GMeleJr
Joined Mar 2000
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GMeleJr's rating
I must first say that this movie does not deserve a 1.7 rating, based on 6 votes to date. I suspect all six votes came from the same person, or two or three who saw this little-seen film together.
INDIANA JONES, it is not. However, why would you expect it to be? A brief plot summary would surely have screened out these 5 or 6 voters. In this documentary-crazed era, we are seeing more and more long interviews edited into a feature documentary, than ever before. So few people these days tune into a program or go to the movies, without first knowing they are going to see a documentary, and what topic the doc focuses on.
If many people, the targeted audience I assume, can sit through 2 hours of "I WAS HITLER'S SECRETARY (with not one shot of anyone but the 90 year old chain-smoking Trudl), this film's target audience will certainly be satisfied after sitting through this film. The subject matter is very specific: the tales of survival of a beautician, who has lived in Brazil mostly, since the end of WWII. We also see she never achieved wealth & fame in Brazil, as this beautician is bossed around in her Salon, given orders to (in a parallel of what she also had to bearing the camps) and treated just like any anonymous citizen, which she also is.
For anyone interested in the stories of Holocaust survivors, this is quite an interesting film. We unfortunately almost always hear the depositions of Holocaust survivors who live in the USA or Israel, which have become so common place, that few are that unique.
Furthermore, survivors who have lived the unprecedented prosperity the US enjoyed after the war until recently, certainly have very skewed views of reality. Most of the survivors I've seen and heard never left the US again, or are expressly interviewed in their first trip "abroad" during organized, collective trips back to Eastern Europe, with other survivors - prompting a lot of sameness in their stories.
So, to hear the story of this survivor in her good, but still-heavily accented Portuguese, is a rare opportunity. But, beware, it is definitely only for those interested in the subject matter. It has been playing in Brazilian TV these last 18 months or so, I think those very unfair 1, 2 or 3 votes came from "Joe Blow" TV viewers, who just saw this by accident. Then, the next time they visited this site, they vented their anger at this film's lack of "traditional" (Hollywood) elements by voting it down.
Make up your own mind about this documentary if you like the subject matter. Don't go by what 6 people have voted down, at a click of a mouse, but haven't commented on why it's so bad. I think votes below 4 should require a comment in order to be counted as valid.
INDIANA JONES, it is not. However, why would you expect it to be? A brief plot summary would surely have screened out these 5 or 6 voters. In this documentary-crazed era, we are seeing more and more long interviews edited into a feature documentary, than ever before. So few people these days tune into a program or go to the movies, without first knowing they are going to see a documentary, and what topic the doc focuses on.
If many people, the targeted audience I assume, can sit through 2 hours of "I WAS HITLER'S SECRETARY (with not one shot of anyone but the 90 year old chain-smoking Trudl), this film's target audience will certainly be satisfied after sitting through this film. The subject matter is very specific: the tales of survival of a beautician, who has lived in Brazil mostly, since the end of WWII. We also see she never achieved wealth & fame in Brazil, as this beautician is bossed around in her Salon, given orders to (in a parallel of what she also had to bearing the camps) and treated just like any anonymous citizen, which she also is.
For anyone interested in the stories of Holocaust survivors, this is quite an interesting film. We unfortunately almost always hear the depositions of Holocaust survivors who live in the USA or Israel, which have become so common place, that few are that unique.
Furthermore, survivors who have lived the unprecedented prosperity the US enjoyed after the war until recently, certainly have very skewed views of reality. Most of the survivors I've seen and heard never left the US again, or are expressly interviewed in their first trip "abroad" during organized, collective trips back to Eastern Europe, with other survivors - prompting a lot of sameness in their stories.
So, to hear the story of this survivor in her good, but still-heavily accented Portuguese, is a rare opportunity. But, beware, it is definitely only for those interested in the subject matter. It has been playing in Brazilian TV these last 18 months or so, I think those very unfair 1, 2 or 3 votes came from "Joe Blow" TV viewers, who just saw this by accident. Then, the next time they visited this site, they vented their anger at this film's lack of "traditional" (Hollywood) elements by voting it down.
Make up your own mind about this documentary if you like the subject matter. Don't go by what 6 people have voted down, at a click of a mouse, but haven't commented on why it's so bad. I think votes below 4 should require a comment in order to be counted as valid.
This "mockumentary" mixes facts and fantasy, vintage footage, and fake footage, a mix of the the vintage and the new, in showing the successes and failures, the injustices and contradictions in Stalinist Russia, using its space program as the basis.
The film begins in the spring of 1938, in the mountains of northern Chile, where a flying object fell, in flames, later referred to as the Chilean Sphere". This episode is composed of clearly recently reconstructed scenes. So, an investigation of the episode by a filming team, comes upon an important discovery. This is a secret space program developed in the Soviet Union before World War II. Scientists and military authorities, the film would have you believe, had developed a spaceship 23 years before Yuri Gagarin ever went to space.
The amusing elements of fiction and true statements of the Stalin era the interesting features of this film, which lack continuity, not always easy to follow. I think it was intended for the intellectuals of the former Soviet Republics, particularly Russia, Kazakhstan, and the Ucraine. Its appeal, even in the festival circuit, is very limited.
Lacking cohesion, and depending on the non-stop loud Russian-language commentary to follow the film, it is not comprehensible to the non-Russian speaker, or a non-ex Soviet citizen in one screening. And who'd want to sit through another screening. Though the idea sounds good, it will really be quite boring to most everyone.
The film begins in the spring of 1938, in the mountains of northern Chile, where a flying object fell, in flames, later referred to as the Chilean Sphere". This episode is composed of clearly recently reconstructed scenes. So, an investigation of the episode by a filming team, comes upon an important discovery. This is a secret space program developed in the Soviet Union before World War II. Scientists and military authorities, the film would have you believe, had developed a spaceship 23 years before Yuri Gagarin ever went to space.
The amusing elements of fiction and true statements of the Stalin era the interesting features of this film, which lack continuity, not always easy to follow. I think it was intended for the intellectuals of the former Soviet Republics, particularly Russia, Kazakhstan, and the Ucraine. Its appeal, even in the festival circuit, is very limited.
Lacking cohesion, and depending on the non-stop loud Russian-language commentary to follow the film, it is not comprehensible to the non-Russian speaker, or a non-ex Soviet citizen in one screening. And who'd want to sit through another screening. Though the idea sounds good, it will really be quite boring to most everyone.
This little seen Argentine drama is worth a screening. It just premiered in the major Brazilian Film Festivals, four years after the picture's release date, and that's in Argentina's closest neighboring country and largest trade partner. It was, however screened in competition at the 2005 Shanghai International Film Festival. So, maybe the film will get a new life, and more exposure. The low number of IMDb votes in 4 years and its recent festival premiere in Brazil indicate that it has indeed not been seen much. That's a shame, since it has great appeal to tango lovers, even if it is not for everyone.
"Garúa" is the name of a famous Argentinian tango. It is also Spanish for that foggy light rain, the kind that evaporates before hitting the ground. So, that metaphor will shed a lot of light on the film's theme. The plot begins with Franco killing a tango singer, & the weight of guilt begins to haunt him obsessively.
He finds himself compelled to find out more about his victim in order apparently to alleviate his guilt. This takes him into the fascinating world of tango in bohemian Buenos Aires, with true artists around. Franco becomes involved in the tango scene and starts filling gaps left by the dead man, including involvement in the deceased's personal life. The scene is set.... A very recommendable tango drama.
"Garúa" is the name of a famous Argentinian tango. It is also Spanish for that foggy light rain, the kind that evaporates before hitting the ground. So, that metaphor will shed a lot of light on the film's theme. The plot begins with Franco killing a tango singer, & the weight of guilt begins to haunt him obsessively.
He finds himself compelled to find out more about his victim in order apparently to alleviate his guilt. This takes him into the fascinating world of tango in bohemian Buenos Aires, with true artists around. Franco becomes involved in the tango scene and starts filling gaps left by the dead man, including involvement in the deceased's personal life. The scene is set.... A very recommendable tango drama.