Reviews

"Il Posto" is an extremely simple film; by that I do not refer to its intelligence, which is on par with anything written by Sartre or Hobbes, but its way of representing its characters and the environment surrounding them; they are not shown with an emotional and artistic grace, as in a film by Visconti, but rather in a plain (but not dull) and un-grandiloquent way. They are shown not as heroes, or rebels, but rather as ordinary people, with ordinary problems inside of ordinary lives. But even through this simplicity, Ermanno Olmi finds beauty.

It is about a shy and timid young man from a small village trying to get a corporate job in Milan; he meets and falls in love with a beautiful girl who works there; he tries to court her. It is also an extremely (and extremely subtly) political film; we see the day-to-day lives of the middle-aged employees, and their interactions with others. We see the poor, the rich, and those in-between, there interactions and their place in their world, and how they stay that way. It is, as well as an intimate character piece, a film of society, and its flaws.

It's a film of sublime beauty, though not on the surface. Its a film that leaves the viewer with a sense of every emotion possible: humor, sadness, tragedy, innocence, etc. Its a social and emotional documentary-as-fiction. Its a film I wouldn't hesitate to call perfect.

RESERVOIR DOGS: even the name reeks of gritty, serious, pulp storytelling. After all, that's what RD is all about-the story of 6 criminals who have just pulled off a diamond heist that turned into a disaster. They become convinced that one of their own number is a police informant or even, worse, an undercover cop. The whole film is very suspenseful and is very reminiscent of the classic noir films of the 40's and 50's, such as "D.O.A." and even the physcological "Gaslight", but Tarantino says that his biggest influence was Stanley Kubricks masterpiece "The Killing". The film is amazingly well written and directed, with superb acting from everyone in the cast, especially Harvey Kietel, Machael Madsen, and Steve Buscemi. All three of them manged to get in some of Tarntino's later projects, most notably "Pulp Fiction". RD even managed to spawn a whole generation of rip-offs. All in all, it is a very entertaining neo-noir film that is from an indie film legend. Great.