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Reviews
The Tree and the Swing (2013)
A story that fizzles
The production is decent, the sound is very good for a Greek film (most Greek films have terrible sound, and you cannot hear what actors say). But the story never gets off and at the second half it escapes from the hands of the storyteller and characters start acting implausibly. Eleni gets friendly with Nina, then attacks her in a most improbable way, then gets friendly again, and all these fluctuations are unjustified. The movie is supposed to move you, and you may get some tears but they're of the superficial variety, after they've dried you don't feel anything in the heart. Too many close-ups, and a general feeling that the story isn't engaging. The result is TV rather than cinema, except for the great length.
The director might do a better movie in the future, provided that she writes a tighter script and she distances herself from the TV aesthetic.
Raduga (1944)
Stock movie
Characters in this low-quality propaganda-movie are so phony they're not characters at all, just living cartoons with stock personalities: the wicked Germans, the male collaborator, the female collaborator-concubine, the enduring villagers, the patriotic Orthodox priest, the innocent children, the conscious female teacher, the partisans.
The script is so childish you think it was meant for 5-year-olds or maybe for a village public that had never seen a motion picture in their life. The only moments my resigned boredom was interrupted was when one or two points where naivety touched comical levels caused amused giggles among the public (including me).
The director, Mark Donskoy, has shot The Childhood of Maxim Gorky and The horse that Cried, which, although not special, are passable movies. But here he has really touched bottom.
No Place on Earth (2012)
Nice, but lacking context and research
My main objection to this otherwise interesting film is that it lacks legal and political context, as mentioned above by another reviewer, and that it also lacks answers to some simple and predictable questions. We as viewers need to be informed about things that the protagonists knew already.
Especially, I don't understand how it is possible that the two male family members who were living outside the cave and were the families' contact with food resources etc. were never discovered and arrested, even though the existence of the cave became known to the police. Were the police so obtuse? This question should haven been addressed and explained.
We are also not told why it was so difficult for the present-day caver to spot these survivors, since one of them had already published a memoir about their adventure in Canada.
Bir Zamanlar Anadolu'da (2011)
Unsatisfactory but contains one exquisite scene
I side with those who found the film unsatisfactory.
Close-ups don't make for profundity and a slow pace must give something at the end that justifies it, but it didn't. There is humor alright, social and personal humor, and that was pleasant but not enough; there's much more heaviness than humor.
The night part is the more interesting, first because it has the exquisite scene with the village maiden serving tea (worthy of Rembrandt) and second because...it comes first, so I had patience and good will. But these were not rewarded in the second half.
I may be retarded, but I didn't understand why at the end of the film the forensic doctor tampered with the autopsy. The film shows him staring intensely at the murdered man's wife and her son through the window as he does that, so what should I infer? It doesn't make much sense to me.
Tuya de hun shi (2006)
Some specific points
I liked this movie. The story is interesting, woman-centered, Yu Nan's acting is excellent, the social commentary is interesting, the non urban setting is a refreshing change from the usual stuff, without making a travel guide of the film at all. It also combines drama and humor in a nice way. It doesn't become melodramatic, thank God. The end of the story is poised between happy and sad, which is how life is in the majority of the cases. Now, some specific negative points:
I would prefer the film to be in the Mongolian language, too.
The family looks very poor, they only have a small herd of sheep, yet they own a camel, a horse and a donkey. I'm not an expert on this, but it looks as too much to me, compared with the number of the income-generating sheep.
The scene where Shenge catches up with the Mercedes on the highway by riding on a horse is absurd. What's more, Shenge didn't even know the whereabouts of Tuya and her prospective husband at that moment.
When Tuya, Shenge, Maoter and the kids return home from the above failed matching, Tuya starts again herding her sheep and all. But, since they had previously left their home supposedly forever, they should have sold everything: sheep, camel, house, etc. So that's absurd too.
At the final wedding scene, it's impossible that Maoter (the ex-husband) would disrupt the proper procedure of the ceremony by starting to sing his own tune. Why? Well, because, first, he himself had prodded Tuya since the beginning to find a new husband; second, he later actively approved of this specific husband, namely Shenge; third, earlier in the film this Shenge had practically saved his life after his suicide attempt in the asylum, and then he had even brought his wife back. And Maoter is a very good, quiet, logical person. So his reaction is illogical and unbelievable, even allowing for the effect of the additional cup of alcohol : too much is at stake. The screenwriters should have found here another idea to convey their message that even after this happy ending life will not be cloudless within the new household. Tuya's boy fighting with a neighbor boy because the latter scolded him for having "two fathers" is, on the contrary, a much more successful idea that serves the same purpose.
4 luni, 3 saptamâni si 2 zile (2007)
A serious film
General remark
Without being a masterpiece, it's a serious, frugal film. It does belong to a tradition (realism) that is nothing new, but so what? The actors are excellent, all of them. They are helped by coherent dialogs, very natural even when in one case (see below) they serve absurd situations. Whether or not one feels like "identifying" with the characters is irrelevant. The right question is: do they look real? For instance, the fact that Gabitza is exasperatingly stupid doesn't mean her stupidity is not believable. The cinematography serves its purpose masterfully. The absence of a soundtrack is a plus.
Some specific positive points:
1) The sequence with Otilia wandering through the night streets carrying the foetus near the end of the film is splendid. 2) The 9 minute scene of the dinner is successful, because it makes viewers feel a bit like Otilia feels, i.e. "What the hell am I doing here? When will they finally open that champagne?"
Some specific negative points:
1) As an illegal abortionist, having (cold and instant) sex with the girls before you make an abortion to one of them doesn't seem to be a sufficient extra motivation, when 6-10 years in jail are at stake if you get caught. The abortionist seems to take huge risks. He accepts the change of the hotel, he accepts the late pregnancy, he "forgets" his ID card (was it a fake, then?) at the reception. Either the risks were not real, and he was exaggerating them (which the girls should know, living in the same country) or he's a careless fool. As viewers, we aren't told which one is the case.
2) Gabitza says to Otilia she left the room and went to the restaurant of the hotel because she was very hungry. When the food arrives, she doesn't touch it to the end of the film. Hardly believable in a hungry country and concerning a girl who has just experienced all that nightmare and now feels safe and delivered.