Una pura formalità

Marvellous work. Demanding of actors, director and audience. The dialogue fills the screenspace, the performances of the two main characters are masterpieces of consistency. I enjoyed it from start to finish and I hope you do as well.

The director keeps ratcheting up the tension and letting it fall back using very few devices. It has the feel of a stage play, and would perhaps transfer very well to the theatre.

Although some accuse the director of over-complicating things, I find the whole to be satisfying and simple. The lack of clarity of the storyline reflects the confusion in Depardieu's head.

If you want non-intellectual action, this film is not for you.

I watched this film captured by the presence of Roman Polanski in the credits. The result was very intriguing. Through the reminiscences of famous writer Onoff (Depardieu) and the shrewd interventions of the Inspector (Polanski) the crime is effectively solved. The dialogue is exceptional, and both men's performances are quite good. Basically this is a very interesting and intriguing film, and fortunately not pretentious. Highly recommendable.

Those who have seen Roman Polanski in his film "The Tenant" will not be surprised by his pitch-perfect acting in "A Pure Formality". Nor will they not exult in his masterful attention to detail that he is famous for (as when he moves a pan of water on the floor with the toe of his shoe as he stares eternally at the source of a ceiling drip).

There are a host of meditations in this film, and have no doubt that this film is pure artistic meditation. The one that concerns me most is the meditation on what constitutes identity, and I would guess that Tornatore might respond that it can be found in one's cosmic gift and calling, whatever that may be. The universal existential problem arises when we mistakenly believe that gift and calling and our very lives have everything to do with ego and all its vain pursuits.

It was a fantastic movie and it has a shocking ending. The performances was great specially Gerard Depardieu. It was one of the best mystery films after The Usual Suspects. And I think it should be in top 250 but it is not.

The direction was brilliant and you can not guess the ending. We can not forget the screen play all of It's words was amazing. All of the film is an investigation but you never feeling tired and I think the direction and screen play make it like this. You see this movie when you have an open mind because it makes some question in your mind. At last: I really enjoyed that and I gave it 10/10

I must thank Imdb, because I would have never watched this masterpiece if it weren't for it's user comments. The film is indeed remarkable, in the style of Adrian Lyne's "Jacob's Ladder", and although it's the kind of film that needs a second watch in order to get everything together, and that I got everything together thanks to some user comments, I was astonished to see how it worked over my feeling as if another part of me had completely understood the plot with just one watch. Warning: you might feel somewhat sad when watching this film. Not the kind of feeling of sadness of typical films in which a boy gets leuchemia; I'm talking about a DEEP, REAL feeling about life. The actors, the words, the scenography, they are all WONDERFUL. All. Do not miss it.