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jjj-murphy
Reviews
La faute à Fidel! (2006)
blatant leftist political propaganda
A wonderful performance from child actress Nina Kervel-Bey cannot redeem this movie's cinematic sin of purveying blatant leftist propaganda. Don't think I've seen so shameless a piece of polemic since casting a curious eye over Leni Riefenstahl's Hitlerite 'Triumph of the will' when I was at film school myself! Incredible that leftists can get away with this kind of pap without provoking the slightest protest from the brain-dead MSM. Predictably, Rotten Tomatoes gives it a high rating, generally seeing it as a charming French comedy of manners, etc, etc. It is nothing of the kind. On the contrary, it runs like a Maoist 'short' showing proto-proletarian little Anna's progress from snotty rich kid to caring-sharing Communist wunderkind. You know the sort of thing: Little Anna (Nina K-B) starts off as a spoiled little brat non-plussed by her parents' sudden lurch into radical chic leftism. They abandon their capitalist jobs and transform into selfless Che Guevara types taking her on demo's in Paris, etc. Gradually little Nina sees the error of her ways and gives up Divinity class at school and her posh friends for a cosy rose-tinted world of brother and sisterly love at the local compo... Ring a ring a roses we all vote socialist. Atishoo! Atishoo! The Capitalists all fall down! Disgusting abuse of the principle of cinema. By all means watch it for Nina K-B's performance, but bring some perfumed smelling salts both to wake yourself up from the toxic dose of Marxism and douse the stink of leftist sanctimony. You have been warned...
Io sono l'amore (2009)
Hopeless vainglorious triumph of style over content!
LIke a two-hour advert for Tatler magazine, this ridiculous piece of Swintonian self-indulgence is a triumph of cinematic style over content and is quite simply jaw-droppingly boring! I had to take stimulants to get me out of my seat at the end of the movie. Yes, Italy is beautiful. Yes, society imposes constraints on personal identity. Yes, life involves us in a constant struggle against the forces of personal psychological atrophy - but this narrative conveys no real angst at all. It really amounts to no more than a beautifully shot documentary revealing how much Tilda Swinton is in love with herself. Don't buy into the myth. Demand more from art! Movies must be more than star vehicles or they're dead in the water - like this pathetic web-footed duck of a movie.