kipale78 Reviews

Come Undone (2010)

A good director with a story that goes nowhere.

[5/10 · 16 February 2010]

Silvio Soldini is a very good director. At his best, he can give us touching, inspiring comedies like "Pane e Tulipani" or in-depth social studies like "Un'anima divisa in due".

Unfortunately this film seems to be stuck in the middle, and ultimately have no point. Well acted (Giuseppe Battiston is always a guarantee), interestingly filmed, too little edited. Yes, the editor could have left some more out of it.

The analysis of the Italian contemporary society (financial struggle, emptiness, fear of engagement) is quite precise, but gets lost in a never-ending (and repeating) lovers' story, everybody gets tired about. The audience tend to look forward the other characters, the whole support cast (the friends, the betrayed companions, the families), because these two really go back an forth, back and forth, back and forth...

Alba Rohrwacher doesn't seem to have enough to work on, in terms of creating a complete character. She's good, but seeing her driving around for a while doesn't take the story anywhere. Pierfrancesco Favino has a more interesting character, and Teresa Saponangelo has a standardized role (as a betrayed wife and mother of screaming children) that we've seen way to often (what a missed opportunity).

At the end of the 'World Première', here in Berlin, Silvio Soldini didn't really know what to say, except to thank for the polite applauses. That's the point: he has the craft, the skills, the production means and the crew to create something new and revealing. We still love you, but please wait for the inspiration, next time. A film can come out wrong like "Agata e la tempesta" and still be an enjoyable experience, but if there is nothing to say, better to pass on to the next project.

Also, please have the English subtitles redone. They were pretty bad. Don't cut corners and have them done better next time. Thanks!

Submarino (2010)

The coming golden bear, possibly!

[9/10 · 14 February 2010]

I just had the honour to watch this Danish film at the Berlin Film Festival, and I have the feeling that this could be the winner. I don't want to give anything away, so I will be very general.

What we witness is the compelling story of two brothers divided by life, united by the same tragic event. Both adrift in their sorrow, they run down their self-destructive paths, with little to fight for.

It is no big drama, though. The narration is gentle and respectful, and leaves the audience in the position of not being able to judge the characters for their almost invariably wrong choices, but with a strong feeling of compassion for all of them.

The performances of the whole cast are extremely convincing (including the little boy playing Martin)and Vinterberg's direction - unlike his previous Dogma movies - is at the service of the disturbing realism of the story, working at the same time with a beautiful composition of the scenes (the cinematography, from the very first scenes, helps going straight to the soul). Chapeau.

A special praise has to go to the two actors playing the grown-up brothers. Jakob Cedergren (Nick) in particular makes us see the fragility of his character through his eyes, despite his apparent and imposing physical strength. But the whole cast is really credible all along, both with their physical appearance and their realistic acting.

This movie, with its realistic description of the consequences and the dynamics of substance addiction, destroyed families (what a critic to the Scandinavian society, where alcoholism is a devastating plague) should be screened in every high school.

And, let's say the truth: if you don't find yourself silently weeping in the last prison and church scenes, you most likely have no heart at all. I am fighting with my tears right now, just playing the movie in my mind again.

Hotel Rwanda (2004)

I am sorry, but I disagree with you all.

[5/10 · 12 November 2007]

I saw Hotel Rwanda last night, 2 years after its release. I had heard a lot about it, and was expecting (as many people said) a new 'Schindler's List'.

I am sorry to say that a theme, even when so important and shamefully unspoken as the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, doesn't necessary make a masterpiece.

The cinematography was as ugly, televisionized and cake-like as possible; the characters weren't well developed. the movie was fairly acted, nothing more. (except for Sophie Okonedo, she was a real revelation).

But most of all, that terrible genocide is barely shown. And it is extremely cleaned up. Bodies here and there. Almost no blood. But the images that came out of that event in 1994 were way different and shocking. There were so many butchered corpses in the rivers that you almost couldn't see the water. They really used machetes to slaughter them. Children did it, under the use of drugs. This movie shows a sugary version of it all, and doesn't make you feel the terror and the horror of these days. By filming it so, this genocide seems almost accepted and closed. It has happened, that's it.

It probably made a lot of people feel shame for their ignorance, that is already something. Many probably documented themselves, thank god. Maybe some learned some more about Africa today. But this doesn't make it a good movie.

What a disappointment. What a missed occasion. I wish Kevin MacDonald (The Last King of Scotland) or Fernando Meirelles (Cidade de Deus) or someone of that level directed it. Not this TV-movie director.

Audrey Rose (1977)

Robert Wise obviously had a mortgage.

[3/10 · 17 November 2006]

I saw the movie last night, and I have to say that I was shocked by the poorness of the plot, the bad acting and the absence of the director touch; the producers tried to get a good hit with a really low budget, and it would be interesting to know how the film did in 1977.

The movie is full of awkward scenes: the girl screams and runs into thing, and the parents just look at her and run to the phone; the tribunal scenes are going nowhere.

M. Mason is overacting beyond any limits and, poor woman, she has to support over her shoulders one of the worst scripts ever: A. Hopkins seems lost and the actor playing the role of the father is useless (and have a very bad written character). I guess she thought she would film the new Exorcist, and she found herself in a low level exploitation of that trend.

Watch The Exorcist, Rosemary's Baby, and The Omen series. They are way better directed and have a strong script. And they are much scarier and leave you with a sense of unease that lasts.

The only interesting scene, and there you see the director's touch, is when the little girl has a crisis and runs all over the house followed by the mother: everything is filmed from behind a window, and you can only hear the noise of the rain. Too bad the scene is then ruined at the next take.