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Reviews
Bubble (2005)
A great, small movie.
Is it this America? Are the citizen of the anonymous province painted by Soderbergh going to recognize themselves? And what are they going to think? All these questions come to your mind when you leave the room and try to identify if there is any red/blue color that can be attributed to the citizen/electors that are shot in this movie.
Soderbergh is capable of shooting in an apparently neutral and objective manner the everyday life of an American province and we are touched by the force of this language (the reaction to the "major" event is astonishingly "neutral", wide and without any real feeling).
In a Mostra del Cinema (Venezia) which has not offered very much, this is a reconciliation with cinema and with a great author.
Zivot je cudo (2004)
Do we risk to get tired of Kusturica's carnaval?
Kusturica repeats himself, it's the first thing that comes to mind when leaving the cinema. Still, this is not necessarily a negative sign, for an author who has been able to create "Underground" or "Black cat, white cat". This movie is an authentic hymn of joy to life, love and humanity (sure, also that grotesque humanity that in the Balkan countries may look wild sometimes), thus we can be happy that Kusturica has achieved once again this objective. In addition, Kusturica stress here in an unusual way for him the real power of sentiment between two persons which can overcome war and ethnic division.
However, the instruments that Kusturica uses are this time too familiar for us and we cannot avoid the impression of the repetition of the same gags and expressions that we have seen in his previous films. This "déjà vu" becomes impressed in our minds since the beginning, just after the magnificent aperture of the movie. A "déjà vu" which allows us to anticipate the gestures of the each character. In addition, the carnaval does not allow to catch the important political assumption of this movie, which is that that war was a war instigated by all illegal dealers on both sides to preserve and increase their traffics and that first of all the fights happened within each camp, to eliminate those who were promoting a fair and decent life (see the murder of the Serbian mayor by his Serbian deputy). This political assumption is one of the strongest elements of the movie, but is Kusturica's carnaval reinforcing or diluting this powerful message?
I believe that Kusturica is now come to a real crossroad: either he continues to follow his colorful and sometimes grotesque representation of the Balkan soul and in this way simply repeating himself or is he addressing new territories with different instruments. This movie represents some old and some new for him: this is its strength and its weakness. I hope to see Kusturica taking the challenge and using his immense creativity to enter into a new dimension.
Big Fish (2003)
When you don't share other's enthusiasm...
It gives a strange feeling, going to the cinema when you received so many positive comments and read good reviews and...when out...you start trying to understand why you did not receive anything from the movie. Tim Burton is a very creative director, with an explosive genius for invention, but the movie simply does give the impression to be looking to explore the immense resources of human kind but it confines itself to the level of a nice, well presented and funny fairytale, with a touch of self obligingness and a tendency to capture the tears of the public.
No, this looks like an ambitious shot which has missed his target because it was too...big.
Il ritorno di Cagliostro (2003)
An experiment, with plenty of ideas and few coherence
It is difficult to find innovative approaches to filming and directors who have the courage to explore new routes and who do not feel obliged to respond to the public. Cipri' and Maresco fortunately are not like this, and are convinced that cinema can be made without following the standard manual that you learn at a film school.
Their cinema cannot be described, but it is a new experience, where you are taken and transported together with incredible characters and an intense form of human passion.
It does not follow a coherent route, but imagination is the main vehicle of their cinema. Art is expression, not reproduction of standards, and these directors are walking in that direction.
L'homme du train (2002)
It goes to the essence of how much human being need each other.
I've seen this movie at the Mostra del Cinema (Venezia) and probably it was the best movie of the whole selection. The concept of "meeting" (la rencontre in french) is shown with sentiment and great touch in all the contents that it has for humanity, in particular the need for everybody to confront yourself with each other experience and improve the analysis of your life and the principles and objectives that are behind it. Jean Rochefort is a wonderful old man that has been waiting for a radical change of his quiet daily-life in a small province town (we imagine in the centre of France); while Johnny Hallyday is very measured in representing a man approaching his old age who has always lived in the outside world of criminality, who has the impression of discovering that there is something else, extremely rich and attracting, in that other side he has never really inspected.
It is a movie on the essence of living and the best Patrice Leconte movie ever.
Francesco, Venezia