hackett-3 Reviews

La febbre (2005)

A perfect masterpiece

[8/10 · 15 April 2005]

Mario is a young geometer of Cremona, a splendid medieval city to south of Milano, student out of courses to the faculty of Architecture, He lives to the day performing jobs for a famous architect and he is also on business with 3 friends in the enterprise to turn into pub a mechanic shop. The discovery to have won the contest for a municipal employee thanks to an application been by his father four years before and the consequent possibilities of a fixed employment will transform his existence. To the beginning all seems easy and also funny, but when for his cleverness He will arouse the envies of an executive the life and the dreams of Mario will suffer an abrupt fall. Does the job ennoble the man? Can it conduct him to his own realization in the context of the society in order to increase his happiness? The movie seems to suggest that it is possible, on condition that is gone down to compromises with reality, done by recommendations, favors and kickbacks. For the idealists and the irreducible ones the only street of escape is given by the negation of reality, the creative construction of something of private and not subject to the control of the other people and even the state. Splendidly shot by Alessandro D'Alatri, played with a lot of passion by a great Fabio Volo, the movie represents an interesting fresco of the contemporary Italian society.

Quick Change (1990)

A brilliant comedy in 80s style

[6/10 · 12 December 2002]

Bill Murray is a great actor, his interpretations in movies which "Ghostbuster" or "Scrooges" are memorable. Quick Change represents his first and unique directional proof with the coo-direction of Howard Franklyn. The movie remembers the demential comedy of late 70s and middle 80s and even the picaresque genre consacrated by Martin Scorsese in "After hours" or John Landis in "Into the night". The special confluence of this two genres creates comic effects in chain reaction. The scenes with the taxi driver and the mobster are very hilarious and Geena Davis confirmed her special comic talent, while Randy Quaid is very funny in the role of the good-dumb. But the very director of the scene is Bill Murray, the movie is constructed for his particular way of acting. He is one of the American actors who knows very well Buster's Keaton lesson: make laugh without laughing. His comic style is a little bit more surrealistic and absurd of the one of the master, but Bill Murray his an actor of our times and the comparisons are always not possible. The only defect of this movie, and it's not a little thing, is to resemble to the story of many other movie. It's all so predictable that the only stuff we see is the speeches: it could be a programmed decision but in the long run it can also bore.

Sweet Hearts Dance (1988)

Predictable copy of a movie already directed

[11 December 2002]

Sweet Hearts Dance has a good cast of actors. Don Johnson was in a very popular period, Susan Sarandon doesn't need an introduction, and Jeff Daniels came from the success of "Purple rose of Cairo" and "Something wild". There were all the elements to be a good movie: an interesting subject (family divorce), the actors, a good screenwriter Ernest Thompson, who came from the copy of Academy Awarded winner "On the golden pond", but the movie failed the waits. The screenplay is very repetitive: it seems to be taken from a reduction of "Terms of endearment" (even Elizabeth Perkins phisically looks like Debra Winger) and from a series of similar movies. Don Johnson is very good in the part of the rebellious husband with a bad character but we don't understand where his intolerance comes. The movie doesn't explain this and expires in the usual stereotype of the couple in crisis after the first 15 years of marriage. The direction is so absent that often it doesn't understand if the actors improvise in order to give speed to the scenes or it was a decision of the screenwriter to think many slow and predictable scenes. However the story presents even very funny moments that are the only reason in order to see this movie.

One Hour Photo (2002)

Image is not enough

[8/10 · 10 December 2002]

Mark Romanek is not only a good director, it's even a great photographer. The main scenes of the movie are constructed like if they were thought for photographic shots. It's not a Tarantino's movie where the characters speaks too much for expressing their inner feelings, in this movie the set speaks for the characters: Emblematic is the scene where Sy is lied down on the bed of the mall alone. He is Alone in a place full of people, how is it possible? It happens because malls are fake places where fake people smile everyday and fake mothers and fathers walk quietly thinking to be happy. Sy is a victim of a commercial society that privileges the image to the communication of the emotions. Sy is alone, he hasn't friends, parents or someone who loves him, he has been spending his time watching the life of the others in the pictures he prints. He is a shlemiel who desires to be happy and loved. His faith in the image pushes him to change its good-natured aspect in cynical but its weapon is not the gun but the camera. Only in this way he thinks to be able to convert the running values and to see recognized its human superiority on the others. But he has forgotten an important thing: In a fake society made by fake people where the simple and pure men are defeated even imagine can be fake!! He is only the reproduction of a fake reality and it is not enough to allow him to conquer the life of his dreams. He was a victim and now he is a monster.

Guendalina (1957)

A perfect "bildung-romance"

[8/10 · 30 November 2000]

Set in Viareggio an Italian famous tourist place, this movie is a gentle comedy where we admire a beautiful and remarkable debutant, Jacqueline Sassard supported by a good swarm of actors, the italian sex symbol of that moment Raf Vallone, Sylva Koscina and the young Raffaele Mattioli, all directed with steady hand by Alberto Lattuada. Based on a subject of Valerio Zurlini, the movie well screenplayd tells the transformation of a young and spoilt rich girl that discovers the substance of the sentiments in a period where she lives the drama of her parents divorce and the delights of love. The love story is showed in a very delicate way, such as the adolescence stories told in "Le blé en herbe (1954)" by Claude Autant Lara, and it is built with a great crescendo untill the nostalgic final.

The Crimson Rivers (2000)

Kassovitz recovers the perfect film pace

[7/10 · 10 November 2000]

Les Rivières pourpres doesn't represent only a great French productive bet, but, first of all, the movie that consecrates the great talent of the director, Mathieu Kassovitz. If with La haine he was considered the new Martin Scorsese, Assassin(s), too slow and pretentious, represented a step backwards. Now with Les Rivières pourpres he recovers his particular sense of film pace. Directing a thriller movie he could make the error of following the genre's stereotyped, instead the cleverness of Kassovitz is in creating a personal kind of suspense. And the director succeed to gel his goal thanks to a nervous use of camera, a great musical sound track full of interesting special effects, an excellent Cinematography skillful to increase the Mistery sense of mountain sets of Jean-Christophe Grangé's novel. But it's not only a thriller, it's also a movie that reveals the authorial skills of Mathieu Kassovitz. According to this we can understand the frequent inclusions of pans not apparently useful to the story (such as the cars shots a the beginning) or the long kick-boxing scene and the hasty end. Well played by Jean Renò and Vincent Cassel, clever to interpret two different characters, the movie can be included in the list of the best thriller movie, such us Silence of the lambs and Se7en.