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Botticelli - Inferno (2016)
Sadly, I am let down...
This documentary was... pretty bad. I bought the ticket with high hopes since I have lived in Florence for a few months. Instead I sat there bored and when I got out of the cinema, I was let down... To only positive aspects are the cinematic shots of Florence and Rome, and the last scene in the church with Sandro Botticelli and Simonetta Vespucci... where they are resting in peace.
To start off, I am saddened by the fact they didn't use an English speaking Italian narrator. You know, so you at least have a feeling you're in Italy because of that lovely accent?
Further, the documentary is a puzzle of questions, places, filler material, researchers and narrators. We start with the big question; "what is the true meaning of Sandro Botticelli's Mappa dell'Inferno" (which is a really interesting question!).
Rather than really trying to reveal the answer for this, we get nonsense thrown at our faces since they couldn't really answer this I guess. And with nonsense I mean bogus things like; 'where all his paintings had gone to', 'non-important shots and dialogue from apparently really good researchers ' or 'really badly build opinions from tourists in Florence'!
Instead of all this you could have told us more about the most important 'thing' in Sandro Botticelli's life: Simonetta Vespucci. She was his life for crying out loud. We got little to no information about her and when we did, it was at the end of the film... His love and sorrow for her made him paint like he did. Her sad death, made him see Dante Alighieri's Inferno like he illustrated. How could you have missed this with so many 'great' researchers?
If you had build this movie in a chronological order you could have shown this at the very start after asking the big question: "what is the true meaning of Sandro Botticelli's Mappa dell'Inferno". After 'Sandro Botticelli, Simonetta Vespucci and the Medici family' you could have shown us more about the large detailed digital Mappa dell'Inferno and the 90+ parchment illustrations describing each circle of hell. Who cares why he didn't finish painting it? To drawings were complete and that's what really matters!
This all would have made so much more sense for the audience while not getting bored by a lot of mumbo jumbo!
Sadly a great opportunity lost!
Brimstone (2016)
A beautiful, gruesome and dark story about a girl and a man
I was not really interested in this movie when I first heard about it. But when I read and saw that the movie was dark and it had a pretty decent cast, I became really interested. A week later I bought a ticket and I went to see Brimstone in the cinema.
The movie Brimstone portrays a thrilling and dark story, but is has the very accurate characteristics of a western. When watching Brimstone it really felt like I was there in that place and that exact time of period, which is a very rare effect you don't often see or feel in a film. I've read many reviews saying that the brutality was too much. Personally, I found it beautiful. It makes you empathize with the characters in a way you don't often experience. It makes you feel like you are becoming the character. Yes, the movie is gruesome, but you must try to appreciate this.
The way the whole story is told really appealed to me. The movie is divided into four chapters that show the 'what', the 'how', the 'why' and the 'Endgame'. Because of this way of storytelling, you can watch the movie without getting spoiled the vast amount of answers. It really gives the viewer the question marks why that event is happening and why the character is behaving that way. Because of this the film is not dragging. All chapters have their own tension that is being build up, and is later being released at the end of each episode which keeps the viewer sitting on the edge of the chair. Brimstone also contains a very good plot and a beautiful score. The movie is slow paced, but the viewer is not going to get bored.
The acting overall was great in Brimstone. Especially Dakota Fanning (Liz) and Emilia Jones (Joanna). They both did an amazing job portraying the characters. Guy Pearce was superb with his portrayal of The Reverend. He really was the finishing touch of this movie.
My congratulations go to Martin Koolhoven for his international film debut. What a cunning movie.