My Favorite Movies

Così Alexander Pope nel 1717, in Eloisa ad Abelardo, e così anche Michel Gondry, nel 2004, nel suo secondo film da regista, intitolato appunto Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind.
Il regista francese intraprende con questo film il suo viaggio nella mente umana, viaggio proseguito poi nel 2006 con L'arte del sogno (La science des reves).
Il fulcro è una storia d'amore, ma il film è ben lungi dall'essere puramente sentimentale. Clementine e Joel hanno una relazione intensa ma complicata: Clem, fragile e impulsiva, sente di dover porre fine alla relazione e si rivolge a una clinica per cancellare dalla sua mente il ricordo di Joel. Tra la rabbia e la disperazione, Joel sente di dover superare lui stesso il ricordo della donna, e si rivolge alla stessa clinica. Ma tra il dovere e i il volere davvero, si vedrà, la distanza è incolmabile. Tutto il film è incentrato sulla procedura di cancellazione dei ricordi di Clem dalla mente di Joel, e qui ragione e sentimento si fondono, si alleano nel tentativo disperato di agganciarsi a quei ricordi, di non farli scivolare via. Joel supera le liti, gli scontri, le difficoltà, e dietro queste riesce a vedere l'essenza della relazione con Clem, l'amore profondo che lo lega a lei, e fugge dal tremendo meccanismo rifugiandosi negli angoli più remoti della propria mente, nei ricordi più lontani e sbiaditi, portando con sé l'immagine di Clem.
Il cast è eccellente, impeccabile e perfettamente calzante ai personaggi: Carrey, con la sua interpretazione, riesce in un attimo a scrollarsi di dosso l'etichetta di attore comico, e ad acquisire ?piena dignità drammatica?. La Winslet riesce a far dimenticare la propria presenza in altri film, e probabilmente il suo nome, nella mente dello spettatore, sarà collegato proprio a Clementine, piuttosto che alla Rose di Titanic.
Gondry, con la sua storia grottesca e irreale, porta alle estreme conseguenze i sentimenti umani, ?creando? un film completamente nuovo e originale, pienamente coinvolgente e commovente, che aleggia nella mente dello spettatore per molte ore, e che rimane sicuramente nel cuore.

I've changed my rating from 4 to 5 stars after having seen it for the third time. The more I see it, the more I love it. I think it's the best film about holocaust (yes, better than La vita è bella, for example), because it's just original and a new way of making people think about those horrors. Because it's not always necessary to scare, terrify, stab hardly. It is possible to impress and move with a sweet story, with a laugh, with a more relaxed glance.
And yet: stunning photography and landscapes, witty dialogues, superbe music by Goran Bregovich (culture is worldwide).

Five minutes of pure Burton. This is one of his first works, and yet there's all of Tim in it... dark, horror, childhood, fantasy, madness, a dog, a cat, a skeleton which is an early form of Jack Skellington (4'45''). Loved it.

Very intense film, with strong influences of neorealism and great performances by Loren and Mastroianni.

Christopher McCandless, a newly graduate, makes a choice of life: living into the wild, far away from the ?crazy breed?, the society. This is the movie, a synopsis would be useless: events, encounters with other characters are not events and encounters, they are stages of a journey, the protagonist's journey into himself, into his feelings and happiness.
Christopher choice is extreme, so far and different from our common lives, from our way of thinking... so the film is intimate, private, the formation of a soul. But it is also the expression of that soul, through Christopher's words and thought: in being intimate, the film manages to be a strong, resolute howl to the civilised world, it manages to reaches the watcher and move him, to make him feel that story like a story of all human beings.
Behind (or, better, side by side) the story and the character, there's the cinematography art. It's the first film by Sean Penn that I see. A great story can result in an average film if lacking in direction. Into the wild is a masterpiece of modern art: ok, I'm not an expert of cinema, nor a critic, but there wasn't any scene, frame, shot I would change or cancel. Different styles of presenting images express different times in the narration, different places, reflecting the protagonist's attitude: remembering his family and childhood, disorientation in the big city, serenity and peace ?into the wild?.
And then to the soundtrack... stunning, moving, hearthbraking. That makes the film close to perfection. I just keep listening and re-listening to it, and I really can't comment it. It makes me cry.
I think that a film is first of all a form of art, and like all others forms of art is meant to express something and to strike the watcher. And this includes the importance of feelings. This movie made me dream and cry, fear and tremble... and that's the reason I'm in love with it.

Film directed by Martin Scorsese, but based on the novel by Edith Wharton, 1920. So, forget the "typical" Scorsese, the one of action films. This one is a portrait. A portrait of the newyorker golden society at the end of the 19th century, a telling of a love story. But the plot is fading: what prevails above all is the psycological investigation of the three main characters who can be indicated, with a limited interpretarion, husband, wife and lover.
Everything is studied: every single detail, from the dresses to the furniture, from the flowers to the dishes: in these details are reflected the personalities of the carachters, definined in particular by colours.
Dialogs are perfect, tense, well balanced. Brilliant direction, that enriches every framing and every movement of the camera.
Moving performances by the three main actors: Daniel Day-Lewis (Newland Archer), Winona Ryder (May Welland) e Michelle Pfeiffer (Ellen Olenska).
I've nothing else to add, it's very difficult to describe a movie like this, all I can do is strongly advice it to everyone...