anemoni Reviews

Mississippi Mermaid (1969)

criminally underrated gem

[10/10 · 5 December 2001]

This is one of the best films I've seen in the last years.Belmonndo and Deneuve shine in their respective roles, he as a naive plantation owner and she as an enigmatic trickster.Words won't do this masterpiece justice,suffice it to say that this is a movie that explores the darker side of love and the pain,humiliation and capacity for self-delusion that go with it, although it's dressed as a film noir. Forget that feeble remake with Jolie and Banderas, see the genuine artticle instead and treat yourselves to some moments of great cinematic beauty.

Shallow Grave (1994)

British filmmaking at its best

[9/10 · 27 November 2001]

Wow. . . What can I say about this film. A stylish,superbly executed tragicomic thriller.The atmosphere, the characters, the colours,the music, the direction, everything conspired to produce one of the most unforgettable movies about nastiness and human greed in modern cinema.You won't be able to get it out of your head. This movie left me feeling rather melancholy and i don't know if this was because of the way the three friends in it turned out in the end, or because I liked the movie so much I didn't want it to ever finish.However,you'll also have a "happy heart" at the end,cause you will have watched a cinematic gem. And Danny Boyle still hadn't said his last word:A masterpiece titled "Trainspotting" was still to come. ..

Small Faces (1995)

criminally overlooked film

[9/10 · 3 September 2001]

Small Faces is a small cinematic gem;a rites of passage story set in the ganglands of 60's Glasgow told in a gritty, realistic style, yet infused with humour and sympathy for its characters, this film is too good to miss. Do yourself a favour and watch it now!

Fox and His Friends (1975)

Fasssbinder at his best

[9/10 · 28 August 2001]

A powerful and harrowing melodrama and one of Fassbinder's most accessible movies,this is a must-see for all those interested in intelligent filmmaking.The tragic story of Fox is masterfully and poignantly handled by Fassbinder, while never slipping into sloppy sentimentality.At the same time the film explores sexual and political issues that are still very much relevant.

Requiem for a Dream (2000)

A harrowing masterpiece

[9/10 · 26 June 2001]

I watched this movie two days ago and I still can't get it out of my mind.It definitely ranks among the best movies of this year.I don't believe I have seen such a devastatingly powerful movie in a long time.Aronofski's dexterity and inventiveness as a director is phenomenal. Using a number of techniques such as split screens,distorting lenses, slow motion, fast forward etc.he manages to literally transport us into the minds of his characters and make us see everything through their distorted vision. This is coupled with one of the most powerful and black stories told on the big screen for a long time;Requiem is a study in the various forms addiction can take, from heroin to coffee to sugar to TV.Moreover it is a painfully accurate depiction of shattered dreams and dashed hopes, of the self delusion that spurs all of us to build our dreams and hopes around non existing chimeras and a powerful critique of the american dream of fame success and easy money. Those who dismissed the film as moralistic and didactic missed the point entirely, just like those who had dismissed Trainspotting(another excellent film)as being pro-drugs. The drugs in Requiem for a dream are the pretext Arronofski uses to talk about wider issues such as the nature of all addictions and the ravages that illusions and self delusions perpetrate on the human psyche. Oh, one last thing:Clint Mansell's score is so powerful and hypnotic it will haunt you for days, just like the movie itself.

Christiane F. (1981)

A disturbingly powerful film

[9/10 · 23 June 2001]

I saw this movie a long time ago, when I was quite young, and I found it very powerful in its unflinching portrait of the teen-junkie scene in 70's Berlin.It's a very bleak film,painting a dark picture of Berlin and the world the film's characters move in, a decadent world steeped in despair, pain and anquish.The filmmakers chose a grittily realistic approach to their material,portraying the downward spiral of Christiane and the other characters into drug addiction, prostitution and in some cases even death.The film's only shortcoming, in my opinion, is that it sometimes comes across as didactic,something another drug-film,Trainspotting, managed to avoid. Apart from that,it's great stuff.

Vertigo (1958)

One of the most beautiful films ever created.

[10/10 · 23 June 2001]

Warning!This may contain a spoiler! Wow, what can I say about this film. . . In my opinion, it's Hitchcock's greatest film and one of the most brilliant films in history.It masterfully condenses all of Hitchcock's obsessions in one lucid whole; the voyeuristic and psychoanalytical approaches, the play with identities, the reality that is never what it seems.As in real life, one can't help but ask:Love or the idea of love? People or their reflections? Before even meeting each other,Scotty and Judy have agreed to take part in a game of foggy reflections and uncertain roles.He is going to fall in love with a ghost and she is going to impersonate someone who is going to die twice because she's in love. Prisoners of vertigo,their past and the only emotion that brings you so close to life and therefore hurls you menacingly close to death,two people who are in love(and therefore innocent) are transformed into the most tragic(and therefore guilty)movie heroes.

Trainspotting (1996)

one of the most visually powerfull films ever.

[10/10 · 16 June 2001]

When i first saw this film I wasn't at all prepared for its power and impact. I was transfixed by it. it gripped me like few other films have ever done. Its stylistic exuberance,its visual inventiveness, its sheer energy is unbelievable.It mixed despondency with humour,bleakness with wit,bitter realism with surrealistic fantasy. Poignant,hilarious,harrowing,upbeat in turns,it did what no other drug movie has achieved:to present us with believable, rounded characters we can identify with, instead of the one sided caricatures other drug movies portray.These are people like us, they could be us;they laugh,they cry, they suffer,they try to make sense of their lives and the fucked-up world that surrounds them, they analyse their own cosmotheories, they get depressed, they grieve, they try to find a way out of the debris that surround them.OK, they are also addicted to smack, but isn't their addiction a reflection(on a bigger scale) of our own little "domestic, socially acceptable" addictions,be it nicotine,caffeine,reality shows,tv quizzes,mobile phones, designer clothes,carreerism...This film enraged many people,cause it refused to fall back on old clichees and easy answers,namely that "we" are respectable citizens and "they" are freaks and scum. To quote another film,"we are all children in a vast kindergarten,trying to scribble God's name with the wrong alphabet."