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Reviews
Populärmusik från Vittula (2004)
Rock'n roll accordion!
Just saw the film for the fourth time, and thought I'd chip in on the discussion. It seems to me a lot of the criticism the film meets is about the incoherence of scenes, and the kaleidoscopic manuscript. Well, as it is a retrospective view upon a time long gone, I find it trustworthy and natural that the memory of the narrator is thus fragmented. That is how the mind works. And the narration is never torn, but keeps flowing. Yes, it is absurd, yes, it is grotesque, but this is what we call magic realism, a genre often attributed to south American writers. Here, the book that lays basis for the film, intelligently mixes the exotic air of magic with the harsh environment of Pajala. Enough about that. I find this one of the best examples of a successful adaption from book to film I have long seen. I do not see the bad acting that many point out. The dialects may vary, I am not Swedish and cannot tell, so I'm save from harm there. All in all, the ambiance of the film is sort of "happy in spite" and I am impressed every time. But I am a sucker for that magic realism, so bare that in mind.
9/10
The Proposition (2005)
Clichés shooting each other's faces off.
Saw it, went home, got drunk, forgot about it. The movie is really really beautiful, the scenario and the music is tangled up in a bundle of scary beauty. However, the characters, if you can call them that, are very scarcely depicted. Ray Winston as captain Stanley, and Emily Watson as his wife are the closest we get to full characters, the rest are clichés taken out of a Nick Cave song. In the songs they work wonderfully, but in a film, I would say, you need something further. Unless you're Quentin Tarantino and don't give a d***. The racial points fall stumbling to the ground, because we never get beyond the point of thinking "oh right, I knew that", and that's a waste of good material. The landscape and the soundtrack earns the movie a 5, and the fact that the actors work like arses with the little they have, makes it a 6.
Saint Sinner (2002)
see above
Well, first of the art design is polished and makes the entire film look like something that's trying to be really... unimportant. The guy playing Tomas Alcala (his name will not be mentioned here) is presenting a horrid lack of acting skills. (Look up, curse God quietly, look sad, make audience laugh with embarrassment) and his female sidekick is only vaguely better. It looks to me like the good Mr. Barker has actually forgotten that he needs to give instructions to the actors. They're looking completely left alone in this.
The basic idea could be OK, if it wasn't for the weird plot holes. Halucinations that come from who knows where, the wheel of time that is an artifact left completely unexplained. I know it isn't fair to demand intelligent script writing from Mr. Barker, but it makes me mad every time.
The worst part is really that it looks so cheap, sort of like a pilot for a stupid TV-show. And the phonographic idea for the succubi is just bad. That straw they use to drink from their victims looks ridiculous on a good day.
Had I only had a feeling that there was something he was trying to say with this, but no, some ramblings about Christianity and sin, that can't really interest anyone.
Only plus in this, and the reason why I rated it a 2 and not 1, is the opening scene:
we open on a shot of Tomas Alcala lying in the grass. Zoom out till we think he's naked, but no, he wearing this diaper, arms outstretched like a Jesus in the grass. Then he takes a bite of an apple (oh no), and sees a young woman washing clothes in the river. She bends over, and then - then - you can actually, for quite a while, see her breasts. And they are pretty.
Hwasango (2001)
see it twice
I felt kinda disappointed when I first saw this, but must admit after seeing it a second (and third) time, that it is actually relatively consistent, in the same way that a manga comic might be utterly confusing, but in the end, after thorough investigation make sense.
The argument evolves around this though, whether it is relevant to make an action fling that requires for you to see it two or three times, before grasping the basic content. Hak-rim is falsely accused of poisoning the head-master of the school, but actually it's Jang Ryang and the vice-head-master (is it called that, I haven't got a dictionary here) who conspired to put Hak-Rim and the head-master out of action in a devious and cunning stroke, because they want the scroll for them selves.
The entire story evolves around this secret scroll, that will end something by doing something which is never quite clear, but the box for the scroll is empty. Suspense! and then enters the school-fiver, five awesome guys who have real ultimate power. and their leader says: "tell a lion that has never seen a mouse, that the mouse is dangerous, and he will lie sleepless. But it will be a weak lion that scares that easily." So, what he says is that there is no scroll. But then he says that there IS a scroll, and then they all fight.
The first 4/5 of the film is great fun. Monumental scenes, for example Jang Ryang getting on his knees for icy jade, to the sound of cheesy '60 rockabilly, will stand till kingdom come, but there are major holes, and basically the storyline is to badly told, though interesting if you take your time. last 5th is too long. like this comment.