Well this is an HBO property all the way. But so different then what they are known for. A very slow moving but compelling drama. I am so used to watching content that is so fast and keeps you on your seat, it was a little difficult at first to sit back and take this in.
The cars, the dress, the littlest details are so right it seems for the time and the place. The music I have already mentioned is so wonderful. Piano chords I have never heard the likes of and learned most of it was original made for this production.
The cinematography is so beautiful, Italy in the 60's will take your breath away. Because it is so slowly developed, you spend time watching the lead character's eyes, her mouth, waiting for that small smile to appear to find if she is happy or sad.
For the first half of this season I could hardly keep watching because her heart is broken over and over and her friend is so cruel to her (it seemed to me..) She is so dear, so wonderful, so beautiful but not in the sense that most can see. But Ariota sees her for the beauty she really is, the beauty we know her to be..
Watch the way she walks. So slowly, so deliberately, as if self-conscious anyone would notice her. So much is said in her silence just by her eyes. Never giving away too much with her words, nobody can know what she is feeling, thinking.. .
The scene in this episode where she kisses the boy beneath the Tower of Pisa is gorgeous. The small details: the pay rotary phones, the understated makeup, the smoking and the WAY they smoke with the dangling out of the mouth, the lack of true warmth and intimacy she feels with her mother. She never once tells her she loves her - neither do, but you know they do.
The coffee, strong and made with the old steeping pitchers pouring the grounds right in and straining them as you pour it out. The fruit and the food - so right. She cuts rosemary right from the bush to use to cook at the beach.
The episodes are longer than most series - a full hour and it is easy to stop and come back to, so you are not held captive by the suspense of those shows you binge..
Yes, you come back and are again enraptured by the piano chords, the al fresco restaurants, the lady singing in front of the small band, the record player playing slow Italian music, the Classic books in hardcover you remember the smell of from the library when you were a kid, and above all, the girl with the sad eyes. Highly recommended.
The cars, the dress, the littlest details are so right it seems for the time and the place. The music I have already mentioned is so wonderful. Piano chords I have never heard the likes of and learned most of it was original made for this production.
The cinematography is so beautiful, Italy in the 60's will take your breath away. Because it is so slowly developed, you spend time watching the lead character's eyes, her mouth, waiting for that small smile to appear to find if she is happy or sad.
For the first half of this season I could hardly keep watching because her heart is broken over and over and her friend is so cruel to her (it seemed to me..) She is so dear, so wonderful, so beautiful but not in the sense that most can see. But Ariota sees her for the beauty she really is, the beauty we know her to be..
Watch the way she walks. So slowly, so deliberately, as if self-conscious anyone would notice her. So much is said in her silence just by her eyes. Never giving away too much with her words, nobody can know what she is feeling, thinking.. .
The scene in this episode where she kisses the boy beneath the Tower of Pisa is gorgeous. The small details: the pay rotary phones, the understated makeup, the smoking and the WAY they smoke with the dangling out of the mouth, the lack of true warmth and intimacy she feels with her mother. She never once tells her she loves her - neither do, but you know they do.
The coffee, strong and made with the old steeping pitchers pouring the grounds right in and straining them as you pour it out. The fruit and the food - so right. She cuts rosemary right from the bush to use to cook at the beach.
The episodes are longer than most series - a full hour and it is easy to stop and come back to, so you are not held captive by the suspense of those shows you binge..
Yes, you come back and are again enraptured by the piano chords, the al fresco restaurants, the lady singing in front of the small band, the record player playing slow Italian music, the Classic books in hardcover you remember the smell of from the library when you were a kid, and above all, the girl with the sad eyes. Highly recommended.
