Sappho

Horrible film. I would not recommend this to anyone. While a film is being developed its creators should be asking themselves "So what? Who cares?" and they should be able to answer that question in regards to their movie. At the end of this I felt myself asking "So what? Who cares?" Which is incredibly bad.

This film suffers from terrible acting, directing and writing, and its seemingly only redeeming qualities are it locations and occasionally good cinematography.

Honestly, do not bother with this film. It's a glorified soft core porn, and the porn isn't even very good.

I picked this movie up at a flea market. It reminded me of Summer Lovers with Daryl Hannah and Peter Gallagher in 1982. Many other reviewers said the acting and dialog were wooden and other than the scenery and music, and some good erotic scenes, you should give the movie a pass. I have always loved Summer Lovers (1982) with MUCH better dialog, acting and story, but I wish I could merge the two. Always thought the 1982 version was the perfect erotic movie that just stopped short. The 2008 is the extra but left behind all the class and quality that made the original a good movie.

Sappho really is like a modern Greek tragedy - it's set on a Greek island, and it uses all the conventions of that ancient form of drama - it all happens in one place, in one month, with only one line of action, and the characters are carried forward by fate towards an end that they can't avoid.

And it works! It seems new and fresh and interesting in this age when all movies look the same. It's a real tearjerker.

For movie buffs who wonder where the movie was made, it was made in Crimea on the Black Sea. The main location is the Vorontsov Palace. Lots of movies have been made in Crimea, but this is perhaps the most beautiful of them all - the locations and the photography are superb!!!

A strange lyrical film, much like the ancient poetess's Sappho's own poetry. It has no violence, no car chases, no gunfights, and yet it manages to be enthralling and unpredictable.

I won't tell the story, except that it's about a boy and a girl who wants to be a boy and a girl, and it all gets complicated.

Here in Ukraine it was a big commercial success - the biggest in the history of our film industry - and also there was a very big reaction against this movie from the church and anti-gays. It seems there are two reactions to this film, either you love it, or you hate it. You can see that from the reactions here too.

The acting lets the movie down a little bit, but only a little.

My girlfriend more or less dragged me to this movie in St. Petersburg, Russia. I was determined to hate it, and I ended up liking it. She'd give it 10 stars, I know, but since this is really a chick flick for girls who are still asking "who am I?", and I'm a guy who already knows who he is, I'll give it eight stars. For the visuals and the music I'd give it ten stars, and the script contains some great lines too, and the actors are all good-looking eye candy - it's just a pity that sometimes it feels that some emotion wasn't felt, just imitated.

All in all, the movie's like a holiday from reality - beautiful landscapes, wonderful costumes, and 2 actresses who look as good with nothing on as with something on, superb music, and a strange story that drags you in and puts you in a trance. It was a real ugly shock to come out of the cinema back to a gray and rainy city again.