Displaying Review 1 - 5 of 7 in total

• Scenes from a marriage — for Scener ur ett äktenskap
  Written by leitner1403 on 06.03.2010

  Ingmar Bergman's "Scenes from a marriage"'s biggest advantage but also its biggest problem is that it centers the two main characters, the married Johan and Marianne that much that after about one hour there's not a single scene without exactly these two characters. They both are in every scene. Alone.

  so this makes it a movie that wants nothing else but analysing marriage with the example of this marriage. And it works somehow, it's partly moving, partly disturbing, is incredibly well acted and shot and really gives you the felling that this is is something real. But nevertheless in the end you sat there for 2 hours and 40 minutes and after so many changes from "I never realized how much i love you" to "I never realized how much I hate you" and back. and back. and back. you are kind of frustrated. although for a bergman the ending is quite happy.

  it's an average bergman, and by that, of course, a good movie. but you probably may not see it again.

  I give it 6 points out of ten, although I'm sure that there are many people who would rate it completely different (in both directions) as it is a movie that is not easy to watch.

• Fritz Lang's M — for M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder
  Written by leitner1403 on 09.03.2010

  A whole German city holds its breath when in the early 30s there's a children murderer around. While of course the mothers are concerned about the safety of their children, the police and the politicians are worried about their status. And even for the crime scene itself the murderer becomes the main target, because the case leads to a strongly increasing number of policemen.

  Today Fritz Lang's masterpiece "M" is watched as a revolutionary work that showed how much Lang was aware of the new possibilities that came with the sound revolution. An important scene for example is the cross-fading of the two conferences, the one in the kind of crime scene office and the one in the police office. There you see that both sides are actually talking quite the same and you hear sentences that are started in the crime scene office being ended in the police office. Now you might say that this isnt something special and that it is quite a clichee. But this movie invented it. And it works perfectly.

  The real clou is that you don't HAVE to watch the movie, because it's oh so incredible important. You WANT to watch the movie and by the way it is incredible important. But it never feels like that, it feels like if it was produced maybe in the 60s or so and the way Lang increases the tension from scene to scene is just as genius as Peter Lorre in his carreer-defining performance as the children murderer (that's not a spoiler, it is actually shown in Lorres very first scene in this movie).

  This is a 1930s black and white thriller, produced in Germany. So there is no Tarantino-esque overflow of blood and Hitchcocks suspense revolution hasn't even started yet. But instead of the boring movie you would expect due to this reasons, you see probably one of the best and especially one of the finest aged movies of all time.

  Really.

  Enjoy it!

• The Chamaeleon Man (spoilers all the way) — for Zelig
  Written by leitner1403 on 09.03.2010

  Woody Allen's Zelig from 1983 is not only his most unconventional film, but may also rank among his best works.

  It is a mockumentary that tells the story of Leonard Zelig, the chamaeleon man, who absorbs the main characteristics of the persons around him. So for example he is able to become a perfect doctor within seconds when only he is among doctors. Or, to give a more obvious example, his skin is turning black when he is talking to an African American. These circumstances make him to some kind of tragic star about whom the whole world laughs. For example the chamaelon dance, inspired by his story, becomes totally famous in the USA. The only person who really wants to help him is Dr. Fletcher.

  Woody Allen shows Zelig as a victim of the society. Zelig only is afraid of being not accepted and that's the reason why he is turning into the persons he is talking to. One can wonder if this is a personal film from Woody Allen, but no matter whether it is or not, it will definitely move you.

  After Zelig is cured, he delivers a speech that asks people to be brave enough to be theirselves. Well, you definitely can't argue against that message, but nevertheless it is quite funny. You have to remind that while in the movie he finally ends on the side of Mia Farrow (who portrays Dr. Fletcher), he actually turned away from her in real life in order to marry Farrows step daughter.
  He really didn't care about anybody's opinion obviously. Brave Man.

  But hey, we always knew that he's a crazy man. And this crazy man made some really great movies. For example

  Zelig. 7.5/10

• When a documentary becomes some kind of a thriller — for The Cove
  Written by leitner1403 on 13.03.2010

  "The Cove" just was awarded with the Academy Award for the best documentary feature and certainly you can start long discussions about that decision. In this category it's always the question whether you award the best made picture or the most relevant topic behind the movie. And then you can continue about whether animal rights which are discussed in this movie are less important than human rights (especially Burma VJ has to be mentioned here) or equal. But all these discussions would only ruin this wonderful movie.

  This movie about the dolphin slaughtering in a little town in Japan overgoes the supposed barriers of the genre easily. The things that are shown here are not only shocking, but also presented in a very special way. I've never seen such a thrilling documentary feature before. You go through all of that emotions that you experience only in really good movies. There is the relevant story, there are the thrilling experiences, there is an ending that makes hope and, what especially thrilled me, there even are character conflicts. Look at this poor guy who is sitting there and tells you how incredibly sorry he is for starting that insane business. And that he's on the road for many years trying to stop it, but he just can't do it. That's the way of conflict for which screenplay writers all over the world would and could be very proud of. But it's not fiction, it's true. All those elements of a normal motion pciture are what makes this movie so extraordinary.

  So don't refuse to watch or like this movie, only because you think it's so incredibly unfair that those stupid dolphins took away the oscar from the poor people in Burma or from Daniel Ellsberg or whomever. At the end this is a great movie that really deserves to be seen. I'll give it

  8/10 points, but will maybe increase this rating later on.

• Woody's smiling Shakespeare rules — for A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy
  Written by leitner1403 on 15.03.2010

  The marriage of the inventor Andrew and his wife Adrian is suffering from their missing sex life. In order to forget their problems they invite two friends of them, the doctors Leopold and Maxwell. Unfortunately Maxwell's fiancee is Andrew's former almost-girlfriend and when everybody seems to fall in love just with the wrong one, the chaos is perfect.

  As the title indicates, this movie is not only based on Ingmar Bergman's "Smiles of a summer night", but also cites Jean Renoir's "Rules of the Game" and, obviously, William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's dream". So this could be quite charming and funny and maybe even treat some serious topics. But the disappointing result is a movie, that kind of never really starts and doesn't have a conclusion at all.

  To defend Allen, some must say that he was kind of forced to make this movie. His first movie for "Orion Pictures" should have been "Zelig", but the production had some problems. So the studio wanted Allen to release another movie earlier. Allen wrote the screenplay for "A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy" within two weeks. So don't complain too much about this movie, but simply don't watch it. Woody will forgive you.

  This one only gets 4 points out of 10 by me, because it lacked as well the charme, the humor and the intelligence of Allen's best works.