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Reviews
Fortapàsc (2009)
No more Gomorrah or Italian organized crime movies please!
Fort Apache made his way to this year's Rabat Auteur cinema Festival and received wide acclaim even standing ovation from the critics attending the screening, it didn't take me long to realize the reason : none of the audience watched the remarkable "Gomorrah" released in 2008! The movie tells one more time the struggle of Italian society to suppress and eradicate a very strong powerful organized mafia called "the Gomorrah" , this time through the struggle of a brave journalist called Giancarlo Siani (played by a relatively new comer Libero De Rienzo) who got himself tangled in a clash against organized crime in his hometown and had to pay in blood for his journalistic efforts to uncover the truth.
The case here is that this form of Italian organized crime has been treated countless times by a myriad of filmmakers and in different styles for the last five decades, and the fact that " Gomorrah" is the new form of the old mafia doesn't really cast a new light on the matter.
The only innovative treatment to visit this genre was already done in 2008 "Gomorrah" that ,through episodic storytelling, filmed the whole thing as a war reportage and showed very efficient techniques to catch modern audience' interest.
The writer and director of Fort apache both seemed to ignore all these facts, and still managed to come with this tedious effort that never shows key elements of the Siani war against crime, tries to force sympathy for the journalist's personal life through unexplained scenes of love and friendship that never establish a bond to the main narrative. Add to this a very ineffective way of using the voice over technique, the use of humor to lighten the story in some passages but unsteady it spoils the effect,non-convincing supporting performances,the name of a Siani article 'fort apache' ( a reference to the john ford's movie)is not cleverly revealed,over-the-edge depiction of the mob meetings and arrest scenes that delves unintentionally into caricaturization of the crime genre.etc.
Overall, if you're interested in a genuine Italian modern crime movie, pass this one in favor of "Gomorrah" and let's hope we don't get any more of these flicks filled with blood, south-Italian accents and gun-blazing machos in underpants!
Venkovský ucitel (2008)
Compelling premise but flawed plot
"Country teacher" was the first Czech movie to be shown in Morocco during the European cinema week 2010 edition. The motion picture left the majority of the audience in a complete unease and resentment due to its depiction of Homosexual themes not fully accepted by the local culture. But what turned me off, was not the subject but the treatment of what seemed a genuine compelling premise.
the first shots introduce us to the protagonist(Petr) getting used to his new life as a teacher of a primary school in a rural region, the cinematography at first captures the lush beautiful landscape in a smooth direct fashion in contrast with the confusion and unease growing inside the title character that obviously hides a terrible secret that prompted him to flee his urban life for a hideout somewhere. But what seemed a build up for a tense deep narration, gets clumsily wasted when a single scene tells us that pets is struggling with his homosexuality and the obtrusive control of his mother that happens to teach in the same high school he left. This revelations seems to the author/director so groundbreaking that he relies for the rest of the motion picture on emotional tear jerker situations and lines never fully explained and lacking a simple coherent narrative line. There was some attempt at graphic and verbal symbolism through some teaching classes about the animal realm and some shots with special attention paid to the background but the whole thing falls short of any valuable addition to the story since forced and not heartily composed.There's also the uneven insertions of the soundtrack composed solely of modern classical vocal solos that pops up out of nowhere and fades unnoticed.
What really appalled me to finish with was the everybody-understands -forgives-themselves and everybody else ending. No denouement of the events led to what seemed a forced finale witch sole purpose was to transform the tortured souls into free forgiving new born persons that collaborate on a last symbol-loaded scene: the birth giving of a calf unwisely inserted into the narration but beautifully shot.
Overall a weak entry of the eastern European author cinema, that needs more coherent narration if it wants to win over a reluctant Moroccan audience uneasy with queer cinema to begin with!