serge-fenenko

MissiePoo16 is a brilliant portrait of modern teenagers living their lives on social networking sites and communicating via chat-rooms and webcams.

The story of a teenage girl told to her webcam is witty and so believable. The art direction is very original and unforgettable. I loved the eclectic use of capitals, pink backgrounds, exclamation marks and online voting!!! I'm glad this movie got the GOLD of the Dutch Film Festival:-P

I would do more with distribution via online media, as this movie is just destined to be shown on YouTube, Revver and other video sharing and social networking sites.

I think Aranofsky himself is a genius - he shot such a solid and mature debut film with such a low budget. "Pi" reminded me "Stalker" by Andrey Tarkovsky. Similar style with unexpected angles and beautiful BW shots (the tempo in 1979 was much slower), surreal and disturbing atmosphere and even direct parallels - milk poured in the coffee in "Pi" reminded me the famous ink-in-the-water shot in "Stalker". Both films invite you to think further. Would we ever be able to comprehend the laws determining our existence? Could all those patterns and formulas discovered by the scientists ever explain the logic of our lives? Or are they just building blocks, randomly tossed by the nature? A conclusion we could derive from "Pi" and other films about scientists and great thinkers is that rational intelligence would not make us happy. So, I've switched off my brain and enjoyed the movie.

When I started watching Losses to be Expected, I didn't know it was from the same director as Hundstage. But after the very first striptease scene I knew it had to be Ulrich Seidl. He has a unique talent of revealing common patterns in the human behavior, and he is the master of depressing cinema. After watching Hundstage and La Pianiste van Haneke within one week, I have even decided to never watch an Austrian movie again. But this one is a good excuse to break the promise.

The main character of the documentary is the 60+ retired Austrian who's just lost his wife and is looking for a new one across the Austrian-Czech border. He is very lonely and needs somebody to share his last years with. He uses all the tricks to lure Paula, who lives in Czech Republic, into his nets. He shows her an Austrian supermarket, an Austrian shopping mall, takes her to a fair in the nearby town etc. Whatever the characters do is so recognizable, beginning with a conversation of the 60+ widows about the sex, and ending with complaints of a village idiot about the communists who failed to repaired his window and cupboard.

I liked the movie for its almost transcendental spirit, although I would cut it back from 120 to 90 minutes to keep the pace and to let it gradually grow to the climax. And I would definitely stop after the second striptease scene performed by the village idiot. But Ulrich didn't and kept repeating his scenes and ideas.