Archive for the Movies Category

Il Cigno Nero – Chiaroscuri dietro le quinte

Posted in Cineteca, Italiano, Movies with tags , , , , , , , on Wednesday, April 6, 2011 by zionsiva

È molto facile dimenticare che i film sono fatti da artisti. Dietro al lavoro di chi cerca di raccontare storie che possono coinvolgere tutti, c’è una vita passata a seguire un percorso creativo che in pochi condividono. Chi racconta storie che parlano del quotidiano vive un quotidiano molto diverso dai più. Parla e capisce un linguaggio che in pochi capiscono completamente, si sviluppa in circoli piccoli, in anni di frequentazioni, cambia a seconda dei tempi e dei luoghi, ed è difficile da condividere con chi non vive quel percorso.

Il Cigno Nero è un film che parla di artisti, ed è fatto da un artista il cui interesse per i caratteri ossessivi si è rivelato sin dal suo primo film, π. Darren Aronofski ha passato gli ultimi dieci anni a trasformarsi in uno degli autori cinematografici più importanti della scena mondiale, e con The Wrestler, il film che ha preceduto Il Cigno Nero, ha dimostrato di poter raccontare storie estreme in maniera intima e familiare. È impossibile sapere se la sua ossessione nell’immergersi nell’arte sia anche parte del suo quotidiano, ma in pochi possono negare che il suo talento nel raccontare i dolori e le gioie del creare arte sia assai raro. Read more »

Videocracy – viaggio allucinante nella televisione italiana

Posted in Cineteca, Italiano, Movies with tags , , , , , , , , , on Thursday, February 17, 2011 by zionsiva

Questo pezzo è il primo di una serie di recensioni riproposte dalla rubrica Cineteca di Sardinews, che curo da qualche anno.

Il genere documentario è tornato alla ribalta da quasi un decennio, grazie al successo dei film “di denuncia” di Michael Moore. Il fenomeno ha colpito anche l’Italia, ma Videocracy è un caso anomalo: un film sull’Italia, diretto da un italiano, prodotto e concepito in Scandinavia. Diretto da Erik Gandini, italiano trapiantato in Svezia da più di vent’anni, con una coproduzione svedese e danese, il documentario è un viaggio nel mondo della televisione italiana, un racconto dell’impero culturale con cui Silvio Berlusconi ha plasmato il paese di cui è divenuto presidente. Read more »

Inception: MindGames

Posted in English, Movies on Wednesday, July 28, 2010 by zionsiva

Warning: the following post contains potential spoilers for Inception and Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.

In a future where men can share dreams and explore them with their conscious mind, a team of expert dream explorers is trying to plant an idea in the mind of the heir of a big corporation. It’s a long shot: according to many, planting an original thought in someone else’s mind is impossible. But Cobb, the main character or the movie, played by Leonardo Di Caprio, needs this mission to work to go back home to his kids. He needs to design a plan and create a world to make it work. This is the main plot behind one the best movies made in recent memory. It’s also a concept that, as pointed out in this excellent review on Kotaku, could sound very familiar to anyone who ever played a video game.

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ZionSiva’s Groove 12 favourite movies of 2008

Posted in English, Movies with tags , , , , , , , , , on Thursday, January 8, 2009 by zionsiva

best-movies

2008 was a good year for movies. It’s interesting that most critics seem to feel that it was not as interesting as 2007, for the lack of big masterpieces like There Will Be Blood or No Country For Old ean. Thing is, we had masterpieces this year, but they were “genre” movies. But more on that later. I’ve coupled most of the movies to make things snappier.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall / Tropic Thunder

The last few years have been great for comedies, and Judd Apatow is the man behind this great streak of funny, poignant and always interesing movies. Forgetting Sarah Marshall is amazingly funny and very, very well done, another proof that Apatow’s movies are consistently good without being at all formulaic, probably because he really trusts his protegees, like Jason Segel this time. Tropic Thunder, though, goes beyond that, and shows Ben Stiller at his best in a movie that puts him back at Zoolander heights. Very few authors can marry extreme intelligence with absolute idiocy like this man. Kudos.

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[Three Things About...] Achilles and the Tortoise

Posted in English, Movies, Three Things About... with tags , , on Wednesday, December 17, 2008 by zionsiva

to-kame1) The central theme of this movie is lack of talent and inspiration, and it’s very close to Kitano’s last two movies, Takeshis and Glory to the Filmmaker!. It’s as if after two movies where he expressed his feelings, he decided to tell a story around the same theme. The result is a charming movie with a lot of bittersweet laughs squeezed in between some very acute observations on the wicked ways the art world works. It may lack the power of some of its best movie, but Kitano’s voice is always very entertaining and surprisingly earnest.

2) The art world works in weird and sometimes completely nonsensical ways, and Kitano’s approach to it is refreshing and feels completely true. It’s the story of a world that continually needs to validate itself in order to exist, and the parable told by this movie is a perfect metaphor of the craziness of the whole idea of “high art” versus “pop art”. It’s also a tale about love of art bordering on obsession, and the body count at the end of the movie, kind of close to First Blood‘s, is telling on how much Kitano seems to think this obsession can be dangerous.

3) This movie closes a trilogy were Kitano seems to unleash his inner comedian in a way that will very much please fans of his Takeshi’s Castle show or the amazing anime/manga series Excel Saga. This movie’s humor is tipically Japanese, and it’s an acquired taste for anyone outside the country. It’s very fun and understandable for young Italians, because we grew up on a steady diet of animes and mangas; and for some reason seems to resonate a lot with Czech audiences, who also love Monthy Python.

Dawn of the Movie Critic

Posted in English, Movies with tags , on Friday, December 5, 2008 by zionsiva

Roger Ebert’s post on the death of movie criticism links the changes on modern journalism with the obsession on celebrity gossip. Editors wants fast, easy stories on the hot couples in the global spotlight, they don’t need proper criticism, they are afraid of long articles. This is happening, but it is probably not the reason why real movie criticism is being shunned by general media.

The rise of the Internet and the decline is newspapers and magazines sales have sent most of the newspapers’ editors in a state of complete panic. They cut jobs and try any gimmick  trying to win a fight they already lost. In a very near future, print will exist in a small niche, for speciality stuff, for deluxe magazines. Devices like the Amazon Kindle will make sure that people will have their news fix on the go. There will be more content than before, not less. Movie criticisms is not going to die, but it’s going to change radically.

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Paul W.S. Anderson, Movie Designer

Posted in English, Games, Movies with tags , , , , , , on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 by zionsiva

death-race

Death Race is the best video game movie ever made, it doesn’t matter that is not directly tied in to any actual game title. A mix of Twisted Metal, F-Zero and Smash T.V., the story follows a race driver framed for his wife’s death. He’s sent into a prison so that he can race in a new sport streamed online for millions of people: Death Race. The movie stars Jason Statham, probably the best pure action actor around, Joan Allen in her weirdest role ever, and Tyrese Gibson in the most puzzling gay role in recent movie memory.

The movie is structured exactly like a game: the first scene is a tutorial on the rules of the race and the design of the track; the three races portrayed in the game are called “stages”, and in any stage some of the characters is eliminated. In order to win the race, the cars have to activate some power ups scattered in the track: some trigger offensive weapons, other defensive weapons, one even lets out a terrifying speared obstacle that can destroy a car in a split second. It’s what Mario Kart would be like if Ed Boone designed it.

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Quantum of Solace, AKA the problem with Michael Bay

Posted in English, Movies with tags , , , , , , on Friday, November 14, 2008 by zionsiva

action

The new Bond movie is not good, sadly. After the shiny, exciting and fresh Casino Royale, the series seems to be following the same dangerous path that lead the Brosnan saga to complete mediocrity after the good effort of Goldeneye. But if the downfall in that series came from an excessive push into the camp factor, the problems with Quantum of Solace come from an unexpected angle: action and flash.

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Hopeful Mist (Warning: plenty of spoilers)

Posted in English, Movies with tags , , , , , , on Tuesday, November 11, 2008 by zionsiva

themist

 

Stephen King writes about people. He is known for his monsters, but what sets him apart from most genre writers is the way he pens believable human beings. Frank Darabont is the one director that understands King better than anyone: his adaptations are all about King’s characters, he chose some of the most interesting stories in the writer’s canon and made them into his own vision. In The Mist, his storytelling abilities reach a new high, turning a bleak and desparing horror scenario in an ode to hope.

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