I think it's incredibly hard to write any kind of full-scale review to Giorgino, merely because it's one of those viewer-dependent, complex, poetical and philosophical films that are impossible to be watched enjoying their visuals and their story while cracking their artistic core at the same time, yet there are several things which are quite certain and beyond any doubt about the movie for any man of art (which, I hope, I am).
The first: it's a certain masterpiece, even of that kind of art that is able to stand the test of time; the second: it's one of those rare "dark" movies in which the darkness is poetic, even romantic, attractive and much more sad than depressing, just like many of the Pieter Brueghel the Elder or Caspar David Friedrich's paintings. As to the core of the movie, its artistic aspect, someone called it Kafkian though I don't agree with that hasty attitude because actually it's far beyond Kafka's misanthropic logic and much more like Edgar Poe's parables: dark and scary but through that touching the most gentle strings of our souls. Actually, on the poetic side (which is much more important here than the narrative), Giorgino is a tale about eternal peace and love which can be achieved solely through saving oneself's inner child or, to be more precise, the childhood of one's soul. It is no secret, that such childish people are usually branded as crazy or at least misfits by our society, ignoring the obvious fact that they all have a virtue all the other grown-ups have lost: the virtue of true love, the kind of love that is called a God's love by Christian scholars.
Indeed, Giorgino may be called a very Christian movie, with "Be like children" (Mt 18:3) as it's real hidden tag-line, though the film never deals with any kind of moral and concentrates solely on the Christian philosophical aspects. Though I think Boutonnat was too harsh portraying "grown-ups" as some sort of demons, incarnated as wolves, trying to kill childhood in the rare survived hearts, but it's his point of view and he has a right to think so. While watching Giorgino don't try to look for hidden symbols and meanings (though there are some), better try to understand and learn from at least some of the fables Boutonnat had hidden in the twists of the movie plot.
I have to admit that the movie greatly impressed me with excellent photography, especially I was happy to see the rational use of color filters, incredibly smooth and apposite editing, wonderful acting of all the actors and, of course, the atmospheric beauty of winter mountains which reminded me of the Brueghel's "Hunters in the Snow". Also, interestingly enough, one scene, where Death itself shown in the form an old woman with sunken black-ringed eyes, instantly reminded me of Pesta (Plague) by Theodor Kittelsen, the Norwegian painter who made a series of drawings to the story of how the black plague swept out the population of a small town in a mountain valley. Is it a simple coincidence?
The first: it's a certain masterpiece, even of that kind of art that is able to stand the test of time; the second: it's one of those rare "dark" movies in which the darkness is poetic, even romantic, attractive and much more sad than depressing, just like many of the Pieter Brueghel the Elder or Caspar David Friedrich's paintings. As to the core of the movie, its artistic aspect, someone called it Kafkian though I don't agree with that hasty attitude because actually it's far beyond Kafka's misanthropic logic and much more like Edgar Poe's parables: dark and scary but through that touching the most gentle strings of our souls. Actually, on the poetic side (which is much more important here than the narrative), Giorgino is a tale about eternal peace and love which can be achieved solely through saving oneself's inner child or, to be more precise, the childhood of one's soul. It is no secret, that such childish people are usually branded as crazy or at least misfits by our society, ignoring the obvious fact that they all have a virtue all the other grown-ups have lost: the virtue of true love, the kind of love that is called a God's love by Christian scholars.
Indeed, Giorgino may be called a very Christian movie, with "Be like children" (Mt 18:3) as it's real hidden tag-line, though the film never deals with any kind of moral and concentrates solely on the Christian philosophical aspects. Though I think Boutonnat was too harsh portraying "grown-ups" as some sort of demons, incarnated as wolves, trying to kill childhood in the rare survived hearts, but it's his point of view and he has a right to think so. While watching Giorgino don't try to look for hidden symbols and meanings (though there are some), better try to understand and learn from at least some of the fables Boutonnat had hidden in the twists of the movie plot.
I have to admit that the movie greatly impressed me with excellent photography, especially I was happy to see the rational use of color filters, incredibly smooth and apposite editing, wonderful acting of all the actors and, of course, the atmospheric beauty of winter mountains which reminded me of the Brueghel's "Hunters in the Snow". Also, interestingly enough, one scene, where Death itself shown in the form an old woman with sunken black-ringed eyes, instantly reminded me of Pesta (Plague) by Theodor Kittelsen, the Norwegian painter who made a series of drawings to the story of how the black plague swept out the population of a small town in a mountain valley. Is it a simple coincidence?