chimie-340-361128's Reviews

20 Days in Mariupol (2023)

7/10

Memorable, yet more like a collection of footage than a documentary

29 November 2023

Very rarely feels this hard to rate a movie.

Yes, it has scenes you will remember for weeks, maybe for ever.

Yes, it gives the viewer a strong impression about how war actually feels for a civilian (or a journalist).

On the other hand, it is very hard to rate the production as a movie / documentary. You don't get too much context, you see and hear mostly things that you'd expect to see browsing a collection of footages.

The main feature of the production is some kind of recklessness: the makers spent 20 days risking their lives for getting any coverage out from the city, and also, were not shy to show us shocking images about people who, it seems, were never asked (couldn't be asked) wheteher they find it OK to be on film (some even protest, but end up on the screen anyway).

So, at the end, it is a philosophical question.

If you believe the perfect documentary is something that makes you feel you were part of the experience it is about, 20 Days in Mariupol is perfect. If you seek some kind of cinematic production, you yill be one of those people, who will feel it almost unwatchable (and not just for ethical reasons).

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Crystal Swan (2018)

8/10

Eastern European mood in a movie that's easy to love

23 April 2019

I was a bit afraid after reading the plot (DJ girl wants to move to US from post-soviet Belorussia at any price) that Chrystal would be a movie made for Western viewers using the Soviet setting just as an exotica, but luckily, this was mostly not the case (the Lenin statues in a disco scene being a rare exception).

The movie captures the classical mood of Eastern Europe - people longing to "the West" - in a credible way, probably because Belorussians, despite living as close to Berlin as to Moscow find it still very hard to move freely to the West (I was even a bit surprised that the officials felt comfortable enough with the movie to send it to the Academy Awards).

It is somehow part of this mood that the movie could both qualify for a tragedy and a comedy: you may smile on the odd characters and small talks but it's very hard to find any character who is not having deep troubles. The makers of the movie seem to sympathize with most of them... I think even the motives of the guy who acts badly (try to avid spoilers here, sorry) are clear to everyone... no-one is pure evil nor an angel here.

I'm curious how this movie works for audiences in the US or Western Europe... for Eastern and Central Europeans (and fans of the region) it's well recommended.

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Son of Saul (2015)

10/10

This is not a Holocaust movie

9 June 2015

Warning: Spoilers

After the news about the movie's success in Cannes, there was a lot of conversation about whether we need "yet another" movie about the Holocaust. Still, as I watched the movie, I have realized that the main subject of it is not the Holocaust itself, but rather the human and his choices between morality and necessities, between family and strangers, between dead and alive. And, this is that makes this movie a perfect 10 for me: the painfully precise reconstruction of the mass murder and the almost PoV-esque, brutally relivable presentation of Auschwitz's everyday is just the beginning, just the setting. Still, I cannot overemphasize it that the reconstruction feels so realistic thanks to the filming style (the viewer remains so close to Saul, the protagonist, that almost smells him), the acting (that is, basically showing empty shells of seemingly living people in most of the movie) and the details (people using myriad of languages, mainly Yiddish to communicate, for example).

So, if Holocaust is just the setting, what is it really about then? It reminded me of a Greek drama with a protagonist, who has big choices with tragic consequences, with very clear dilemmas. With a big difference that you cannot hope of a divine intervention at the end – although as a viewer, I can understand if somebody hopes that some kind of happy ending will close the movie, after all, some kind of (even unreal) hope makes the members of the Sonderkommando alive as well.

If you see a "Holocaust movie", you end up wondering about how this could happen (and why is it happening again and again). In Saul's Son, you will be haunted by the pictures of the killings and by the partly banal practicalities related of it, but the main question will be: what would have YOU done, not as a Jew, but as someone who is on the blurry borderline between victims and collaborators, as a parent, as a comrade as a HUMAN?

and that makes it way more than "just" a (quite revolutionary) Holocaust movie for me.

Recommended for anyone who feels like 110 minutes of pain (it is, really, painful to watch) is worth to have an experience of visiting some dark edges of our humanity.

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For Some Inexplicable Reason (2014)

8/10

Budapest Zeitgeist

31 October 2014

Although partly set in Lisbon, this is essentially a Budapest movie that is finally able to show how does it feel to be a young adult in Hungary's capital.

"For some inexplicable reason"'s real strength lies in its honestly - it doesn't feel like a bigger budget art movie, rather you feel like roaming around with your friends on the streets of your hometown. You may make some detours or find some odd details that may not add up to a thorough story on the way, but that is how real life works, isn't it?

So what to expect when you meet those friends? You will laugh sometimes, you will be sad for a while, you will recall your own experiences (especially if you are twenty-something or from Central Europe)... and I guess you will recall some scenes and thoughts from the movie even days later.

Surgeon general's warning: watching this movie may make you want to visit Budapest. Avoid it if your normal diet consists solely of Hollywood movie.

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