amandola-1 Reviews

Gomorrah (2008)

What a movie! What a class!

[1 August 2008]

I read in previous comments on this page all my thoughts and feelings about Gomorra, it's very difficult to add more... Anyway I'd like to point out something about: this work of Art is halfway between neorealism and epic style, the extraordinary use of lessons taken by best cinema makers in the world, the long sequences recalled me Hitchkock, the "dollies" sequences recalled me Sergio Leone, the choice in acting recalled me Ken Loach, the sapience in using noises and music Stanley Kubrick, and definitely the light looks chosen by Rotunno and Visconti; everything makes a no doubt new original artist named "Matteo Garrone"! Even his springing was with the superb "L'Imbalsamatore". I can be not so sure the movie is telling just a "neapolitan" story, it tells the Italy's story, where the official life is to a level and the real life to another one. Coppola, De Palma, Scorsese wrote a first part, Garrone finished it. As an Italian I feel deeply ashamed for our industrial class so "glamoured" officially (the fashion as the first...) and in reality so involved with criminality. Gomorra is not a "denounce" movie, but a "constatation" movie.

Me, the Other (2006)

what a masterpiece!

[10/10 · 8 July 2008]

This is one of the best movies I saw in my life. Where's the space for such directors, writers, actors? Movies like this are an accuse to the Italian cinema industry! It deserves 6 months out in cinemas and almost no one saw it. Meanwhile the Italian culture is definitely sinking under the weight of tons of real trash, Raoul Bova and Giovanni Martorana gave us the demonstration that that talent is not sinking. The ability to go into a dialect, the study of a foreign pronounce are the demonstrations of what is the real acting. Still Italians laugh like the were pissing watching horrible trash movies and are not able to evaluate real masterpieces. Thanks to the producers! To the governments, to distributors.

Totò diabolicus (1962)

Something (just something) about Totò

[7/10 · 3 July 2007]

As I read in the previous comment this movie is just an "unfunny burlesque". Even we cannot say this is the best film of Totò it belongs to the category of movies of Totò, where he is in any case a perfect sample or better the last sample of "comici dell'Arte". Maybe this cannot be understood out of Italy, but the enormous skills of this Artist are all there. For instance his characterization of the fascist "gerarca" and the Lady Laudomia, and the so matching neapolitan nobleman, or the sketch of the surgery (incomparable!)coming directly from "Teatro di Rivista" (the Italian Tivoli Burlesque). An unforgettable critic of Italian characters! Sure we can find similar commercial movies in American and other countries cinematographies, maybe not always performed by Artists of the same caliber in improvisation of this , we can say , Italian Mask. Let's just take one of Totò's inventions inside this movies "Io lo mando a Ponza a Ponzare!" (I'm sending him "fungooing" )

Mater natura (2005)

A choice or a mistake?

[6/10 · 6 May 2007]

Who knows Naples can't forget the ancestral importance of the whole place for the Mankind Mythology. And everything in this so well written and simply fascinating tale reminds to Myth. The world of trans sexuality gains the place, the respect, the strenght that deserves and expresses. I liked so much the mood, the style, the tragedy. But why in a so defined story the main part hasn't been performed by a real transsexual? Why the director lost his courage? Even the actress is a good actress, she is not right for the role. The secular history of performances "en travestie" tells us that the paradox must be complete. I really don't understand the choice. A very profound movie disturbed by this ... "castration". Why?

Volver (I) (2006)

Just Feelings

[10/10 · 28 April 2007]

No other movies could recently make me "feel" like "Volver" I don't know what there is inside Almodovar movies, and I decided I don't want to know. I just feel.. maybe not what he feels, maybe something different, but who cares? I feel myself as an orphan of more "parents" like Fellni, Visconti, Pasolini, Totò... well, I found another parent: Almodovar! Even his repetitiveness in colors , which are always the same in every movie, even the montage, that I am certain is never decided, even the end of every movie that I am sure is never decided until the end, he can feel his personality! Or his unconscious. There is always a second option a second opportunity in Almodovar movies, like in all our lives. Like many say Cinema was invented to make Fellini make cinema... I say that Cinema was invented also for this enormous Author!

Golden Door (2006)

But...

[6/10 · 28 April 2007]

Everything inside it is perfect! Perfect direction, wonderful acting, cinematography is incredible, live sound fascinating. The choose in locations couldn't be better. So costumes, music, make up.Every spot reminds the best Italian painters, Caravaggio, Michelangelo, Fattori, Macchiaioli. You can smell Visconti, De Sica, Fellini,Antonioni, Coppola! Even the contaminations with modern songs are perfectly chosen. Inside the movie you can find the best of the best. You can see any particular, from the stones to the sea, and think to yourself "What a wonderful sea, what a wonderful stone!" You can remember, feel everything. No one could really say "This is a bad movie" ! The director made everything for you to make you understand... also understanding itself! But...

The Interrogation of Michael Crowe (2002 TV Movie)

This is "fiction"! A bitter reflection...

[10/10 · 2 February 2003]

When I have the chance to see these kind of movies, I feel ridiculous about all our national fiction, here in Italy. We never, and I stress never, had and will have the courage to treat a story of "normal" abuse of justice, in a so complete, right, correct, wonderful way. The actors, starting from Mark, Ally, and all the others are simply incredible. But when you reach a so high level of quality, it's obvious the all factors converge to create a masterpiece: the story, the writing, the direction, and more generally "the eye". I can't think that in the same moment, here in Italy they make us sit through things like "Beautiful" , "The good Pope" (a pope almost Superman), "Don Matteo" (a priest almost Superman), "the big brother 3d series",(five for flounders locked in a house 24 hours under cameras... almost naked Supermen!) Real garbage, believe me. I'm , in a patriotic way, very worried... Are we Italians so idiot? Are we able only of our provincial taste? Is it possible we don't express here so strong writers, and actors, and directors as in "The interrogation of Michael Crowe?"? These cases happen here too. "The interrogation of Michael Crowe" is one of the best fictions I've never seen, and I usually "must" watch a lot of fiction, so I can say. I would really like to congratulate directly to everyone in the crew

Le avventure di Pinocchio (1972)

Comencini's heart about Pinocchio

[28 October 2002]

I'm looking for the maybe tenth time at television version of "Le avventure di Pinocchio" By Comencini, Rai is broadcasting it , on its satelite channel Raisat Album, with a maybe bit polemical intention... Here in Italy everyone in showbusinnes says "the Benigni's version is just made for americans..." well, anyway, I don't think americans (the ones who know the Comencini's version) can't make the incredible difference of interpretation between the two movies. The first one in a perfect neorealistic style, caring about every carachter, even the most little and caring much more about the key-words inside the Collodi's story. We mustn't forget the level of actors inside it! Not only Ciccio Ingrassia and Franco Franchi, not only Nino Manfredi, but also Vittorio de Sica as the judge! We mustn't forget the care of locations! Perfectly giving to the watcher the idea of an Italy post- 1861 unification, with all her hunger, he misery, her dignity. Everyone of us, looking to every version of a national tale shouldn't never forget the moment someone told it to him or her... The rest is silence...