out to be an ape)? The comparison with the "6 millions years ago's documentary" (Disney's own words) of Stravinsky's Sacre du Printemps is striking. But Allegro Non Troppo is not only a Fantasia's spoof. The Dvorak's and Sibelius' segments are two stand-outs, Vivaldi's is light-hearted and Stravinky's is very funny. And the variety of styles and tones, from the grotesque to the moving, from impressionistic to almost cartoonistic is stunning to everyone who loves animation. And for one who has always loved Bozzetto's work the series of finals reminding him of other shorts like Opera or Ego tears him always to laughters... And let me also say something in favour of the sure weaker live-action's scenes.Sure, they are too forced, Disney's spoof is here too explicit, but at least this atmosphere of "joke among friends" captures also the Bozzetto's fan... And one can see how Nichetti is really building his character, a cartoon-like little man in struggle with the external world, with a mimic reminiscent of Keaton or Tati... Well, I don't know if I transferred my enthusiasm: I would like to say more, but I already used so much space...
Die Unberührbare (2000)
A disappointment
I missed this movie when it appeared, and I saw it just lately, because I read some very enthusiastic reviews on it and, living in Germany, I think one has to cope also to the local cinematographic up-to-date situation. Well, I felt disappointed. I mean, I agree with the main point of the reviews, that is to say the extraordinary performance of Hannelore Elsner as the main character, a leninistic writer, smoke- and sleeping pills-addicted, who just after the fall of the wall decides to leave the capitalistic Federal Republic of Germany and to move to the socialistic East Berlin. But, of course, the wall is fallen and she cannot find herself anymore also in her dreamed on world. I am afraid that the main trouble with this movie is the uncapability to create a really living character, notwithstanding Mrs. Elsner's efforts, and the complete unconsistency of the secondary characters (like her boyfriend, or her son, or her former lover). Besides, the screenplay has too many holes (for instance, at the beginning she has all her furniture removed from her house in Munich, because she is leaving: but where is she sending them?): I mean, we must not know any particular of the life of any character (for instance, Bresson did not care at all about it...), but it is difficult to sympathize with a character who only speaks with slogans. And what about her outfits? What are they here for, just to present the woman as a relict from the 68-ers revolt (with a Christian Dior overcoat...)? Or was she a novel Norma Desmond wandering in her delirium? In that case, a more baroque scenery should have been more suitable. And, last but not least, the cinematography has annoyed me: I love black and white, but in this case it was that kind of arty black and white which reminds me more of some Madonna videoclips than of movie classics. So, I'm beginning to understand why German movies very seldom are exported...
Herr Zwilling und Frau Zuckermann (1999)
Unfortunately, it won't go out of the German border...
Probably the best movie released in 1999. In the intention of the director, it should have been a documentary on the Jewish community in Czernowitz in Bucovina, land that in this century has passed from the Austrian Empire to Rumania, occupied by Nazi troops during the war, passed to Soviet Union afterwards and nowadays to Ukraina. Most of these rulers lead an anti-Semitic politics (guess which ones), so that now the Jewish community is reduced to very few survivors. But when the director met Mr. Zwilling, a 70-year-old teacher in the local school and his friend, Ms. Zuckermann, a 90-year-old retired teacher, he realized that they were interesting people in themselves, not only in what they represented. That is where the force of the movie lies: the only thing the director does is letting a cameraman follow Mr. Zwilling who shows us the only Jewish remains in Czernowitz and who visits Ms. Zuckermann every evening. And the dialogues between the optimistic Ms. Zuckermann (who lost all her relatives in a lager and nevertheless says "Well, now we have no more Hitler, no more Stalin...") and the pessimistic Mr. Zwilling ("Yes, but this winter will be very cold!") are full of so much wit and life that should be studied by lots of professional screenwriters... Unfortunately such a film, shot in several languages, the most important of them German, the language the two old people use to talk to each other, will remain in the German territory and won't go probably abroad: the only hope is that it will be discovered by some cine-clubs...