-You're saying I am guilty because the handwriting is mine.
-Yes.
-But I'm equally guilty if the handwriting isn't mine.
-Exactly.
I died.
Unlike many people who I can't fully accuse, I do separate art from artist; otherwise, I would be a hypocrite. Polanski has never cared about people doing so; rather, he utilizes cinema as a tool of confession and evidence against him, paradoxically. The strongest case is Death and the Maiden (1994), where you can discuss all allegations…
Seigner is at his most spectacular. Forget about your extremely passionate and submissive Mimi in Bitter Moon (1992); Polanski now opts for meta-art in his publicly recognized stage-adaptation talent, where the theater represents fiction in film and the "real-life" discussions, attrezzo, costumes and lighting fixes represent the audiences' criticism. Even the opening and the closing shots mimic the audience act of entering and leaving the theater.
It's much more subtle than Iñárritu's 2014 middle finger through a worth-watching Keaton, however.…
The premise is campy enough to sell: Depp stars in the leading role as a book detective unraveling satanic secrets behind the three last surviving copies of a book allegedly written by Lucifer himself. This is just Polanski having fun: good opening, camp cult climax and an acceptable evolution. The pace is consistently engrossing to put it succinctly; Depp is just so fun and I did perceive a strong aura of dark humor permeating the whole premise throughout.
It might…
According to the Argentinian/Chilean human rights activist and writer of the original play Ariel Dorfman, Death and the Maiden embodied "the stark, painful Chilean transition to democracy". Seventeen years later after Polanski's charges of sexual crimes and abuse against a 14-year-old minor, he presents this statement concerning not only rape and torture victims, but a theoretical glimpse of the governmental institutions as gasoline for putting this intense psycho-thriller on fire, with Sigourney Waver sparking aggressiveness that thirsts for revenge as…
Polish auteur tries British Hitchcock in French territory with the best Italian composer featuring an American doctor fighting Arab bastards. It's a really straightforward mystery thriller that relies more on the construction of the suspense than on the final outcomes. First episode is more interesting because it puts a relatable situation in front of us; it doesn't try to be a statement on language/cultural barriers. During the second episode, however, everybody that is key to the plot finally speaks English…
This highly entertaining and witty French-Tunisian adventure cult extravaganza is massively misunderstood. It might not appeal to the liking of some when you see the film plagued by royalty and pirate brutes and idiots with no side to root for, but that's the battle of the old seas for y'all. The auteur's take on adventurous comedy, whether if satirical or bizarre, has little, if almost zero support and we saw it shine twice: in 1967 and in 1972, both great…
"Why am I on the wrong side of this door?"
Very beautiful.
That is it. Sometimes the most simple and overused words will do the trick, and that description suits this film just fine.
A swaying drama with stunning subtlety and visual delights. Kinski blossoms as a white rose with thorns within a context of patriarchies, tradition, chauvinism and social strata discrimination, where the name of a family entails a heavy social weight. Tess has no real guidance beyond that…
Auteur cinema. This is Polanski's transition to tragic narrative, and probably represents his peak in visual and storytelling balance, patient in pacing and tense in suspense. The environment is of a fantastic craft and Francesca Annis shines before making a long TV career. I still prefer Welles' superior rendition; however, adapting Shakespeare successfully has always been a remarkably difficult feat in my books and this is certainly a triumph, with two inevitable genuine horror scenes to add to the macabre-ness of it all and consecrating the director as one of the strongest exhibitors of psychological terror.
92/100
aka 92 Fragments of a Chronology of Tragedy
It was not by planning, but by means, time and opportunity that my Greenaway marathon concluded with this film, a travel in time almost 40 years before Eisenstein in Guanajuato, and it resulted in the most optimal appreciation, not of the film, but of the auteur's mind, making almost all intellectual and artistic links that my humble trajectory could possible fathom.
The Falls is one of the peaks in cinema regarding the…
First thing first, I can't stand Kevin Peters. His constant smiles throughout, even during menacing situations, put me way off and his acting seems like he was just having fun without having the notion of a serious project in mind. He's not acting; he's just uttering lines and destroying my enjoyment.
Apart from that, for this being an 8-year-old project, the cinematography, editing and score are pristine for an amateur project. Editing in particular caught my attention because it made…