albnet Reviews

A Dangerous Method (2011)

Most depts OK, the director ruins the film

[5/10 · 26 January 2012]

Acting is quite good in this film, though Mortesen is more convincing than the main character, Jung. Keira Knightley gives a good performance. Photography is OK, too.

But then the film never takes off for the following reasons. The camera is static most of the time. The film shows intensive moments of nevrosis or anxiety in a single shot that the director may have though is good enough. The music is lacking, it never enters the show, never becomes part of it. The editing department is not so talented. Scenes are cut without even trying to recover the director's poor choice of shooting long scenes with a single camera. These two departments, director and editing, are the key to understand why this movie comes apart to create some nice shooting without a filmic story. So thumbs down for the director and thumbs up for the actors, costumes and photography depts.

I don't know Cornenberg, but the potential of this movie was huge. It is unforgivable that nobody in the producing line didn't understand that the movie is never taking off, it needs more shots, more details, better editing, dolly camera, etc. Not to speak about it's end which doesn't make any sense artistically. Fade off and good bye. No logic expectation why it should end there, no history concluded, nothing. Just fade off and write out when did the characters die. This is far from making this a movie, and near to making it a theater show with static cameras and good acting.

The Forgiveness of Blood (2011)

Good movie, decent acting, flaws in camera and scripting

[20 September 2011]

The movie is somehow good but I had some concerns. The good part is that the movie create a full story, the scenes are mostly connected and the viewer can follow. Second, the actors are not famous Albanian actors, which makes the film more realistic. Third, local dialect was used, adding still some realism (many Albanian movies create surreal literal scripts with little connection to everyday life). Let's come to the critiques.

My concerns are basically assumed in one phrase: "the film is tight". It doesn't change camera lenses, it lacks wide shots of the village to add a spatial sense between scenes. It all happens in three buildings and few streets. All this can easily find a reason in budget limits, but I guess the film could be enriched visually with a little more effort.

Another limit was in the script. The film starts and ends without nobody explaining what is the kanun or besa. Foreign viewers would only guess what is going on, but also many Albanians don't know the rules. Leaving things unexplained makes the viewer nervous. Take a look to the review before mine. There is a long introduction to explain what the movie should have mostly told. This is not a good sign. A movie should speak for itself leaving little space to reviewers for their stories. We have to imagine that a wide public will see this film. And many may give bad ratings because they didn't read Wikipedia to prepare themselves for the movie. This part could have been fixed by adding short scenes of a child asking "Why do we have to stay closed, what is the kanun", "What is BESA, can we have some more of it (laughter)". An adult could have explained what the viewer needed to know. And this would be a real situation because a 5 years old child doesn't stay locked at home without asking why.

From what I see there is still some confusion about the concept of BESA. This is not a honor code to be proud, its part of the rules in the kanun (like today's laws). Simply speaking, it's an armistice. The family which have been damaged gives to the family that damaged them the right to get out of home without risking to be killed. Since this agreement was verbal, Albanians say they have a tradition in keeping promises. However, this is not a promise but a rule. If a family broke their promise there would be serious consequences from the kanun rules itself.

My last concern was the color black. I don't know for what reason the color black was a dark gray. Since the movie have a lot of dark scenes, this was quite noticeable. I thought the problem was the cinema, but then I remembered the trailer on youtube suffering of the same problem.

Despite my critiques, a big thanks is due to the producers and Marston, who spend time and effort to tell an Albanian story. I loved the part of his interview where he says that he tried to find a story that hasn't been seen before. Something interesting in a topic otherwise well known to the public (revenge and feuds).

Warum Männer nicht zuhören und Frauen schlecht einparken (2007)

Well done hilarious movie

[8/10 · 1 August 2011]

I saw this movie 3 years ago on a plane. It was irresistibly funny, full of irony and laughs. Most important, it was fast, dynamic, it never bored me.

I think there are many factors contributing to the impression of a film: the place you saw it, your expectation, the price it was paid, etc. That's why is impossible to have all good reviews. However this movie is underrated, people have mistreated it because it's German, it didn't receive enough attention (like most European movies) and there is no marketing for the digital version (DVD, download, etc). However, this movie won-t get you bored for an instant, thus it's a gooood movie. Technically speaking, the authors have done a good job, photography was OK, and editing good. Of course, it's not a mega production, but I would like to have 10 movies like this rather than a Hollywood mega production tuned to sell politically correct stuff. Beside all, the script of this move (based on a book), is original, while most other overwhelming titles have repetitive ideas: the dumb discovering his moral, the single discovering love, the marriage as a monogamous promise.

Watch this movie, it's worth 7-8 stars.

My Name Is Rocco Papaleo (1971)

Bad directing but wonderful playing and well prepared story.

[5/10 · 23 January 2007]

The movie has a nice screenplay and a wonderful Mastroianni, but the directing is awful. The movie scenes are rhetoric and the photography too bad for 1971. It seems nobody took care about colors during the scenes. However the story will remain in your mind for a long time. The reflections of the old man are still impressive and you can understand the uncertainity of years '60 mentality. On the other side the crash of two worlds (the top model and the miner) is almost without winners, discovering the banality of everyones' life. The movie seems stupid at the beginning, but slowly you understand there is much more. The major insight arrives at the last scene, while the two players perform really good. It seems that the director also helped on the screenplay. Probably is good in creating the story but not on filming it. Mastroianni in this movie made me think about Alberto Sordi on "Bello onesto, emigrato in Australia". Actually only Sordi can replace Mastroianni in this play. Both stories are similar and the life of emigrants is described in the same way, that is half empty. The tendency of emigrants to loose their personality in a foreign environment can still be a good story today in the global era.