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Reviews
The Graduate (1967)
When He is the "Lolito"
The red and the black (1830). In Stendhal's masterpiece, the young tutor Julien Sorel falls in love with Mme De Rênal, married and more mature. Followed by: social climbs, tragedies, other loves, prison and death. A coup de grace to the Ancien régime.
In the bedroom Chéri (1920). The love between Léa, a mature great courtesan of the beautiful world, and Fred, the son of one of her closest friends. They adore each other, then she lets go of the fatal "Lolitus", symbol of the passing Time. Unforgettable, frivolous, merciless. Like its author Colette, queen of Paris
The Graduate (1963). Everyone knows the film, with the young Dustin Hoffman seduced by a gorgeous Anne Bancroft. It all started with the Charles Webb novel. Presented in this way for excess of prudery: "A book on today's youth as you have never read ..."
Conan the Barbarian (1982)
The first movie of Schwarzy
This is a good fictional and pure entertainment movie, but without falling into the fantastic. There are some realistic foundations, both in '30s literature and in social historical events. The plot is not trivial, with many outdoor scenes, well filmed and acted, and the conclusion is not good-natured as usual.
It is the first film as Arnold as a lead actor, unfortunately there was only one sequel, equally valid. Instead Terminator had 4 (with Arnold actor) sequels; too much attention for a non-human character.
Odissea (1968)
An optimal mix of prose and entertainment
First of all Odyssey was NOT written by the Greek poet Homer (the one who wrote the Iliad, reproduced in the film Troy)). The structure and the style of the two poems is completely different (Odyssey is discontinuous and full of flash backs, while Iliad is sequential), and the two works are dated at least 50 years apart.
Franco Rossi, the director of "Odyssey - TV series", was an "Italian comedy"-style director. However, the production of the series was managed by the great producer Dino De Laurentiis (e.g. Serpico, Dune, Blue Velvet, Hannibal, etc.). The co-financing and the actor cast was full European. Although designed as TV series, it was filmed as a movie, with color film (not electronic means), special effects (by the director Bava and the creator Rambaldi), and a lot of external shootings.
The mix of ingredients has yielded a very good product, an optimal mix of action and acting, entertainment and prose, real story and fantasy, classicist and modernity, well filmed and with good photography and colors. Given the presence of many foreign actors, the original Italian version was entirely dubbed by domestic professional dubbers. This has further increased the value of the opera. I invite the readers to see it in their own language. The Canadian version is in English, but I don't know the quality of the recitation.
The Sheltering Sky (1990)
The other side of Last Tango
A film is made of: story, direction, acting, location, music, photography. In all of these aspects, I think that the rating of "sheltering sky" is high; hence, the movie is good. Yes the story plot may be the weaker aspect, but this deserves an explanation.
After becoming a Hollywoodian director, Bernardo felt the need of coming back to his origins, and asking for nothing ... His international career started with "Last Tango in Paris" (1972), and in a certain sense, Sheltering Sky is the other side of it. While Last Tango (an original story by Bertolucci) was urban, claustrophobic and obsessive; Sheltering Sky is open space, elusive and without a precise direction. Bertolucci said "I wanted to follow the loose style of Antonioni" (both come from the same region Emilia, in north Italy). Indeed the film resembles l'Avventura" (where a person disappeared) or the "Passenger" (filmed in the desert) both directed by Michelangelo.
As I said, Sheltering Sky is the other side of Last Tango, but it shares similar (good) ingredients: good actors (John and Debra in place of Marlon Brando), good soundtrack (Sakamoto in place of Gato Barbieri), very good photography (Storaro, already present in Tango). As for Antonioni's films, Sheltering is not for simple entertainment, but its value will grow over time.
Metalmeccanico e parrucchiera in un turbine di sesso e di politica (1996)
nice e nontrivial entertainment
A funny and underrated movie, artfully packaged with limited economic means and non-professional film actors. Gnocchi, Pivetti and Solenghi are amusing and intelligent show-men of theater and television programs. Without any ambition to judge and draw conclusions on the social, political and cultural reality, the movie promptly manages to stay on the Italian political facts of mid 90s in a non-trivial manner. The environment is that o Po Valley (nearly the same as Don Camillo film series) and the movie describes political and personal conflicts between left-wing and local separatist activists. Perhaps the last movie which belongs to the tradition of the "Italian comedy", realized by experienced workers of the genre. Good location, filming and production.