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Hyppääjä (2001)
Diving to emerge
So damn' poetic and with so fine aesthetics, symmetric shots and with millions of whites, blacks and greys. Envolving and with a real character that though all its life diving, here emerges and capture us instantaneously.
There are movies that are fine examples of art, aesthetic and content all together. This is one of them.
P.V. Lehtinen, finish writer and director, shows us a movie filmed like a bird: clean, saline, pure, wide, inspiring.
It has only 21 minutes, but one would say, at the end, have seen a 4hours epic...
Os Imortais (2003)
uniting an intriguing script with a vast cast, Vasconcelos offers a darkly movie filled of memories and tragedies ready to be solved
With a big, big cast, full of famous portuguese actors, Vasconcelos goes back to the crime and shows us a country in the mid 80's, ready to begin looking forward but still too much attached to its memories of war in Africa. 5 bad men from the army return to Portugal, but they're not yet ready to fit he social scheme, and so start to get involved with drug dealing, arms, and a lot of bruises to women. One inspector, at the end of his career, will be the only one to get close to the truth... but will he get there in time? A movie that brilliantly uses a past of TV images to tell parts of the story and a movie that reflects the cinema in Portugal, placing the past each time more in the past.
Belarmino (1964)
one piece of fine art documentary and film making
Director Fernando Lopes couldn't have start better the serious leap to cinema; mixing his experience in movie critic, documentaries and shorts, jumping from TV to cinema, Lopes signs his first big movie for the magic big room, and grabs with him a great hidden subject in portuguese sport - Boxe - revealing a simple man that became a hero, but that only wanted to escape hungry and help his family - BELARMINO.
A major contribution for the astounding art quality of the film is the omnipresence of Augusto Cabrita, probably the best portuguese cameraman/photographer of the 50's, 60's and 70's. With Cabrita's sensibility and technique, combined with Lopes' imagination and accuracy, we get fabulous frames, that most certainly have influenced many other directors.
watch closely the opening credits, as well as the fantastic sequence at the jazzclub (you can even see the major expert Villas Boas descending the stairs!) and the fabulous ending shots with Belarmino washing his face at Lisbon downtown, dived in humidity and smooth rain.
In documentary terms, we not always feel that the story is being told quite impartially, but that helps to sign the fact that controversy will always be there. Who was responsible for Belarmino's short profits? Why didn't he become a major star? It's all gone, now...
For all, this is not a simple short movie, but a major exhibition of how great cinema can be, even with a very low budget.
;)RIC
A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon (1988)
Sad that most people doesn't understand most of it...
I miss movies like these. strong and poetic writing with intense narration by Phoenix. the story is at the same time simple but influent and memorable to our common lives of all days.
the scene when Phoenix rides the car through the alleys and talking about cigars is hardly forgotten.
we all, not even for once, have lived like this, we all have been a teen like this, we all have had our small and big frustrations like these, and we all have had surprises... ...and there's always a new day to come.
;)RIC
Jeepers Creepers (2001)
Since Carpenter's Halloween that i wasn't so involved and at the same time entertained with a movie.
Here is the proof that a good plot, a nice pair of actors and an excelent score can make a film work. Carpenter's legacy is continued. The girl is the hero and with a fine tune in humour we get a bad vilan, but also a cool vilan.
"Jeepers" is by far much better thans 'slashes' "Scream" and "I Still Know...", because it reaches the main purpose of them all, the 4 great "S":
to scare, surprise, seduce and to smile.
and we get out of the theatre with that: a big great smile of satisfaction!
;)RIC
Jerry Maguire (1996)
brilliantly happy and passionately inspiring
When I first saw this movie I just said `it was a great movie, but too pinkie'; then I saw it again, and I got out of the theatre thinking to myself `I'm in love'; now, every time I see it, I just thank heaven for not being a girl, or I would throw myself to the floor the moment Jerry enters the living room and would probably cry for at least 2 hours! LOL
Funny, touching, really human, through this film Crowe illuminates us with his vision about the world and the human being and relationships, no matter how hard life may look like. He could well be a good defendant of Frank Lloyd Wright's motto:
`Beauty is just the brilliance of Men's light'
Jerry Maguire is, above all, a great Cameron Crowe film, filled with happiness, energy, passion and talent, that touches all the romantic people in the world, as well as all others, I believe.
When we see Tom Cruise looking at Zellwegger and saying: `That's more than a dress. That's an Audrey Hepburn movie', we just gotta feel immensely in love.
Another really important aspect, that is starting to brand Cameron Crowe, is launching great actresses; in `Almost Famous' we finally see Kate Hudson, who only had minor parts to date, suddenly going to the Oscars and almost wining one; and here, in `Jerry Maguire', Renée Zellwegger has a great performance and jumps for the stars!
If this `Jerry Maguire' has something wrong, then it is definitely timing; if it had been done 20 years ago, in the 80's, or maybe even much earlier, about 40 years sooner, then today many would be calling it a classic. I believe in 20 or 30 years many of us will be saying, remembering it:
-Oh, Jerry Maguire!
a great film! Really a classic of love, hope and happy ending. Gotta see that, grandson!
;)RIC
Moulin Rouge! (2001)
this story is about all that matters!
Baz's "Moulin Rouge!" is the final movie-theatrical-piece-of-art, and you know what?, it's also the best. From australian+gipsy "Strictly Ballroom", delirious "Romeu+Juliet" to this fantas-delirious "Moulin Rouge!", we have nothing to complain about.
Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman definitely sing not only the songs, but their bodies and feelings as well in such a delicate and at the same time passionate way that we can only love the whole piece!
The art direction is just......... super!
music is... well, just listen to it! When you think that in the same hour you can have Nirvana and Elton John together, you just gotta hate it or kiss the guy who got the courage to go through with the idea!
"Moulin Rouge!" is simple, as simple is this: you love it, hate it, or just didn't get the bohemian values, so it means nothing for you.
My modest opinion: It's a great film, one of the top 3 of 2001, and it's sad that this is the end of Baz's "Red Curtain" movies. His work with Craig Pearce with the stories and dialogues has been great, and let's just hope for the best that they can give us in the future.
For the present, enjoy the past of Paris, with a love story so tragic as delicate, a love story at the Moulin Rouge.
And congratulations for the eternal and probably the best sentence of the last 3 years at movies:
"the greatest thing you'll ever learn, is just to love, and be loved in return"
;) RIC
High Fidelity (2000)
one of the best end of the 90's movie!
High-Fidelity is not widely spoken around the world, as is the book, or as is now the movie taken from Bridget Jones's Diary. But one thing is for sure, High-Fidelity has faithful fans around the world!
As a movie, High-Fidelity has everything: drama, comedy, romance and lots of good music! Ok, maybe a murder or too could make it perfect...
Anyway, it's probably one of the best 2 movies we had here in Portugal in 2000 (the other being Magnolia - note that here movies premiére much later than in USA) and with good interpretations, nice plot, beautiful monologues and a very well done adaptation from the book.
WELL DONE! ;)
RIC
Bridget Jones's Diary (2001)
i liked
if i would be a moviecritic, i would start a critic like this, one day:
i know that a romantic movie is good if i come out melancholic.
when i came out of Bridget Jones' diary, i was a bit sentimental. so, i liked it. i mean, the movie ain't perfect, but is fresh air in this movie year, full of some big frustrations. Zellweger is just perfect, our woman, even a little bit... fuller. :) Anyway, Colin Firth is great on screen, and about H.Grant... well, he does the only thing he knows: one of the two variations of a prince: puppy or playboy. Here he makes the playboy version.
I recommend you all to see the movie, to enjoy the time you'll spend and to take a girl. :)
I feel some more special effects with writing on screen of the diary could make the film richer, but, ok, ok, that's fine!
RIC
Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
brilliant, intense, dramatic and passionate... sexy too!
With this DRACULA, F.F.Coppola gave us not just a movie, but a real film masterpiece. Full of a theatrical `mise en scene', the story is told like a fairy tales, a dark one, but we get carried away but its intense subjects: passion, revenge, fury, anger, fear, love, and (why not say it) sexual impulses. The proof that no hi-tech special effects are needed in fact, here, the proof that sometimes rotten and traditional are preferable- with a quality work here done by another Coppola. Also, Monica Bellucci's appearance in a bed is good for the young viewers. J
In resume, a brilliant and intense film, with great characters and some excellent interpretations (Urrah! Gary Oldman!)/(Bah!, Keanu Reeves). A top ten, definitely! (listen to the orchestral pieces very attentively).