federicaboldrini1984

Bobby is a choral film, which tells the story of the tragic night in which US senator and presidential candidate for the elections of 1968 Robert F. Kennedy was shot to death in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, showing the few hours before and right after the assassination in the lives of a little crowd of characters, all, for a reason or another, staying at the hotel that night. The cast is all-stars: people like sir Anthony Hopkins (also executive producer), Demi Moore, William H Macy, Laurence Fishbourne et al. accepted to work at minimum wage just to be part of the project. Most of the scenes have been shot in the real hotel Ambassador, opened to the cast and crew the last week before being demolished, in 2005. Bobby is a political film - after all Estevez and his father, Martin Sheen, who also appears in the film, are outspoken liberals. In the few scenes about Vietnam is easy to see a reference to Iraq, but above all, the film speaks of a different America, who might have been, but never was, due to Kennedy's premature death. The film was presented at the Venice Film Festival in 2006, and had been acclaimed by the critics. Still, it has a lot of flaws. First of all, senator Kennedy is portraited too much as a saint. There are also a few embarrassingly rhetorical moments, like the scene between Laurence Fishbourne and Freddy Rodriguez. Most of all, the film has a way too many characters (about 22), all on the same level and with the same importance, so, naturally enough, in the end they are all underdeveloped. Bobby has also its redeeming features: good acting, especially from the surprising Sharon Stone, an intelligent use of archive footage, which reminded me a bit of Clooney's Goodnight and good luck, and a rather nice soundtrack. My rating is 6.5/10

Irma la Douce was one of the biggest commercial successes in Wilder's long career, being one of the top-grossing films of 1963. Now, for some reason, it's nearly forgotten, at least in the USA, and that's a shame, 'cause "Irma" is a delightful film. Yes, it's overlong (nearly 150 mins). It's true, it lacks some of the best features of Wilder's masterpieces - the sharp social criticism of The Apartment, the genius laugh-out-loud script of Some like it hot, the dark atmosphere of Wilder's noirs. Still, it's a classic. The plot itself it's absolutely far-fetched and yes, kind of silly, but the script is on the usual Wilder/ Diamond standard, which means great. It deals with matters which at the time were pretty risquè in a light, innocent way. The cast is spot perfect. Lemmon plays a role which fits him perfectly, the sweet, clueless a bit neurotic "flic" Nestor Patou. Shirley MacLaine is at her best. She looks better than ever and she's wonderfully ironic -and more, her chemistry with Lemmon is amazing. It's funny to think she was just Wilder's third choice, the first two being Marilyn and Liz Taylor. Another one who wasn't the director's first choice is Lou Jacobi as Moustache. His role was meant for Charles Laughton, who sadly at the time was dying from cancer, so Jacobi got the role - and did great! his performance is highly enjoyable and he utters some of the funniest lines in the film. Other high points are the incredible set - a 48-buildings bit of Paris built in the Goldwyn Studios - and the score by Andrè Previn, which won Oscar. I have just one regret: that Wilder didn't attempt to film Irma as it was originally conceived, which means as a musical. It would be extremely interesting to see how the great director would have coped with a genre which was so unusual for him. Wilder, Lemmon and MacLaine were a wonderful team and Irma is a classic. Sure, it has its shortcomings and it's not a milestone in film-making like "the Apartment"... but that, as Moustache himself would have said, is another story. Don't miss Irma, you will love it. 8/10 in my book.