porfirito

If this movie is outstanding, it is certainly by it's ability to dodge any depth. No significant analysis of any character, no solid study of the historical context or stake, just a superficial picture of the events through a soap-like art. The author's purpose to grossly suggest along the movie his narration is a jewel of subtle understatement, as a reflection of the oriental sensibility, doesn't produce any effect but a real tediousness. Confronting with such imposture, one could naturally consider this a suggested work to embellish a vanishing symbol, facing times of trouble. It's few to say this subject deserves a better handling: the birth of a modern nation, the fate of millions of people involved, yesterday and today, the difficult questions of liberty and democracy are the real, complete and achieved understatement here.

Not only because of the accomplished execution of the actors, the touching grace of Eve, the churlish lucidity of Margo or the ferocious oiliness of Georges Sanders. It's too little to say they are in complete control of their artistry, which owes a lot to theatre one must admit it, they are perfect servants of a metaphor. Mankiewicz' opus ability to speak beyond time must not be measured with the criteria of today's cinema or disappointment is ineluctable. Eventually, however it keeps us interested with dexterity, the turnabout may not be as important as it precisely turns to be a story in the story. That "mise en abyme" ( remember Bates' image in the picture's last scene ) is the grounding purpose of any literature, nothing less...