This is the first movie I've seen this year(2007) and it's not a bad start at all. While it did come out 2 years ago, I'm only getting to see it now not only because it's a foreign film but also for the fact that I'm so backed up on films I've said I would try and catch up on.
'Don't Tell' was an Oscar nominee for best foreign film back in 2005 and rightfully so. From the theme music and the DVD's menu screen, to the opening credits and the whole hauntingly peering feeling surrounding it, I had a feeling it was going to be good. I have to admit I was a little lost in the beginning, as I hadn't bothered to read the synopsis for fear of ruining the suspense. Anyhow, it didn't take too long to figure it out.
As the film begins, we meet a beautiful young woman named Sabina who is visiting a mausoleum and apparently is having a hard time dealing with the loss of her parents. After she finishes up with the legal proceedings concerning her parents bodies, she goes to work. There we find out that she is a voice-over artist. During one of her dubbing duties, she is visibly traumatised when she has to voice-over a rape victim but at this point in the film it's to early to speculate as to why a professional such as herself would feel that way. Later on, we meet her boyfriend Daniele, an actor who seeming loves Sabina more than his own art. Things go by normally from here on, until one night after having sex with Daniele, Sabina has a very disturbing dream involving her childhood. Troubled very much by this, she visits her blind childhood best-friend the next day and tactfully tries to extract some visions of her past. But her best-friend paints a beautiful picture for Sabina. Times goes by and the dream refuses to leave Sabina, so much so that it begins to hurt her relationship with Daniele. That Christmas, she decides to fly to America to visit her brother and his family and it is this holiday that unleashes all the skeletons in the cupboard and puts all the demons to rest.
The director's attention to detail is perhaps the most stunningly admirable aspect of the film. Everything you see or might take for granted is actually very vital to the story, and in case you miss some things while watching, don't worry they will fall into place and make sense by the end of the film. There was a shot in the beginning where Sabina was running through a cemetery and the camera kept noting all the defaced and mutilated gravestones, statues etc. etc. Even when the camera finally rests on a seemingly normal monument from the front, it's later revealed to damaged from behind. Sabina's perhaps sums it up best when she said "families are all about seeming...you never know what's true or not" and that's just the way the film was shot as well. You never know what's really real and what's not. The thing I took away from watching this is that no matter how low you may think you've reached in your life, no matter how damaged you are, there's always a chance to reinvent yourself and silence the demons from the past.
'Don't Tell' was an Oscar nominee for best foreign film back in 2005 and rightfully so. From the theme music and the DVD's menu screen, to the opening credits and the whole hauntingly peering feeling surrounding it, I had a feeling it was going to be good. I have to admit I was a little lost in the beginning, as I hadn't bothered to read the synopsis for fear of ruining the suspense. Anyhow, it didn't take too long to figure it out.
As the film begins, we meet a beautiful young woman named Sabina who is visiting a mausoleum and apparently is having a hard time dealing with the loss of her parents. After she finishes up with the legal proceedings concerning her parents bodies, she goes to work. There we find out that she is a voice-over artist. During one of her dubbing duties, she is visibly traumatised when she has to voice-over a rape victim but at this point in the film it's to early to speculate as to why a professional such as herself would feel that way. Later on, we meet her boyfriend Daniele, an actor who seeming loves Sabina more than his own art. Things go by normally from here on, until one night after having sex with Daniele, Sabina has a very disturbing dream involving her childhood. Troubled very much by this, she visits her blind childhood best-friend the next day and tactfully tries to extract some visions of her past. But her best-friend paints a beautiful picture for Sabina. Times goes by and the dream refuses to leave Sabina, so much so that it begins to hurt her relationship with Daniele. That Christmas, she decides to fly to America to visit her brother and his family and it is this holiday that unleashes all the skeletons in the cupboard and puts all the demons to rest.
The director's attention to detail is perhaps the most stunningly admirable aspect of the film. Everything you see or might take for granted is actually very vital to the story, and in case you miss some things while watching, don't worry they will fall into place and make sense by the end of the film. There was a shot in the beginning where Sabina was running through a cemetery and the camera kept noting all the defaced and mutilated gravestones, statues etc. etc. Even when the camera finally rests on a seemingly normal monument from the front, it's later revealed to damaged from behind. Sabina's perhaps sums it up best when she said "families are all about seeming...you never know what's true or not" and that's just the way the film was shot as well. You never know what's really real and what's not. The thing I took away from watching this is that no matter how low you may think you've reached in your life, no matter how damaged you are, there's always a chance to reinvent yourself and silence the demons from the past.