mplaza Reviews

Letters of a Portuguese Nun (2014)

Flawless acting, exquisitely shot

[8/10 · 26 February 2024]

I didn't know of Segolène Point, yet a quick search over the internet revealed she's a theatre producer and actress, and it shows. In this ten-year old film, one of the handful she appears to have made, she shows remarkable acting skills, it is no mean feat she spends over an hour practically alone though in different settings, reciting her lines whilst keeping the viewer's attention. Her diction is impeccable, her presence immense. The film is exquisitely shot, very intimately framed and filmed in stunning locations in Portugal and France. The officer to whom the nun purportedly (there is some disagreement on the actual authorship of the letters) writes the correspondence is just sort of fleetingly presented, perhaps there ought to be more of him in the film; the way it is he might as well be omitted. Recommended.

Mothering Sunday (I) (2021)

Lyrical and nostalgic

[8/10 · 22 November 2022]

There's a characteristic I find in many a film directed by women in which a very special aesthetic envolves the final product, a certain something, difficult-to-define aura that wholly eludes male-directed movies. This film is one of those. Delicately filmed, exquisitely timed and paced and with a remarkable performance from Australian actress Odessa Young, it is a very rewarding achievement. I've seen it has been considered less favourably by other people in this website, but I found it to be an out of the ordinary production. Ms Young gives out a complex, richly moulded and uninhibited characterisation of the film's protagonist that certainly deserves to be seen. The other characters are less satisfactorily rendered, yet in my opinion perhaps more the fault of the screenplay writers than of the actors or actresses involved. But this is the kind of film one returns to after some time has passed since one last saw it, for its beauty and lyricism are indeed rare nowadays.

Isabel (2011–2014)

Better than expected.

[7/10 · 14 October 2014]

There was a time when European networks produced excellent TV series based on historical events, literary works or on the lives of relevant historical characters. Budgetary restrictions gradually did away with that type of programming and productions nearly halted. TVE themselves produced a few remarkable ones and so did the BBC and RAI, the latter before turning into the generally appalling network it now is. With this new series centred on the life of Queen Isabella of Spain and now well into its third and final season, TVE has more or less come back to what they so successfully did until a couple of decades back. Actors are of a good enough standard and the recreation of some of the Kingdoms that comprised the Iberian peninsula at the time is in general to a good standard. There is some abuse, in my view, of computer-generated images and sequences that are distractive and in a few instances questionable in their success but the series as a whole deserves wider distribution (PBS take note?). The Alhambra sequences in Seasons 2 and 3 are a delight to watch.

O Negócio (2013–2018)

Surprisingly good show

[9/10 · 2 September 2013]

The three chapters shown so far of this series on HBO's Latin American satellite and cable TV signals (I live in Venezuela) are surprisingly good. Tasteful, with a very high degree of quality, production-wise, it has nothing to envy from productions made in the USA, Canada, the EU or Australia. With very young actresses that play their roles with ease, self confidence and even impudence, it is a very fine exponent of that very difficult discipline that is a comedy that makes you smile instead of making you laugh out loud, which is of course a lot easier to achieve. To just make you smile and admire the writer's cleverness and wit you need a very competent team back stage and these Brazilians undoubtedly have scored a remarkable hit in that sense. Let's hope forthcoming instalments keep this high quality level, but in any case it deserves wide viewing.

Checking the rating demographics on the IMDb website I was rather surprised to find that women tend to give the series higher marks than men. What that may imply is unclear but interesting none the less ...

Unter dem Eis (2005)

Good and intelligent.

[7/10 · 27 April 2008]

Well paced and built, though it is to be expected it won't go down in the history of movie-making as a masterpiece, but it is in general more than worthwhile watching. A rather droll mother-son relationship, well presented and above all, acted by mother and child. The husband character is rather stereotyped, but in a way unless he were some kind of mind reader he could not have an idea of what actually happened until events led him to it, and the neighbors, parents of the missing child could have been more developed by the script writers and the director. I wouldn't expect the mother-son clothing changing scene in a movie made this, generally more prudish, side of the Atlantic but it only goes to show how healthier mainstream continental European attitude towards nudity is.

La caja 507 (2002)

Not the kind of plot one expects from Spanish films ...

[6/10 · 8 September 2006]

A thriller with a finely carried plot that keeps the viewer's interest alive throughout, no mean feat, yet not the kind of plot one expects from mainstream Spanish films (or even European ones, the plot would more than suitably fit a Humphrey Bogart-starred American movie). To me, the main flaw is the main character's (portrayed by the customarily excellent Antonio Resines) moral inconsistency. He starts his crusade out of outrage for hitting by chance on the real cause of his teenage daughter's death, but ends up being no better than the thugs he seeks to punish by accepting money from them in order to keep his mouth shut. It may be argued that he does so in order to secure not being killed by the gangsters in question but to me that in turn begs question and shows him as being no better than them. The high morals that the scriptwriters lead you to believe at first as the main propeller in the man's behaviour, by the end of the film have just vanished into thin air!

Yes (I) (2004)

What has the Cuban sequence have to do with the rest of the film?

[6/10 · 18 April 2006]

I found the trip to Cuba unconnected with the rest of the film, not pertinent to what has come before and not congruent with the characters, their idiosyncrasies or backgrounds. The Cuban trip stems out of background reminiscences during the dying aunt sequence and, to me at least, is completely uncalled for. First world (the "she" character certainly qualifies as such, at least) traveling to Cuba seems apt to happen out of just plain tourism or out of revolution-inspired soul searching (hardly the case in the family background of the "she" character), the reasons behind "she"'s trip are inconclusive and unconnected, as I said, with everything that has come before save for the dying aunt's reflections.

Unless someone caught a different reason in the plot I overlooked ...

Downfall (2004)

This film's major contribution.

[10/10 · 30 January 2006]

To me, perhaps the main issue addressed by the movie is to what an extent an uncritical, no-questions-asked support of a leader not only by his people but by his close entourage and society's controlling institutions may go. That such an uncritical attitude and obsessional following or obeisance of any whims and decisions of a leader or ruler can -and in time, will- bring ruin and dissolution to a society (as it certainly did to one of the most cultured ones in the world) is the lesson all watchers of this movie must learn. And this will apply not only to Hitler (that he is not depicted or clichéd as having Jewish kids for breakfast is beside the point) but to any other leader or ruler in any country of the world. It may be argued that Hitler was no better or worse than other despots in 20th century history, call them Stalin,Pol Pot or Castro, as differences in their political and socio-cultural environments makes comparison of little pertinence, but what they all have in common is their blind acceptance and following by their peoples and the consequent debasing of their different countries' institutions and democratic checks and balances, which these rulers invariably nulled and voided, either by outright suppressing them or by putting them at their unquestioned service. A serious, dis-passioned and objective questioning of such a posture is perhaps the film's major contribution.

Soho Square (2000)

A promising talent.

[6/10 · 10 August 2005]

From the information posted on IMDb's site I gather this is an opera prima and if so, we might be in presence of a talent to reckon with. The interview with the director included in the DVD clearly shows a person in his twenties, ready to show what he learnt and is capable of.

Yes, the first half hour or so is confusing -maybe deliberately so- but I'd say the plot is cleverly exposed and handled. And the way things turn out to be and how the particular murder the film begins with fits into the series of killings the plot centres on is smartly devised. I concur with others, commenting the movie on this website, on the unresolved issue of the neighbour mum and daughter, perhaps a more seasoned film maker would have taken care of that more adroitly; yet a case could me made towards the transposition of the detective's wife and unborn child and hence the attention he gives these otherwise peripheral characters. Criticising slowness in plot progress in European films is common in this side of the Atlantic and it's really no big deal. They make their films evolve at a given pace, US and (some) Latin American film makers prefer a different one, it's a question of personal preference.

But in sum, let's follow the work of this young Englishman, for he seems a promising talent.