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jonnydavison
Reviews
Uspjeh (2019)
Goes straight to the point
Brutally direct approach to the issues of power, honesty and self-esteem. I liked how most of the characters act directly from their feelings in extreme situations. Also, that the main police character is always several steps ahead of her boss and colleagues, but still gets it wrong.
Når støvet har lagt sig (2020)
Unique
This is way ahead of the vast majority of contemporary European TV series. The ambiguousness of so many of the characters is fascinating. Who seems to be a good citizen might turn out to be a coward or a vengeful egotist. Whilst those who appear to be cruel turn out to be more human, more honest, more present for others than many. I don't know how realistic it is as a study of the varied effects of trauma on different people, but it certainly feels true as a broad canvas of what we are like as human beings.
Structurally, the series works extremely well, with the spectator knowing the main event from the beginning and then seeing how each character traces an unimaginable path through it. Having watched so many ridiculous whodunnits where you never know enough to understand what's going on, this is a much welcomed approach that centres the viewer on the choices, feelings and actions of each individual.
The acting is mostly high class, with a couple of odd ones that ring a little false, but overall outstanding.
El pallasso i el Führer (2007)
Dire
I confess to only having seen a little less than an hour of this film. Firstly, I chanced upon it on TV last night, so missed the beginning, and secondly, tedium got the better of me and I switched off before it finished dragging itself towards the end. In my view, that doesn't disqualify me from reviewing the film, however.
As a clown and a clown historian, I should have been delighted to be contemplating a film based on a historical occurrence of Charlie Rival's performance for the Fuhrer on his birthday but, alas! no.
First there is the astounding fact that it was broadcast in a dubbed-to-Spanish version, the original being in Catalan. I was watching in Catalonia: why wasn't it broadcast in the original version? Is it really so hard for the poor Spanish public to do a tiny bit of work and read some subtitles? Not even when the original language is one that is official in the country and not really so difficult to get the gist of even if you don't know it. And so, as with all dubbed films, the atmosphere evaporates, and in this case a heaviness takes over which is exacerbated by the denseness of the dialogue, a text which never for one second escapes from a turgid literariness.
Ferran Rañé's portrayal of Rival bears some likeness to the man himself in his bearing and manner. He's obviously watched his appearance in Fellini's "I Clowns" and done a fair imitation, although that's as far as it goes and it can't be called a full characterisation. But when it comes to the scenes where he is called upon to actually perform as a clown, he unfortunately joins the rest of the cast in an embarrassing parody of what actors might think clowns do. A very disappointing film indeed.