Change Your Image
chimeira
Reviews
Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
yes, there is something wrong between Montag and the poll...
Montag, with the help of the beautiful neighbor, had just started reading novels and the poll at the fire department he worked for refused to take him up. Because the poll accepts only those who obey with the law: Burn any book you find. Books are enemies, books are bad, books may cause suffering, distraction, chaos, disorder, rebel...Books make people anti-social. They'd better watch TV (numbing and dumbing interactive shows mostly). So, some time in the future, the government bans any kind of reading, and firemen are from that moment in charge of putting fire on the books, not putting fire out.
So what are the consequences? People lose identity: they are similar to each other with nothing to distinguish oneself from the other, they live in their unreal and artificially happy(!) little worlds, alienated and detached from one another, they lack love and passion, they lack emotion...they rub their cheeks against the fur of their coats continuously, feeding their need for love probably...they have very short memories, they take sedatives daily to keep their emotions under control... This is the reason for all this. They think humanly emotions are the main sources for humanly suffering and unhappiness. So, to avoid this, they ban books which have proved to wake emotions, to convey the most intriguing, challenging feelings to people. TV is harmless, of course without much complexities. After all, TV can change people, too, so they keep it simple, allowing for people to become as robotic and as cold and as dumb as possible. So that their memory together with their intelligence (especially emotional intelligence) is disabled. Memories make people unhappy, too. The wife does not even remember when she first met Montag...
And on the other hand, there are the ''book-people''. Each is a book him/herself, having memorized his/her whole book verse by verse, trying to survive illegally in the woods. They are so few, and so sad...
Truffaut's cinematography is immensely good. Especially in the first half of the movie there are great shots. Reverse movements, cleverly used close-ups, jumps, great editing...The decoration is kept as simple and cold as possible, with straight lines dominating, pale colors and all are well in line with the theme. And of course the credits with words and no writing -that was perfect! Also, as the credits were being told, the focuses on the TV antennas on the roofs of the houses were very cleverly done.
A 10/10 for me. I watched each moment of the film, amazed.
Kippur (2000)
a big disappointment...
Kippur was a big disappointment for me, to see such an experienced director like Gitai come up with such a poor film like this. The opening scene -the boy running in the deserted streets during war time- was really very beautiful. The shot was very successful, with great direction talent. Then, after this scene, little waves of disappointment started to flow through me. Firstly in the scene where the boy and his girlfriend were making love in the paint, the music was so inappropriate and annoying and the scene took too long. Having seen the same guy in these first two scenes, I thought ''ok, he is the leading guy''. And in all movies, you feel the need to sympathize with a character in order to be able to get yourself in the movie. This is how you can feel for the people in the film, and how you can get into the director's head. Anyway. What I felt all through Kippur was not a sense of sympathy for any of the actors, but rather that the film was like a parade of people wandering around. No one was the leading character. One character comes up and says something important and you never see him again. One character begins telling a story in one scene, yet he does not continue with it in the rest of the movie and you try so hard to figure out where that should belong in the film as a whole. Dialogues were very poor. The sentimental side of the war was trying to be conveyed to the audience obviously, but the words used were so poor at describing soldiers' feelings. Most scenes were so unnecessarily long, long silences didn't carry any meaning, and editing was very bad %90 of the time. As for the ending, it was so plain and so poor. Not only could I not sympathize with a character, I also could not get that feeling of relief when the guy returned to her girlfriend and they started making love again. At the start they made love, in the middle he made war, and at the end, love again. This was not such a unique idea and especially when it's tried to be given in such unsuccessful and wrong ways, a great disappointment is caused for the audience. I had hoped to ''feel'', but I couldn't unfortunately. The film lacked that emotion and philosophy.
Having seen an excellent movie like Thin Red Line, I cannot help but compare and contrast Kippur with that. The weakness of Kippur is highlighted then. I absolutely felt something during Thin Red Line -the war, the pain, the anguish, the lightness of death and all- especially in the final scene where the leading actor James Caviezel -there was a leading actor there- was floating free in the water and talking freely in his mind, I felt something in my throat, keeping me on the edge of crying. I felt him, I felt what the director meant, I felt the war, I felt the movie. Thin Red Line is an incomparably successful war film. I have seen Saving Private Ryan too, a beautiful film more showing the war zone and with great special effects, but Thin Red Line is the one in my all time favorites.
Not everything that starts well goes well...
Chocolat (2000)
chocolate is life...
Pantoufle loves listening to grandma and grandpa's story. So mama tells it before sleep. It's almost an Indian fairy tale in which the special chocolate formula that grandpa drinks as a treat makes him fall for the beautiful Maya, Chitza, the grandma. They happily marry, have a daughter, and then the North Wind takes her away. She's out traveling the world, bringing people happiness together with the special Maya chocolate formula. And so the tradition goes on...Now, Vianne has hit the roads with her own daughter, and with Pantoufle of course. And she tells the story about grandma and grandpa almost every night before Anouk falls asleep, peacefully in her bed.
And then comes the story we as audiences are being told by Anouk, the daughter in the story itself. That is the story of a woman settling in a small ''tranquille'' French village with her daughter, struggling to achieve her traditional mission as to blow life into those people who are too narrow minded to see, and to live. And that will all be achieved through that superbly delicious treat: Chocolate. All forms, all kinds of chocolate. Chocolate with pepper, with orange, chocolate sauce on turkey...[Attention before you go further: Possible spoiler!] The end: Mission accomplished. Everyone dancing happily, everyone is free, emotions are free, and it is settling time...And so happy is our friend Pantoufle, hopping happily along the streets. Grandma Chitza is contented with her daughter's decision to stay, and Roux returns... No one could ever come up with a happier ending.
You realize, this film itself, I mean the story as told by Anouk, was also like a fairy tale. Probably Anouk was telling the story to her own sons/daughters before bed, as the story of their grannies. In fairy tales there is always the happy ending, and so does this story end.
With beautiful scenery, almost like out of an illustrated fairy tale book, dreamy-like atmosphere, and colorful characters, this film was a great pleasure to watch, from start to finish. I bursted out laughing in most scenes, the humor was used so cleverly too. Acting was great, cast was full of experienced actors and actresses. And of course, direction is immensely successful. Music is used very effectively, also.
Looking at the film poster, I thought this movie was more a romantic one, but after having watched it, I now see that it is everything. It is about life, it is about being human, it is about humanity.
A 10/10 for me. By the way, what is your favorite?
The Game (1997)
you're so lucky if you haven't played THE GAME yet...
For those who haven't seen the movie yet...I envy you greatly. You don't know what awaits...
A very successfully built tension and mystery, accompanied by dazzling scenes and continuous surprises...Just when you think you've figured it all out, you realize you're on the wrong track. You reach lessons, you think ''don't trust anyone, not even your brother. Always consider your enemies. Beware of complete strangers''. You think ''be more careful before taking a road which you barely can see, which you barely know about''. But is it really what the film says? You wonder...so, just play the game and let it flow. Don't listen to what others say. Follow what your mind says. But will you be so lucky to escape? With no wounds? With no regrets?
Are you haunted by your past? Does history repeat itself? Or is it all a set-up? Innocent, or guilty?
I don't want to go further...Just sit back and enjoy. Don't be too quick to decide...With the gloomy atmosphere increasing the number of question marks in your head, great scenario, immensely successful direction by Fincher as always, and Sean Penn strengthening his place among my all-time favorites, a 10/10 for me.