Change Your Image
troskaya
Reviews
Champions (1984)
Predictable, but worth the ride!
I usually avoid the overcoming-the-odds type movies, but I love movies about horses and since this was British, I hoped it could avoid the type of cliché usually found in American films of this sort. It might have if the music wasn't so overdone. I wished I could shut it off in certain scenes, it was too dramatic and corny for the action, and should have been saved for the ending, for which it was well-suited.
John Hurt is a wonderful actor. He was possibly a little old for the part and didn't really have a jockey's physique, but he made it work, especially in the scenes in which he dealt with his illness. The only thing I didn't think was very good was that he didn't seem to have much rapport with the horse, Aldaniti, and I was expecting something more in those scenes.
I only have seen Kirstie Alley in weight loss commercials, and didn't realise that before she gained the weight she had a stunning figure, she looks quite beautiful in the short scene in which she is featured.
The children in the film were great, especially the niece. A cute scene is the nieces asks Bob, who is hairless from the chemotherapy, "Uncle Kojak, if you only came third in the Gold Cup, how are you going to win the Grand National?" Their subsequent dialogue is funny and moving.
I also liked treatment of the nurses devotion to Bob.
I'd say my biggest complaint about the DVD is that there are no special features. So many DVDs have interviews, comments and documentaries. This is one that really should have had some footage of the real Bob and Aldaniti, and at least one interview. BIG disappointment.
Bob Champion has a website and has done a lot for the cancer research. I'd like to read the book the movie is based on, but still ... some special features would have been nice.
Gomgashtei dar Aragh (2002)
Tragedy and Comedy in Kurdistan
Watching this film is like taking a journey through the land of the Kurds, at the border of Iran and Iraq. It is also like visiting another world. I found it stunning, wild. The unusual characters who scream at each other instead of talking, the music, the crazy situations, the weather-beaten faces and soulful eyes, and that scenery of rugged mountains and vast terrain covered in icy snow. It's tragic because of their lives -- the harsh weather conditions, deprivation, and the nomadic lives they are forced to lead as Saddam Hussein unleashes bombs and chemical weapons upon them. Yet, it's comic -- and yes, the comedy is intentional. I'm specifying that because of viewers here who have written the strangest reviews about this film.
Mostly American viewers, they admit that it is difficult for Americans -- those Americans who don't watch foreign films or even atypical slow-moving American films -- to appreciate this film, and demonstrate that by calling it boring, or unintentionally funny, or pointless. Most of those viewers end their reviews by commenting that only those interested in the Middle East would enjoy this film. But I think anyone who is capable of empathy with people from a different culture and a far away land whose lives are filled with hardship and pain would find this film valuable. Or anyone who is able to let go of all the ideas about how films "should" be made and western notions about the way plots and subjects should be treated.
It's a learning experience, but it's enjoyable to watch. I loved the characters. I loved the scenes in which the women were working or burying their dead -- it showed their tremendous strength. I loved the scenery and the children.
If you see this film, make sure to watch the director interview in the special features -- he explains a lot about why he filmed in the snow and how humour and music are so important to the Kurds. The director knew what he was doing. I think he did it quite well. It was a film that made me laugh and cry and helped me to understand more of what Kurdish life is like. I'd watch it again, and I hope to see more films of this type.
The Amazing Mrs Pritchard (2006)
Timely, interesting and entertaining
I just finished watching the sixth and last episode of The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard on Masterpiece Theatre on PBS in the US. I loved it from the beginning. It's a fast-paced drama/comedy/fantasy/ which deals with the question of whether it is possible for a politician to avoid corruption. The way it plays out is intriguing and fun, with lots of good dialogue.
It's timely for us in the US because we have an administration which is certainly the most corrupt and destructive in our history. Current events are often used as reference points in the series, but it's not heavy-handed concerning Bush and things concerning the US.
In fact, I found it a wonderful escape from what is going on. What a fantasy: Someone in charge, a common person herself, who is determined to remain completely for the people, who promises the British people that she will never lie to them or mislead them and never forgets that promise; she is always conscious of it. We see an ordinary person take on the burdens of leadership and struggle to maintain her family life at the same time.
All the actors were good for the roles. Jodhi May again demonstrates her acting skills and versatility; Janet McTeer is outstanding, as usual -- I would watch it again just for her expressions and body language. It is beyond me how and why anyone could comment that the acting is bad, though I can understand why one of the viewers was upset that everyone in the series was white. Actually, that's not entirely true because a South Asian character is in a couple of episodes.
I didn't give it a full ten because I dislike the way it ends -- it leaves things hanging and we have to guess what might happen. But it might be that I am just upset that it is over.
About Schmidt (2002)
There's something about Schmidt ...
I came away from this movie feeling it was well-made but could have been better than it was. I don't know if I'll have a chance to read the novel, but I'd like to see if it provides a few clues about why Warren Schmidt turned out the way he is.
I also wonder if the animal imagery in the film was mentioned or expanded upon in the book. The prize-winning cows portrayed next to the picture of Warren at his retirement dinner, the chicken being prepared for dinner pounded with a knife by Helen, cattle being transported, perhaps to slaughter, their eyes meeting Warren's as he drives past on the highway, the close-up of the giant roast beef at the reception -- and a deleted scene with Helen and Ray & wife tearing into prime ribs at a restaurant while Warren sits, again unable to eat. Are these statements about the American diet and treatment of animals, or an analogy: Warren feeling as if he is trapped, led to slaughter and devoured by life?
Another scene in the movie, at the RV camp, when the husband camper says he just lit some matches to explain why Warren smells smoke, is perhaps explained in the book since it doesn't make much sense.
Both the film and most comments describe Warren as someone who missed out on life. True, but why? He is alienated from everyone and everything, even from himself.
Jack Nicholson conveys this from the opening scene. He watches the clock, but without emotion; he appears to be in a trance. At his retirement dinner, he hardly touches his food and instead of connecting emotionally with his wife, friends and people he has worked with for years, he slips out to the bar for a drink. Why is he like this? What was his upbringing like? Perhaps the film is saying it's common in Middle America to be like this, yet his friend Ray and others don't appear anywhere as disconnected and unhappy.
Is Schmidt's sponsoring of an African child a gimmick in the film? Or does it tell us something about him? It seems he is looking for meaning in his life, after retiring from a job what was his life for so many years. To his credit, he tries to do something different. That alone causes me to disagree with the premise that he is a complete loser and failure. If he decided to just sit at home and drink, it would be something else. But picking up the phone to begin sponsorship is a hint that there might be more to Schmidt.
He begins to write letters to the child, Ndugu, but not in a fatherly way, not telling him things about American children or explaining his life while asking questions about Ndugu's life, or anything that the boy could possibly understand or relate to in any way; instead he pours out his own frustrations about being replaced at work and how bored and annoyed he has become with his wife. The completely inappropriate letters become a personal journal, revealing thoughts -- mostly mundane -- that he has never expressed to others or himself. And yet, even in the letters he isn't honest, but puts on the same rather phony, polite face as he does with the people in his life.
There is one point when he almost does relate to someone, the woman at the RV camp who tells him that she sees his sadness and loneliness as something much deeper than mourning his wife's death. She sees his repressed anger, someone depressed. Schmidt could have talked about his feelings and life. He does say if only his wife had understood him things might have been different, but that's all we get. Instead he reacts on a sexual level to the woman -- that is all he is capable of, he is slightly inebriated, but he still can't connect emotionally or intellectually.
It becomes Warren Schmidt's mission to stop his daughter Jeanie from marrying her questionable fiancé, Randall, a not-very-bright water-bed salesman who has tried to get Warren involved in a "get rich quick" investment scheme. But Jeanie loves Randall, he treats her fine, and they seem happy together. This is another way in which Schmidt is unable to connect. He doesn't understand that there is no way he can stop the wedding and that he shouldn't try -- it's Jeanie's life. He's too late, as Jeanie tells him -- he never cared before and they obviously had no relationship.
Schmidt returns home, feeling defeated, calling himself a failure, but he has learned something inwardly. It might seem like cowardice that he didn't stop the marriage, but in not pushing for that and instead making the most agreeable wedding reception speech that he was possibly capable of making, he is letting his daughter live her own life, make her own mistakes. He's humbled by this, and I think it is what makes him vulnerable to the emotions he feels when he sees the simple painting by the child..
I would like to think that this begins the new chapter in his life. I think he began this process when he forgave Helen for cheating on him and tried to call Ray to make amends. No, he didn't get to leave a message, but maybe he will try again and have a closer relationship with Ray. Maybe he will get involved with others or somehow play a larger role in Ndugu's life. He might not ever have a good relationship with his daughter or become part of the family the way Randall's mother invites him to do. But he can still find meaning in his life and make a difference to someone.
Non ti muovere (2004)
Disturbing, overrated and unrealistic drama
I watch mainly French and Italian films from the 40s-80s, and I think it is bizarre to compare this film with Fellini or other art films. I found it more on the level of L'Ultimo Bacio -- actually a hardcore version of that film, without the fun and cuteness, and with weaker female characters.
Non Ti Muovere centers around a man who rapes a woman (because he drank a bit too much?) and then, it seems, because of her predisposition to masochism after having been raped by her father as a young teenager, he is able to begin a sexual relationship with her. Meanwhile, he is married to a woman who is not only beautiful, but quite caring towards him.
I've read some of the reviews and didn't see mention of the quite telling scene in which Timo kicks his mother-in-law's little dog. In a truly sadistic manner, he beckons the dog, offering it food, and then gives it a powerful, violent kick. In another scene he urinates on his wife's balcony plants. Both are actions of a disturbed person whose moral and emotional growth is severely stunted. His wife and her parents are stunned by Timo kicking the dog, yet a little later they are all overjoyed that he is going to become a father.
Violence against animals has been linked in studies to child abuse. It would be fitting if this character had been abusing his daughter. Although it seems the premise of the film and book is that this man underwent some sort of change because he began to feel emotion for the woman he had raped and then he watched her die, the scene of his daughter crying after a judo match seems to show that he hadn't changed that much in fifteen years.
He forced his daughter to take judo, even though she hated it and wasn't suited for it. She wanted synchronized swimming, but he said she was clumsy and awkward; he was putting her down, and maybe also putting her in danger. Instead of the motorbike accident it might have made more sense to have the daughter almost die from a judo accident. In the match, she stares at her parents pleadingly instead of concentrating on her opponent. It was only after she cried so hysterically that it seemed she might have a nervous breakdown that he finally relented.
I believe it is a fault of this movie that this man is glorified. He "falls in love" with this woman that he has brutally raped, but what kind of love is that? It's rather that he becomes addicted to the sex with her and to her willingness to let him dominate her. This is romanticized, as in a cheap romance novel.
The violence and dominance/submission in the relationship continues to the end -- there is a scene towards the end in which Timo is holding Italia's mouth shut on the escalator of the metro. If I had witnessed that in person, I would definitely have alerted the police.
The author of the book, who is married to the actor/director is probably the source of most of my criticism. A special feature with her comments did nothing to shed light on the story, just all praise for her husband's film, mainly in a lot of poetic language to do with the film's imagery. Any desire to read the book disappeared after that, although I wonder if perhaps some of the content is autobiographical stuff she doesn't quite understand and is trying to work out.
To sum up, this was an unrealistic, overly dramatic soap opera. It makes some attempts at character development, but goes seriously astray, becoming quite ludicrous, especially when Timo tries to save Italia's life by barging into a hospital and taking over the staff as though he is some sort of super-doctor. Of course, this happens while his wife is still in another hospital after giving birth.
I didn't find any of the qualities of good Italian cinema in this film; the symbolism is heavy and awkward and the pretty cinematography is wasted. I thought the red shoe at the end was especially silly, and I couldn't help laughing ... although maybe that was just the relief that the film was over.