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Modì (1989)
An artistic film about an artist
This is a three-parter TV film about the life of the famous Italian painter Amedeo Modigliani and it follows him in his movements from Livorno to Paris, in the period before, during and after the first World War. The film is very well made, with a lot of beautiful scenery and sets, and, though many of the frames are more artistic than all the paintings shown in the film, it's not an "artsy" film in the bad sense of the term. That is, it's not slow and boring,as is the tradition of a lot of Italian and french film-making. Instead it never has a superfluous moment, and the first-rate actors mostly give very good performances, specially Richard Berry, who plays Modigliani,is very effective in giving life to this fascinating character. Definitely worth watching, if you happen to catch it on TV.
Alexander (2004)
Europeans won't like this either
After seeing this film I can safely say that if Mr. Stone expected it not to be such a big flop in Europe as it was in America, he will be sorely disappointed. The problem is that most European viewers are able do do what Stone seems unable to do, namely to tell a bad film from an "art" film. Unfortunately slow-motion and coloured scenes are not enough to make a film "artsy". In the whole film there are two battle scenes, and while one is very good (the battle of Gaugamela), with a beautiful hawk's eye view, the other one is very bad (the battle in India). Watch the tacky slow motion part to see what I mean. Some of the sets are impressive, like the library of Alexandria, where the narration takes place, or the city of Babylon, but most of the film is composed by excruciatingly slow interior scenes. Most of the three hours are spent in endless speeches about the one or two concepts the director wants to get through, like "bringing freedom to Asia" (does that sound familiar?), violating the most basic principle of film-making, the "show, don't tell" one. This film tells (well, basically one thing many times over), but doesn't show. In fact, more than what's in it, I find annoying what is missing from it. The story of Alexander the Great lends itself to a lot of spectacular scenes and to more complex meanings than this director could ever think of. Where is the episode where Alexander and his army wade for miles in full armour in the Black Sea in order to take the enemy by surprise? Why aren't we shown the battle of Hyxos (spelling?), the fastest battle of ancient history, when the Macedons defeated the persian army in a quarter of an hour from across a river, with the superior power of their bows? (By the way we don't see these bows at Gaugamela: did they lose them on the way?) Why don't we see Alexander's crowning as a pharaoh and son of Ammon in Egypt? This film, where for once the casting is actually very fitting, could have been so much more. The rest has been said by the previous commentator "tfrizzell" better than I could have ever said it.
Legenda o Tile (1977)
Soviet art movie
This TV miniseries is based on the book "La légende et les aventures héroïques, joyeuses et glorieuses d'Ulenspiegel et de Lamme Goedzak au pays de Flandres et ailleurs", by belgian XIX century author Charles de Coaster, which, in turn is based on the popular German renaissance text "Ein kurzweiliges Buch von Till Eulenspiegel aus dem Lande Braunschweig", by Hermann Bote. The story is set at the time of religious wars and turmoils following the protestant reformation and the hero fights for the freedom of his country from Spanish occupation and from the holy inquisition. The fist parts of the film are devoted to showing the atmosphere of oppression in the Netherlands at the time, with people being reported to the inquisition by envious neighbors and burned at the stake on flimsy excuses, when the real goal is for the king to get hold of their riches. Obviously this must have been a "hot theme" for soviet citizens even in the seventies, and it might be the reason why the film is so effective, though I wonder how it passed censorship. The whole film is spectacularly shot, in the tradition of the best Russian film-making, but probably the most monumental scene is at the end, when Til drives a ship into a flooded town. This film is probably very hard to come by, unless you live in one of the ex-socialist countries, but if you do manage to see it you won't regret it.
Csodálatos mandarin (2001)
Deserves international success
This film, a modernized version of the famous ballet work by Bela Bartok, has unfortunately been scarcely distributed in Hungary. The choreography, by Yvette Bozsik (who also plays the main role) definitely the most famous dancer in Hungary at the moment, and the artwork by the original artist of Yugoslavian origin Milorad Krstic, combined with the surprisingly good work of a director who has never directed a film even remotely resembling this one, make this film a masterpiece in its genre. It's impossible to describe the beauty of the movements and scenes, but all the viewers were favourably impressed at the end of the film when I saw it today. I'm just left wondering why it hasn't been normally distributed, and why no effort has been made so far to make it an international success, which would seem the natural thing for a film which doesn't even need dubbing since it doesn't have dialogues.