THE DANISH GIRL VENICE 72 WORLD PREMIERE

Watching this film is an incredible experience, it received 10 minutes of standing ovation at the premiere in Venice and I would like to predict that it will become an absolute cult classic and will be showered with oscars. At least Eddie Redmayne's and Alicia Vikander's performance. In terms of oscars and in comparison, Eddie Redmayne is giving Johnny Depp a run for his money (both have already been mentioned in connection to the oscars). Redmayne really ventures into depths of acting where other actors might fear to tread. The film opens with beautiful shots of the reflection of a tree and other images of the childhood of Einar Wegener, a Danish painter who was born in 1882. Wegener got married to the wonderfully vivacious painter Gerda Gottlieb, both of them being painters you just know that something might go wrong, maybe one of them will be more successful than the other? Their relationship is changing slowly when Gerda playfully asks Einar to put on women's clothes in the absence of her actual model and Einar discovers that he enjoys wearing women's clothing and that for the first time in his life he really feels really himself. Eventually Einar Wegener becomes the famous Lili Elbe and stops painting altogether. Redmayne's performance is as beautiful and delicate as Einar Wegener's tree paintings. He allows himself to really become this other person right in front our very eyes without ever being pathetic, alienating or cheesy. Swedish actress Alicia Vikander is the second main character in this picture and just as important, this story is as much hers as it is his. Vikander owns the movie effortlessly, by showing a lot of facets and has a wide range of emotions. The film has a wonderful flowing rhythm and doesn't ever drift off into a boring costume drama mode, but takes its subject very seriously. It's a true story and a bit of research quickly shows that Gerda became very successful with the Lili portraits and later also became the leading illustrator of the art deco movement, but by then the film strongly foccuses on Lili who decides to have an operation to actually become a real woman. The relationship between Gerda and Einar/Lili is very important in the movie, the fact is that they got divorced in 1923, because they were now both women and couldn't be married under Danish law. The film comes across as timeless, the time might be the early 19th century but it has a very modern feel to it. The cinematography by Danny Cohen (The King's Speech) is stunning and makes you feel like you are in a painting for most of the time. Overall this film is a beautiful, delicate gem and it will remain on your mind and in your memory long after you've emerged back from the movies into your own reality. 

BLACK MASS VENICE WORLD PREMIERE, VENICE 72

The title says it all, it's a dark, gritty, slow paced, violent and very dramatic movie which previewed today at the Venice Film Festival.  It's a true story about the unholy alliance between the FBI and Whitey Bulger who is said to be one of the most notorious gangsters in the U.S The year is 1975 and John Connely, who works for the FBI, convinces Bulger, who has been his friend since they were children, to collaborate with the FBI to bring down the Italian mafia. Johnny Depp is tremendously scary and ice cold in this film and executes an amazing, oscar worthy performance. At the press conference at the Palazzo Casino in Venice, Depp claimed that he tried to show him as a human being but I must say that his Whitey Bulger is one scary human being and you don't feel like that you could go for a quick pint with him. Depp's performance is astoundingly different to the gangster in Blow, George Jung who is a much more flamboyant personality, or to Denzel Washington's glamorous Frank Lucas in Ridley Scott's American Gangster. The film is set in Boston and cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi (Silver Lining) sets a sober visual tone with some scenes shot in grey Brutalist architecture which underlines the brutality of the movie greatly. It seems to me that there are many different ways to show the 70's in movies. Takayangi's prefered colour palette is rather dark and pale, he avoids bright colours and strong sunlight. Remarkable about this movie is also that every tiny part in the film has been cast with the best actresses and actors that you can find. The list is long: Benedict Cumberbatch, Dakota Johnsson, Joel Edgerton, Peter Sarsgaard, Juliette Nicholsson, Kevin Bacon and Juno Temple all deliver fantastic performances. The film music by Dutch composer Junkie XL is a very important element in the film and weighs down on it like heavy fog. The film and Depp's performance carries the aura of a thoroughly haunted man who committed a lot of crimes and in the end it leaves you wondering what the point of his existence was. Bulger himself wrote in a letter to some students "My life was wasted" which is very sad, but carries an important message: "Don't waste your life!" One thing is for sure: watching this movie and these amazing performances directed by Scott Cooper is not a waste of your precious time.

The King's Speech

Movies about the British monarchy are a tricky subject. They are usually quick to convince the audience that monarchs are also human beings, no matter what. Of course nobody ever makes a movie about the fact that they spend heaps of tax money on random goods, parties and useless fox hunting equipment. So yes the Kings speech is one of these movies.But it still managed to move me on a very profound level.

Firth plays King George VI, who, to overcome his stutter, is introduced to Lionel Logue, an unorthodox speech therapist played by Geoffrey Rush. The two men become friends as they work together, and after his brother abdicates, the new king relies on Logue to help him make a radio broadcast at the beginning of World War II.

The acting is truly superb, splendid performances from Firth, Rush and Bonham-Carter and Guy Pearce. They all worked hard and yet they deliver their lines with such ease, Geoffrey Rush is something else all together : he's more a magician than an actor, his performance is funny, witty and sometimes very innocent. Rush has the rare ability to change his face from funny to tragic without doing much in a matter of a minute. He managed to add a touch of Shakespearian magic to Pirates of the Caribbean. Without him the story would have lacked a serious undercurrent of deep emotions. The chemistry between Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush is breathtaking. Rush's character is so upfront and unafraid, he's the teacher so take it or leave it, he makes his own rules and stands firmly by them.

Firth is equally amazing, but after his performance in Single Man I wasn't very surprised that he managed to improve his acting even more so. You can truly see and feel how he struggles, mentally and physically to speak without stammering. Bonham-Carter as the Queen Mum is the ever patient, kind and loving wife, who has a lot of character and knows how to deal with the rather unusual teacher of her husband. So with all these amazing performances you can be forgiven for really liking the film.

Firth's King has a temper which is excused by psychological problems, he can understandably get quite frustrated. But these movies about the monarchy can do a lot if damage to historical accuracy, people can quickly forget that monarchies are of a certain dictatorial evilness. The series "The Tudors" is another tricky subject, the evil king is far too hot. Are the British trying to idealize their monarchy with subtle hints that we are all human beings? Even if we can believe such a worrying conspiracy the King's Speech is still amazing and has deserved all it's four oscars. The cinematography by Danny Cohen too is fantastic and contributes greatly to the claustrophobic intimidating feeling of the new technology towards the King. The scene where the microphone reflects cruely his struggling to address the nation is both tense and electrifying at the same time. So all together an amazing film which perhaps kind of refuses to underline and accept the fact that King Edward VIII was a Nazi sympathizer and King George was not.

Black Swan

So this is another movie you could technically be excited about, Portman has already won the Golden Globe for it, but I couldn't help leaving the cinema with a "Meh" on my lips. It leaves you sort of lukewarm. Portman is a very good dancer, all the ballet training has finally paid of, but she failed to move me and really make me feel sorry or anything else for this woman. Vincent Cassel as the dodgy manipulative French choreographer doesn't have enough of a part to come across as a villain and there are a lot of events which happen throughout the movie that are not explained. At some point I thought that the filmmaker had intended to go the Fight Club way and give the film an interesting twist, but it just didn't deliver. I felt like I was in a restaurant and people kept serving different dishes, but none of them had any kind of flavour.

But the camera is remarkable. Matthew Libatique the cinematographer who already worked with Arnofsky on the much more profound "Requiem for a Dream" is using a very reflective and invasive camera technique. You have the feeling you can see what Nina, the main character, sees and really experience her increasingly freakier psychosis which sometimes is also very gory and horrible. I had the feeling they couldn't make their mind up about the genre. Was it a horror film? It felt like it sometimes. But the characters had no chemistry and weren't given enough dialogue to be able to build up any. Sure Portman just lives for the art of dance so she kinda shuts herself off from everyone else, Kunis is ok, but a rather sketchy and unconvincing character and the mother? She totally has different issues of her own which are never disclosed to the audience. There are films where people obsess about one thing, usually art, and it's still very good. Shine, Pollock, All about Eve, Frida, Basquiat, Amadeus are all films about obsession and they are soo amazing. So no it's not the subject that's the problem. When Cassel tells Nina not to be so tense and loosen up you can't help wonder if that wouldn't be good advice for the whole movie. Just live a little, and get plenty of popcorn to hide behind to avoid all the bloody and creepy scenes. Or maybe that's just me.