Viewing Gagga on DVD is a unique experience and one realizes the technological miracle done by Studio Seven and all those who worked together to get the film transfered digitally. Artisticaly the film has a lot of visual poetry and the camera-work is sometimes amazing when one thinks that it was done with a Super 8 camera. Mario Philip Azzopardi will be able to tell us more about the camera used in this shooting. The angles, the close-ups are sometimes poetic, especially the one shot at night where the main character Fredu is with his girlfriend in a car overlooking a stunning view, probably, at Dingli, in the North of Malta. The film has to be seen as a creative work not as an exercise of cheap so called entertainment as some commentators with the insight of a banana seemed to show in other comments. The storyline is dynamite with emotions, love, politics and social questions beautifully blended together. The final scene is the cherry on top of the cake where the films brings the audience back to reality telling us that all this is true and happening all the time in whatever individual and in whichever country. Maltese cinema practically gained a great leap forward with Gagga and all those who were involved in it. I highly recommend the double disc DVD version with English subtitles included and an illuminating behind-the-scenes group of feature for added value.
Reviews
2 Reviews
The Quiet American
(2002)
a country's changing fortunes
1 September 2004
'The Quiet American' is the product of many years of observation and reflection originating from Graham Green's modern classic. The film version in which Michael Caine gives us another memorable interpretation captures this spirit of the story of Graham Greene with the added bonus of hind sight. Vietnam in the movie is a great metaphor of the sacrificial lamb,a story that goes back to biblical times and a concept at the center of Christianity, a religion to which Graham Greene himself was converted. The young Vietnamese(Dho Thi Hai Yen's Phuong) is Vietnam itself with its unbelievable beauty, The two contenders, the Quiet American (Brendan Fraser's Alden Pyle) and the Veteran Journalist (Michael Cain's Thomas Fowler)turn it into a country torn between two opposing forces, the forced modernization of the American and the traditional contemplative existence of the British. All these forces are weaved together by the excellent direction of Philip Noyce who as an Australian can afford the have a fresh look at events, from a country where the Vietnamese found refuge and a new life while fellow Vietnamese were caught in the relentless web of historical change with is political economic and human overtones. A truly rich experience to understand the fate of a country which in the Sixties stole the headlines of a million newspaper and the hearts of millions of young and old. The film exploits positively the natural beauty of the Vietnamese landscape and gives us also a love-triangle situation which adds to the layers of meanings the film possesses. I recommend this film to all those who want to lift their spirits in times when political change is threatened by violence.
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