There are many places where this film could have ended, and it would have been a better film, such as (a) after the storm, (b) with the house in ruins, even (c) after the triumphant final performance. Instead, after a mostly serious film, an absurd ending is quickly tacked on, insulting the audience.
Since so many people are promoting this film, I'm going to dwell on the negative, although keep in mind that I do think it's worth watching.
Among the several weaknesses of the film are: (1) the man's relationship to his wife/courtesan is not made clear. She appears out of nowhere, has a few scenes, and disappears never to be seen again. but we're told she survived the trip. (2) the man's relationship to his son, whom he seems to genuinely miss when he's gone, although perhaps more out of a blood-line legacy thing than a personal relationship. (3) everyone's relationship to the nouveau-riche down the block is unclear -- why do they attack his car? Why doesn't he initially like the music? Is he just as lazy as the hero of our story?
A particular annoyance is the filmmaker's determination to dwell on every last note of the very grating and entirely unnecessary music. It doesn't move the plot. It doesn't reveal character. It does set the scene, which is good. But in some cases, particularly during the dance, the singing and instruments are heard even though the singers and musicians are clearly not making noise. Anyway, the music is local flavour, and we get the point after a few minutes. We don't need to be drowned in it. I learned on IMDb that portions of the vocalizations were not words, and that's why they had no subtitles. As closed captions often do, the subtitling should have told us this, so we know that we aren't missing any meaning.
I'm ambivalent about the storm. It's described as a cyclone (at least in the English subtitles) which it clearly is not. We have summer storms that look like that where I live on a regular basis, and they're nothing. Yet, I also applaud the use of what appears to be actual lightning in a film. That's pretty rare, and should be encouraged.
Despite all that, it's still a good story of obsession, bigotry, and entitlement, living in a past that most could not afford.
For what it's worth, and not to say these are reasonable comparisons, but the films that came to my mind watching this one were: any of the Grey Gardens films, and A Streetcar Named Desire (1951).
Since so many people are promoting this film, I'm going to dwell on the negative, although keep in mind that I do think it's worth watching.
Among the several weaknesses of the film are: (1) the man's relationship to his wife/courtesan is not made clear. She appears out of nowhere, has a few scenes, and disappears never to be seen again. but we're told she survived the trip. (2) the man's relationship to his son, whom he seems to genuinely miss when he's gone, although perhaps more out of a blood-line legacy thing than a personal relationship. (3) everyone's relationship to the nouveau-riche down the block is unclear -- why do they attack his car? Why doesn't he initially like the music? Is he just as lazy as the hero of our story?
A particular annoyance is the filmmaker's determination to dwell on every last note of the very grating and entirely unnecessary music. It doesn't move the plot. It doesn't reveal character. It does set the scene, which is good. But in some cases, particularly during the dance, the singing and instruments are heard even though the singers and musicians are clearly not making noise. Anyway, the music is local flavour, and we get the point after a few minutes. We don't need to be drowned in it. I learned on IMDb that portions of the vocalizations were not words, and that's why they had no subtitles. As closed captions often do, the subtitling should have told us this, so we know that we aren't missing any meaning.
I'm ambivalent about the storm. It's described as a cyclone (at least in the English subtitles) which it clearly is not. We have summer storms that look like that where I live on a regular basis, and they're nothing. Yet, I also applaud the use of what appears to be actual lightning in a film. That's pretty rare, and should be encouraged.
Despite all that, it's still a good story of obsession, bigotry, and entitlement, living in a past that most could not afford.
For what it's worth, and not to say these are reasonable comparisons, but the films that came to my mind watching this one were: any of the Grey Gardens films, and A Streetcar Named Desire (1951).