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Reviews
Blindness (2008)
the path to happiness is paved with critical situations
I want to begin by saying I actually really liked this film. Not only because of the quality of the work itself but also because it makes you think, when/after you watch it something happens, it sticks to you and the images remain in your mind as you repeatedly question your own fears.
Of course it is all a metaphor..with many sides to it,I will try to simply summarize what I understood from the story.
I think the point is that society is becoming so blind to simple human emotions such as kindness, love, altruism and happiness that we need to lose everything in order to find one another again. And the whole film becomes a journey of purification through pain and love altogether in which the only thing that saves you from insanity or from being an animal are the bonds that are made between people. Bonds that in time become more and more selfless as you begin to have less and less things. So the central group of the plot, in room 1, begins by losing their place in society, losing their home, their money, their freedom, their loved possession,their identity and even their dignity...and then, when they all have nothing, when they sink to the bottom of despair, they begin to finally have each other and appreciate everything.
Also in a more mythic note we see a lot of symbols. Like the cleansing through fire and then the blessing of the water (in the scene with the rain). The whore that takes care of the little boy and becomes his mother is also a very strong point made about how different we are inside to the part that we are playing in society. And then the strong antithesis between the characters of Bernal and Moore and between the Doctor and the Accountant.
The first two are examples of leaders and how they affect our world; Bernal, taking the name of "the king of ward 3", is posing as the dictator, the supreme monarch, being motivated only by the satisfaction of his primal desires: respect,power, money, food and sex. They do not ask for jewelery and money because they needed it, they ask for it because it is a way of suppressing the others, of showing them that they are in charge. There are no women in ward 3 and no men that opposed them because they probably moved to other wards, that are over crowded, because in ward 3 there are only maximum 10 people. The others do not fight back at first because they are afraid, and reduced to humility by the blindness, and scared of the gun, so they go along at first and then they become simply used to submitting to this authority that oppresses them psychologically everyday.
It is no way different to what happens in a country when dictatorship is installed, of course the people do not like it, but they choose not to fight until things don't get really critical. The Doctor is the symbol of morality and there is this great scene when he realizes that the Accountaint was blind all along, and you can see how he can simply not stop from being amazed because it's hard for him to comprehend a situation that is so unethical. I think Moore's character is the most interesting. Being immune to blindness she becomes "a leader with vision". At first speaking through her husband but then standing up for herself as the true savior of her group she becomes to take a messianic aura in their minds. But only after excepting the doctor's help,and realizing she is as sensitive and fragile as they all are, she is finally at peace. The ending is bitter sweet leaving us to choose the right way and to decide what will happen: Would everything go back to what it was before or would they keep their new found bliss? I think that at the end, when you see the image of intense white, you realize the film was always about you... that you are the one whose is blind and has to change, and start believing in love and kindness and the simple joys of everyday life.
Sexual Life (2004)
nothing special..nothing original...
this movies was so bad in so many ways but let's start with the end. it has no ending...they tried i guess to give it an open ending...but they failed...miserably. The short stories have no salt and pepper..no spice....nothing to make them special...
the characters are flat...trapped in a box of little imagination and bad acting... because the actors really don't seem like real people, it's like bad theater: everything is staged, no real emotions, no real situations, no real conversations
and i guess it's also the scripts fault...that brings nothing new...nothing special..nothing original...
Hoodwinked! (2005)
almost flawless
i gave this movie a 9, not because it is a 9movie compared to all the movies ever made....but because it was true to its goal and it was almost perfect in making a new-age RRH story. i was waiting for a film like this for a long time, a long time of disappointing animations that lacked that certain "something" to make them sparkle...and Hoodwinked just made my day, or my week, or more honestly all the time that passed since "Madagascar". the jokes are so honest and intelligent, the film just keeps you hooked, the music was a great pick and the characters are awesome... even if it doesn't have an up-to-date "face" this movie is a real success...if u know the old Grimm brothers story don't miss out on this film
Orient Express (2004)
this is a no-no
I must say it was a test of inner strenght to watch the whole movie, this is one of the worst products of Romanian cinematography...but then again none of Mr. Nicolaescu's films impressed me. Just a waste of budget money...
As always, he is the director and the main character but he is no Charlie Chaplin, as well as being a bad director, he is a horrible actor, I don't understand why had to make just another movie centered on his character(an 80yr old "prince" that makes all the women love him with desperation)
In his quest for adulation, Nicolaescu inserted some cheesy lines, like "youth is wasted on the young" and (as many times before) decided to make it all dramatical by killing almost everybody in the end. Don't watch this movie...it's a waste of time