(Dir. Roberto Rossellini 1945)
NR, mature themes and depictions of violence Rome Open City tells the story of everyday life in Rome during the Nazi occupation, which lasted approximately nine months. Specifically it centers on members of the underground resistance in Italy, such as a priest, a widow, the widow's fiancé, and a rag-tag group of children. Rossellini began his work on Rome Open City almost immediately after the Nazi occupation of Rome ended. The above picture is from one of the most famous scenes, and one of my favorite scenes, from the film. It is a beautiful scene, the weary group of children return home on a dusty path with the city and St. Peter's Basilica in the background. Considering the fact that Rossellini was filming in post-war Italy and was forced to use whatever scraps of film he could get, the film is surprisingly beautiful. Though a part of that is modern day editing. This movie is sad in a way that only an Italian Neorealist film can be. The events are definitely not happy, tragic even, but despite this the overall tone of the movie is hopeful and even comical at times. Rossellini paints a picture of what everyday life is like when everyday citizens are fighting a battle bigger than themselves. In the midst of inciting riots and secretly coordinating a group of anti-Nazi fighters, Francesco and Pina plan their wedding. Moments of intense suspense are balanced by the humor and domesticity of their life. Perhaps the best example of how Rossellini balances the two comes when the Nazis raid Francesco and Pina's apartment building. Moments of intense suspense, members of the Resistance escaping or being captured by the Nazis, are interspersed with the humorous antics of the Priest as he tries to hide a machine gun and bomb and quiet an old man before the Nazis reach them. The viewer can't help but chuckle as he settles for hiding the machine gun and bomb under the covers and resorts to hitting the old man with a frying pan to quiet him. Admittedly that last part sounds terrible, but it is quite funny in the film.
1 Comment
(Dir. Phyllida Lloyd 2008)
PG-13 I think this movie wins for the most amount of indirect references to sex The way this movie played out reminded me a lot of The Greatest Showman. The plot of the movie was very basic and mainly served to showcase the songs. Despite that similarity I liked this movie a lot more than I liked The Greatest Showman. Yeah it wasn't the most thought provoking or best movie I've ever seen, but it wasn't pretending or trying to be either like The Greatest Showman. Also, Mamma Mia wasn't trying to cram its message down my throat like The Greatest Showman was. What I think made all the difference is that Mamma Mia accepted what it is, an ok movie with great songs, while The Greatest Showman tried way to hard to convince others it was more than that. If you don't like ABBA, don't watch this movie. If you do like ABBA, you should watch this movie. It's as simple as that. If you don't know whether or not you like them, then where have you been for the last forty years cause everyone has an opinion on ABBA. The acting in this movie was ok, about the same as any rom-com. I will say that this was not Meryl Streep's best role. She wasn't bad, but she also wasn't very good. There were a couple times where she really over-acted, which was partially because she was just standing and singing. So her options at that point were either over act or stand and do nothing. The plot of the movie was interesting, I think. There's the whole mystery of who her father is which I really liked. I feel like the execution just wasn't there. Not to say that I wasn't content with the ending, I like the way things turned out, but the movie felt like a whole lot of build-up for a rushed conclusion. What I liked, and what most people really like, about this movie is that it was very aesthetically pleasing. It's a bunch of good-looking people on a gorgeous island. People watch this movie to fantasize about being on a beautiful island with Pierce Brosnan. Whoever made this movie knew that and played it up, I can't really blame them for that. (Dir. Peter Jackson 2001)
PG-13 *Disclaimer* I have not read the Lord of the Rings books. I read The Hobbit and loved it, but I could never get into the other part of the series. I went into this movie knowing that it was long, but I still wasn't prepared for just how long it was. I ended up watching this film in two sittings and honestly it worked that way. The second half of the movie could honestly be its own film. Typically, I don't care for fantasy movies. I love fantasy books, but there's just something about fantasy in the film media that I don't care for. That being said, I think that this works very well as a film. My issue is that I can never really immerse myself in fantasy movies because there are usually parts that just blatantly look fake. Either super CGI or poor effects, both bug me to the point that I can't really pay attention to the movie. Lord of the Rings is perfectly borders the line of being fantasy but still looking real enough that I can get into the film. (Heads up this is going to be the negative portion of my review) I do think that this film is very overdramatic though. The lines, the cuts, the acting, everything screams drama. I get it, stuff is going down. The amount of close up zoom-ins is frankly hilarious. I swear 90% of this movie is made up of them and the rest are drone shots of them walking. So much walking. I know that there's some in universe reason why they can't, but for the love of God just hop on a giant eagle and spare me the walking. The scenes in Lord of the Rings are gorgeous and beautifully shot, but the editing kills me. From what I can tell these movies have one main issue, they had too much good content. They had so many good shots and that makes it hard to choose between them. So they ended up cramming them all together which compromised the film as a whole. This is especially true of the music. The scores are amazing and perfectly fit their characters and locations, but it never stops. Leaving some scenes quiet would have contributed a lot to the atmosphere. This also would have given the scenes with music a bigger impact. |
Aubrey KirchhoffI'm just screaming into the void and somehow getting graded on it. Archives
April 2018
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