claudette-crivelli Reviews

AnnoZero (2006– )

The Eye Of The Storm

[8/10 · 2 October 2009]

We're living in strangely new, strangely familiar times in Italy. A great showman, Silvio Berlusconi, is at the helm and he is pure showbiz. Last night an escort was the eye of the storm, Patrizia D'Addario. I'm tempted to say, poor girl. Even if she was into her romantic randez-ouzo with a private personal agenda, who can blame her? She's been paid to spend time with the most powerful man in Italy. There is no way she can be accused of being the rotten party here. She represents the oppressed no matter how glamorous. She is the one that's been used and it doesn't matter that's been done with her consent. Abuse of power is based on that. I'm way above you so my time with you is for you a privilege. How terrifying. Santoro, the conductor of the program looses his way sometimes but how funny to see that as soon as the program ended, Porta A Porta started with a vociferous Ignazio LaRussa - perfect casting to play the devil in some High School production - and some of the "bring down Patrizia and destroy her" - guests from the Santoro program. The political debate is a farce and Silvio Berlusconi sets the tone. How sad.

Diverso da chi? (2009)

Almost there

[6/10 · 3 April 2009]

This is an unusual Italian release. It doesn't aspire to more than what it is and what it is, is rather nice. What's good about it is mostly thanks to Luca Argentero and Filippo Negri. Argentero is rapidly becoming a big star and with reason. He has a compelling presence on the screen and you can sense a lot of room for improvement, so, I'm sure that when he meets the "right" director he will become transcendental. Filippo Negri is perfect as his loving foil and their scenes together reeked of an unexpected truth. Claudia Gerini however, more restrained than usual but not restrained enough still plays to the camera for laughs. She doesn't seem to trust her own delivery or anything about her character. The script should be applauded for so many daring things but the structure is faulty to say the least. Gerini's change of heart is far too fast, for a cunning political woman, the fastness contradicted everything about the character but, let me say, I was amused and I was taken by the intentions. Not a film by one of those unbearable "auteurs" and not a mindless Chrismas comedy either. Than in itself makes it a welcome oddity.

A Dream House Nightmare (2007)

Slow Road To Nowhere

[3/10 · 14 April 2007]

I'm not quite sure what have I seen. Was it a comedy? A satire? The story, if you can call it that, unfolds so slowly that there is not a chance to keep anyone's attention. A couple with bourgeois aspirations buy a small villa in the suburbs, they will find themselves living next door to a strange foreign couple. There is nothing in the telling of the story that could make us care about the happenings that ensue. Claudia Gerini goes through the motions, obligatory it seems, in every Italian movie. A strip tease of sorts. The kind of spectacle that it's always present in every Italian TV show and/or movie. I don't get it really, and I'm Italian. If you put a gun to my head and ask me to choose something positive about the movie. I will say, Luca Lionello. He is a very eccentric actor but, appealing, intriguing. I can't wait to see him in something that allows his human side to be at the forefront. The director, a singer/songwriter, must have had an idea behind this enterprise. But I couldn't tell you what the idea was.

The Scopone Game (1972)

Brilliant, but only if you speak Italian

[10/10 · 11 March 2007]

Horror! The DVD is released without English subtitles. I've been talking about this superb Italian blackish comedy ever since I saw it for the first time. I was puzzled by the fact that such a beautifully made film, brilliantly written and with a cast that includes Bette Davis, Alberto Sordi, Joseph Cotten and Silvana Mangano wasn't some kind of "cult" classic in the States. It isn't because nobody knows about the existence of this jewel. Now, on DVD I hurried to buy as many copies I could find. What a great present for all those folks in the good old USA that have heard me talk about it and imitate Bette Davis saying "I want to play cards" in her death bed. Imagine my shock when I opened the DVDs to find out they didn't include subtitles. I was livid! I rushed back to the shop to return them. The shop manager, in typical Italian style, shrugged his shoulders like saying "What can I do about it" I'm really disappointed by whoever perpetrated this moronic release without any, if nothing else, commercial sense.

The Good German (2006)

The Black And White German

[5/10 · 4 March 2007]

I was so aware of the attempted style of the film that I could hardly concentrate on anything else. The look, oh, the look. Clooney and Blanchet - Bergman, Bogart, shadows and fog. Pity. It could have been a tense war time thriller - Who is he? Where is he? What is it about? I was always mesmerized by questions like that on films that "The Good German" seems to want to emulate. Sodebergh is one my most recent favorites and one of the main reasons is because he is unafraid of taking chances. The question is, what are the chances taken for? I get more "Bubble" - sort of - than "The Good German" Blanchet is great to watch, she's Hildegarde Kneff and/or a lip-full Gloria Grahame but other than admire her right there on the screen I wasn't permitted to feel anything. George Clooney is just as solid in black and white as he is in color and Tobey McGuire - well, the best I can say is that his contribution is brief. What I took with me as the most valuable aspect of this experiment is/was Thomas Newman's classically colorful score.

Some Like It Hot (1959)

The Perfect Comedy

[10/10 · 29 July 2006]

Why a man would want to marry another man? asks Tony Curtis, Security! Jack Lemmon replays without missing a beat. Clearly he had put the question to himself before and had arrived to a perfectly sensible conclusion. Everything in this gem of a movie had been thought so cleverly and as it turned out so prophetically, that the world of our three characters, a world of prohibition and gang wars could be today and more than likely will be tomorrow. Billy Wilder analyzes human nature with an acid eye and a glorious panache for underlining our most endearing features. Our frailties. Marilyn Monroes is at her pick, the sadness in her eyes a startling metaphor in a comedy about wanting. Tony Curtis with an Eve Arden's pout is so beautiful, so charming, imitating Cary Grant and trying to be himself that, in my mind he'll be always be in a frock. And, of course, Jack Lemmon, throwing himself into the part, body and should. Only perfection can allow to end its course with a line like "Nobody's perfect"