Movie reviews

23. WIOSNA FILMOW (23RD FILM SPRING FESTIVAL)

24 WOCHEN (24 WEEKS)

Recommended. It tackles the difficult question of giving birth to a handicapped baby. German law in such cases allows abortion till the end of the pregnancy. The film shows the would-be mother's hesitation realistically. You see her testing different solutions and making the decision. She's a public person so the pressure's high. Gripping.

AQUARIUS

Watchable. What I liked the most was watching the Brazilian lifestyle: spending lots of time with the family, sleeping in a hammock, swimming in a shark-infested sea. Once you realize what the main intrigue is, you appreciate the woman's strength and defiance. But it takes time to get to the intrigue and the movie contains a few disgusting baby scenes, including one of changing a diaper.

TEESKLEJAD (PRETENDERS)

Recommended. The sea, a posh house, beautiful people. Seductive pictures, seductive music, a seductive couple, especially Anna, played by Mirtel Pohla. On top of that a psychologic game. Sensory and intellectual pleasure.

VOR DER MORGENROTE - STEFAN ZWEIG IN AMERIKA (STEFAN ZWEIG: FAREWELL TO EUROPE)

Watchable. The beginning of the movie puts you into posh refugees' circles 3 years before the Second World War which to me resonated with the current political situation. This part also implied some anti-Nazi action. However, I quickly realized that was not going to happen and I ended up admiring Brazilian nature as the plot became a series of disconnected events.

NAWET NIE WIESZ, JAK BARDZO CIE KOCHAM (YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW MUCH I LOVE YOU)

Watchable. Fake mother and daughter, real psychotherapy. The story behind the production is more interesting than the film. Basically, people with similar experiences can relate to each other, e.g. every divorced person can relate to any other divorced person as is the case here. The two women took five sessions in which they worked on their family issues with a renowned therapist. To me it sounded quite abstract. I just got intrigued what the women's experiences were that destroyed the family. Human relationships are the main attraction here, the psychotherapy itself bored me.

COMO NOSSOS PAIS (JUST LIKE OUR PARENTS)

Watchable. I couldn't possibly relate to Rosa in any way. She's married, taking care of her school-age kids, cooking for the whole family, seeing her extended family often, including her brother, her smoking, straightforward mother, her poor artist father, writes commercials for a living, supports financially her environmental activist husband. She clearly has no pleasure in life. It's only when she suspects or hears of certain betrayals all around her that things start getting spicy. Still, it's nothing new under the sun.

EN MAN SOM HETER OVE (A MAN CALLED OVE), to my delight, has won the Festival Audience Award.



PORTO

Walked out. I didn't find Anton Yelchin attractive even in "Star Trek". In "Porto" he walks and speaks as if he were 62, not 26. His character, in spite of good upbringing, lacks education or ambition. She (Lucie Lucas) is strikingly beautiful, with a degree and ambition. And I'm supposed to believe she got attracted to him?! As if his elderly-sounding voice wasn't repulsive enough.