Reviews

This short movie was honored with the first prize in our local short-film-festival. After the first viewing I was not too thrilled with it. Since then I have watched it five times and each time I liked it better and better... and now I truly love it!

A man in his early forty doesn't know what to do with his life and decides to take guitar lessons. The "teacher" he visits is a young guy who is not too enthusiastic about teaching but passionate for the guitar. He seems to be living in some kind of a threesome shared flat, but the only other person we meet is a young attractive woman named Laetitia(who is also named Sandra!).

The key to this picture is to sense what happens underneath the guitar lessons. There is a lot going on between the lines.

All three characters are having their own issues in life and the movie is delicate at giving slight insights while not explaining anything.

For example: why is the woman's name Laetitia but she is called Sandra? What is the relation between the teacher and her? Is it really a threesome flat share? Why does she cry and whom is she in love with? Who is the guy she is lying in bed with? Is he the third person in the flat share or her lover? Like the man who steps into this strange own world to learn the guitar the viewer enters this world with him, facing questions, sensing whats going on but getting no explanations.

The movie with its laconic style won't appeal to a large audience though.

"Blue" is an emotional study of a woman trying to cope with the sudden loss of her husband and daughter.

The pacing is moderate which is fine during the first hour, but since there is no tight storyline to follow, the last third is a bit strenuous.

One of the strength of the movie is the unique use of music in connection with fade into black. I think its intention is to show how much music is inside the character of Juliette Binoche. Due to her mourning she is trying to suppress this music but it still finds its way to the surface.

The movie contains some very impressive closeups, i.e. a feather on a blanket, a reflecting eye shot, a piece of sugar which is soaked up with coffee, etc . I think it underlines the inner conflicts and sadness of the protagonist, who is trying to shield herself from what is going on around her.

The color blue is nicely present everywhere. In particular I enjoyed the exquisite scenes in the swimming pool.

I was disappointed by a subplot with a young woman who is a neighbor and works in the red light district. I know that Kyszlowski didn't want to explain everything in his movies and leave room for interpretation. But here it seems to me that they had to take some scenes out of the movie which leaves this subplot underdeveloped.

I watched this yesterday during its premiere in cologne. The movie is somewhat clumsy edited and has problems with setting an emphasis besides repeatedly flattering John Alonzo.

Considering the title one would hope its emphasis was on Chinatown. But it's not! You get a little of Alonzo's childhood, his start in the business, his failed family life. But it is all kind of thrown at you and some parts seem like the rough cut.

The movie does not have an off-speaker, but is carried by many interviews with all kinds of (TOO MANY!!) people in the film industry. The biggest problem here is the absence of the VERY important people who were involved in Chinatown i.e. Roman Polanski, Jack Nicholson, Robert Evans, Robert Towne, Faye Dunawaye...

The highlight of the movie is the acknowledged film critic Roger Ebert's brief insight of the special camera-work in Chinatown.

I have seen over a thousand movies and there have been a lot of good and great ones. But all I can say about Chinatown is that it is so perfect, so supremely well done that it gives me still goosebumps when I think about it.

There is just one word to honor this movie: Masterpiece.

From the most clever script over the greatest casting of every (!!) person that is seen on the screen to the most sophisticated directing and camera work: You cannot take or add one single frame from this movie without reducing its perfection!

I give this movie 11 out of 10 !!