humate80 Reviews

Gholam (2017)

London for those who don't have a penny

[7/10 · 24 March 2022]

You people just don't get it. I find so delightful the truthness in this antiglamorous London, the true London outside tourism. The London for those who doesn't have any penny.

Shahab Hosseini is the spirit of inmigration. Something remains hidden in his life, something that he wants to get away. He wants to join in another country and culture, but the city is so alienating, so the sensation of loneliness gets almost every frame. The atmosphere in this film is so well done, the tone really put us in the mood of the main carachter. Some people says that reminds them to Jean-Pierre Melville. I wouldn't go that far, but yes, is a sober and moody atmosphere for a moody world.

Shahab Hosseini is just perfect. I recently watched a pair of films with awful actors and i tell you it's so hard what he does, hiding under Gholam's skin, just he's not acting. It's very subtle and I love it. It really brings me honestly to a part of the world that in fact exists.

Maybe the story it isn't the more banging you'll see, but can keep your attention if you are a bit patient. A beatiful slice of true cinema. If you find it boring, just try to find some popcorn spectacle, something outside reality or, if not, snobbish art-house films.

Sibyl (2019)

Mulholland rue

[5/10 · 25 June 2021]

It could be a kind of french Mulholland Drive. The materials where there: the affections of the past, the psychological insight, the fiction inside the fiction, fantasies, memories...

A failed writer retakes her old dream to write a beautiful novel, but her lacks of inspiration block her... until she met an actress, who tells her about her troubles. Quickly Sibyl sees a paralelism with her past, about her frustrated love with a man that bring her a passion and then another trauma related with a son they had. Sibyl lost her literal aspirations and her love and in ten years she discovered herself having a life that is safe, with some client as therapist and a husband that gives her estability. But none of these are now valid items to her.

The materials, as I said are good, but by one side the dialogue is too melodramatic, sometimes the scenes turns cartoonish and melodrama doesn't fits very well with the tone of the film, a psychologial drama. The scenes are also too repetitive, once we understand her old past love was very passionate, we don't need three more scenes of kissing and stuff.

By other side, the other characters, aside form Sibyl, doesn't feel with depth, something is missing with all of them.

It's a pity, because the idea is very good. A lost opportunity.

An Optical Illusion (2020)

The discrete charm of the tourists

[6/10 · 8 June 2021]

The discrete charm of the tourists. That could be an alternative title, because the film is so buñuelesque. We see a conventional film about a trip, but in a progressive manner fears and strange things begin to interfere and change the whole movie.

A surreal view on life of average people, where the globalization fulfills everything at the point that can make you see everything as alike. Same restaurants everywhere, same kind of fictions on TV, we imitate each others but without thinking if we really want to do those things, everything constructs a strange simulation that blurbs our minds, and sometimes we can't really define reality properly. Sort of.

On the drama side, I sense that there's something fishy with the butcher that sells spam meat to the wife. All along the movie the man reapers as something threatening, that drives the story into that nightmarish point. The characters really need to fight their fears to get out the tunnel. Literally. I think that before the film, that marriage need to disconnect because a crisis and a trip to New York could rearrange everything.

Anyway, a nice film. No that moving or fullfiling, but that strange atmosphere and subtle layered meanings add value and makes it worths to watch it.

La vie des morts (1991)

Le vide des morts

[7/10 · 17 January 2021]

A few years ago, in 2015, I tried to watch this movie, but I wasn't conviced by it, I found it pointless, i didn't get the humor... it was a confusing watch. Six years later, I decided to give a second chance after changing my mind in some other movies by Desplechin. I have to admit that this time I also changed of opinion.

It's important to understand that the humor is used as a way to show how they hide feelings in this family, how, as we see at a family meal at the start, they preffer to shut up and keep their thoughts for themselves. It's not important to enjoy their humor, it's just a road to understand how a convservative family manage their problems, even the most delicate as an attempt of suicide.

Another thing that I liked a lot it was that the motivations of Patrick, the young man that shots himself, keep mysterious, quite unclear. Someone thinks that is because a woman, in other scenes we know that Patrick's family is quite turbulent, event having problems with mental health issues. Also is mentioned that even when he was a child was regarded as "weird". Nor of these of these conjetures are resolved.

The acting, as usual in Desplechin's films is quite good and the cinematography is also very consistent and interesting, specially noticed in some indoor scences, where there are few caracthers round the scene, when the house is pictured in a subtle and hauting way.

It's not one of the best works by Desplechin, but honestly, is a great achievement, coming by a rookie director.