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martinmaguire
Reviews
La giusta distanza (2007)
starts like a culture-clash romcom then gets darker
La Giusta Distanza is slightly too long and shudders a bit about two-thirds of the way through when the tone which had been quite gentle, if realistic, suddenly becomes much darker, and it goes from being a really well acted culture clash romcom to a mystery complete with red herrings. But...don't let that put you off, it still hangs together, thanks to a great script, well-rounded minor characters, entirely credible and convincing central performances and atmospheric photography of the Po. Small town sleepiness is captured perfectly, a sleepiness and apparent wellbeing that hides terrible loneliness, unwilling conformity and a population unknowingly stuck in their ways. Everyone is trundling along doing what's expected of them until the primary school teacher takes a mad turn and her (beautiful) replacement quietly and unintentionally upsets the balance simply by being there. Everything, initially, happens quietly and slowly, and tragedy, when it strikes, is all the more shocking for that reason.
Il mercante di pietre (2006)
Pretty bad
I'd love to agree with those who liked this film, cos I've a soft spot for the director's previous films, which, taking their inspiration from controversial realities, spun plausible conspiracy-theory thrillers (Piazza delle 5 Lune) or fairly accurate reconstructions (Vajont), but Il Mercante delle Pietre, despite a decent cast and the director's always enjoyable zooming and whooshing camera-work and clever use of sound, is a big let-down. The plot has got holes you could drive a bus through, the Islam-bashing, which may or may not be justified (see other people's comments re this), is reheated and tiresome Fallaci-lite, and the unfolding drama clunks and creaks when it needs to whisk the viewer along smoothly. Add to all this the worst CGI this side of Titanic and there's plenty of reasons not to bother with this, which really is a pity cos once or twice it all comes together in the film, but just when you think it's going to really take off, it all falls to bits again.
Drawing Restraint 9 (2005)
yikes!
Don't get the impression from other reviewers that this film stinks cos it's ambivalent about the Japanese whaling industry (which, morally, is no worse than the US meat trade or the Scottish haggis cull), it stinks cos it's pretentious tosh, the sort of up-its-own-behind guff that gets modern art a bad name. That said, there are some stunning images, but there are stunning images in the average bus ride if you use your imagination, so that's no reason to go and see this nonsense. What happens in the film happens very slowly and often accompanied by a soundtrack that sounds like a cat being gutted, and then, just when you thinks it's finished, it starts again. I saw it it in a porn cinema in Rome which had been hired for the weekend to show Barney's film works, which is an admirable and clever way to reclaim what had once been a local fleapit from the dirty-old-men-in-macs brigade, but if the trendy young things and the slightly older beard-stroking Bjork fans were to be honest, everyone might have had a lot more fun if they'd just shown one of the pornoes!
Malefemmene (2001)
decent women's prison drama shock!
Malefemmene wasn't a huge success in Italy and, as far as I know, hasn't been released elsewhere, which is a pity cos it takes one of cinema's tiredest clichés and manages to inject a bit of freshness into it. A slightly ingenuous gangster's wife ends up in prison in a cell full of characters (who, sure, could only ever exist in a film) - they squabble, fight, come to understand each other, cook a lot (this is Italy, after all) and each of them gives away something of what brought them to their present state. What raises it above the predictable is the excellent acting, sharp script and the fact that the film makers manage to avoid the lesbian affair that most films of this genre think is obligatory.
Imagining Argentina (2003)
Possibly the worst film I've ever seen
Imagining Argentina is a rotten film and, more seriously, deeply offensive to the people it claims to care about (the thousands who "disappeared" during the Argentinian military dictatorship in the '70s and '80s). It's an uneasy mixture of Garage Olimpo (which is a powerful, deeply moving film with, in part, a similar theme) and Sixth Sense (which is powerful etc, if you're in the mood for it.) - but the two just don't go together. Unlike the reviewer above, I'd the good fortune(!) to see it in Italian, so at least the hammy accents didn't grate, but it was still beyond redemption on every other level.