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Vicious (2013)
A George and Martha for the new millenium
What a delight to see Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi having a wonderful time because their pleasure is our pleasure. A gay Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf 48 years together in constant battle with each other but unable and unwilling to have it any other way. Love is all there is and when love has been constant between two people nobody can understand why they are together. They know. I love them, together. They are surrounded by spectacular actors and actresses playing hysterically funny characters without lowering the standards that they themselves represent. A special valentine to Frances de la Tour and Marcia Warren.
Woman Times Seven (1967)
The Seven Faces Of Shirley
A film directed by the great Vittorio de Sica with Shirley MacLaine! How exciting I thought. Then, every episode has Shirley with a different leading man, Peter Sellers, Alan Arkin, Michael Caine, Vittorio Gassman, Rossano Brazzi, etc, etc. Well, it was too good to be true. The stories are slight and I kept waiting for a bit of ooph. Okay, no. No oomph really but it has moments. Michael Caine and Shirley in a moving comedy of errors for instance and it has her, Shirley MacLaine and that in itself makes it a must because she'll be there for us , seven times, one hundred per cent.
All the Money in the World (2017)
A drama without drama
This could have been a human drama of unbearable tension instead it's a movie manufactured with devious intentions. Devious in the real world, in movie making terms is totally accepted to do anything to lure people into the movie theaters. Probably their marketing people thought that a detailed slicing of an ear may do it. It made me so angry. No tension, no passion. The only reason to see the film is Michelle Williams. I didn't realized it was her until well into the movie, in fact until she has a scene with Mark Whalberg. She is real and truthful, when they stay with her everything works. Christopher Plummer plays the old mean billionaire to perfection but I must admit I thought of Kevin Spacey throughout. Everything is shot without real thought behind it. I liked the wind taking over the newspapers but the kidnappers remain a blurry mystery to me, who were they really? They looked like actors to me.
Eat Pray Love (2010)
Me,me, me, me, me and the others
I felt self conscious and embarrassed somehow. Is this the model woman we should be inspired by? Oh my God! She's like a bad replica of a mediocre man. She abandons her husband and he's the one, quite rightly, who feels betrayed. She uses James Franco and then throws him away. Keeps Richard Jenkins at arms length until she discovers he has something that may be useful to her and then, Javier Bardem...She shouts at him I don't have to love you to love myself. What? She reeks of an awful case of selfishness but as she is played by Julia Roberts the whole thing becomes rather confusing. Is she a modern heroine? Oh God, I hope that wasn't the intention. I felt as far away from her even further away from the character she played in "My Best Friend's Wedding" Remember that one? In that one she becomes a criminal, really, yes, a criminal, to ruin her friend's wedding. Oblivious to the fact that's he's clearly happy with Cameron Diaz. No, she's only worried about herself. I'm giving "Eat Pray Love" a 3 and not a 1 because some landscapes, geographic as well as culinary are, quite simply, breath taking. Also Javier Bardem is worth the price of the very expensive ticket.
Apartment Zero (1988)
Perverse but deeply human
This was a big surprise. I've heard about "Apartment Zero" over the years but I saw it only last night for the first time. I'm tempted to call it a masterpiece. The film has not left my mind for a minute and I have an inexplicable urge to see it again, now! Colin Firth, who probably will get an Oscar nomination this year for "A Single Man" should have had that recognition back in 1988 for this creation. He is absolutely incredible! His character got inside my system and stayed there. He plays a character without shadows. In a way he doesn't exist or if he does, he exists by proxy. He sees himself as a reflection from what he sees or thinks he sees. He talks about Montgomery Clift as if he was part of his family and in fact he is. Actors on the screen are the only people he can totally relate to and trust. I found myself laughing at the elegant bursts of humour but I must say that the laughter was nervous laughter. Psychologically the film is a marvel. Not a single false move and I can imagine that for many people the behavior was somehow illogical but, it is not, in fact I think it's one of most accurate perverse behavior from someone profoundly human I have ever seen. Adrian could become an accomplice and go against what he believes only out of love. The realization, as I was watching the movie, made my hair stand on end. I don't think I had ever seen that before on the screen. So, better late than never. I hope, the director, writer, cast, composer and director photography can hear my applause.
Baarìa (2009)
Looking back with self indulgence
I was very disturbed by this film and not the kind of disturbance a Polanski or a Pasolini may provide but a disturbance that goes beyond what was on the screen. The Italians tend to be so strict, so serious when it comes to films by an "auteur" so, how is it they give Giuseppe Tornatore a thumbs up for this sentimental without sentiment, two and a half hours television commercial? I kept waiting for the film to start but it never does. Headlines without the article that explains it. Snippets, sketches enveloped in lots and lots of sticky music. This could perfectly have been the work of an American director who's never been to Sicily. A children's coloring book. I'm so puzzled