It's very sad when you're watching this kinda movie, but what's even more sad is a fact that this movei shows how really is in real life. I am very emotional person and this movie got the best of my emotions I couldn't believe what was I seing... Kseniya has done a real god job... Sad but True...
Giuseppe Tornatore is one of those names that every true Film lover should recognize and bow to, when heard. An unusual filmmaker that always cared more about making good films rather than lots. The Unknown is only his 8th film, six years after Malčna and nineteen after his masterpiece, Cinema Paradiso. After directing Monica Bellucci in 2000, Tornatore dedicated himself completely to the big project on the Leningrad siege left behind by Sergio Leone after his death. The Unknown marks a break from the overwhelming research work for the still-active project and it is surprisingly stunning.
While Malčna had on Lajos Koltai's heavenly Cinematography, on Morricone's Score and Monica Bellucci's physical and acting qualities its strongest points and Cinema Paradiso had... well, nothing but qualities, The Unknown is also nearly flawless. In fact, I think I'll risk it and say that it is flawless. Cinema Paradiso is and will always be Tornatore's masterpiece, but the fact is that the man made another one.
Set in a north-eastern contemporary Italian city, The Unknown follows the trials and tribulations of Irena (russian actress Ksenia Rappoport, in a fantastic performance), a young, 'unknown' Ukrainian woman looking for a job. We immediately understand that she's trying to run away from a troubled past, as a slaved prostitute in southern Italy. She settles in an old and pricey flat, and soon starts working as a cleaning woman in a rich and distinct building situated in front of hers.
The distant people around Irena start to embrace and accept her, and while we watch her cleaning a big, dirty spiral staircase, she gets more and more in touch with a nanny (Piera Degli Esposti) who is working for a family of rich goldsmiths, the Adacher (Claudia Gerini and Pierfrancesco Favino), taking care of their young daughter (the adorable Clara Dossena), who has a rare neurological disease that deprives her of any defensive reaction. We soon realize that her slowly building closeness with the family isn't just a coincidence...
The film is structured around a duality. The timeline which separates the present life of Irena from the old one is physically correlated to the division between the two houses: her house, and the house she works in. All the dramatic development of the plot, and the violent reemergence of Irena's troubled past, lies in the interchange and interrelation between these two dimensions.
Throughout the film constant flashbacks of her past appear randomy. It's like we're seeing two different stories: one in the past and one in the present. Irena may very well be one of the most complex characters I've ever seen. One minute she seems 'normal' enough and the next her actions are completely vicious to say the least (like throwing the nanny down the stairs so she can have her job). Still, we can't help to feel nothing but empathy for her.
Labeled by many as an Italian noir, the film is a complex and bizarre fusion of genres. A distinct noirish out-of-the-past scheme is obvious, but The Unknown is less noir than thriller, only, with an added melodramatic touch. The hitchcockain feel to it is undeniable and Tornatore does what any filmmaker on this planet should aspire: he brings back the essence of Cinema's golden age - the 40's/50's - mixing the typically italian full blown melodrama of directors like Raffaello Matarazzo and Vittorio De Sica with the less usual exploitation and perversions in the form of thriller of Pasolini and Dario Argento. Still, his touch is recognizable in every single shot. The ending, for instance, is of a brilliance and beauty that I find hard to describe by mere words.
What makes The Unknown such a clever and utterly gripping thriller is the fact that we never know where the film is going. Irena's intentions are never clear to us. We know something is going on, we slowly try to figure it out, but the plot's complexity and density is such that we're not 'allowed' to know more than we're supposed to before it's time. Again, Sir Alfred Hitchcock's legacy at its best.
The Unknown is as a joy to listen as it is to watch. Mr. Ennio Morricone's Score is fabulous. One of the best he ever composed. Goes from a sweet, sad and mellow melody to a delirious, mad and powerful sound of shrieking violins that will immediately remind you of the shower scene from Psycho. I wonder if 2008 will be the year in which the Academy will finally open their eyes and give the man a bloody Oscar...
It's a wonderful movie, drama that follows a girl who was sexualy abused by her Pimp and after she tries to kill him, and escapes, her past hunts her. I didn't excpect such a good movie but it turned out fantastic!
It's amazing how 2006 turned out to be one of the greatest years for foreign cinema and the proof for that; my top three of that year is formed of three European movies and The Unknown is without any doubt one of them. Guiseppe Tornatore always waits for some years to release a new movie and he has always proved that it is worth waiting. But never was I so impressed by his movies as much as I was now. This is his best masterpiece to date. It's rare to find movies like that and here's why the movie was so great. The movie didn't appear much in any festivals coz it's still not released in the US but I'm sure it will be one of the strongest contenders this year at the Academy Awards.
The Unknown talks about a Ukrainian woman who is searching for a job with this certain family and is willing to do everything and I mean everything to get it. And she does, and with time she gets closer to the family and very close in a very special way to the young daughter but then people from her past starts to show up in her life and dark memories of a violent life starts to affect the course of her new life. Along with directing, Guiseppe has written this wonderful screenplay and he has done an outstanding job. Usually all his movies deal with dreams of the future and growing out of age. Here it?s a whole turn coz the movie deals with past memories and flashbacks. He shows different sides of the human spirit when it has passed with a lot of awful experiences. No character in the movie was just put there to fill a blank. Everyone had a turn and each one of them made a huge change in the movie.
What's so great here is that it might take you back to the old golden days of the film noir style where nothing is certain. From the beginning we see lots of changes in the lead character's life. You don't know what's coming next or what she might do and that's what keeps you so thrilled to watch the movie. She is one of the most unpredictable characters ever written. Her path through the movie is always filled with new twists and turns. And the way they were affecting her was very peculiar. This is not just your typical dark story. It's way much more, it digs deep into psychological theories bringing the most real and affecting emotions. As I already said there is no place for you to feel bored coz there is always something new presented to the story if it was on the present or the past level. I watched the whole movie and looked to find a flaw in it but I couldn't find not even a single flaw in it. It is one of the few movies I call perfect. You just don't pass by such psychologically moving stories like this one everyday. It represents some of the deeply hidden categories of our modern societies and makes people hear their cries. The lead character does a lot of horrible stuff but you can't help but sympathize with her and her cause. And the growing relations we see through the movie were just wonderful. And arriving to the ending the movie gets a full treat with a flawless perfect one of a kind ending which raises the movie to a better level.
Now of course the movie wouldn't have been the same without Guiseppe Tornatore's outstanding directorial job here. I have always thought that his best was Cinema Paradiso but this movie has changed my mind. For me, his work here was a pure salute to the master himself Alfred Hitchcock. First the story is very similar to the style Hitchcock held during his days and the directorial style was just very well done like the master used to do. We can clearly see that Tornatore has done his studying very well. Unlike his previous movies, visually the movie is darker and much more obscure. One of the much great stuff he has done here is that he transformed this psychological drama into a thriller. You just sit there on the edge of your seat with your heart pumping fastly needing wanting to get to the next scene to know what will happen next. The thrill he delivers flows smoothly under your skin taking you into the world of the movie making you a part of it. But of course no Tornatore movie is complete without a wonderful score by the genius Ennio Morricone who has done again with a wonderful score different from his previous works. And it too has taken me back to the wonderful Hitchcockian classics and I think this is why I loved this movie a lot.
Kseniya Rappoport playing the lead character here gives a career defining performance from the heart. I don't know anything about her previous movies but this movie alone is enough to make me a fun coz her work was simply phenomenal and worth a worldwide acknolodgment.
MCT:April 28, 2008
MCT:January 29, 2008
MCT:December 10, 2007
MCT:November 30, 2007
