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Carmen y Lola (2018)
Positive and hopeful amidst harsh circumstances
I absolutely loved this movie. It addresses a difficult subject, essentially a minority within a minority, being a woman in a deeply male-dominated society, being a lesbian in a culture with strongly predestined roles of wife and mother and being a Gypsy in a white society. In all three aspects that define who they are, they are discriminated. In this harsh milieu, two girls fall in love. I found the movie positive and hopeful. Carmen and Lola were realistic, their love was belivable. The two lead girls were great despite being non-professional actresses.
Carol (2015)
Perfect
Carol was so worth waiting for. It exceeded my expectations in all aspects. Hollywood has finally matured in the 'lesbian cinema' category. Everything was finally in place.
The story slowly and gradually builds the relationship between two women in a subtle yet very powerful way-there is not much to see on the exterior but we can feel the growing affection right from the very first glance across the room. Miniature gestures, incredibly subtle facial expressions and a lot of eye contact were probably the only ways of expressing one's homosexual love in public in the 1950s. Even now, more than 50 years later, there are corners of this world where people are not allowed to love who their hearts really desire.
Todd Haynes masterfully tells this story. Though slow paced, the movie never gets boring and keeps one's attention through every scene.
It takes more than one watching of this movie to fully realize the brilliance in Blanchett and Mara's acting. Cate so vividly expresses Carol's attraction to Therese as well as her anxiety on how Therese would react to Carol's feelings. At first, one may be more impressed by Cate's depiction of Carol because she is the dominant one in her actions, appearance and desire whereas Rooney's Therese is shy and wobbly shaken by these new feelings for a woman. However, Rooney's superb acting brings to surface the most intense of feelings Therese has suddenly discovered. The opening scene in the restaurant is a great example of this- when the story makes the full circle and we finally get to see what is going on between Carol and Therese. Rooney keeps her body language so calm and yet we can feel Therese's passion for Carol. Her eyes, breathing and the tone of her voice when talking to Carol as oppose to the intruding guy are simply breathtaking.
Carol is a great testament to love between two people irrespective of their gender. It shows that same-sex love is indeed no different in all its aspects than straight love.
The Girl King (2015)
I expected more...
The super-interesting trailer for The Girl Kind promised more than was really in the movie. It's kind of an open and unfinished story on multiple levels - Kristina's reign regarding the military campaign, country reforms and her personal life. All these important stories were merely touched in the movie. We never got to see whether or not Kristina actually reformed anything in Sweden at the time, the military campaign was also very vague and her relationship with the Countess deserved much more.
I indeed expected more to be seen between the two ladies in terms of chemistry and storyline. Though they shared enough time on screen, the relationship is missing a lot. We could only get a glimpse of Buska and Gadon's potential in a few scenes where they showed subtle, unspoken affection between the two characters. It's a pity the director did not use more of their talent to tell a very personal story of Kristina and how deep the relationship with Sparre must have been. There is enough historical evidence to confirm Kristina's sexuality. A character so passionate about knowledge, philosophy and art surely must have been even more passionate about the affairs of the heart. It's a pity only the dark side of it was depicted in the movie. In spite of this movie being about Kristina, obviously a lot of her is embedded in Sparre's character. Unfortunately, Sparre's side of the love coin was left unexplored.
Von Mädchen und Pferden (2014)
Waste of time
This supposedly "gorgeous drama from Monika Treut" is a pure waste of time. Nothing really happens throughout the film, the story line is incoherent, the characters are flat. The relationship between the two girls doesn't evolve, there are simply meaningless scenes which don't naturally lead to anything happening between them. Also, we know nothing about the relationship between Nina and her girlfriend, their history, present and future. The story hasn't been thought out, acting and directing were rather poor, there were too many long pointless scenes as if they were supposed to fill the empty space in the film. All we could really admire are the landscape and horses.
Circumstance (2011)
Girls' love in an oppressed society
So what if the story does not reflect the Iranian society, culture and LGBT community? This is a beautiful coming-of-age story about love between two girls developing in a strongly oppressed society. Even if it is not Iranian, which is hard for me to believe, unfortunately there are many other places on Earth where same-sex love is strongly disapproved of and even criminalized.
This multi-faceted film tells several stories and all but the love story are very disturbing - religious fanaticism, denied human rights, strong patriarchal society, drug addiction, hypocrisy, personal psychological issues. Amid the turbulent background, there is a pure and innocent relationship between the two girls, aged 16-ish. The two leading actresses played excellent roles, portraying masterfully both joy and agony. The agony which they are going through is almost physically hurting. I admired attention to detail in depicting this young love. The only thing that lacked a stronger connection between the two girls is the marriage ceremony and party afterward. As a turning point of their lives, one would expect their belonging to each other to be expressed more clearly especially through eye contact.
Contemporary lesbian cinematography contains true masterpieces but also epic fails. This film is one of the bright examples of a well-written, directed and produced pieces of art. In spite of the ending, we are indeed left with hope that things can change for same-sex love in this dark world.
Camp Belvidere (2014)
Essence of lesbian love in 38 minutes
Nicely crafted short film telling a story of self-acceptance, love, passion and longing between two women. I loved the scenes and music. It's difficult to present the pace of an evolving love story in a short film. Rose is a strong young lady who definitely knows what she wants. Rose's determination questions and challenges Gin's naturally dominant role as the older and more experienced character. The two ladies' performances were convincing and the chemistry was definitely there. Love scenes were superbly shot.
It's a pity this is only a short film. Astrid should keep on telling stories of lesbian love, this piece was an excellent one.
Ich will Dich (2014)
Blown-away by unexpected love
I was taken by this film :) especially by Ina Weisse whose acting was flawless. On-screen chemistry between the two ladies was very convincing. Despite fast and furious falling in love, it was not built properly from the beginning. We should have seen some sparks between Ayla and Marie right at their first meeting. Later on, the storyline did not give them more time to build their relationship. There are gaps which could have easily been filled with more details. Everything happened too quickly when in fact should have unraveled more slowly. Ayla's character was not developed sufficiently to express how much she fell for Marie. We should have seen more of Ayla's fears, thoughts, wishes and doubts. And Marie, she was simply blown-away by this unexpected love.
Viola di mare (2009)
Incredible film, incredible love story
Viola di Mare is one of the best lesbian-themed films I have ever seen. So often, films lack some important aspect to make them great - Viola di Mare has it all - great love between two women in impossible conditions, several unexpected twists to keep the tensions high, excellent directing and photography, multi-faceted story that deals with important personal as well as social, cultural and religious issues and finally, perfect acting by the two leading ladies. Not only were they stunning, their on-screen chemistry was mind-blowing.
I particularly liked two aspects of Viola di Mare - First, Angela's womanhood was never in question even when she had to give it up and Sara loved the woman in Angela. This is an interesting story about gender roles and how, contrary to what many straight people think, women who happen to love women do not wish to be men and embrace their womanhood as much as they can.
Second, there is a lot of Sara and Angela together, the two main characters were given plenty of on-screen time to portray their love. Donatella Maiorca allowed Angela and Sara to evolve in front of us, to convey all the intricate feelings that challenged their love and to finally show us longing, passion, chemistry and devotion that make the perfect love.
Absolutely a must-see film.