brugo77

i watched this movie as i found many Rossellini's works crucial for the history of Italian cinema, the likes of Paisa' or Roma Citta' Aperta, Germany year zero, those are well-known masterpieces.. So i took a look at Vanina Vanini, even knowing that the later Rossellini showed a radical change from the earlier works, generally in a deteriorating way.. This movie confirmed this.. I couldn't watch this film for more than 1 hour... it is perhaps the most uninteresting movie i've ever saw, and i've seen quite a few... I mean, it is ridiculously amazing how the story is uninformative, we have no specific time references, apart from some indirect dialogues in the movie, very very basic, should have been articulated a bit more... The cast is not bad in itself, it's just totally out of context... paolo stoppa is absolutely unlikely in his part, the young carbonaro doesn't leave any sign of the passionate role he'is supposed to play, Sandra Milo does what she can but her looks are probably more memorable than the acting.. Overall, as some of these actors/actresses performed quite well in other movies, i have to deduce that Rossellini wasn't really capable to effectively direct them properly. Apart from this, the story has huge flaws, it's very static, stale and boring, dialogues are sheer banalities, passion is lacking and Stoppa's way of interpreting the part doesn't have absolutely anything to do with it. Only good thing was the soundtrack, which i found of very good quality, unfortunately without any support from the acting side. I'm sure anybody can find a better way to spend his/her time instead of watching this movie.

I saw the uncut version of Salo' and i consider it a total masterpiece. It was the first movie of what the director intended to be a "trilogy of death" (following his precedent "trilogy of life" films) which tragically wasn't meant to be terminated, due to the brutal assassination of Pasolini shortly after the movie was completed. What i'll never be able to understand is: 1) the indignation of a lot of viewers, 2) the fact that this film is generally classified as "erotic" or almost "pornographic". I can address both aspects by saying that i don't understand how people cannot fail to see that this was not the intention of the director at all. He was a great thinker of the last century, he was able to see the crisis of a consumer society and the scariest aspect of a regime that calls itself democracy but that in fact limits the lives of individuals much more than a dictatorship does. Most viewers don't like the movie because they don't want to try to understand what the meaning pasolini wanted to transmit. He depicts what the power can reduce individuals to, he uses nudity not to shock but as a food for thought: one sees the brutal sexual acts in this movie and funnily he/she is not either aroused nor disgusted by them, 'cause it sees through what they symbolises. Pasolini wanted to make people reflect: we all have a dark side and people have to watch the movie without moral prejudices. The fact that your country has never lived an historical experience like Salo', which was hell on earth, doesn't keep you safe from that dark side. For a couple of hours put aside your morality and prejudices, watch Salo' and you'll be so glad you did. Probably Pasolini's best. I do regret he didn't have the time to continue his work and make other masterpieces like this.

it would be about time that so-called "artistic" goals stopped being achieved by using animal turture. This movie uses this little "nice" trick and every time i see that in movies i think: is it REALLY needed it? does it REALLY add value to the movie? but especially, i think: what is wrong with Bela Tarr and all those directors who speculate on the lives of animals for a movie's sake? And btw im not a PETA guy... What is wrong with all you people giving 10 stars to this marathon of stale cinema? It's true that the movie has something appreciable and quite rare to find compared to what can be found by the average movies nowadays, but I also think after reading most of the comments. it's been WAY WAY WAY OVERVALUED..FAR FROM A MASTERPIECE... Let's face it.. all that length was not necessary... 5 in my opinion.