claytonlowe
Joined Oct 2000
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claytonlowe's rating
They do make movies the way they used to, only it's the Czechs who are doing it.
First we had "Kolya," which won director Jan Sverak an Academy Award in 1996; now we have Jan Hrebejk's "Divided We Fall" and Sverak's newest film, "Dark Blue World."
Gloriously photographed and set in the nostalgic days of WWII -an era that's all the rage this year- "Dark Blue World" is the story of a small group of Czech fighter pilots who flee to England in the wake of Hitler's invasion of their homeland. Offering their services to the Royal Air Force, they end up, of course, being among the heroes of the Battle of Britain.
There's plenty of action in "Dark Blue World," including many dramatically staged and photographed air battles every bit as good as anything in "Pearl Harbor." There's a touching love triangle that tests the friendship of two of the flyers -who happen to be in love with the same woman. And there's skillfully integrated flash forwards in a Soviet prison camp where the pilots are sent when they return home, not as heroes but as men considered dangerous by their new invaders, the Russians.
Great photography. Touching romances. And tragic irony. "Dark Blue World" is every bit as slick, and twice as convincing, as "Pearl Harbor," but why do you suppose it will never get on the radar at the multiplexes? Because, mainstream U.S. audiences just won't go to see subtitled films, no matter how good they are.
Too bad for them, and too bad for us. The whole world sees our movies, but we don't see theirs. Perhaps it's time to include "Reading Subtitles" among the virtues taught in our public schools. Ignorance can kill you these days.
First we had "Kolya," which won director Jan Sverak an Academy Award in 1996; now we have Jan Hrebejk's "Divided We Fall" and Sverak's newest film, "Dark Blue World."
Gloriously photographed and set in the nostalgic days of WWII -an era that's all the rage this year- "Dark Blue World" is the story of a small group of Czech fighter pilots who flee to England in the wake of Hitler's invasion of their homeland. Offering their services to the Royal Air Force, they end up, of course, being among the heroes of the Battle of Britain.
There's plenty of action in "Dark Blue World," including many dramatically staged and photographed air battles every bit as good as anything in "Pearl Harbor." There's a touching love triangle that tests the friendship of two of the flyers -who happen to be in love with the same woman. And there's skillfully integrated flash forwards in a Soviet prison camp where the pilots are sent when they return home, not as heroes but as men considered dangerous by their new invaders, the Russians.
Great photography. Touching romances. And tragic irony. "Dark Blue World" is every bit as slick, and twice as convincing, as "Pearl Harbor," but why do you suppose it will never get on the radar at the multiplexes? Because, mainstream U.S. audiences just won't go to see subtitled films, no matter how good they are.
Too bad for them, and too bad for us. The whole world sees our movies, but we don't see theirs. Perhaps it's time to include "Reading Subtitles" among the virtues taught in our public schools. Ignorance can kill you these days.
"The Last Kiss" ("L'Ultimo Bacio") returns us to those glorious days of yesteryear when Sophia Loren was a household word and "Marriage, Italian Style" was the guide for how Americans thought they should behave in their bedrooms. You know those heady days when we imagined everyone Italian was getting laid, and those that weren't were getting screwed? A world where everyone was breaking the rules and Marcello Mastroianni was bedding down with every stray filly on the Via Veneto?
Alas, gone are those sporty TR-3s, the sultry Gina Lollobrigidas and the
steamy Anita Ekbergs wading thigh-deep in the fountains of Rome. Today's generations are decades hence and are the grown up children of those wild and wooly unions built on free love and do-your-own-thing. So how are these thirty-somethings holding up?
Well, "The Last Kiss" has been a box office bonanza in Italy, even though it's a sugar coated retro-look at those old bugaboos of obligation and commitment that their hippie parents thought they'd hidden away in the smoky mists of the 60s and 70s.
Today's version of love, Italian-style is a fast-moving comedy of manners that features young Francesca (Martina Stella) as a dewy eyed
eighteen-year-old blonde who falls in love with the handsome thirty-year-old Carlo (Stefano Accorsi) at a family gathering. Carlo, however, is about to be married to beautiful Giulia (Giovanna Mezzogiorno),who is about to give birth to the child of their live-in union.
To further simmer the sauces, Guilia's mother, at the age of fifty, has decided to leave her husband of thirty years, while at the same time Carlo's three buddies are urging him to chuck it all and go sailing with them to Turkey, Africa, and points beyond.
The folk wisdom offered up at the movie's climax is that if some day you're out running (to keep yourself trim for the man who once betrayed you) and a great big hunk of a guy goes jogging by and makes a pass . . . . go for it because the audience will be with you all the way.
The true moral, however, is that commitment is the price you pay for stability, and you're more likely to have all of those goodies out there -like things and stuff- if you share your resources with a Significant Other. Throw in the sex you may sometimes have, and the kids in those strollers you can take jogging -and why wouldn't you opt for playing it safe?
But what about those buddies, with the rings in their noses, who are probably cycling across Africa by now? Screw them, they will have soon
blown their youth "searching for the home they'll never find" because, as Janis learned, they'll have nothing left to lose.
Gabriele Muccinio's "The Last Kiss" is a rapidly paced bedroom romp where everyone is either getting laid or just getting . . . . you've got it . . . screwed.
Alas, gone are those sporty TR-3s, the sultry Gina Lollobrigidas and the
steamy Anita Ekbergs wading thigh-deep in the fountains of Rome. Today's generations are decades hence and are the grown up children of those wild and wooly unions built on free love and do-your-own-thing. So how are these thirty-somethings holding up?
Well, "The Last Kiss" has been a box office bonanza in Italy, even though it's a sugar coated retro-look at those old bugaboos of obligation and commitment that their hippie parents thought they'd hidden away in the smoky mists of the 60s and 70s.
Today's version of love, Italian-style is a fast-moving comedy of manners that features young Francesca (Martina Stella) as a dewy eyed
eighteen-year-old blonde who falls in love with the handsome thirty-year-old Carlo (Stefano Accorsi) at a family gathering. Carlo, however, is about to be married to beautiful Giulia (Giovanna Mezzogiorno),who is about to give birth to the child of their live-in union.
To further simmer the sauces, Guilia's mother, at the age of fifty, has decided to leave her husband of thirty years, while at the same time Carlo's three buddies are urging him to chuck it all and go sailing with them to Turkey, Africa, and points beyond.
The folk wisdom offered up at the movie's climax is that if some day you're out running (to keep yourself trim for the man who once betrayed you) and a great big hunk of a guy goes jogging by and makes a pass . . . . go for it because the audience will be with you all the way.
The true moral, however, is that commitment is the price you pay for stability, and you're more likely to have all of those goodies out there -like things and stuff- if you share your resources with a Significant Other. Throw in the sex you may sometimes have, and the kids in those strollers you can take jogging -and why wouldn't you opt for playing it safe?
But what about those buddies, with the rings in their noses, who are probably cycling across Africa by now? Screw them, they will have soon
blown their youth "searching for the home they'll never find" because, as Janis learned, they'll have nothing left to lose.
Gabriele Muccinio's "The Last Kiss" is a rapidly paced bedroom romp where everyone is either getting laid or just getting . . . . you've got it . . . screwed.