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Reviews
Parasol (2019)
Dark Croatian Waters
I am normally not too fond of short films as a format. I feel way more comfortable when I´m asked to dive into long-winded journeys, where I can take my own sweet time to get acquainted with the characters or the artistic concept. This doesn´t apply, though, when the main target is to establish a certain mood. Many full-length features manage to achieve just that, but they fail miserably when it comes to maintain their impact, ultimately leading to abject boredom. This is where short subjects really shine. "Parasol" is a splendid example, as its short running time never strives for anything more than this initial mood. Nothing is overexplicated, the montage rocks, the music is also tasteful and intriguing. It is permeated by a sense of mystery, but nothing is ever driven too far. The only negative emotion "Parasol" engenders is a certain amount of envy, seeing where the two film-makers have spent their holidays... All in all, it is a real feelgood movie, six minutes of beautiful landscape and female pulchritude, a short trip to a beach where not all is what it seems.
Saint Ange (2004)
Did I watch another movie?
For the life of me, I cannot understand the fierce and almost resentful nature of many of the opinions given here. I was fully prepared to see another one of those over-blown affairs that put style over substance and usually bore me to bits after 15 minutes or so of their Amélie"-type smugness and undeserved self-confidence. In fact. SAINT ANGE is a very careful, very sensitive story of a young woman who struggles with her feelings about her impending motherhood. The ending made perfect sense to me, whether read as a ghost story of sorts or a paranoid fantasy. The actresses are uniformly excellent, particularly Virginie Ledoyen and Lou Doillon, as is Catriona MacColl, who you might still remember from those colorful Fulci extravaganzas from the early eighties. The splendid photography makes good use of the grey and cold blue colours of the orphanage, which is embedded in green and brown tones – Mother Nature. The fantasy ending also introduces a clinical white for good measure. In view of the many cinematic exercises of today that talk their subtexts to death, SAINT ANGE uses a formal elegance that is breath-taking. Actually, I didn't find one single frame that was superfluous. In a way, the film also shares several themes with Laugier's well-received and harrowing MARTYRS, as it is basically another – albeit more tender – tale of a bruised young woman under dire circumstances. The ending of MARTYRS can also be read as a paranoid fantasy, with traces of hope hidden in a complex framework of depressing human depravity. No, I liked SAINT ANGE a lot. And, by the way, Joe Lo Duca – who started with Sam Raimi's THE EVIL DEAD – delivered a haunting and memorable music score. An excellent movie.
Semana Santa (2001)
Generalísimo Franco's evil children
For the life of me I cannot explain why this film has received such hostile comments. Actually, I expected not much when I rented this. The presence of Mira Sorvino led me to think that this might be just another cheapo US horror flick shot in Europe. Not so. In fact, I found it to be a modest, yet highly effective little murder thriller set against the background of picturesque Seville, very much reminiscent of 70s giallo cinema and 70s Spanish thriller movies. It is a film that primarily deals with destroyed families - two of the cops were robbed of their loved ones, and the great Alida Valli (in one of her last roles) plays an old widow who stems from a highly respected family that has also fallen apart. The villains of the piece - and no, this is not really a spoiler! - are monsters from the days of the Spanish Civil War - a degenerated family in themselves. The story unfolds at a slow pace, but a clever and moody screenplay (that is totally devoid of the inane babbling that spoils so many of today's b-horror movies) makes the characters quite interesting and unusual. Throw in a few giallo murders and good photography, and what we have is a charmingly old-fashioned, moody piece of cinema. It is definitely not to be mistaken for a a-murder-a-reel horror shocker, but if one has a sweet tooth for slow, morbid thrillers, it should prove worthwhile. It's maybe not one the same level as Guillermo del Toro's THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE, but what a nice surprise it was...