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Reviews
De profundis (2007)
lovely immersion
Thrill seekers and those with vanishingly short attention spans should avoid this film. Folks who enjoy art and dreamlike stories will enjoy it. It invokes the format of a dream very effectively to engage viewers in their own relation to dreaming. We need more of this kind of media. The choice to avoid language is an important part of how the film becomes evocative. Its simplicity is deceptive, for it can draw from the viewer a 'deep,' lasting, and contemplative response. (There, I avoided flaming the previous incredibly obtuse comment.) In some ways the work is a platform for bringing its art and music to the fore, and the animation and story are containers for that: the colors, art, and music all work together excellently. The film won several awards, and appreciative reviews.
Pride & Prejudice (2005)
The worst of all modern Austen adaptations
Central to the awfulness of this film is the brainlessly carnivorous vanity of Knightly's performance as Elizabeth. Note how few shots there are of her face closely relating to anyone else's. The faces are shot separately because she is evidently impossible to act with. Too bad that Elizabeth Bennett was supposed to be wise, sensitive to other people, and not self-absorbed. Her portrayal here lacks all of these aspects.
Watching the DVD extras for this film, it is apparent that Joe Wright is a sort of MTV kind of director, and this is why the film is really nothing more than a collection of overblown and syrupy tableaux. In addition, despite the manifest smugness of the screenwriter about what a good job she's done, every thing that she has added does little more than trivialize Austen's intentions, while what she has taken away leaves something that has no more depth than a bodice-ripper pulp novel.
The other actors are all at least competent though more often than not misdirected into caricatures.