Reviews & Ratings

[freakyfreaky]

Re: Movie Reviews

I really enjoyed La Vie en Rose. Ms. Cotillard probably deserves two oscars for her performance. Mr. Clooney and other 'Hollywood' personalities could probably learn a thing or two about acting from this columnist's take about Ms. Cotillard. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment...,4772942.story

Her performance of transformation, although different, reminds me of Bobby D's in "Raging Bull". Things happened in that move, dialogue I mean, where no words were said by Bobby but his eyes and hands spoke volumes. There are other similar roles of transformation that may be used as examples and won their respective roleplayer an Oscar.

But Mr. Clooney's performance in Syriana was just a 'bloated' Clooney pretending to be someone else, not actually becoming them.

[Armenian]

Re: Movie Reviews

Thank you for this post, enker Yeznik.

Ostrov






I truly enjoyed this movie due to an authentic interpretation of orthodoxy. Most movies that try to depict orthodoxy or Christianity in general tend to make Christianity as either something contemptible or too supernatural. This movie is extremely rich with orthodoxy from the hymns and prayers to the characters to the beautiful and eloquent storyline. This story contains the persona of the Holy Desert Fathers, The Philokalia, Theophan the Recluse, Ignatius Brianchaninov, and the central character who is a Startsy or in Russian – стáрец - , the story is also very rich in its reflections of Russian Orthodoxy.

Here is an explanation of the personality of main character:

A starets (стáрец) is an elder of a Russian Orthodox monastery who functions as venerated adviser and teacher. Startsy are charismatic spiritual leaders whose wisdom stems from intuition rather than experience. It is believed that through ascetic struggle and prayer (Hesychasm), and the leading of a virtuous life, the Holy Spirit bestows special gifts onto the starets including the ability to heal, prophesy, and most importantly, give effective spiritual guidance and direction. Startsy are looked upon as being an inspiration to believers and an example of saintly virtue, steadfast faith, and spiritual peace.
Startsy are not appointed by any authority; they are simply recognized by the faithful as being people "of the Spirit". A starets, when not in prayer or in voluntary seclusion, receives visitors (some who travel very far) and spends time conversing with them, offering a blessing (if the starets is an ordained cleric) and confession, and praying. People often petition the starets for intercessionary prayers, believing that the prayer of a starets is particularly effective.
Personal confessions to startsy are encouraged, although not all of them are formally ordained to priesthood. Many of them have a reputation amidst believers of being able to know the secrets of a person's heart without having ever previously met the visitor, and having the ability to discern God's plan for a person's life. This, as all of the startsy's gifts, is believed to come from the Holy Spirit acting through the starets.
The institution may be traced to the beginnings of Christian monasticism in the 4th century. The original Greek term geron (meaning "elder", as in gerontology) was rendered by the Russian word "starets", derived from the Slavic adjective for "old". Sergius of Radonezh and Nil Sorsky were two most venerated startsy of Old Muscovy. The revival of staretsdom is associated with the name of Paisius Velichkovsky (1722-94), who produced the Russian translation of the Philokalia. The most famous starets of the early 19th century was Seraphim of Sarov (1759-1833), who went on to become one of the most revered Orthodox saints.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starets

Now that being said I would consider this movie a masterpiece in its rendition of Russian Orthodoxy. Basically, the movie is designed to be spiritually driven and for people who are not familiar with orthodoxy and the writings I stated above, they would miss the deep meaning and rendition of the movie. The only drawback is for the non-Russian speaking audience since the movie is only subtitled in English.

[TomServo]

Re: Movie Reviews

I really enjoyed La Vie en Rose. Ms. Cotillard probably deserves two oscars for her performance.

Cotillard was great. The film itself wasn't.

As for "transformations," did you see Philip Seymour Hoffman's in Capote? Great performance.

I watched Fracture last night. A pretty standard thriller; nothing special.

[Siamanto]

Re: Movie Reviews

I plan on seeing it, but want to see The Return first. It's pn my Netflix queue.

It is on my queue...I'll probably watch it in a month or so???

[Siamanto]

Re: Movie Reviews

One can find a great number of Tarkovsky clips on youtube. I happen to have a few in my favorites.

http://www.youtube.com/profile_favor...ser=goliadkine

Can you appreciate Tarkovsky with low quality video?

[TomServo]

Re: Movie Reviews

The Lives of Others was very good. R.I.P. Ulrich Mühe.

[Siamanto]

Re: Movie Reviews

The Lives of Others was very good. R.I.P. Ulrich Mühe.

It's been on my queue for the last year or so...I hope that I'll get to watch it soon!

[MrHyeSev]

Re: Movie Reviews



Its a 1991 movie, but it was my first time seeing it.
Not a bad movie at all. Its not the original one ,its a remake. The original one was made in 1962.

[MrHyeSev]

Re: Movie Reviews


One of the Best Movies

[One-Way]

Re: Movie Reviews

I believe the last film I saw was Fritz Lang's M. Great film, I must say.