admiraglio Reviews

Viuuulentemente mia (1982)

Hard to forget

[6/10 · 17 November 2007]

Let's face it: this movie is really bad. Almost everything about it is bad: acting: let's change the subject; photography: it seems like they don't know what it is; directing: amateurish; story: terrible; script: damn, some nice jokes, but nothing special.

I haven't seen it in almost 10 years. And that's the problem. I remember everything about it. So I came to ask to myself: how can a movie so bad be so much stuck into someone's memory?

Well, than probably the movie isn't so bad. Or at least, it's not so bad for me, considering that I'm Italian so I can "apreciate" most of the situations and jokes.

It should deserve a 2, or maximum a 3. I gave it a 6.

Satantango (1994)

Art

[10/10 · 31 August 2007]

I've seen this movie for the first time almost 10 year ago. It was shown all night long on one of Italy's public TV channel. I watched it, mainly because I was attracted by its enormous lenght. I didn't expect I would have been watching one of the best (if not the best) movie I've ever seen. Cinema is entertaining, no doubt. But most of everything, cinema is ART. And this movie is nothing else but art. Watching this movie is like take a long walk through an art gallery, enjoying each and every painting for a long time. The movie is the art gallery, and each long-take is a single painting of the gallery. I don't understand how is even possible to sleep or to be bored by such a movie. Every time I can, I try to speak about this movie to more people possible. I try to describe its poetry, its deep beauty. And, all the time that is possible, I also try to show some parts of it to friends, co-workers, etc. And, generally, all I got are positive comments while the usual complain is about the language and the need of subs.

The Boss of It All (2006)

Now, this is a comedy

[8/10 · 31 August 2007]

I've had it with comedies. I mean, I like comedies, always have. Probably I simply got too much depressed by the continuing lack of ideas displayed by writers and the continuing lack of style displayed by directors. When I started to watch "Direktøren for det hele" I surely didn't know what to expect. I mean... Lars von Trier is used to shot a genre that for sure isn't comedy. But oh boy if he's good at it. I don't want comment the technique of shooting (that is brilliant) but simply the content. And that's what makes this movie a great comedy:

1) the character have the right balance between absurdity and reality, starting from the actor failed who speaks only about Gambini; the boss who doesn't want to appear hard so he invented one; the employer who can't speak danish in a good way cause his lessons were cut (by the "boss"); the screaming girl at the copying machine; the punch in the face guy; the "you wouldn't **ck me until I bl** you good" woman; the Finnish buyer who hates danish (spectacular).

2) the story is funny and "sad" at the same time: the boss of a company, wanting to preserve his image of a good man, invent a fake boss to finger him with all his bad actions. But when he decides to sell the company, the buyer wants to speak with the invented boss. Here comes on stage a failed actor who should have played the part of the boss just for a few minutes but that ends up doing it for one week. During this time he'll have to confront all the people that he's supposed to have directed in all of those preceding years, confronting with odd situations knowing little or nothing of each of them and of the company itself.

3) great moments:

a) when the boss of it all agree to a request of an employer without knowing what it is (that would be marrying her);

b) when the mustache guy punches in the face the boss of it all;

c) all the times the Finnish buyer damns the danish;

d) when the boss of it all confess he isn't actually the real boss, because there exist the boss of the boss of it all;

e) when Ravn confesses, and the mustache guy punches him too;

f) when the Finnish mentions Gambini, and suddenly everything "changes" in the plane of the boss/actor.

Why couldn't all the comedies be like this one?