I'm baffled that so much criticism is attached to this film by folks that would have shown this "moment" another way - their way. As though their view of life is more accurate than this directors and he somehow made a mistake. Hey - life is full of possibilities - pick one and somewhere, sometime through someone's eyes I'm certain it happened just that way.
I had my own issues with the film. I grew up as an attractive Italian female. I made many enemies of family and friends, not so much because of my natural physical gifts, but because of how I flaunted them with total disregard of other's feelings, demanding everyone's attention to them by wearing accentuating clothes, etc everywhere I went. I didn't care or was more correctly oblivious to the fact that I made other's uncomfortable by forcing them to deal with strong emotions that are difficult to control i.e. lust and jealousy every time they confronted me. It took me a while to learn that there is a time and place for everything. If you choose to play with dynamite, you are not totally blameless when the sh*t hits the fan.
So, my issue with the film was that the town was presented as wrong and Melena portrayed as the innocent victim. Or was that even the case? Maybe that's just my take because that's where I come from. I guess what I'm saying is - I'm giving this film a 10. Not because I agreed with everything that I "thought" was implied, or that I felt the characters were exactly the way that I would like to see them portrayed if the story was mine, but rather because this very talented director with his extra-ordinary abilities created a moment on film the way he saw it in a extra-ordinary way. This film was outstanding visually, the story fresh and moving, and the acting sincere by all. The two leading characters deserving the highest praise for extremely touching performances. I LOVED IT!
I had my own issues with the film. I grew up as an attractive Italian female. I made many enemies of family and friends, not so much because of my natural physical gifts, but because of how I flaunted them with total disregard of other's feelings, demanding everyone's attention to them by wearing accentuating clothes, etc everywhere I went. I didn't care or was more correctly oblivious to the fact that I made other's uncomfortable by forcing them to deal with strong emotions that are difficult to control i.e. lust and jealousy every time they confronted me. It took me a while to learn that there is a time and place for everything. If you choose to play with dynamite, you are not totally blameless when the sh*t hits the fan.
So, my issue with the film was that the town was presented as wrong and Melena portrayed as the innocent victim. Or was that even the case? Maybe that's just my take because that's where I come from. I guess what I'm saying is - I'm giving this film a 10. Not because I agreed with everything that I "thought" was implied, or that I felt the characters were exactly the way that I would like to see them portrayed if the story was mine, but rather because this very talented director with his extra-ordinary abilities created a moment on film the way he saw it in a extra-ordinary way. This film was outstanding visually, the story fresh and moving, and the acting sincere by all. The two leading characters deserving the highest praise for extremely touching performances. I LOVED IT!