gudaulin

Let's face it, we watch movies mainly for the spectacle and entertainment. When Alexander Payne made his film About Schmidt, it was a film about a midlife crisis and therefore much more digestible to the average viewer than an intimate drama about old age, illness, dying, and loneliness, albeit with carefully measured subtle humor. This is simply too unpleasant a subject that we want to push out of our consciousness and not be reminded of it by a film drama. About Schmidt is a realistic film without cheap effects and shocking twists, with a slow narrative based on high-quality dialogue and Jack Nicholson's excellent performance. The screenwriter cleverly chose the main character's commentary in the form of letters addressed to a little boy in Central Africa, whom he sponsors. The way the events unfold after the protagonist's retirement is also how it happens in real life. The creators indeed chose a protagonist who is a member of the well-off managerial class in a significant insurance company, with decent financial security for old age, so average American retirees are certainly different and face many more problems. But it would be really difficult to make this kind of film in the American mainstream studio system, even though it was made possible solely because a star like Nicholson was involved. Movie fans will surely remember him from a series of epic films and various villains, where his expressive acting stood out, but in About Schmidt, he was able to display a vast range of emotions, and his performance might even be considered one of his best. Overall impression: 90%.

This film simply got to me with its camera work and atmosphere that resonated with me for a long time. It's a very slow film with minimal dialogue, where the story speaks through images of a landscape scorched by the sun, details capturing sweat on human faces, or emotions emanating from the characters' eyes. This is my second encounter with Walter Salles after his famous Central Station. This guy really knows how to craft a film. Overall impression: 95%. A tragic film about the inability to break free from senseless traditions and blind obedience to the patriarch of one's family.

I consider Trainspotting to be one of the best British films of all time, but I admit that if Boyle presented Renton and his gang of ultimate outcasts, slackers, and drug addicts as conscious freedom fighters, opponents of the establishment, consumerism, and the iron lady, I would seriously consider abandoning it and taking a trip to the islands, where I would kick Boyle in the balls. Unfortunately, Nikolaev went precisely in this direction (regardless of the mechanical comparison of directorial qualities, where Boyle acts as a modern jet compared to Nikolaev, who stuck a few chicken feathers on his shirt, jumped around the yard eagerly, and clucked). It is a mixture of unwanted amateurism, naivety, pathos, and screenwriter helplessness. It's Gonna Get Worse sells a romantic view of the underground that deserves a much more sober look. Those pigeons actually wanted to slack off, drink, party, and fornicate a little - actually, quite a lot - and the state power was too stupid to leave them alone. There is nothing uplifting about what they did, and my empathy is frozen in this case. By the way, I remember an article where the editor went on about the case of the hijacking of a Czechoslovak plane to West Germany, and to his unpleasant surprise - actually, quite a big shock - he stated that the Secret Service, which conducted parallel investigations alongside the West German police, acted more correctly than the German investigator who considered the defendants to be a bunch of disgusting hippies. On both the German and Czech sides, there were bourgeoisie who understood each other quite well across the Iron Curtain. Maybe we should stop creating a mythology that is similar to the one created by the communists when they defended their regime, constantly going back to all those proletarians and the heroic struggle of workers on the barricades. Those real histories often correspond to the stale joke when a Soviet soldier, instead of shouting "For Stalin and for the people" heroically fell with a bundle of grenades under the tanks and yelled "That damn ice..." Overall impression: 25%.

Regarding Accattone being Pier Paolo Pasolini's debut film, it is surprisingly mature and of high quality, showcasing Pasolini's great directorial talent. At the same time, it fully reveals the left-leaning direction of this filmmaker, which is evident in the depiction of the living conditions of his characters. The stumbling block, however, is Pasolini's approach to the film's characters, as the protagonist, a pimp, is portrayed as a somewhat boastful and frivolous young man, who is nevertheless difficult to feel sympathy towards. This ultimately leads to the tragic ending of the film. According to Pasolini, prostitution is primarily a result of social deprivation, which is somewhat oversimplified. Overall impression: 65%.

The main benefit of this musical set in a competition for a new Broadway musical is the very decent choreography. Unfortunately, it doesn't reach the quality of the best musical pieces, such as West Side Story, Singin' in the Rain, or Cabaret. In particular, a comparison with Fosse's All That Jazz springs to mind, who literally overshadowed Richard Attenborough. West Side Story triumphs thanks to its more prominent music. while All That Jazz with its script and the performances. A Chorus Line is undoubtedly slightly above average, but there's a lack of a melody that would stick in my memory and which I would later hum or notable vocal performances. By the way, unlike the choreographer and director portrayed by Michael Douglas, I would probably choose differently. Overall impression: 70%.

This is a typical example that money and technology in the world of film don't mean everything. Zemeckis was enchanted by the special effects options and especially the technology of 3D filmmaking, so he paid more attention to bombastic visual effects than to the characters and story, and the touching Christmas story turned into a jet ride over the rooftops of Victorian London. There is a substantially more civilized, less elaborate, but emotionally stronger version called A Christmas Carol, which captures Dickens' original better. This film is more enjoyable for viewers who prefer an action-packed and popcorn-style film. The casting of Jim Carrey, moreover, with excessive makeup, shifted Zemeckis' version much closer to comedy than Dickens ever intended. Overall impression: 60%.

From the long series of Christmas films in recent years, A Christmas Carol stands out like the Eiffel Tower. While Charles Dickens as the author of the literary original deserves credit for the final impression, it is a fact that Clive Donner skillfully and without hesitation transformed his story into a film. It is pleasantly emotional and reasonably moralistic. Even I felt the urge to improve, but unfortunately, that feeling passed after about an hour. Still, it was the most promising attempt in the last five years. The film does not feature top stars, but this only contributes to its authenticity; otherwise, the performances are convincing, as is the atmosphere of London in the first half of the 19th century. Overall impression: 85%. I have not yet seen the new version with Jim Carrey, but I strongly doubt it could offer more, except for visual effects. As for the story, Donner extracted the maximum from Dickens.

At the Třeboň Anifilm festival, Adama was screened in the category of films for children and youth, which is quite bold, because even many war films for adult audiences contain more optimism and less depression than this animated film. In the second half, when the plot transitions to the war zone, it becomes a truly bleak and dark affair. Adama lacks the ability to captivate - it is a typical arthouse film that requires more attention, but it is very well executed in terms of visuals and has a strong anti-war message. The film can be considered as animation school and a showcase of brilliant artistic style. Sand animation is rarely seen. Overall impression: 75%.

This psychological drama with a slower pace, in an unusual international co-production, tells a story from an Israeli kibbutz in the 70s, where there is a conflict between an individual who longs to escape the restrictive environment and a collective that manipulates him and tries to impose their idea of happiness and lifestyle on him. The film comes across as too harsh an indictment of the kibbutz, who were actually organized on a voluntary basis and formed the most functional attempt at an egalitarian community built on the principles of nationalism and social program. The kibbutz naturally could not withstand the growing and individualistic society, but the fact that they still exist testifies to the fact that it was and still is the best-organized project of its kind, which has nothing to do with real socialism. A similar story about a nonconforming individual doesn't have to be only from the environment of religious sects or ideologically oriented communities, as it can be, for example, the rebellion of children against their parents who want to dictate their lifestyle, and it can have many other versions. Overall impression: 60%.

Current cinema has a lot of problems, but perhaps the most threatening of all is political correctness, which reeks of self-censorship and self-deception. In the end, it annoys the viewer by leading to predictable points and dulling the edge of satire, humor, and serious drama that aims to criticize social disorder. It is precisely the political incorrectness and absolute unpredictability of the behavior of the film characters that significantly elevates Adam's Apples above today's film productions. The psychological battle between a passionately believing priest, a cynical technocrat in the form of a local doctor, and, above all, a discharged convict active neo-fascist Adam is presented in an unusual form of tragicomedy, which often teeters on the furthest boundary of what we can label as socially acceptable. However, that is precisely what makes it valuable to me, and very few films in recent years have given me as much joy as this one. Overall impression: 95%.