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Reviews
Parthenope (2024)
Sublime
Oneiric, refined, sublime. Sorrentino creates a work of art worthy of his name and a style that belongs only to him. Sorrentino offers us a return to Italian auteur cinema.
Moments of silence, ruled by looks typical of Antonioni, the metaphorical and pressing sensuality in the style of Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris, the sense of mystery, darkness and suspense typical of Tornatore. A wonderful Naples, almost painted, but also raw, naked, poor and unfortunate. In this film Naples is to Sorrentino as Rome was to Fellini, representing the capital as a synecdoche for national ideals and values, but also a city of power and great cultural, social and political influence.
Thanks to Parthenope, Italian cinema has awakened from the torpor of banality is commercialism. Thank you Sorrentino ❤
The Zone of Interest (2023)
A film about the myopia of the human gaze
The Zone of Interest is a magnificently aberrant and terrifying film because it illustrates in a dramatically real way, the shortsightedness of our gaze toward situations such as wars. We never want to look up from our certainties. We prefer the drama of reality to remain in the depths of social media screens, while we hide behind the reassuring curtains of our windows. Maybe we like to spy through those windows, but we remain homeless, helpless.... Indifferent. And in that same indifference, unconcern, fear of rebellion, the worst dramas that see the world gripped by genocides, abuses of power, deprivation of human dignity are played out.
The Zone of Interest is not a film about Jews, but it is a film about those who believe it is "only" a film about Jews.
Saltburn (2023)
The pinnacle of human folly
Saltburn is a gothic thriller that embodies the admirable feat of director Fennell.
It is a story seemingly reminiscent of classic American college-set films, such as "Revenge of the Nerds" or "Maial College." In the glitzy, gothic dimension of Oxford, however, Oliver does not want to be the usual nerdy freshman holed up in his nerd corner. Oliver knows from the beginning what he wants, as we viewers get swept up in this story that seems to be heading in a different direction for this "rebellious genius." The nerd who becomes friends with the coolest guy in college, the nerd who is helped by the coolest, richest, and best-looking guy in college until he is invited to Saltburn's lavish and wealthy mansion. From this moment Oliver is no longer "Oliver." What upsets us about the reversal of the situation is especially the ending. But let's think about it, how many times, even unconsciously, have we longed for the unattainable riches of unattainable people and, in the knowledge that we cannot obtain these riches, how many times have we hoped for the ruin of the great rich, even those contemporary to us, who are often very ignorant, lazy, undeserving. Saltburn is the concretization of the innermost thoughts of each of us, when we are faced with the rich who, like the Cottons, are so softened by luxury and unaccustomed to toil that it makes one angry to see them.
And here Oliver shows that to really achieve anything in life, you have to work hard, be crafty, sometimes you even have to forget your dignity and put on the shoes of a completely different person. You have to persevere and infiltrate things, a bit like the moth that keeps banging on the windows until it enters the house (same metaphor used by Venicia, Félix's sister). Oliver succeeds; he has his technique for seizing his prey, demolishing them from the inside piece by piece until they are annihilated.
Saltburn is a masterpiece, an English version of Parasite, with a few details, literally taken to extremes, from "Call Me By Your Name," though only real life is read between the lines.
Barry Keughan flawless, psychopathic, but credible, strong, charmingly creepy.
Past Lives (2023)
Movie so true, it doesn't feel like a movie
Celine Song, in her directorial debut, makes a film whose story has little to do with the usual "movies." Past Lives is true, it is not the usual love story. It is not the usual movie love story. But it is more, because it is real, because it is true, because it is drawn from the living experience of the director. And in one way in the other, all of our lives are movies, only thanks to cinema we have the power to give a different development or ending to those stories. Instead, Song chose, bravely, to be true to what seemingly seems like a "trivial" love story of two people who are separated as children and meet again after 20 years by choice and not by chance. Two people who in the generality of their life stories, look at each other, scrutinize each other and love each other. It is a story made of silences, from which the thoughts of the two protagonists arise and arrive. It is a story made of glances and behind those glances are all the unspoken words, all those emotions that words would not render. Past Lives works because it is not what one expects from a film love story. It is real life.