donofrio08

Rosenstrasse is more an intimate film than one of epic proportions, which could have kept away many film goers looking for a Pianist similar plot. Fortunately, Von Trotta, a good screenwriter, opts for a feminist peep to an era too much illustrated on its colorful exterior, but too little analyzed in terms of intimacy and from the point of view of ordinary Aryan German rather from a Jewish standpoint. Rosentrasse finds its strength in these unsung burdens of people trapped within historical circumstances of which they emerge as victims. The pace of the film is introspective, poignantly slow, meditative. Besides, the characters are so vivid while transitions between generations and the passing of time has been deftly crafted. Rosenstrasse is not a masterpiece, and some narrative flaws are well discerned. Another fault lies on a trivial cinematography unable to capture the intensity of the internal drama lived by the characters. Nevertheless, this film is worth seeing. Finally, Rosenstrasse is part of the last trend in German films dealing with the ghosts of a nightmarish past,trend that includes such excellent films as Nowhere in Africa, and recently, the controversial Downfall. I would recommend this film to those who know how to read beyond the images.

Charming and naive, Alexandr Ptushko's version of Sadko maintains the ingenuity of the fairy tale through the golden touch of imaginative coloring and splendid characters ingrained in the Russian folklore, which at the same time are part of the universal lore. Add to this Rimmsky-Korsakov's magical music, and lo and behold, a dearest masterpiece to feast eyes and endear hearts. Ptushko used to work under stressing circumstances, political as well as cultural, within a government-controlled industry, where ideology ruled over imagination. However, the artist surpassed the militant many times. Sadko concedes to the nationalistic trend in tyrannies proclaiming, in this case, the 'proud of been a Russian", heard as an echo of fascistic hypes on 'selected people or race"; but it is done with such an obvious declarative tone that the imposition of dialogs and lines comes clear to the viewer. Hail to a filmmaker who conceived films as a domain for the illusive and the innocence.

Here we have another bio-film a la Hollywood, in which a major character in History is abused to please some social sector willingly to spend their money, if and only if, the character fits the frame of traditional pattern in which he/she survives. Martin Luther has been downgraded to a well-known simplistic dialogue served under factual circumstances, so the film might be visualized and accountable as a historical reproduction through art. Once the spectator identifies the venue of (his/her) knowledge in the images, as soon as the dialogue between images and spectator stabilizes, any one may buy any 'secondary' nuances in the replica, such as an impossible Luther as portrayed by an unfitting Fiennes, or a Von Bora, playing courtier, by an actress whose name sounds irrelevant now. Certainly, period and costumes are closely observed, masses and individuals are well balanced even though the film fails to deliver the strength of revolution and reformation to the plot. Another masquerade, unworthy of a man like Martin Luther.