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Mia aioniotita kai mia mera (1998)
Much more than a masterpiece
Theo Angelopoulus is much more than a genius. His latest film: " An Eternity And One Day " is much more than a masterpiece. Angelopoulus is like a magician, everything can become poetry with his mystical touch. Although the film is full of great performances, especially the little kid, and the story is relatively simple though extremely moving, the merit of this movie is its compelling script, and the most elegant and clever camera motion I have ever seen. Everything seems to be in harmony, even the slightest details which are sometimes the most compelling. Memorable speaches, memorable music, memorable performances, memorable silences....Sometimes Angelopoulus doesn't even have to say a word...silence can say everything. I consider Angelopoulus as the real master of todays cinema, the cinema of poetry. The best film of the decade.
I would like to point out that the real measure of quality in todays cinema is the Palme D'Or....." Sex, lies and videotape, Pulp Fiction, An Eternity and One Day, Taste of Cherry ". Much more than masterpieces.
American Beauty (1999)
¿ What a wonderful Life ?
American Beauty is a poignant and compelling portrait of the american, and non american, middle class family. The story begins in a rather dramatic way, presenting hypocritical, depressive and contradictory characters that end up being caricatures of themselves. This is partly due to the stereotypical dimension that Sam Mendes, writer and director, confers to its characters.
Professional, personal and sexual frustration mix up in this immediate modern classic, a remarkable effort of a promising young director, and the consolidation of Kevin Spacey as a "pantheon" actor, proving that Usual Suspects and L.A Confidential were no fluke.
Taxi Driver (1976)
Don't forget Schrader
I might be told I exaggerate too much, but I would rank this film as one of the 5 best films in history. And not because of Scorsese though he is one of the best. Not either because of DeNiro, also one of the best. It's because of an extremely underrated writer and director: Paul Schrader. The film is basically about loneliness. Travis Bickle is completely isolated from society. He lives in his own world: taxies, porn movies and taxies again. The relationships with Betsy and Iris are what really moves Travis. With Betsy he wants to integrate in this society, feel part of it, although he already has the idea of " cleaning up the whole mess.....and flush it down the f**kin' toilet ". With Iris, this idea is more of a reality. He wants to save the prostitute from hell. In this way, we could see the influence of greek mithology ( orpheus and Eurydice ) in Taxi Driver, although it has many other clear influences such as The nausea, Sartres existencialist novel or The Searchers, John Ford's western. Anyhow, Taxi Driver is a marvellous film thanks to a magnificent trio( not duo ): Martin Scorsese, Bobby DeNiro, and Paul Schrader.