Nanni Moretti:habemus papam ***half
Nanni Moretti has made another film thats spiritual, light and grand with human existential questionings happening to a Pope - the Pope is just like anybody else he might have had doubts about his capacities and one day, he decided to put a stop and step down to begin another life. Airy and grand. Piccoli plays the Pope with delicate subtle understatement. He has the face of someone who has lived well and not at all suffered, even incognito, we believe that he couldnt have lived a blank life but its time for something else even though he himself doesnt know what it is. It is a courageous film to say: its ok to stop; at whatever level of life you have lived. Encouragement for people to take things lightly and live, and finally enjoy.
Les Bien-aimés ***
This one is a story that spans from the 60s to the year 2007 covering the life story of a mother and daughter played by young actrice and Catherine Deneuve for the mother and Chiara Mastrioanni for the daughter in adult age. This cream puff of a muscial on variations of men women relationships has singing parts to help the sentiments along but the songs are heavy and little by little this cream becomes a thick mayonnaise that stiff with pins and needles embedded - the story gets dark and bitter with much blasé feelings. Like a very complicated spider web, every character has to unravel and work out their fears - courage is, the father says to the daughter - knowing that it might not work and still go right to the end. The daughter suicides after running head strong into an unrequited love with a weak homosexual man. Much nudity, we cannot believe such beautiful people with intelligence, not naive could fall in this unexplained way for shallow coward people. Why and how? But the time line is given the movie seem to be saying that in our days, love is complicated freedom and romance from the old days do not exist in such rosy clouds anymore; all is complicated, impure, disappointment galore due to the weakness of people and maybe social norms as a whole?
Heavy and unconvincing, its balls and balls of small threads sticking all over the place thats tiresome to be rid of. If you are rid of these, what is left? Nothing much.
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