Change Your Image
peterinstockholm
Reviews
Mine vaganti (2010)
Modern Commedia dell'arte
This is not a very good movie, but it's quite fun to watch. Loose Canons proves that commedia dell'Arte is alive and updated in its native country Italy. The types and the plots of this old comic drama form seems particularly suited to the Italian temperament, and the outbursts of passion, regret and rage among modern urban people very aware of their image and clothes fit this kind of entertainment very well. The patriarch of a pasta factory despairs when one of his sons and heirs reveals he is gay. The father has not a big problem with the gayness as such, but with the fact that the son wants to become "openly" gay. This is a comedy very much about not losing one's face. The movie is very fast paced in the beginning and the most important plot twist comes too early. The last third of the film is on the other hand lengthy and has too much of a message, though an unclear one. A high-light of the movie is a "lazzi" (a special feature of commedia dell'arte, a humorous interruption who has not much to do with the plot or the story telling) with four beautiful and "screaming queens" bathing in the sea.
La danse (2009)
Strictly for Balletomanes
The documentary director Frederick Wiseman, has been much acclaimed for his bare and non-narrative style. He just places a camera somewhere and register what happens. No information about the action or the people involved is given. But Wiseman did choose the locations. He did choose what to register. And for how long each set and set of actions are supposed to roll. (And that is long, very long). The result is a deceptively documentary narrative about the Paris Opera. But the story told is of course Wiseman's interpretation of the Paris Opera.
We all know that documentaries are the result of a personal vision, there is no such thing as objectivity. But we have to remind ourselves of this watching La Danse, as it is seemingly devoid of valuation.
Here are some examples of what Wiseman chooses to show and emphasize (randomly presented à la Wiseman): Dancers do not talk with each other. Dancers are silent, anonymous people. The artistic director never looses her temper. Almost no one in this movie loses his or her temper. The only black people at the Paris Opera are cleaners or cashiers. The food in the Opera's canteen is pale and colorless, like hospital food. The bread in the canteen is guillotined. The modern ballets of the Paris Opera are full of violence, anger and frustration. The longest ballet scene in the movie is a literal blood bath from Medea. Even the scenes from the Nut Cracker look drab and dull. The whole film is dark and gloomy, probably because of the lighting. The dimly lit corridors of the Opera house are narrow and empty of people. The film starts and ends in the claustrophobic catacombs under the Opera House. OK, just a few examples but they say something of Wisemans perspective.
This film has nevertheless its fascinating moments, especially the meetings in the artistic directors office. But never have dance and ballet had this joy-less outlook in a movie before. And never before have the images of the roof tops of Paris (frequently interspersed throughout the movie) appeared so refreshing after the sombre rehearsal studios of the Paris Opera.
Mr. Nobody (2009)
Pretentious nonsense
In this very long, very beautifully photographed, labyrinthine semi-science fiction epic a very old person remembers his life in a very muddled way and we are presented with alternative stories of what (really?) happened. One gets the feeling from the very beginning of the movie that it wants to say something important. After more than two hours of tedious storytelling with a lot of repetitions, and alternative solutions of the life-story told, I have no idea what that important message is. I was so bored by this movie that I nearly panicked, and I wanted to leave the cinema, and the only reason I stayed was that my friend I was seeing it with wanted to see it through (though she was pretty bored too but she still had the hope of something meaningful at the end). The director and most people involved in this movie are obviously talented, but the problem is the manuscript, or rather, the idea as a whole. This overlong movie is a waste of time and money.