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Reviews
Tot samyy Myunkhgauzen (1980)
The Greatest Film of All Time
If you are truly human, this is a film for you.
Multifaceted, humorous and tragic at the same time, full of wit, sarcasm, love, devotion, and reflections on life and the world as a whole, for me personally, this is the best film ever made, and I don't say this lightly.
Every aspect of this film is a masterpiece. Actor performances are superb, with Oleg Yankovsky playing perhaps the best role of his life here. The soundtrack is beautiful and touching. The dialogue is funny yet very deep at the same time. The film leaves you with a whirlwind of feelings, and leaves tremendous amounts of food for thought for months afterward.
...And if you start watching it, and feel that it's boring or not very funny - just leave it, and never look back. It's probably not your kind of film, then.
L'illusionniste (2010)
Great film, though different from its predecessor
I wasn't sure what to expect relative to "The Triplets of Belleville", but this film did not disappoint. While the animation style is very similar, the feel of the film is completely different. Though the plot is indeed simple, it did not feel boring or oversimplified to me, and instead created a soft, bittersweet and slightly melancholic feeling at the end.
The film is incredibly artistic and detailed, and provides food for thought and reflection even after it's over. An additional, deeper theme is the fact that in this film, Tati was also trying to show a little bit of his relationship with his daughter, and explain everything he couldn't while she was alive.
Overall, this is a masterpiece, though the emphasis is on feelings rather than pure logical thought and plot complexity.
Film socialisme (2010)
Terrible Film
Just saw this at Toronto Film Festival. Quite contrary to my expectations, this is a terrible, extremely boring film.
First, at my screening there were no subtitles at all, so unless you spoke French, you would not have understood much. From further discussion, the subtitles were supposed to be there, but are apparently minimal.
Second, the film reminds me of that pieces of "art" in one of the museums which consists solely of an overturned toilet. The film comprises a number of loosely related segments with jarring sound and cuts. I understand that some of you will argue this is "modern art" - however, to me, this is just terrible filmmaking. It's not art much the same way an overturned toilet isn't either.
Finally, the segments, and the film as a whole, are so generic and open to interpretation that they lose all meaning along the way. The one theme of a terrible, vicious and disorderly humanity is revealed in such a boring and generic way that it introduces absolutely no new value whatsoever.
Do not waste your time on this film, see something better instead. It is also very upsetting to think that this movie has made it so far (to a number of festivals) simply because of the name attached to it. If anyone else made a film like this, it would be discarded and forgotten almost immediately, but because this was done by one of the masters, it gets shown everywhere as a "true art film", which it isn't.