Pieter050's reviews

It must be the mix of German and American actors that makes this film lovely. The acting is so natural (the children too) that it is a joy to watch.

The dialogues run smoothly and naturally -obviously it still is a Christmas film, so when the two leads are introduced to us, we know exactly how it's going to end.

But with all the extremely polished Christmas films around, where the production design seems to be the main character and every snowflake is personally checked and put in its place, this film is a breath of fresh air.

It's nice to hear a foreign language spoken too. The misunderstandings and miscommunications between Heidi and her German friends are very funny.

Let's start off with those we never see on screen yet their work we see all the time. A nomination for Best Period Makeup (Hollywood Makeup Artist and Hair Stylist Guild Awards) went to Bill Corso, Douglas Noe and Judy Mathai. Yet David Tattersall (cinematography), Karyn Wagner (Costume Design) and all those others who worked with passion on this movie deserved an Academy Award Nomination. This movie looks immaculate! Beautiful lighting and very tasteful set design. So: bravo to the tech crew!

Unfortunately director Frank Darabont is not as good in directing as he is in adapting screenplays. He makes beautiful shots -and that's about it. The movie never touches me -and it should as the story has the potential of a good drama.

And what is it with the music? Composer Mark Isham thought perhaps he was writing an opera? There's a score under every scene! Most annoying indeed. The second an emotional scene starts, the violins start to play -as Darabont is afraid we don't understand what it's all about, so 'we' need music to make us feel what he should be doing in the first place: directing . In all other scenes, the trumpets and full orchestra make overtime. Horrible.

Right. Let's go to the cast: Lauri Holden is a great actress and her talent (and patience) saved her in this movie. Very subtle and aware of the emotions of the scenes she portraits her role very well indeed. As always it's a joy to watch Martin Landau perform. He's aging very gracefully indeed and that same spirit is in his performance.

I think Jim Carrey can't act. Period. A matter of taste, I know. I find it's all an outside-performance, he never ever shows any depth of character at all. Yet the movie looked so beautiful, I kept watching.

Who's taking the challenge and will make a remake of this one?

Pieter.

Series one just aired in the Netherlands (june 2006) and to start of with a great plus: no canned laughter on this show -and I am very pleased about that! Well played and presented humor (I do find that the writing has similarities with Gilmore Girls) brought with a great pace.

John Stamos seems to enjoy playing Jake Phillips very much indeed. He's looking very good at 42 but I find his character a bit too much into women -and as he's not twenty anymore it's a bit over the top. The scenes have common, day-to-day subjects and are therefore believable.

Ian Gomez (Adrian) and Rick Hoffman (Patrick) play their characters very well indeed but the series would not be lost without them. Stamos is a strong enough actor on his own to make this sitcom work. Wendie Malick (Naomi) is nice as always and feeds Stamos' character. So after five episodes: a seven.

Pieter

Schikaneder's en Mozart's fairytale about love, trust and religion is layered with humor, death, adventure, and unconditionally loving. The opera has been popular right from the start in 1791. It's more a play with songs -like My Fair Lady (or, to stay in opera-lingo: Die Entführung aus dem Serail). The libretto is good although Schikaneder's dialogs are not that time-resistant; they do sound a bit over-explanation-like (if that's a word). They deserve a good dramatizer to bring those dialogs into this century.

August Everding made the scenery and did a good job -a bit too good. Sometimes less is more, and here is a case where that's true. The massive set pieces look wonderful but take over much of the energy of the cast and Everding should have realized that. Wolfgang Sawallisch conducts and does a OK job. Nothing too spectacular -I think he was in a hurry to get the last train home; I found the tempi a bit fast.

The cast. Well. Start with the good one's: Lucia Popp is (although already 43) a very good Pamina: she's very much in character and sings beautiful but "Ach, ich füll's" (Pamina's heart-breaking aria), was conducted so fast that I missed the sadness and despair. But she can act (could, Popp died much too young...). Wolfgang Brendel is OK as Papageno, his energy fills the huge stage and that's always nice to see. He's on the edge of over-acting but it's very difficult where the concentration lies for singers: with the life-audience or the film-camera's; those two disciplines have their own techniques -it's hard to combine them, of course. But his presence is lovely on stage.

And that's about it. Gudrun Sieber's Papagena is charming but her role's to small to make a lasting impression. Kurt Moll's Sarastro: good, deep Basso but no acting skills at all. And I don't think he's friendly -In my opinion Sarastro should be a friendly guy! Francisco Araiza (Tamino) think he's in a Donizetti-production: everything is fortissimo. In the finale of act I, he suddenly surprises me by almost whispering his recitative and I am touched by this. So he can do it! So why start so late?

I was disappointed by Edita Gruberova's Königin der Nacht (Queen of the Night) -she did not get those high notes. Believe me: she did not. Her high Q was a mere whisper and her acting is nothing spectacular either. Sorry Edita. Must have been strange for Popp as she used to be famous for singing that role. And of course the QOTN is an overrated role as she only sings two little numbers and plays one scene; that's it.

In general it's a nice thing to watch -but I was annoyed with the mishaps as I wanted to be invited into a fantasy world. And I should have as the music brought tears to my eyes in several scenes.

Mozart could write music!

Pieter

Václav Kaslik directed this popular co-production of Da Ponte and Mozart. The question of the faithfulness of women and the mistrust of men, are the key in the libretto. I do not know of course how the opening night in 1790 was performed but this recording of the Salzburger Festspiele in 1969 is of a better amateur production. There is a basic rule for performing a comedy: take it absolutely serious! The wonderful humor and weakness of the characters are in the libretto and score; no need to overdo it in acting or funny faces.

Karl Böhm directs and has -much to my surprise- good and fast tempi most of the time; which is a nice change from his slow and Wagnerian style of conducting -although Böhm made a few cuts in the music (i.e. Finale act I) and I don't understand those decisions. If Mozart would have wanted things cut out of his score, he would have done it himself! And he didn't, so leave it like it is please.

The singing with orchestra is done by play-back and the singers have a lot of trouble with that (the recitativa are done life) but I do keep in mind it was 1969 and in classical music the lip-sinc was not that common yet. Especially Gundula Janowitz (Dorabella) just opens and closes her mouth at random. Christa Ludwig tries to make something out of her Fiordiligi but is only partially successful as her acting skills lack interpretation. Alva and Prey are not convincing as Ferrando and Guglielmo; they behave more like bored students with nothing else to do than to manipulate women. I was pleasantly surprised by Walter Berry's Alfonso as his faces muscles where not making so much overtime as usual. Olivera Miljakovic is quite nice as Despina but that is of course a grateful part. Her pitch as Notary was not an octave lower as in the score but higher! Again I question Böhms decision in this. Why o why?

The staging was compensation for lack of understanding what the opera is about. Kaslik had no idea what to do, so he gave the poor singers so much work to do that decent acting and singing was impossible. The 'plot' is not that women turn to other man the moment their fiancés are gone but about betrayal, mistrust, insecurity and human weaknesses. For all parties involved, not just the women.

Pieter

Start of with the good bit: several times Swayze talks Zulu to his friends or that language is heard among the tribes. That's a great plus, as normally USA & UK movie audiences think all people on this planet speak English (just in case you're one of them: no they don't).

But the acting is 'tenenkrommend' as we say in The Netherlands (it makes your toes curl -and not in a good way). I like Swayze but in this he's awful. The muscles in his jaws make overtime and he's frowning the whole movie -some one must have told him it looks butch. No Patrick: it looks silly and is compensation for lack of character. Alison Doody (Elizabeth) has opted for a style of acting that does not meet the style of her co-workers. Her acting is só relaxed that this movie could have been set in the current days. And it's not. Your frock was a clue, Alison.

The best acting came from the people from the African Continent and Sided Onyulo as Umbopa I liked best. Clear, warm and in character, his performance is a joy to watch.

General: it is mildly entertaining on a rainy day. Pity. Could have been better.

Beautiful 'film noir'. I was pleasantly surprised. Decent and inspired acting and a moving Carbonell at the end -driving back to the airport- with a wonderful (as always) Michael Lerned.

With eye to detail: the plastic bag where the table cloth was wrapped in, is just visible in two more scenes before it gets a place in Nestor's luggage (I like those details very much, it's shows respect by the director). The pace is just great: very slowly and thus giving me time to enjoy the weird and strange atmosphere. A very un-American movie; perhaps that's why it's more popular in Europe? Hope Carbonell finds more inspiration (and money!) to make more of these beauties.

If we do not like the American/English accents, the French should have made this movie. But they didn't. And if they would have -like they should have as it is their history- who would have seen it, apart from European audiences? But it is annoying that no choice was made of what 'accent' to perform it in. A clear decision was never made and that spoiled the movie for me (though the entrance of Christopher Walken was enough for me to hang on -and I loved the way he reacted to the guard before he was led into le Bastille).

Historically: Mozart's Requiem was heard in one of the scenes -but that was not composed till 1791. And at that time the Affaire of the Necklace was over and the Royals were in deep merde...