L'attesa

I've seen it as a part of Italian Cinema Festival in Lisbon, the director was there. To the end I wondered how this relatively young man could make it - bring a spectator in the intersection of sorrow, enchantment and tension and keep him there the whole film.

There was a lot of wondering in general - during and after, - a lot of associations and interpretations. The film keeps you very alive in spite of difficult theme, awaken, wanting something from the characters, wanting to be like the characters, asking questions, enjoying slow beautiful shots, colors, landscapes, soundtrack, actresses. Remembering other roles of Juliette Binoche as in "Three colors: Blue" and "Paris, je t'aime", other astonishingly beautiful Italian films like "Stealing beauty". Wishing it to resolute and stop and to continue after titles.

J.S. Foer said "humorous is the only way to tell a sad story". "L 'attesa" with very convincing vitality states that the only way to tell a sad story is beautiful.

Too slow, borderline unwatchable. It's 100 minutes but it felt at least 150. It should have been at least 20 minutes shorter. The worst thing is that it plays like a mystery, and there are no mysteries here, even though director tries hard to make it a bit enigmatic and cryptic. If it was a "pure" drama movie, without the "mystery" element, it could have been a good, even great. Because there are positives here, it's well acted and well directed. Juliette Binoche is so charismatic that she almost turns this boredom into an interesting movie. Furthermore, cinematography is nice and overall, movie's technical aspects are above average.

Yet, it's a failure. This could have been good because Binoche's motives for doing what she did, are crystal clear to me. I understood what she's going through and why she behaves like this. But still, the mystery element is unnecessary.

Ending was great.

Anna's house is in mourning. As the mirrors are covered and the doors a locked, an unexpected guest walks through the front door. It's Jeanne, the girlfriend of her son, who had arrived to spend the Easter with him and his family. Seeing the opportunity to take her mind of her sadness Anna embraces Jeanne with all hear heart. But as the days go by, and her son does not appear, will she be able to tell Jeanne the terrible truth?

Piero Messina – assistant director of the Italian Oscar winner Great Beauty, creates a movie full of symbolism. With every frame holding some sort of meaning, the film is beautiful and deep, like the Sicilian lake on the border of which the story takes place.

THE WAIT is quite a cinematic journey for a small film, which is basically focused on two performances. Playing with themes of resurrection, the movie unravels to us the picture of grief, and by the end it will stand before us, truly exposed, just like unveiled statue of Virgin Mary in the final scenes.

Juliette Binoche is a great performer and she has an interesting role here. Her Anna is deeply damaged but climbing to life, finding a relief in her son's girlfriend's visit. For young and charismatic Lou de Laage in the role of Jeanne this is a big step up from her previous roles of troubled teenagers and shows just how much she grew up as an actor.

Focusing on the developing friendship between the two very different women, the movie always balances on the edge, where a few words can end everything.

With its beautiful imaginary and haunting score, THE WAIT is still not an easy experience, but it has the charm of a dark fairy tale and quickly draws you in. This is an intelligent piece of cinema that will benefit from multiple viewing.

Without any planning, in the last few days I saw 2 films starring Lou de Laâge and although with completely different characters in both films (L'attesa and Respire) I was pleased with her capacity to enter the role . Juliette Binoche is as always one of the best actresses of her generation and always make great performances. About this L'attesa I can say that although in some parts the film goes a bit too long in the suspense, the story is well written and better represented by the cast. The image plans are very good but sometimes too still. But it is a must see film. A very good work from Francesco Di Giacomo However the story is never totality told to the audience, letting one always thinking ahead.

This is a haunting movie, but I think it could have used a tad more plot. Even Binoche's genius for ambiguous facial expressions strains to paper over deficiencies in the story.

I was intrigued to see that it was based on a Pirandello play, but "based" is too strong - it's at best inspired by "La vita che ti diedi", and from what I can tell (I'm not fluent in Italian) the movie omits most of the play's boldest psychological points.