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Reviews
Belle de jour (1967)
A true postmodern classic in psychological drama
Amazingly good and surviving the necessary test of aging. Now I understand who Catherine Deneuve really is as an actress. She's simply great as Severine/Belle de Jour, and Buñuel is a genius. I thought it was impossible for me to watch this sixties' experiment, filmed the same year I was born, coincidentally. I read the book first back in the seventies, when I was maybe eight, nine years old, and I can't just begin to explain to you, oh good people, how reading that book had a certain effect on my erotic perception of the world in those faraway, bygone days, and I'm simply talking about my early and intense wanking pubescence activity. This film is so true to the original story and so well acted it hurts. The surrealistic management of time and places are all but a simple exercise in Belle de Jour, and that's when you understand what it means to be open-minded while you're watching a real piece of Seventh Art. Do not hesitate in watching and re-watching this movie, a production made back when art really meant something to film directors and to the public. Controversial as it is Nabokov/Kubric's Lolita, Belle de Jour contains some very un-PC scenes involving kids which would be banned, had they been filmed nowadays, because back in those days Political Correctness simply meant nothing and wasn't an impediment at all to the making of filmed art. I highly praise the moment I took away prejudices from my mind and decided to watch this movie for the first time after all these years. I was beautifully surprised and just couldn't stop watching till the end. And talking about the ending...., it has that special seal
you know, like when you turn to see if someone else, someone maybe sitting beside you and who may or may not explain to you what the director really meant, you not being convinced at all by the happy ending it seems to portray the first time you watch it. And this comment may contain a spoiler, but Severine/Belle de Jour is so nuts she takes you away with her craziness until the very end, making you to want to believe there's a happy ending and not just another one of the mind- tricks she performs in order to introduce some balance into her strange, unreal reality. This film is, by all means, a real 10-star one, and one that shouldn't let you undisturbed. Thumbs up for the French avant-garde represented in this movie, not one of Buñuel's "little movies", as some pretend it is, but a postmodern classic in psychological drama. It has that dirty, corrupt air you get a taste of when dealing with songs like "Lemon incest", as recorded by Charlotte and Serge Gainsbourg. It is also the only movie I have watched in the last 20 years which doesn't make me feel like wanting to puke when hearing the noise of shotguns being fired, as, i.e., in shooting choreographies such as Western/Mafia/Star Wars- styled movies. If you're high on Western/Mafia/Star Wars movies, this may not be the ideal movie for you to watch. Again: a real 10-stars and a must- see, decidedly.
The Man in the Moon (1991)
Caution: boredom ahead
A little movie with a little story about little people doing little things. The Man in the Moon is another coming-of-age film, in which two farmer's daughters and sisters fall in love with the new-neighboring- hillbillyesh teen, the little girl obtaining nothing more than a mild kiss and lots of frustration and uncalled verbal abuse from the relationship while the older one makes love with him and begins to fancy about an early wedding. This state of things goes on until the kid has the unfortunate luck of being accidentally run-down and chopped to death by his own plough while trying to recover, without first stopping the engine and without pulling down from the vehicle, a rusty hat he had previously left hanging from a branch of a bush growing beside the crop field he's working on. Then, the two sisters must overcome the sore rivalry they had felt into as a product of being in love with the same and now dead kid, both of them knowing about it. Finally, they put aside all grudge between them and rediscover their sisterly love. The end. Add to the later a subplot about a gravid mother falling into her belly and then being hospitalized, and finally recovering and having her healthy fourth daughter (instead of the boy his husband was expecting for, which, as we learn in the movie, is the only reason the couple is going through it again). That's it, there you have it. Child Reese Witherspoon saves the movie from being a total boredom, but, hey, expect no miracles here: not even she can save it from being a simple (and a very simple one) boredom.
Fugitive Pieces (2007)
Give me my neurons back, please
This movie is perfect but only if you want to deeply fall asleep, and the first 20 minutes should be enough do the work. But if you feel able to endure the suffering beyond that point, I've got something to tell you: it's not gonna get better at any point, nothing is ever gonna happen, it's the same crap over and over again. What a silly lost of time and what a waste of brain power. I feel mercilessly violated by this movie, which should have never been filmed at all, in the first place. Talking to the producers of this piece of nothing: ever thought about including some story into the project? Yes, "story", hello! anybody? I know it may sound like doing hard work and stuff but sometimes it is necessary, like when, you know..., like when you want to produce and deliver a meaningful film and not just rhetoric crap.
Signs (2002)
Signs of stupidity? Not exactly. My vote: pure evil at work
This movie just shows how afraid fat governments are of lay people becoming aware about the most unexplainable, mind challenging and wonderful things happening upon the face of Earth: the Crop Circles. I don't know why they picked Mr. Night to direct this evil crafted film and how could he accept to do it. Creating the stupid image of aliens being so stupid and mindlessly evil is the main goal of this motion picture, and they succeeded at doing so. It's all about controlling global perception about the undeniable fact that there are very intelligent powers at work behind the increasingly complex, beautifully designed and astonishing designs of the so called agrogliphs and the message they intend to deliver to humankind: we are not alone.
They Live (1988)
...only if you've got a passionate crush for bad (and I mean real bad) movies
Watching this joke of a film was an unforgivable waste of my lifetime so I feel much too obliged to help others no to waste theirs. Do yourself a favor and stay away from it, particularly if you happen to admire and respect (as I do) some of John Carpenter's others works, unless you've got a passionate crush for bad (and I mean real bad) movies. OK, the world is under the dominion of a dystopian alien shadow government of evil looking extraterrestrials infiltrating the society at all levels (though you can't see them unless you happen to wear specially crafted sunglasses), and this implausibility may sound and look good enough in any sci-fi movie, but even more implausible are the stupid things terrestrial rebels do at every step in order to fight back the ET scum. Characters are totally flat, very poorly acted, and the script just sucks, just so as the special effects do. I'm giving it just two stars and only because I know there are some movies worse than this one out there.
Open Range (2003)
Yet another good/bad guys movie about who draws the gun faster
How on Earth a movie that depends so much on this kind of "shooting choreography" for its plot to resolve can be so highly rated and praised? Beats me! Dialogues are corny at best, everything in the little town is top- cliché, the romantic subplot and the whole action is unbelievably predictable, and Costner plays the role he plays the *best*: himself (yet again). Plot? Yeah, there's a subtle (oh, the irony!) plot to it: the good guys beat the crap out of the bad guys because..., because they practiced a lot more drawing their guns and shooting faster than the bad ones (I just hope that this last comment won't spoil anything about this movie, but the sad thing is that it could be giving too much away, so I will check the Spoiler-Box, just in case). But, hey, if you really love mindless westerns on DVD (it's no worth paying 10 dollars at the cinema) and if you don't want your neurons to consume too much energy, this may be the ideal movie for you. That and the pretty landscapes are the only reasons why I'm rating it with three stars.