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paul-franssen
Reviews
L'amica geniale (2018)
Maffia without dead bodies...
What a beautiful series! At first sight, nothing ever happens, there is hardly any action, yet the characters are beautifully portrayed, in silent mode, as it were. The two maincharacters, young growing-up girls, seems to have expressionless faces, they say little quietly, yet there is great subtlety, deep emotion. The visual description of that (I imagine) cheap modernistic fascist village, the train passing on the elevated tracks, the decadent beauty of Napoli...absolutely wonderful, discreet camera work. I imagine Italian cinema is in a bad way these days, yet everything here indicates that everything is still there... The last episode (the 8th, I believe), portraying the wedding, is a joy to see...and the betrayal of confidence exhibited is devastating...
Diplomatie (2014)
Theatre and history
My wife and I went to see this film a few days ago, I loved it. Excellent acting! I find the title, "Diplomatie" to fit in very well with the observation that the Swedish diplomat clearly had no intention whatever to honour his promises to the German general (i.e. to take care of his family in mortal danger of suppression by the Nazi establishment). In other words, my reading is that diplomatic practice apparently provides the practitioner of that particular political act the green light to do whatever he deems necessary to reach the objective of the "raison d'état", not excluding playing on emotions or even outright lying. Not a pretty observation. Is it correct? Neither am I convinced the film is to be taken as historically correct: the decision not to destroy Paris was the result of a balanced appraisal of the fact that it was not the communists (resistance) that liberated Paris, but ...Spanish... troops in the service of General De Gaulle executing an agenda not quite in line with American instructions. Comme quoi History is often written with a small "h".