Planetarium

Definitely a poor film, there are several problems, first of all the film starts with numerous subplots that end with nothing done or are left to themselves without a real conclusion, the main plot is quite poor and if in the first few minutes I could have been intrigued by the quality then it drops a lot. The acting skills are average, Natalie Portman is very good, as always, moreover, even Lily-Rose Depp's interpretation convinced me even though I didn't particularly like the character, I was a little more perplexed by Emmanuel Salinger's interpretation that starts off quietly but that from the middle of the film and especially in the end improves. The thing that bothered me the most though are the dirty scenes that are randomly thrown in the middle of the film, and if you go from a simple nude scene of a few seconds, even if they make a thread of sense, you move on to real pornographic films that do not help in any way to expand and move the plot forward, let me be clear to me the dirty scenes do not particularly bother but they must make sense for the purposes of the plot, otherwise they are just embarrassing and negative. Too bad. Sorry for any errors in the translation.

Two American sisters, Laura and Kate Barlow (Natalie Portman and Lily-Rose Deep) tour some theaters in Europe shortly before World War II with a spiritualism number, as one of them is a medium. When they are seen in Paris by André Korben, a film producer (Emmanuel Salinger), he becomes enthusiastic about them and proposes a project to them.

Plantarium is one of those films that contains interesting approaches (even intriguing and perverse) and several good ideas but that do not manage to integrate satisfactorily and that end up disintegrating, partly due to their nature, due to an ambiguity that is no longer effective and above all because of its cinematographic realization.

We know that a planetarium is a device that projects an illusory sky onto a vault. One of the themes of Rebecca Zlotowski's film is the crossroads between reality and fiction through cinematography (reminiscent of some stories by Horacio Quiroga on the subject) and a reality that in this case is ambiguous and that also seeks the help of parapsychology and the dream. As for the title in Spanish (Connection of love) it alludes to one of the perverse aspects of the plot (perhaps the most original) that remains halfway. And all this in a climate of the time that wants to be emerging but without achieving it at all.

Planetarium offers a very good performance by Emmnuel Salinger and as usual in these productions, a beautiful art design.

I made it through this movie only to ask myself "why" at the end. The script is unfocused and never seems to develop a coherent theme. There are two psychic sisters who link up with a Jewish film maker. The anti semitism in this film is hohum. The psychic portion is a soporific. Arrow jewelry and bobby pins are sprinkled throughout the film for some reason. The cinematographer must be in love with Portman since the best parts of this movie are of Nat in many guises. Planetarium is in French. The actors speak clearly and the dialogue is slow. Maybe that's why I stuck with it. A good chance to practice my language skills. I can't recommend this film.

What this movie needs is more SUBSTANCE! We haven't a GHOST of a chance of being drawn into this play, because there is only loosely knit ideas..a faint line outlining what may become...something..but what ?? What a waste of talent!! Teaming Ms. Depp and Ms. Portman had me waiting impatiently to view this movie. typically...my favorite actors choose worthwhile projects. Natalie's last couple of endeavors, have left MUCH to be desired.

This movie needs to be connected...those dots of ideas need to be connected by story line we can understand and follow. Leave the abstract included....but fill it in with good ol creative action and dialogue that we can follow and appreciate. Better yet..make the story line COMPELLING !! Who better than Ms. Portman and Ms. Depp to carry a compelling theme ?

We must give Ms. Portman and Ms. Depp their due for taking such a bold chance..experimenting perhaps. But, ..IF they want to continue to be able to take such risks, they better choose a WINNER next few times round, or their names and past acting performances will be a distant, fond memory. Remember her?...Loved her in that one !

Very interesting characters. The pre WWII event. About two orphan sisters trying to make a living. The best they came up with is to help the people to make contact with their loved ones who had died. So far so successful. Especially when a notable filmmaker takes interest on them, their lives begin to change. Those were what shown to us in the rest of the film. But there comes a complication, especially the bond between the sisters was tested, and followed by the filmmaker's reputation.

There were many English dialogues. The casting was so good. The lead three was great. But there's something about the story. Overall, it looked decent, but I don't know that they cinematically well transformed. Looks like a literature kind of tale, yet it was not adapted from any such source. That is what's missing in here. You know, the good writer's perspective. They know how to take the story in a right direction.

I felt they messed the conclusion. All the sudden too much had happened. Even the twist did not feel like it was a twist. All the above, there's no strong emotional effect. The middle section was so plain. All I felt was the two sisters struggle. The rest did not make the film shine. Could be one time watchable, but I'm not sure you would like it at the end.

5/10