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Reviews
Elisa di Rivombrosa (2003)
The bottomless pit of mediocrity
WATCH THIS if you wanna see the worst in Italian television. Bad acting, nonsense plot, please-help-me-suicide music, and probably the fluffier teleplays of all time. If you watch the first episode with friends, then you can start playing the funny game of guessing what will happen next. Whatever you imagine, it will be more interesting, intelligent and witty than the episodes' plots. More than twenty years ago, I used to watch Mexican soap operas with my mum (I was a kid, and that gave me some problems I am still trying to solve today). Rivombrosa resembles those Veronica Castro performances that ruined my psyche forever. More than twenty years, and not a single sign of evolution in Italian television. We have absorbed the worst from every import serial we've been broadcasting through the years. All right, I know that Italy lacks a J.J. Abrams and that shows like "Lost", "X-files", "Miami Vice" or whatever you love most are probably things we will see once in our lifetime BUT this does not allow untalented people like Cinzia Th Torrini (what does that look-how-noble-I-am-I-have-a-double-surname TH stand for?) to direct an idiocy like this.
Bin-jip (2004)
Wonderfully written, wonderfully shot
"Bin Jip" was presented as a surprise this year at the Festival of Venice. Kim Ki-duk had already been swimming in the waters of the Lido three years ago, with his charming-thrilling-shocking "The Isle". This year's Festival was a rather noisy one. Kim Ki-duk brought silence. This year's Festival was a rather hasty one. Kim Ki-duk brought peace. This year's Festival was a rather boring one. Kim Ki-duk brought a ray of invention with this wonderfully written, wonderfully acted and wonderfully shot movie. What lies beneath the silence of "Bin Jip" is probably a story of ghosts: a boy pretending to be a ghost, or average humans not realizing they have always been. Nothing is fully explained, as nothing in life really is. Nobody else will ever make a movie lighter and funnier and warmer than "Bin Jip" - to watch is to understand.