By Federica Giampaolo
A comically vibrant adaptation of Wang Shuo's semi-autobiographical novel, “Little Red Flowers” by Zhang Yuan is a celebration of imagination and wonder in defiance of social convention. Co-produced by Beijing Century Good-Tidings Cultural Development Company and the Italian company Downtown Pictures, it premiered internationally at the Sundance Film Festival in 2006 for the World Cinema section and won the C.I.C.A.E. Award at the Berlinale the same year.
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
Set during the aftermath of the Chinese Revolution, the title alludes to the rewards given to children who behave well. Four-year-old Fang Qiangqiang (Dong Bowen) is taken by his father to a strict residential kindergarten, where, estranged from home, he starts misbehaving and challenging the authority of the teachers. He constantly parades around the cramped spaces in total disdain for their puritanical obsession with cleanliness and order.
A comically vibrant adaptation of Wang Shuo's semi-autobiographical novel, “Little Red Flowers” by Zhang Yuan is a celebration of imagination and wonder in defiance of social convention. Co-produced by Beijing Century Good-Tidings Cultural Development Company and the Italian company Downtown Pictures, it premiered internationally at the Sundance Film Festival in 2006 for the World Cinema section and won the C.I.C.A.E. Award at the Berlinale the same year.
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
Set during the aftermath of the Chinese Revolution, the title alludes to the rewards given to children who behave well. Four-year-old Fang Qiangqiang (Dong Bowen) is taken by his father to a strict residential kindergarten, where, estranged from home, he starts misbehaving and challenging the authority of the teachers. He constantly parades around the cramped spaces in total disdain for their puritanical obsession with cleanliness and order.
- 6/16/2023
- by Guest Writer
- AsianMoviePulse
Pardon my French (or, shall I say Italian) but, history has produced some truly monstrous assholes. One of these terrible men of history, among many from the first half of the 20th century, is Benito Mussolini. Vincere is the story of how inhuman the man known as Il Duce truly was, measuring Mussolini.s value as a human being on the world stage by how he treated his own family.
Written and directed by Marco Bellocchio, director of the controversial and sexually-charged 1986 film Devil In The Flesh, he brings Mussolini.s darkest colors to light in this part operatic, part dramatic biographical film, focusing on the torment subjected upon his wife and son in an attempt to hide that part of his personal life from the spotlights of his rising power in the political arena.
Vincere –which means, .Win. in Italian– begins with Benito Mussolini as a younger man, played by Filippo Timi,...
Written and directed by Marco Bellocchio, director of the controversial and sexually-charged 1986 film Devil In The Flesh, he brings Mussolini.s darkest colors to light in this part operatic, part dramatic biographical film, focusing on the torment subjected upon his wife and son in an attempt to hide that part of his personal life from the spotlights of his rising power in the political arena.
Vincere –which means, .Win. in Italian– begins with Benito Mussolini as a younger man, played by Filippo Timi,...
- 4/16/2010
- by Travis
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Film review:'Il Principe di Homburg'
A dreamy think piece told in a turgid, painterly style, "Il Principe di Homburg" (The Prince of Homburg) is a muddled attempt to dramatize the duality of governance: Is order best maintained through rigid militaristic means or is it better served through adherence to the heart?
While its ambition is great, this Competition entry is so aesthetically stiff and weighted down by its intellectualizing that it seems like a dusty professorial lecture by someone who has not revised his notes in years. Alas, this "Prince" is unlikely to travel beyond its Italian distribution borders.
Darkly luminous and drenched in Germanic gothic (moons, chiaroscuro lighting, mists), the film centers around the prince of Homburg Andrea Di Stefano), commander of the German cavalry during the Thirty Year War against the Swedes. The prince, unfortunately, suffers from a curious somnambulism, often prowling the gardens at night and acting distracted during important battle plannings. Today we might deem him "disassociative."
In one of his more stupefied moments, the prince leads his charges into battle two minutes before the critical order. Alas, his mania wins the day for the Germans, completely surprising the enemy. Not surprisingly, his commanding officer (Toni Bertorelli) is an arrogant prig and orders him court-martialed, wherein the prince is promptly sentenced to death. In essence, the irony is that the prince behaves most honorably when he is under one of his spells.
More resembling a political-psychological discourse than a flesh-and-blood drama, the film soon dissipates into a series of talking-heads scenes as respective mouthpieces debate such questions as which is more real, the subconscious or the conscious, and what is the best way to govern, through the heart or the intellect.
Technical credits are well-executed, however: Praise to cinematographer Giuseppe Lanci for his richly dark lighting and to production designer Giantito Burchiellaro for his dense drapings. On the minus side, composer Carlo Crivelli's score is ponderous and overwrought, like this film.
IL PRINCIPE DI HOMBURG
In Competition
Film Albatros
in Collaboration with
Rai-Radiotelevisione Italiana
Screenwriter-director Marco Bellocchio
Director of photography Giuseppe Lanci
Music Carlo Crivelli
Production designer Giantito Burchiellaro
Editor Francesca Calvelli
Cast:
Il Principe Di Homburg Andrea Di Stefano
Natalia Barbora Bobulova
Ellettore Toni Bertorelli
Elettrice Anita Laurenzi
Hohenzollern Fabio Camilli
Golz Gianluigi Fogacci
DorflingItalo Dall'Orto
Running time -- 89 minutes
No MPAA rating...
While its ambition is great, this Competition entry is so aesthetically stiff and weighted down by its intellectualizing that it seems like a dusty professorial lecture by someone who has not revised his notes in years. Alas, this "Prince" is unlikely to travel beyond its Italian distribution borders.
Darkly luminous and drenched in Germanic gothic (moons, chiaroscuro lighting, mists), the film centers around the prince of Homburg Andrea Di Stefano), commander of the German cavalry during the Thirty Year War against the Swedes. The prince, unfortunately, suffers from a curious somnambulism, often prowling the gardens at night and acting distracted during important battle plannings. Today we might deem him "disassociative."
In one of his more stupefied moments, the prince leads his charges into battle two minutes before the critical order. Alas, his mania wins the day for the Germans, completely surprising the enemy. Not surprisingly, his commanding officer (Toni Bertorelli) is an arrogant prig and orders him court-martialed, wherein the prince is promptly sentenced to death. In essence, the irony is that the prince behaves most honorably when he is under one of his spells.
More resembling a political-psychological discourse than a flesh-and-blood drama, the film soon dissipates into a series of talking-heads scenes as respective mouthpieces debate such questions as which is more real, the subconscious or the conscious, and what is the best way to govern, through the heart or the intellect.
Technical credits are well-executed, however: Praise to cinematographer Giuseppe Lanci for his richly dark lighting and to production designer Giantito Burchiellaro for his dense drapings. On the minus side, composer Carlo Crivelli's score is ponderous and overwrought, like this film.
IL PRINCIPE DI HOMBURG
In Competition
Film Albatros
in Collaboration with
Rai-Radiotelevisione Italiana
Screenwriter-director Marco Bellocchio
Director of photography Giuseppe Lanci
Music Carlo Crivelli
Production designer Giantito Burchiellaro
Editor Francesca Calvelli
Cast:
Il Principe Di Homburg Andrea Di Stefano
Natalia Barbora Bobulova
Ellettore Toni Bertorelli
Elettrice Anita Laurenzi
Hohenzollern Fabio Camilli
Golz Gianluigi Fogacci
DorflingItalo Dall'Orto
Running time -- 89 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 5/9/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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