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fubertini
Reviews
Last Call (2004)
Filmic Champagne
Right from the first frame, Mr. Drach displays his vivid imagination, sparkling style and a splendid sense of irony, together with a socially aware attitude that transcends the usual clichés about age. His film is fun, rousing and a startlingly humanistic look at what might be, if we all shared a generous, more enlightened view of the generations that came before our own.
The look of the film belies its modest cost which testifies to a close collaboration between the director and his cinematographer for intention and effect are wedded seamlessly, a gift to both the film and its audience. Not many short films are able to so quickly make their point and arrive at that point in so entertaining, lively and surprising a fashion.
One wishes for more from such a fresh viewpoint, so we can only hope that this brilliant filmmaker can find the means to continue on his chosen path and that we can join him as he constructs each film signpost along the way.
Have a look and then a second; it's well worth the time. Just be careful with the bubbles.
The Passion of the Christ (2004)
why impale this movie for its violence?
Frankly, I don't understand why most reviewers impale this movie for its violence. Am I the only person who saw "Kill Bill" and was sickened by it? Didn't anyone else see "Saving Private Ryan" and cringe during the opening scenes of carnage? I had to close my eyes many, many times during both of these movies. Is it possible that Mr. Gibson is applying Hollywood's own current preoccupation with blood to his tale of Jesus' death? Is he simply injecting the same reality in "...Passion..." that has been so unrelentingly present in recent film fare? He is, after all, a product of Hollywood himself, much as he might deplore that designation.
I have great respect for this movie and for what I divine was Mr. Gibson's intention in making it. For me, his way of telling the story is meant to demonstrate in earthly terms the lengths to which Jesus was willing to go to prove his love for mankind. Grounded as we humans are in our physicality, we can be reached through identification with a person whose flesh is made to suffer for we share that same flesh, and our blood runs from its wounds, too. Mr. Gibson's vision of Christ's last hours of agony invites us to extrapolate its spiritual motivation. We do not have to accept that Jesus was the Son of God, nor do we need to practice any particular religion to embrace the message. To be "saved", we must only believe in the transforming power of love.
As with any other film, you take away from "...Passion..." what is filtered through your own consciousness.
Il mondo di notte numero 2 (1961)
A Trip Through Nightclubs Around the World
At a time when there were few, perhaps no, movies of this type, World by Night was a lively fun tour of nightclubs in many different countries, including the U.S. The American segment was shot at a club named Gold Street where New Year's Eve was celebrated every night with horns, hats, confetti, and all the other paraphernalia we associate with the New Year's Eve revelry. It was giddy, saucy and boisterous.
Far from Heaven (2002)
Music from A Place in the Sun?
I thought this film was stilted, not stylized, and as cold as a marble statue. Worse yet, the music I loved by Franz Waxman for "A Place in the Sun" was lifted by Elmer Bernstein and used without benefit to the production. Still worse, I've read at least a dozen critics who did not pick up on this travesty!