My Favorite Movies

The best film ever? well maybe not. But definitely the one that touches me the most. A great feature about how the giant machinery of war crushes heartlessly the little men trapped beneath it.
The most important thing in this film is how it depicts courage without heroism. The characters are not some kind of supermen. They are fallible and above all fear is constantly present as it seems humidity and cold. Even the sun looks wet, cold and fearful in this film.
In this film characters start being combatants out of free will and for noble cause, but they only go on fighting because that is the only way for them to survive. In a way, their fight is much closer from the gangsters v. police struggle than from the image of war cinema usually presents.
All the characters speak low as if they were afraid that death may hear them and pay attention to them. Moreover, the storyline is not constructed as any other. Instead of having a well structured narration leading gradually to a climax, here each scene is a new episode and the characters are somewhat astonished and happy to be still alive at that moment. They enjoy each moment simply because they are still breathing.
I also loved the modesty and the seamlessness of the camera work. There is no music and next to no artistry as it should when men and women are looking at their own death.

Certainly one of the best movies ever made. The actors are brilliant, specially the one playing Munch who has as well an amazing physical resemblance with the original.
This is also the only film of fiction that convincingly portraits the creativity required to paint, miles away from Vincent drinks and suddenly he sees the sunflowers blue. The director is an artist himself and uses all the possibilities given by the TV camera. The light and in general the ambiance is unique (cold and inspiring).
Despite the fact that Watkins latter said he did not like this bit of his work, the editing is wonderful. It is fast and it tells its own story. It allows Watkins to deal with the childhood memories but in the mean time to escape the Freudian interpretations.
There would be many other aspects of the film to praise (costumes, how it deals with Munch's influences, ?) but let me just say one last thing: watch it and you'll never thanks Watkins enough to have made the pleasure last 3 hours.

The perfect movie!

The black and white is gorgeous. The direction of actors, the construction of the scenes and the camera work are more than original, they are truly unique.

Unfortunately I saw it some time ago and I can't remember it as well as I would like to. For some reason it is impossible to find it in DVD. If any of you has any leverage on any production company, please have them print this movie, the world will be thankful.