andrea-prodan Reviews

Essential Killing (2010)

Weak, Preposterous, pséudo-poetic.

[4/10 · 2 September 2021]

Allow a Director to shoot whatever he wants...and the chance is he'll come up with something like this.

Why on Earth Vincent Gallo as the fugitive killer 'Mohammed'? Couldn't a real Arab do the job???

And Polanski's wife Emmanuelle Seigner being conveniently deaf and dumb?! For a One-Day rôle ??!

And US contractors smoking crack in Israeli Desert (posing for Iraq) ??!

And thoroughbred white horses given as a gift, (along with designer winter coats and boots) to a total stranger...dying, and armed.

I mean... Just how stupid does Skolimowsky think viewers of his oeuvre are?!

It's like HERZOG gone Gaga.

The part where prisoners are put through the US ARMY 'programme' á-la- Abu Grihab was promising enough...but soon the whole film stumbled along to it's pseudo Arty conclusion, just like dope-faced Gallo, stumbling around amidst branches and snow.

A sorry waste of time, and money.

Deep End (1970)

Stilted. (For better or for worse).

[7/10 · 31 August 2021]

Jane Asher comes out best in this freshly approached film whose syntax has something of the Nouvelle Vague, without taking...say... Goddard's risks.

Character behavior is quirky, and sudden tantrums and oddball antics actually give the film it's best traits. Nothing 'corny' here.

Even the Foreigner's view of British seediness (Director is Polish) is spot-on, BUT (and here's the PROBLEM) the acting is generally stilted and as the film goes on, this stilted general tone in the delivery of the dialogue, is SO clumsily present in all the characters, that for an authentic English viewer the film becomes unbearable!

It turns out that the reason is that the entire film is DUBBED...as many actors were actually German!

So, as far as I'm concerned, this is a severely flawed film, which could have been truly excellent. Had it all been shot in England, with a true British cast, and a director more aware of the nuances of the language, it could have been as good as a fine Polanski.

Nonetheless it retains a Halo of 'cult' criteria to be proud of, and despite the wishy-washy finale, it sums up teenage Sex/love obsession pretty effectively.

Seduced and Abandoned (1964)

Hard to beat! Only...a little too long.

[10/10 · 27 August 2021]

As an Italian,and a film buff, I can't believe I missed this absolute masterpiece!

It is so joyfully satirical, so bitterly funny, so terribly accurate in it's merciless study of Southern Italian mores...that even an Italian will HAVE to admit that it's not a film catering for foreign audiences (like 90% of such 'genre' films), and instead is a distorted cinematic mirror of Sicilian reality.

Firstly: the Photography! Aiace Parolin is responsible for the most striking black and white visuals we are likely to ever see. On a par with the great Gianni DiVenanzio.

But here everything is superlative. Sets, wardrobe, editing. The music (by veteran master Carlo Rustichelli) is dinamic and Witty... and even anticipates the 'western' themes Morricone later used for Sergio Leone's masterworks.

Actors...ALL OF THEM... are simply perfect. Never unfocused or bland...always razor sharp and present in the fickle twists and turns of the plot.

And so we come to Germi.

If this had been his one and only film, he would be in the gotha of Italy's already superlative heaven (so to speak) of Directors. Above Risi, above Commencini, above Scola even.

Everything is laser-sharp, slick, uncanny in it's intuition and psychology.

I just HAD to give this film 10 out of 10 points.

Putting less would have been, quite frankly, miserly.

It's only fault is, maybe, its length.

The story is tortuous and we... along with poor Agnese (Stefania Sandrelli, GORGEOUS here) ... have to go through all the 'stations of the cross' of Catholic hipocrisy.

Quite honestly, however, when everything is so unbearable you just have to applaud...sit back...and ENJOY!

Victoria (II) (2015)

The Rough and the Smooth.

[7/10 · 19 August 2021]

Anyone who embarks on shooting a film like this only expects superlatives.

Superlative risks are taken, superlative improvisation is achieved, superlative camerawork astounds (and I'm an ex-cameraman!) and.... superlative concentration is required by ALL (Cast AND Crew) for the challenge to be pulled off.

So WHY is the film, finally, NOT superlative?!?

Well.... Final results always are a mistery...a surprise...are they not? And although the film has a beginning and an end.., and things happen in the middle, SOME of those things just aren't credible.

And a film with such a rigid pretext: the single, uninterrupted, shot; simply cannot afford to have very unlikely moments.

I will not reveal them as I don't wish to spoil a curious reader's enjoyment of the film, but I will say that savvy, street-wise animals like our four male protagonists will not suddenly be totally childish after a bank robbery.

A getaway couple who checks-in to a Westin 4 star hotel is also totally unbelievable.

In short; just because we are drawn into a hand-held, one-shot, highly improvised movie...does not mean that all reality will suddenly and magically be suspended in the eyes of a discerning viewer.

Believe me, it's a fine film...and the efforts of all involved are superlative. But that famous 11- page script let down a lot of people's earnest hard work and excellence.

If the Director should one day read my humble review, I hope he will receive the Rough and the Smooth of my (I hope) constructive criticism.

Thank you.

The Party (1968)

Great antidote to today's drab, sad, times.

[8/10 · 6 August 2021]

Just re-saw The Party for, maybe, the fourth time in my life. It actually grows better and better!

Those epic opening scenes and a few comic stand-out moments in the film are not so important on repeated viewing.., and what DOES become apparent is another trait of this movie; the general message and tone.

Sellers is actually more thoughtful here than in, say, his Pink Panther guise. Dialogue is kept to a very minimum...and to great effect. Clutterbuck (the host), and the waiter with a severe drinking problem are simply superb! (The latter almost outshines Sellers!).

Racism is NOT a major issue either, as Bakshi is...in the long run...far superior to the people who throw the party. In a sense, he is the starting point for Sellers' brilliant character in 'Being There'. A twit or a philosopher? An outcast or a necessary buddha-like aesthete?

The film floats along in suspended surrealism... matching Sellers' dopey smile, letting havoc build up from nothing to a really over-the-top finale.

And there's even room for romance, in the form of a post-mayhem epilogue which gives the entire 'one-night adventure' a meaning.

A delightful film.

Hour of the Wolf (1968)

The Ever-Tortured Artist Effect.

[6/10 · 3 August 2021]

Self-indulgent and dense, The Hour of the Wolf is like Bergmann's answer to Fellini's '8 1/2'... but without the playful irony of the Italian genius.

In fact, in it's Swedish way, it gloomily wanders about, scattering powerful Nykvist B&W imagery over droning confessions and typical Dream Sequences... reminding us that great artists are tortured beings. In this case with saintly martyr-like women by their side, ready to bear the burden of madness, out of love and admiration.

Frankly Ingmar B. Has given us FAR better films... Masterpieces or even more humble, but more useful or stimulating films than this.

The actors do their Swedish best.

Vengeance Is Mine (1979)

The Paradoxes behind a Natural Born Killer.

[8/10 · 7 July 2021]

It's refreshing to see Japanese film masters give us THEIR view of hackneyed Western topics.

The Serial Killer genre was huge in the '90ies...and the USA sure had a lot to say on the subject.

But it takes a film from 1979...and from a Japanese director like S. Imamura ... to cover the spectrum of such a delicate,complicated, subject like the labyrinths of a contorted but energetic human mind, albeit using violence in a very different way to say Scorsese or Demme's 'Silence of Lambs'.

Also...we get very black humour thrown at us in a dry, matter-of-fact way; in one scene our protagonists stabs an bludgeons his victim. Smeared in blood he urinates on his bloody hand to clean it, then grabs a kakhi fruit off a tree, bites into it...spits it out, disgusted and says : "That's one disgusting kakhi!". Hilarious!

Imamura threads many stories and topics together. Never the moralist he SHOWS but doesn't TEACH.

Whoever has had or known a 'Problem Child' will understand the father's plight. Whoever has known or had a weak father...or a 'saintly' father.. will comprehend the child's rejection complex.

Sex, Guilt,Violence, Post-War Japanese culture Paradoxes, incest, law.... everything comes into play in this complex, gritty, strangely intellectual film.

I think no one has bettered this film on this territory.

Fantomas (1964)

A bizarre take on Bond territory 'á-la-Française'

[7/10 · 29 June 2021]

It was wonderful for me to discover this classic French gem so late.

Why?

Because I was brought up on 007, and Fantomas harks back to early Bond in many ways: Thematically, musically, visually. But whereas Bond films perpetrate English rational thinking and ironic humor, Fantomas goes the French way: Farce, sexyness, and ...Louis DeFunés!!!

We are nearer to comic- book villainy here.

We also notice that lots of FRANCS were put where the Brits put their POUNDS. By this I don't doubt for a minute that by showing off Paris and the French Riviera the French government certainly wished to rival Britain's skilfully propaganda operation perpetrated by Bond films. (Let's not forget that Ian Fleming, who authored the books, was a British agent).

But though Marais has much of Roger Moore's (a future Bond) suave appeal, it is the zany, manic DeFunés who steals the show...turning the film into something hard to classify. In fact he single-handedly wreaks havoc, and triggers off material for Peter Sellers' future inventions like Inspector Clouseau (of the Suretée).

The stunts in this film are amazing, and coarsely riveting. Marais and elderly DeFunés pull off quite a few themselves. And the inflatable dinghy finale is so tongue-in- cheek it will have you giggling like a toddler.

Vive la Liberté!

The Caiman (2006)

Many layers, all handled wonderfully.

[9/10 · 26 June 2021]

Funny when it has to be; bitter too. Even strangely touching (a trait not often seen in Moretti's work)...'Il Caimano' is to date maybe Nanni M's best film.

Who will take on a slippery, foxy and downright scary adversary of free-thinkers (and of The People!), a true 'wolf in sheep's clothing' like Silvio Berlusconi???

SUPERNANNI will!

How??

A Comedy? Too superficial.

A Tragedy? Too dense and unsavoury.

A Documentary? Watch out for reprisals legally!!!

So Moretti comes up with the brilliant ruse of a film within a film.... peppered with a bit of all three of the above.

And the Producer makes 'b' movies! ( A sly comment on Nanni M's behalf about the new, tacky, panorama that years of Berlusconi rule has inflicted on Italy).

So...is this a Political film?

It is much more. It's a film about courageous 'little' people too. Silvio Orlando's warm-hearted, stubborn, childlike Producer, Jasmine Trinka's fresh, idealist, dignified young writer-director; BOTH are parents....with complicated family situations to solve despite the all-absorbing tasks of Pre-Production of their film project.

If Truffaut gave us 'Day For Night', then Moretti gives us this gem, and throws in a sharp socio-political análisis of the Evils of Neo-Liberal politics. A place where....just like the Caiman (Crocodile) of the title, we are invited to meet the Devil himself. A beast with a 'gift for the gab', and Crocodile tears, albeit smiling all along. Silvio Berlusconi... played by three very different actors.

Chilling.

Brilliant.

The Bait (1995)

Too long and with nowhere to go.

[6/10 · 25 June 2021]

Tavernier has done far better.

The premise for this film is good enough. Bored, spoiled, numb, teenagers live in a Cinema-induced fairyland where all that counts is lots of money and success in the USA.

Once this is made all too clear, (and rather clumsily considering it's aTavernier movie), the story drags along to it's obvious end.

I pity the 3 young leads, who really do their best. Especially the young female lead.

But what I see here is another vehicle for an ageing 'intellectual' with a penchant for naked young actresses. And that's embarrassing.

Even more so because B. T. wants to make some easy social commentary regarding youth crime in bourgeois echelons of Society (as a pose to Lower-Class thieves and murderers).

Basically this is a remake of a far more striking Godard film from the 60ies, mixed in with Chabrol themes.

The film is not all that bad.

Tavernier reveals more about himself than about 'modern youth'. Getting old as a 'voyeur'.

Silvia Prieto (1999)

Trying hard to be Rohmer.

[2/10 · 13 June 2021]

I had heard so much about this film that I looked forward to seeing it as in trendy Buenos Aires circles it is something of a cult item.

Mistake.

Stilted acting, rambling 'smart ass' dialogue, trite situations. It was instantly apparent that here was yet another lame attempt at trying to be 'cool' and European. Let's say: French.

The neutral Rohmer tone works perfectly when used by it's inventor. So do his themes, and charming actors. But here the actors lack 'charme', the dialogue lacks sparkle...and the whole thing feels like a frail attempt at 'clever' Cinema done by a pompous fourteen-year-old.

If this is Arty Argentine Cinema give me their staple but unpretentious 'popular' Cinema.

All the worst 'tics' of the arrogant and self-important 'porteño' are on display. This little 'clique' of friends might delight in their home-movie, but they sure know how to bore one to death.

Fascisti su Marte (2006)

Parody and Politics

[6/10 · 16 April 2021]

Making people laugh has become an ardous task these days.

But some things (like Trump) are risible and scary at the same time. And doing a film about Mussolini and his era is a joke which becomes particularily relevant nowadays...not only because Mussolini and Trump share facial expressions and body attitudes (as does the entertaining protagonist of our film) but...in this case...the USA comes in late on the triunfal race to 'dominate' Mars! Mussolini's boys got there first, and in the 1930ies!!!

So WHAT IS 'Facists on Mars' ?!?

It's one looong 1930ies pseudo-Newsreel, complete with typical fascist-era speaker and rhetoric.

The jokes are smart, ironic, and mostly wrily funny for an Italian audience. Pity that after almost 25 years of Berlusconi, most Italians have been near zombified, making such satire almost useless.

Corrado Guzzanti and his sister Sabina, have been poking fun with skill and intellect at the Right Wing for a long time. Here, despite the low-fi SFX, FANDANGO FILMS put in quite an effort as one can see. And the film is charming in it's apparent 'vintage' naivité. But more is working behind the façade...and that's what is most appealing. I suspect we are being reminded that the whole US Govt / NASA hoo-ha about the Mars Space Programme is...in fact...hollow and ridiculous Propaganda, for OUR era! This harmless 'mockumentary' may go on a bit too long but, hey!, we may just re-discover it in a couple of decades and...see how HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF.

Or maybe not.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed a few good, spontaneous, laughs!

Hands Over the City (1963)

Laser sharp and all too true.

[9/10 · 3 March 2021]

Highly charged with energy. That was Italy during the 50ies and 60ies. Rod Steiger channels all this energy into the ambitious bull-like Construction Magnate Nottola, surrounded by a power-cast of Italian actors and extras in what, to date, is the most starkly realistic fake documentary I have EVER set my eyes on! We are plunged into the situation from the word 'go', and Director Rosi musters up all his acumen, concentration, artistry and social x-ray vision... delivering a relentless 'Cinema di Denuncia' masterpiece unique in its kind. Rosi has helmed several near-masterpieces. 'SALVATORE GIULIANO', 'TRE FRATELLI', 'IL CASO MATTEI'... but as time goes by Cinema reveals the true, atemporal, masterpieces. This is one. It won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1963. No wonder. Salvo Randone shines, as usual, as the oily Town Mayor with Democristian Party afiliations and a wily way with words. Steiger is very convincing as an Italian man of power. The film is powerful in ALL fields. Perfect settings and interiors. Pristine, stylish but realistic black and white photography (with great Camerawork by Pasqualino DeSantis), vigorous, if somewhat too incisive, score. Hands on the City is a jewel of Italian cinema. It proves that superficial issues are not necessary to establish the backbone of the peninsular mainstream. That Italian films don't necessarily hinge on the charm of Mastroianni or the attributes of Loren, Cardinale or Ornella Muti. Hats off to Francesco Rosi and Co. THIS film is a worldwide gem!

Valley of the Stereos (1992)

Two Man War !

[9/10 · 1 February 2021]

Polanski meets 'Spinal Tap' . Or...Looney Tunes with real life actors. Whatever it may be it's brilliantly executed by ALL involved. I was selecting films for an International Short-Film Festival in Bologna(Italy) when I fell upon this gem. It made me crack up instantly, and begged for repeated viewing! As a Rock musician myself (whatsmore, living in a very tranquil mountain region in Argentina) I REALLY got the message! For years I couldn't track this film down, having forgotten the (excelent) title... until TODAY. Don't miss this gem!

Experiment in Evil (1959 TV Movie)

Outstanding performance but...

[7/10 · 16 August 2020]

As a great admirer of Renoir's cinema discovering this TV film came as a surprise and as a revelation of sorts. My first impression, as the Jeckyll & Hyde tale unfolded was..." Ooops! Monsieur Renoir is uncomfortable not so much with his subject matter...but with modern times." I felt something akin to what I feel when watching late Hitchcock. Something is 'forced'; the Auteur is no longer at ease with the millieu he's visiting. Many scenes are unlikely, as are many plot points. So...just when you think you might give up and write this off as a directorial dud-of-sorts... Renoir plunges us into the REAL interest he feels for the material. Barrault is stunning from the word 'go' in his double-rôle. But it is when his 'confession' scene commences (cleverly crafted through flash-backs and a tape-recorder), that the film REALLY takes off. Suddenly Renoir is no longer sloppy, strident, or hardly credible. Everything comes into sharp psychological focus. We...the spectators...FEEL that Renoir has come to the MEAT of his story..., to the knot that he has (in his maturity as a Master of Cinema) desired to untangle.Renoir is finally 'turned on' by his material! And as in many film geniuses latter films...this knot is: The DARK side of the human psyche, hiding behind a mask of respectability. Buñuel has often been there. Kubrick too. And here is Renoir! So... to put it bluntly... Barrault takes the Prize for a truly stunning, revolutionary, playfully 'punkish' rendition of the unrestricted mayhem his Hyde portrays (and he's wonderful as the distinguished but ambiguous Dr. too), whereas Renoir struggles somewhat through certain passages but...delivers the goods in the final third of the film. It's a 'sleeper', and a companion piece to Chaplin's Monsieur Verdoux. Great Minds Think Alike.