Search results

Notorious is certainly Hitchcock's most elegant movie. It is beautiful because of the perfect Ted Tetzlaff cinematography, bellissimo by the unforgettable presence of Ingrid Bergman and, at the same time, simple by the Ben Hecht screenplay, and almost natural by the comfortable performance of Cary Grant. Although it has a background of international espionage, that is a Nazi plot in Rio de Janeiro, the script revolves around a love triangle formed by Alicia, a girl of doubtful reputation who, despite this, or perhaps because of it, is loved by two men. One is destroyed because it is forced to convince her to surrender to the other to unravel the mystery. The other equally destroys himself because he blindly trusts her, if he neglects the safety rules he should follow. What is most striking about Notorious is that, despite the perilousness of German spies, and the killings and attempted assassinations, one does not see a weapon, not even a single drop of blood. In addition, in the development of the plot, there are plenty of Hitchcock's tricks, the MacGuffins, elements of the script that the audience cares about, but that do not concern anything at all. An example of this is Agent Devlin's discovery of a radioactive substance hidden in a series of bottles from Sebastian's cellar. The existence of the substance in possession of Alicia’s husband, when it was not even known what the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs were made of (the film is from 1946), is absolutely irrelevant. Other memorable scenes occur. Like the foreground closeup, from the point of view of an Alicia with a hangover, through a glass of Alka Seltzer. When Devlin tries to save his beloved, who is being poisoned by the Nazi mother-in-law, he climbs a staircase in a few seconds. As they descend, the number of steps seems to be multiplied by ten. In the end, when we expect a gunfight or some epic chase, a gentleman appears at the door of the mansion and invites Sebastian: "Alex, could you come in, please? I wish to talk to you” - and he goes. #hitchcock #review

Pulp Fiction is perhaps one of the clearest examples of fuckastic film. Iconoclast, revolutionary, poetic and intelligent, this is one of those rare moments in which the director makes cinema for moviegoers and for everyone who enjoys a good gangster story, or noir, mafia, and perverse one. In the manner of Hitchcock, Tarantino inserts dialogues that have nothing to do with the plot. Unlike most scripts, the movie does not speak of itself, it is not explained, and rarely what is said relates to what is done. The narrative is divided into three stories that connect each other, but the weave does not respect the limits of temporality, so the first one, called "Vincent Vega and Marcellus Wallace's wife" has a prologue that corresponds to the final part of the movie, called "The Bonnie situation". The middle story "The Golden Watch" features points of intersection with the other two and shows the saga of boxer Butch who, even receiving good money from Marcellus to throw a fight, decides to betray the gangster and bet the money received on himself. The question now is to get away as fast as possible, along with his French girlfriend Fabienne to try to survive and spend the dangerously conquered fortune. In the episodes that opens and closes the movie, there are the adventures and misadventures of Vince and Jules, Marcellus' hit-men who discuss different subjects like a foot massage, hamburgers, filthy animals, divine intervention, while fulfilling their "missions." In one case, when they are to retrieve Marcellus's (with its mysterious content) famous briefcase held by a bunch of students, they discuss extensively the Amsterdam drug laws and the name of the Quarter Pounder sandwich in Paris, until Jules remembers what they were doing:─ Let's get in character! ─ and invade. Tarantino, who also stars in the last episode, is able to get unforgettable performances from Samuel L. Jackson, John Travolta, Bruce Willis and Uma Thurman. A masterpiece of humor, terror, adventure, and action. All together. #review #tarantino

The big concern of movie reviewers, which is to play spoilers, seems inevitable in Akira Kurosawa's Ikiru (To Live) , which begins with an x-ray of the story's protagonist's stomach and a warning that “at this point, he still doesn't know he has cancer". In fact, Mr. Watanabe, head of the public relations department at Tokyo City Hall, does not seem to realize what is going on around him. Obsessed with the task of applying his stamp to authenticate the documents that pass through his hands, what he actually does is do nothing, ignoring or solemnly giving runaround to taxpayers who come to the section to make complaints. Absent from his work for the first time in many years, Mr. Watanabe receives the news of his illness, and despairs, less for the doctor's evasive announcement, but for the exact description of his symptoms by an inopportune man in the waiting room who gives him less than three months to live (the doctor does not speak, but believes the man would live at least another six months). Returning home early after nearly being hit by a truck, the old boss kneels in the dark until he inadvertently overhears the talk of his son and daughter-in-law who unknowingly plan to use the father's inheritance and savings. The scene that closes the first half-hour of the movie is very sad and striking: the old man cries under the blanket for no one to hear while the camera shows on the wall a twenty-five-year award for excellent service. Alone, the bureaucrat decides to drink and, in a bar, meets a writer who decides to guide him through places where the man had never dared to live until that moment: pachinko parlors, the red light district, and dance halls. Watanabe asks a pianist to play “Life is short, fall in love, dear maiden” and sings the song himself, causing everyone, including the movie audience, to fall into utter bewilderment. Here, Takashi Shimura is unforgettable. Wanted by a coworker, who is resigning and needs his stamp to authenticate his resignation, Watanabe starts dating the girl for dinner and outings and has with her the great insight of her life: something meaningful can always be done. Returning to his work, the boss decides to fulfill an old claim of residents of a neighborhood: eliminate a pool of stagnant water, building a playground there. The last fifty minutes of the film take place at Watanabe's funeral, where successive flashbacks are told of their epic by the city departments to do what they are paid to do. Accomplished, the master solemnly sings “Life is Short,” sitting on a park swing under a blizzard, and dies softly. #review #kurosawa

In Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri , Martin McDonagh strikes limit situations within an emotional universe that intends to be predictable. The truth is that controlled or socially correct behaviors exist only in the imagination or scripts of movies before the 1970s. The attachment, however, remains and it is common if we become surprised by the hatred within the protagonist Mildred Hayes, a mother from a small town emotionally torn by the brutal death of her daughter Angela, raped while dying. Frances McDormand gives a human, all too human, tone to a woman who decides to throw all the pain she feels internally into the external environment: she rents out three billboards to charge Sheriff Willoughby for the murder investigation, which she deems "cold" seven months later. The sheriff, played by Woody Harrelson in a way we are not used to seeing him, is a compassionate person, experiencing the cancer drama himself, an illness that will soon kill him. Thus, the antithesis of Mrs. Hayes is represented by police officer Dixon, drunk, violent, able to throw people out the window and still be considered slack by his biased mother. Within this scenario of pain and violence, there are rare moments of tenderness, as when, arguing with Mildred, Willoughby coughs up blood and is called by her "babe". In another scene, Mildred receives an unexpected visit from a deer fawn and jokes that it is an attempt to simulate a reincarnation she knows doesn't exist. But cry. The sheriff decides to take his own life, which piques the spirits of the small Ebbing community where, as in most inland cities, hate and pain seem to be bad words. At the end of the movie, what seemed impossible happens and antagonists Dixon and Mildred join forces to eliminate a possible, but unlikely, suspect. From the uncertainty itself, but especially from the certainty of a violation of the law that Hayes assumed unknown, comes Mildred's first smile. #mcdonagh #review

One of the best films ever produced, The Rules of the Game , 1939, begins with a reception for pilot Andre Jurieu who arrives from a trans-Atlantic solo flight just ten years after the crossing of the famous Charles Lindbergh. Although welcomed by a crowd and authorities, the then-national hero whines in his radio interview because his beloved has not come to greet him at the airport. The beloved, for him but not his, is Christine, wife of Marquis Robert de Las Chesnaye, a millionaire who loves small mechanical toys. As she and Jurieu spent many moments together, the pilot believes that the right thing to do, by the rules of the game, is to communicate to the husband that they are together. The Marquis, in turn, is parting ways with his long-time lover, Genevieve, because he also wants to follow the rules of the game with his wife. From Paris, the action is transferred to Robert's hunting station at La Colinière, where everyone is staying: husbands, wives, lovers, suitors and even a poacher, Marceau, who is hired by the marquis and soon becomes intimate with the marquise’s chambermaid, Lisette, wife of another character who is also a follower of the rules, the gamekeeper Schumacher who looks more like a German military commander. With so much affection in full blossom, it would be inevitable that farce scenes would occur. In any movie, the director puts on a character that causes encounters and mismatches. In this movie, the director himself is the character who transits between all novels and dialogues: he is jolly and plump Octave, a friend of the pilot, wife, marquess, chambermaid, lover, and finally also in love with Christine. When a murder (or accident?) happens at the end of the movie, the audience is hardly scared, as in an earlier scene they witnessed an impressive massacre. All the guests walk happily through the forest, each armed with hunting rifles, and kill dozens of rabbits and pheasants. However, as much as the death of a human being causes is a warning that all guests return to the castle so as not to contract any illness. #renoir #review

In a Victorian-style house, secluded in a valley surrounded by forest defined as “paradise”, lives a couple in intentional isolation. Since the movie does not name its characters, we can say that "mother" is "his" young wife, a poet who tries to rewrite a work that leads him to previous successes. She is in the midst of the restoration work of the old house, practically destroyed by a fire that only left a small gemstone, which the poet keeps on his desk as a relic. Like traditional housewives, Mom! goes up and downstairs, often barefoot, doing everything from cleaning the house to paste the walls. We connect our perception with hers, because, except for two scenes, it is through her that the whole narrative of the movie occurs. A doctor comes to the house, followed by his wife and, a little later, by his stranger children. Mom never gets an explanation about who those people are or why they are there in her home, breaking all the rules and the integrity of the house. At first, we thought it was a farce, by the heat of the discussions and the nihilistic acting of man and woman, lived brilliantly by Ed Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer. When the first violent death happens, and the kitchen sink comes down, we know that something inexplicable will happen in the movie than a simple psychological drama. After a brief lull in which, for the first time, the husband fulfills a mother's desire and get her pregnant, everything seems to flow smoothly, and the poet completes his other creation, an overwhelming poem. The end of the movie is packed with action that even the wildest spectator could not foresee: crowds invade and destroy the interior of the house, rival groups clash, armed struggle, anthropophagy, and chaos. There are disconnected apocalyptic symbols everywhere. This is no longer an account: they are just sensations, lived with horror, bewilderment, and agony. But realizing that there is no more salvation amid the unruly mob, the mother goes to the basement of the house and completes (or begins) a life cycle. #aronofsky #review

Tess was the first movie directed by Roman Polanski after his flight from America to get away from the accusations of rape. There is no way to talk about this subject (rape) when you look at Tess , for that is the big issue also in the book Tess of the d'Urbervilles by the British writer Thomas Hardy. The movie is superb. The cinematography of Geoffrey Unsworth, who died of a heart attack during filming, is stunning. Nastassja Kinski is so perfectly beautiful, demure and vulnerable that her seduction seems inevitable. Sent by her father, a drunken farmer from Wessex County, to visit a wealthy family whom they believe are relatives, young Tess receives a job offer from her supposed cousin, the avid Alec who, in the first dialogue, already asks if the girl would be coming in search of pleasure. Raped by her "cousin", Tess returns to her parents' farm where she finds herself pregnant. The sick son soon dies, but Tess is forbidden to bury him in a Christian graveyard because of its origin and the certainty of the local society that the death of the child would be a punishment from God. Tess goes to milk cows on a farm and meets the pastor's son, Angel Clare, with whom she falls in love with. By the arts of fate, Tess cannot tell her secret to her future husband, only being able to do it on their wedding night. The beloved cannot bear to absorb the truth and leaves the wife, going to Brazil in search of a new life. Abandoned, Tess is again besieged by her cousin whom she rejects at first, but by whom she becomes a lover to help her (now a widow) mother and her siblings. Sick, Angel returns from America deeply regretted by the way he treated Tess and, after many searches, manages to ask her forgiveness in the house where the girl lives with Alec. Tess decides to eliminate the person responsible for her absurd suffering, flees with Angel and finally consumes her happy marriage. Trapped by police at Stonehenge, a well-known altar of sacrifice, Tess is arrested and sentenced to death. #polanski #review

Until Amarcord , the adjective Fellinian used to be defined as "burlesque," "allegorical," and "imagistic." Amarcord , who would be a corruption of mi recordo (I remember) in the dialect of Rimini, the director's hometown, introduced scenes inspired by Federico Fellini's adolescence which, he said, were NOT memories, at least conscious, palpable. And those things that cannot be touched, like le manine at the beginning of the movie (small flakes that fall from the trees and dissolve in the hands of the people), are contents symbolized but not expressed, as if it were possible to capture on screen the dreams, jokes and Freudian slips of a psychoanalysis session. Magnificent, this movie is perhaps one of the most exciting expressions of male perplexity toward women. In a magical enchantment that borders the dread, we see these strange beings that, at first glance, cause excitement and promises, convert into natural threats, explosive estrogen deposits. Some say that under mass repression of the Catholic Church and of fascism at the time, all men regressed to a pubertal stage, which may explain the ambiguity of Titta (the boy who may be Fellini, portrayed by Bruno Zanin) who, in contact with the giant breasts of the owner of the tobacconist (Maria Antonietta Beluzzi), more resembles a choking baby than a happy lover. What happened in that little town of the 1930s is that men expressed themselves through phallic symbols (the communist anthem in the church tower, the mural of flowers composing the face of the Duce , the peacock in the snow), challenging nature, whereas women WERE (are always) nature itself. Gradisca (Magali Noël), the great object of desire of the ragazzi, was only given (literally) to the powerful. The prostitute Volpina (Josiane Tanzilli), the only unrestrained person in the village, was frightened and disgusted and walked alone on the beach. The movie ends the way it started. During the marriage of Gradisca with a fascist officer, le manini return to announce the beginning of the new spring. Titta (Fellini?) has been gone for some time, they say. Without realizing the end of the ceremony, the blind accordionist continues to play the unforgettable music of Nino Rota. , #fellini #review

Pandora’s Box is an analogy used by the prosecutor to accuse the actress Lulu, mistress of the respected publisher Ludwig Schön, a victim of the crime, who frequented her apartment in Berlin. Lulu is perhaps the first personification in the cinema of what came to be called femme fatale, the feminine archetype of the anti-heroine, very popular in the noir movies of the 1940s. Actress Louise Brooks appears on the silent screen and in black and white as a light that infects. She seems to leave the scene and provoke the spectators with their sensual and at the same time naive gestures. The actress becomes the main attraction of a revue produced by the publisher's son, Alwa, also delighted by the young woman. Alwa’s friend and responsible for the production costumes, the Countess of Geschwitz reveals her clear homossexuality and also an uncontrollable passion for Lulu. The decision to take his future wife to the rehearsals of the play causes a great deal of discomfort to Schön, who, trying to convince Lulu to introduce herself (she refused to dance in the presence of the editor’s bride), ends up being caught in a compromising situation that forces him to marry the actress. There's a character in the movie, old Schigolch, who we do not identify if it's Lulu's father, as she claims, or his old pimp, sometimes not so old. The apparitions of this enigmatic master, usually in the company of the acrobat Rodrigo, cause the greatest misunderstandings of the story, a fact that would not be different in the wedding party of Lulu and Schön, where a caricature scene turns into a tragedy. In fact, tragedies ensue and end up hitting everyone who, in one way or another, get involved with Lulu. She, however, acts as if it were not part of what happened. Driven by circumstances, she ends up going to live in a casino-ship where she is the victim of a suspected Marquis, who sells her to an Egyptian. Lulu decides to become a prostitute, not knowing that her first client would be Jack the Ripper. #pabst #review

Filmes Fodásticos (Fuckastic Movies) motto, taken from a phrase by Roger Ebert, states that films are windows in the space / time boxes in which we live. Therefore, when looking through these windows, we will be out of the box for a few moments. Jean-Luc Godard's My life to live is a classic example of out of the box movie. Released in 1962, at the height of the nouvelle vague of French cinema, the work can be considered a kinematic experience rather than a cinematic one. The big thrill comes from Raoul Cultard's nervous camera that throws the viewer into the scene. Based on a trite screenplay that would be considered extremely prejudiced these days, the film tells the story of Nana, played by Godard's then-wife, model Anna Karina. It is her face that opens the film as if posing for portraits, in profile and front, to the sound of Michel Legrand's music that, according to the director's wish, simply stops, and reappears in the next scene. There are twelve chapters, with long titles that reveal in advance what will happen. It's said that they were filmed in single takes, which means that takes were transformed directly into shots without any editing. Nana is a young Parisian girl who has just split from Paul with whom she left the couple's son, from whom she asks for photos, in a scene filmed at a coffee shop counter behind the characters. That is, we only see their napes and a blurry reflection in the mirror. Although nothing is known about his motivations, the narrative focuses on Nana. She plays pinball and works in a record store, but has financial problems that force her to try to steal the key from her apartment, held by the concierge possibly for lack of payment. Passing a street where prostitutes work, Nana accepts a man's invitation and begins to prostitute herself. At first she refuses to kiss the client, but then we follow her progress, narrated as if it were a documentary about prostitution in Paris. When enchanted by a young student, the woman decides to leave "life" (the name given to prostitution in France), but her pimp certainly does not agree with that, and takes drastic measures to regain his marchandise . #godard #review

Woody Allen's Manhattan features black and white cinematography - by Gordon Willis - with a beauty rarely seen in the cinema. The movie is light, grand and balanced. Seen at first as a romantic comedy depicting the relationship between a middle-aged man and a teenager, the plot takes on complexities that only passionate people will be able to recognize. Isaac's and Tracy's romance does not thrive because of sheer immaturity ... of him. Although the romantic mood is always present, what you see most during the development of the plot are people who can't stand experiencing happiness and are always looking for justification to break up with their partners: Isaac persuades Tracy to leave it; Mary, who is having an affair with Yale, also asks him to leave her because he has no nerve to leave his wife; Yale himself encourages a relationship between Mary and Isaac to later regret. It seems that romances are a pretext for the director to celebrate his private love for Manhattan, a place he loves. From the opening of the movie, with dawn in Central Park to George Gershwin's Blue Rhapsody, to the iconic scene of the couple Mary-Isaac on a bench on Sutton Square overlooking the Queensboro Bridge, what follows is a sequence of New York rituals of that time: going to the Guggenheim Museum, art films, lake boats, concerts, Chinese food and a string of romantic songs performed mainly by the New York Philharmonic, under the baton of historic conductor Zubin Mehta. At the end of the movie, after meetings and mismatches, it seems that, along with Isaac, we all fell in love with Tracy aka Mariel Hemingway. Her acting is so natural and devoid of glamor that she seems to be the only person balanced within a multitude of beings utterly unable to get along serenely. When everyone introduces themselves, they speak not what they are but what they do, it is Tracy's most entertaining speech. After people say they are from TV, from the publisher, from literary criticism, she says: ─ I'm from high school. #allen #review

Silver Linings Playbook is a milestone in cinema about people with mental health problems. Usually seen as dangerous (as in Hitchcock's Psycho) or funny (Levinson's Rain Man), people with mental disorders end up losing control of their bodies and are treated apart, trapped or overprotected as it happens in real life. David O. Russell's movie attempts, and succeeds in a different way, to turn the dramas of two “troublesome” people into a romantic comedy. Handsome, athletic, and confident, Pat (Bradley Cooper) manages to be released from a mentally ill hospital where he remained for eight months after beating his wife's lover and still has a restraining order from her. Diagnosed as bipolar, he returns to his parents' home under the responsibility of his mother Dolores (Jacki Weaver). The boy's father, Pat Sr., masterfully portrayed by Robert De Niro, also cannot be considered completely sane: stuck in a restaurant project, but unemployed, lives on bookmaking mainly football games, having an irrational passion for Philadelphia Eagles team, which is why he was banned from the stadium for fighting. Standing in front of the TV, he is convinced that a series of superstitious rituals can alter the outcome of the games. The entry of Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence, fantastic), a young widow who lives in the neighborhood, represents a balance in the plot not because she is understanding and welcoming Pat, but precisely because she seems to be as crazy as he is. During a discussion, they pass in front of a restaurant and, seeing the sign Dines, he invites the girl: ─ Do you want to have dinner with me? ─ and she, with a face of hate, responds: ─ Pick me up at seven-thirty. Together, they comment on the effects of the various anti-anxiety and antipsychotics meds, and indulge in a ballroom dance project, which will be the movie's great climax: they will try to win a good position and still defend Pat Miller's ultimate bet. #russell #review