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janosj-1
Reviews
Le bonheur (1965)
'Le Bonheur' is a movie that started changing my view of life
'Happiness' is the best translation of the title for this brilliant, sad but complete movie. I saw it when I was happily married and worked for a huge publishing company. Later in life I saw the other films made by Agnes Varda. They all were very deep and made me emotional. The scene of the suicide in 'Le Bonheur' is filmed as a kind of hidden action of a woman who did not understand that her husband had so much love to give. I still don't understand WHAT made this movie so unbelievably brilliant. Maybe I should buy a DVD if available. Love is the only gift that made me change in my whole behavour. If I had to choose between the best movie and the choice was limited to 'Citizen Kane' and 'Le Bonheur', the second one I mention would win. The beauty of the filming itself was great and rich in all aspects. Well, dear reader, I'm going to look for a DVD of 'Le Bonheur.
Monpti (1957)
This well-made movie made me a lot wiser...
When I was seventeen years young - or old if you like - a lot of things were complete secrets in our home. Twelve children and a serious but very Catholic father was married with a clever and soft mother. The two of them had to take care of seven sisters and five brothers. My father was allowed to read the fist translation of the Bible in a Roman Catholic translation. That was new in the Roman Catholic world.
The four books were well translated, nicely edited and professionally published by the Petrus Canisius Foundation. One evening I went to a cinema and saw the amazing movie 'Monpti' (French for Mon Petit that in fact should be 'Mapetite' for a girl like Romy Schneider.
The author of the original book was Gabor von Vaszary who wrote it in German although he was a born Hungarian. The soft and one of the best German film-directors, Helmuth Kaütner, made a fine film with no nonsense but a lot of simple and - only economically - cheap. I have wondered if it is possible to make a new version with the same respect for youngsters who take life serious but make it a joy because real love has that power... joy in life.
The best friend of my father was a Member of the Dutch Parliament. He understood my hidden attack on the extremely severe rules of the Church. And strangely enough: he defended my thesis on the strict rules of the Institution. We had a good chat that opened to me the door to life as it is and not as it should be organized by a world strange religious Institution. About a year ago I read von Vaszary's book and was flabbergasted about the language of Kaütner's movie en von Vaszary's text.
Gladiator (2000)
Ridley Scott and his team gave me a brilliant lesson in history.
Yesterday evening I learned more about a specific part of the history of the Roman Empire than I ever did on University. 'The devil disappeared from the details' and some angel must have entered. Marcus Aurelius was the only Roman Emperor who is also known as a great philosopher. His murdering by Commodus was a really cruel scene.
The role of Russell Crowe was played exceptionally well and the details in the whole movie were so exact that I still could blame some of my University-professors of not knowing what they were talking about.
History presented this way would become a new approach for youngsters who prefer all kind of subjects...minus history. Giving more than 10/excellent is not possible but Ridley Scott is in my opinion the best man to re-introduce 'History as a subject' on both High Schools and Universities. I'm afraid that some professors will have to choose for early retirement if that miracle would happen...
Song for a Raggy Boy (2003)
The cruelty of strong dualism
Yesterday we saw this brilliant movie on a Spanish TV channel with the original sound-track and subtitles as a possibility we used as Irish is a quite difficult form of English. The Spanish Civil War did not only cause an almost 40 year dictatorship of Franco but also an agreement with the Vatican. The results of this type of agreement ('Concordat') could be seen in this film. A human being like the Prefecto Brother John would - in normal circumstances - be judged as a straightforward criminal. The soft way in which Liam Mercier tried to learn a bit from his teacher what 'love' means belongs to the best parts of this film.
The strong and dangerous hierarchy of the Roman Catholic church - based on the Hitlerian 'Befehl ist Befehl' - has seldom been shown so clearly as in this masterpiece movie. The best teacher fought in the Spanish Civil War and did not hesitate to call the cruel murdering of Liam Mercier as a crime and nothing else. When he decided to leave this 'Reformatorio', his own pupils stopped him from doing it in a way he had taught them to love good poetry. Het only got real help from the director of the school, an honest man who had to live under horrible circumstances and had already stopped the layman-teacher once. 'We need you here' were his words.
I passed with my Spanish/Catalan wife an eye-opening evening and have learned more than in any film about the danger of Catholic dualism.
The movie deserves a 10 and I hope many people are going to see the movie. Then they will also notice the cleverly hidden discrimination that lives in the Roman Catholic way of what is called faith.
Flight 93 (2006)
An amazing, frightening and intensely well-made movie
We live in the part of Spain - Catalonia - where the 'Diada' is celebrated as the National Day to celebrate the Independence of this Autonomic Region of post-Franco Spain. On that same day - the 11th of September in 2001 - the horrible crimes were committed in the United States of America. My wife - a non-fanatic Catalan woman - and I, a Dutchman living for many years in Spain/Catalonia already - decided to watch this film on the regional TV-Station in the original language with the possibility of subtitles.
We have had an unforgettable evening, sad, involved and angry with these criminals who were cleverly and inevitably brainwashed by some ridiculous desert phantasies. We both realized that this well-made movie confronted us with the most horrible blasphemy ever shown on our TV-screen. We got so involved that I needed to see something stupid after this session, just to calm myself down. Clint Eastwood appeared and for the first time in my life I saw a 'Dirty Harry' movie. My wife went to bed as she was shocked and a good sleep always helps her.
After this film I understand much more about what the U.S.A. Government does to protect its citizens against this kind of human beasts. All praying was so well 'acted' that a cruel act after that silence seemed normal. The film director and all members of his crew have made a piece of work that should become compulsory in Secondary Education everywhere in the world.