Reviews

Persona is a Swedish Drama and Thriller directed by Ingmar Bergman. It is a black and white movie from 1966 and is about a nurse, who is put in charge of a mute actress. That summary seems to be a little short, but you probably will enjoy the movie way more, when you don't know anything about it. If someone would ask me about my favourite movie, I'd probably reply with Persona. I wouldn't consider many movies flawless, but I just can't find anything bad about the movie. Although I probably didn't even get all of it, but that doesn't even matter, because Persona has so many great ideas concerning film-making. The idea of filming the ending monologue first with one shot, in which the viewer only sees the person who is talking and then repeating the exact same monologue but this time letting the viewer only see the person who is listening, is amazing. The cinematography fits the tone of the movie perfectly, the lighting and the framing are often used in a very creative way to elaborate the story. The Story works very well, although it doesn't need much characters and runtime to tell its story. Liv Ullman and Bibi Andersson both were a very good casting choice and give incredible perfomances. The opening credits alone are the best ones I've ever seen and I was immediately amazed.

Taxi Driver is a Neo-Noir crime drama, directed by Martin Scorsese. It is starring Robert de Niro and Jodie Foster and is about a mentally unstable taxi driver who feels a need for violent action and wants to help a young woman to escape from her bad situation. It takes place in late 70s New York when the city wasn't the nice clean city as we know it today but it was a city full of criminals and unemployment. Taxi Driver is a really interesting character study and although it's slow paced it doesn't feel boring. Although the first two acts are slow paced, the final act is very thrilling and brutal. The ending makes you keep guessing. The Soundtrack composed by Bernard Herrmann captures that feeling of 70s New York very well. It has very beautiful cinematography which is very dark and rainy the whole time which sets a great mood for the film. The best thing about this movie is by far Robert de Niro's performance. He does a very good job at portraying this mentally unstable veteran, who can't fit in the society anymore. Taxi Driver has very long dialogues that are well-written.

A Brighter Summer Day was directed by Edward Yang. It is a taiwanese Movie from the year 1991. It takes place in the 60s Tapei and is about the conflict between two violent youth gangs and the relationship between the Protagonist, who is in one of the gangs himself, and a girl, who gets in a conflict with the head of the other gang. A Brighter Summer Day has to be one of my favourite Movies of all time, because it's such a well made Movie where not a single scene is unnecessary and you never get bored although the movie is almost 4 hours long. The actors are incredible, especially Chen Chang and Lisa Yang, who play the two main roles. The cinematography fits the film perfectly and gives you a very intimate feeling. Many of the scenes were filmed with frames within frames, which is giving the viewer the feeling of watching the events from another room and distancing the viewer from the characters. The Story is based on a real incident the director himself remembers from his school days, when he was 13 years old. Edward Yang made very great films like Yi Yi and Taipei Story, which capture the same intimacy very well, but none of those does it as well as A Brighter Summer Day. The ending was very unexpected and left me speechless, it was the best way to end such a movie. In my opinion, Edward Yang is one of the best when it comes to choosing a soundtrack, which fits the movie, and the soundtrack to A Brighter Summer Day was chosen perfectly and fits the mood of the film very good, the use of Elvis Presley's are you lonesome tonight was perfect. Edward Yang cuts all the songs and there is never a song that finishes in the movie, this enhances the feeling of loss and disturbs the viewer. I felt like I was waking up from a dream after finishing the movie. After I watched the trailer, which was the best Trailer I've ever seen, I was immediately hooked and I wasn't disappointed at all