Film Reviews by SG

I didn’t have the same reaction as the other reviewers. I suspect that such praise will only send the message that this is the kind of film that western audiences love: slow, without character development, deliberately uneventful and lacking a coherent story element.

“I know, let’s put in some poignant Bach and Schubert. They love to thinking how sad and repressed we are all the time. And why not have a dog in it, they’ll love that too. Let’s make it get sick and die. Show some nice landscape and they’ll go on about the cinematography and gloss over the obvious failings.”

Remake this film with white people and it would be very dull. If you enjoyed it, whoever you are, examine why. Lots of people seem to have rated it highly but were unable to give a reason.  Do not fear any spoilers in reviews because nothing happens and the characters undergo no development. You are just expected to be mesmerised by the presence of non-whites who do exotic things like smoke cigarettes while deep in thought (about what, we have no idea) or drink lots of shots of rum while deep in thought (about what, we have no idea). A sense of deep seated anguish pervades as the characters enjoy a material standard of living that most can only aspire to. There’s also a sort of fetish about rice (perhaps to signify the characters’ otherness, yawn) that climaxes in the appearance of a second rice maker…and now I’ve spoilt it. 

It was refreshing to have a composed film score with instruments played by human beings who are given credit by name at the end of the film. 

Please don't watch the dubbed version but enjoy the original Italian and enjoy with subtitles.

I was mesmerised by the film and the way the characters were bought to life by the use of carefully designed sets, costumes and special effects. There was real artistry and craft here with movie prosthetics used to recreate the animals and characters without resorting to computer generated graphics. I believe these were designed faithfully from the original illustrations. Though it's difficult to be sure these days it sounded as though the music score was played on real instruments rather than the bland digitised compromise we are having to get used to now.

It's heartening to know that artists are still out there producing work of such high quality.

I watched the film in the hope of learning something about this terrible conflict.

That wasn't part of the makers' intention though. Certainly it showed terrible suffering, particularly that of children, but I know Channel 4 (as they do so often) wanted me to see all this as a clear case of evil perpetrated against blameless innocents. That may be the case but with no explanatory context I felt dissatisfied.

Will certainly need to read around this to find out more concerning the influences and interests involved.