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Uncovered (1994)
This may contain spoilers.
Uncovered is a little cute film that doesn't have much to say but says what it has quite charmingly. It was actually the plot that led me to seeing it and actually it turned out to be not exactly as I expected. Kate Beckinsale restores paintings. When she accidentally finds a hidden inscription that translates in Latin as "Who killed the knight?" in a 500 year old Flemish painting that passed from generation to generation in a certain rich family, she decides to find everything about it and to uncover the mystery that surrounds it. The painting depicts a chess game between two noble men and the hidden inscription leads her to believe that one of them was wrongly murdered and that the painter wanted to uncover the injustice done without putting himself in danger. But as she starts searching deeper and deeper the people around her meet with sudden and unjustified death. Desperate to solve the mystery she finds a young man, expert in chess, and convinces him to play the game backwards and see where that leads them. The whole film is actually nothing more than an Agatha Christian whodunit that lacks surprise since we can (or at least I could) guess from the beginning who the murderer is. Apart from that, it looks nice and that's especially because of Kate Beckinsale's performance who once more brings an amazingly fresh character to life. Also watch out for Peter Wingfield (Methos from the TV series Highlander!!!) that becomes the laughing stock of everyone as he plays the macho man who ends up kicked around by women. Overall, don't expect to see the movie of a lifetime but it's no doubt interesting. And Kate Beckinsale and John Wood are filling their shoes satisfactorily enough.
Kalifornia (1993)
This may contain spoilers.
Kalifornia is a movie about lost ideals. A journey on the darkest road ever. The road of no return. The plot is about a couple that set out to find a better life in California. The man (David Duchovny in his best role up to now) wants to write a book about the famous crimes that have happened in America and his girl - who is a photographer - is going to take the pictures. So they set out on a trail of famous murders not knowing what awaits them on the way. To share the journey expenses they decide to find another couple and they put an ad. But the couple that answers it is not just ANY couple. It is one of the strangest couples ever. The girl is a naive, frail creature that dreams a lot and loves cactuses. The man is exactly the opposite. A cruel ruthless murderer. We learn that early in the film and we follow him along the journey to Kalifornia (not with C as usual, but with K, presumably symbolizing the word killer), along his journey of betrayal, murder and finally defeat. All the leads, Duchovny, Pitt, Lewis and Forbes give really good performances and you have to take into consideration that when this movie was filmed not even one of them was a star. The photography is amazing, with darkness covering the greatest parts of the movie, and the music suits the dark character of the film. On the whole this is a really good movie. Don't miss it. You'll think again before taking some stranger in your car to share the gas with!
La primera noche de mi vida (1998)
Warning! This may contain spoilers.
La primera noche de mi vida is a cute little movie that would have a big future...if only anybody knew it! And it's quite difficult to do just that. To know it. I consider myself lucky to have seen it because I guess it's quite difficult to find it anywhere but on TV. And what's so great about that, you'll ask. Nothing apart from the fact that it's small (from the budget to the duration) and beautiful. The story includes a couple that sets out for a dinner party on the millennium eve. The funny thing is that the woman is pregnant, the guy has no money and no car and has borrowed one from a friend of his. The car of course is not exactly top class and crashes down after few miles. And that's where the film really starts. The couple start fighting and trying to find a way to the parents' house before midnight, hitchhiking on the way and getting into several cars whose passengers seem to be the funniest characters you've ever met and get themselves involved in the funniest situations, the climax of which is the pregnant girl going into labor and ending up in the house of an abortion clinic employee that finally delivers the baby! The plot is so clever that you can't resist to love it and the end just reminds us of the end of a fairy tale. The characters leaning over the newborn baby under the poor house's Christmas tree just after the new millennium has downed and the camera slowly retreating from the window is the scene that I'll keep always remember from this cute little thing called La primera noche de mi vida.
The Wisdom of Crocodiles (1998)
My love feeds on your love beloved... (Pablo Neruda)
The story of this film can only be summarized in this short verse. Jude Law is a man that loves. And feeds on love. He is a man that NEEDS to feed on love. And he does just that. Women love him. And it's quite obvious why. Even WE love him. We know he's evil but somehow we also know that that's his fate. Without blood and the love that's in it he cannot survive. He thinks that when he finds the woman that will love him perfectly, utterly, this will stop. He's not mistaken. But what happens when the woman that loves him more than any other in the world is the woman that he also loves more than his own life?
This is exactly the point of the film. Jude Law's character is a troubled man. Perhaps even not a man. He is a creature of one kind, as he himself says. And the only thing that remains for us, is to admire how he's going to fight for his own life and win it. How he's going to do what we want. Or maybe what we don't want. How he's going to slip into his fate without regret. And how in the end we'll all know that: "The line that separates Good and Evil cuts through every human heart." His heart. Our hearts.
Jude Law and Elina Lowensohn. You will remember them for ever. As you will this film.
Oscar and Lucinda (1997)
"A broken thing, a miracle, a tragedy, a dream..."
Oscar and Lucinda is only "A broken thing, a miracle, a tragedy, a dream..." This says it all. Those who have seen it will never be able to forget this picture: a church made out of glass slowly going down a river in the heart of the Australian desert. In this church stands Oscar and this is the proof of his love for a woman called Lucinda. If this is not enough to tempt you to see the film nothing will ever make you love it. Not even the dreamy performances by both the lead actors. Not even Oscar's violent outburst and the look of pain that follows it. Not even the enchanting music and the glorious Australian landscapes. Not even the fact that this is one of the queerest love stories ever told. And not even that this is as close to the fairy tale as you will ever get....
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
This is the story of Bonnie and Clyde...
Bonnie and Clyde is my favorite film of all times. And I don't say this now.
I said that from the moment I saw it one spring night and kept thinking about it until the next week and the next and the next... Thinking about that last look - the greatest look ever captured on celluloid - that Bonnie and Clyde exchange before they sink forever into their silence. It is the look that holds in it the whole beauty of the movie itself. The pain, the hope, the poetry of it all. Bonnie and Clyde are not just two random people that meet in a random moment in their life. They are THE people and the moment is THE moment that marks their life forever. They were destined to be together until the end and no matter how much they tried nobody ever made them part. And that's what gives us the greatest love story of all time. The ONLY real and destined love story of all time.
I didn't say I loved this movie from the moment I saw it. I was too stunned to speak then. But I say this now. And I'll keep saying it until the end. When all of our flesh is dust and all of our minds a great big step into the knowledge that nothing is forever.
R.I.P.
This Property Is Condemned (1966)
Why should it be a condemned movie too?
This Property is Condemned was a condemned movie from the day it was made. It didn't win critical acclaim, nobody saw it and still there are only a few people who have even heard of it. And yet it's so beautiful that you really don't need to be persuaded to watch it. From the beginning, and as the story carries us to a condemned love affair between a beautiful and proud young woman who wants the world (but all she gets is all the men around her crawling on her feet) and a man (Robert Redford) that only wants to keep her safe from her pride, we witness the changes that can be brought by just one person, either that is the impact on the small town that Alva (Natalie Wood) lives or on her heart and life. The end is some kind of divine justice that we all want to prevent but no one manages to, but at the same time a lyrical hope in the form of the left behind (and astoundingly good) Mary Badham. A song that Tennessee Williams certainly wouldn't have approved for his book but at the same time what has always stayed in heart from this wonderful film. That and the glass snowstorm.
Inside Daisy Clover (1965)
The Hollywood industry against itself!
Inside Daisy Clover is not just any movie about a wanna-be-star that has her dream come true and in the process witnesses the changes and corruption that bring her to the top. It is a movie about the movie industry itself. Actually it is the BEST movie that Hollywood has ever made about itself. Natalie Wood stars as the 15-year-old child star and manages to pull it through. She is a lot older and we all know, but there are times when just a look or a smile of hers can be nothing but as close to childhood as an adult actress could ever get. On the other hand we have Robert Redford, the young careless and unsteady lover that lifts everyone he meets to the sky and then dumps them to the ground leaving in his passage something more than pain: the realization that what is inevitable will happen and we all know it from the beginning. Somehow we wish it were different but it isn't and the end offers the only solution that could close such a movie without destroying its unique feeling. Redford's role is undoubtedly the greatest of his career. He is so young, strong and handsome that no one can resist him. And yet, there is a lot more hidden beneath his nice facade than anyone could ever think possible. Somehow he is a tortured character that finds content in hurting others but still he does it in such a way that you can't but admire him. Even the most fanatic feminist can try to persuade me he isn't the most charming - and at the same time cryptic - character even written for the big screen but the truth remains the same: like Michael Caine in Alfie we'd love to hate him but we can't! I must say the end is not exactly as dark as I would have expected it given the fact that we all know Daisy's path goes only downhill from the moment she meets Wade (Redford) but the queer thing (and what makes it a little unbelievable and lame) is that she manages to survive in such a random way that even the viewer wouldn't want her to. But that's the beauty of it all!
Istoria mias kalpikis liras (1955)
A real journey along the days and nights of a...counterfeit coin
I Kalpiki Lira is the greatest Greek film ever made. In other words, there is no other more complete Greek cinematic creation in the years that followed it and certainly there's not going to be another better in the years to come. The story takes us on a very weird journey. That of a counterfeit gold coin. It begins from the moment of its creation by a naive man (Vasilis Logothetidis) who, carried away by his passion and love for an unworthy woman (Ilia Livykou) decides to change his life and takes us through the streets and neighborhoods of Athens in the fifties with its everyday troubles and cares but also with its small moments of happiness, introducing us in the way to dozens of different people, from small girls to lovers who are struggling to survive (Dimitris Horn & Ellie Lambeti) and blind beggars (Mimis Fotopoulos in his most remembered role) ending in an unexpected way and filling us with the knowledge that nothing lasts forever. Only a poor counterfeit coin...
The Passion of Darkly Noon (1995)
A Passion different from all the others but also the only one.
The Passion of Darkly Noon is an extraordinarily beautiful film. From the symbolism to the enchanting music, it gives you shivers of pleasure from the beginning till the heavenly song of the end sung by P.J Harvey. The music is superb and so are the photography and the performances, especially that of Brendan Fraser who gives his best shot to prove that he's worth much more than his previous movies suggested. Directed in a dark, grueling way, with compelling scenes in the woods and the inner psychology of the heroes reaching the sought for redemption at the unpredictable end, The Passion of Darkly Noon is a film not only for a small audience but for one which will either love of hate it. It's quite obvious I did the first.