Movie reviews

ANGELO

Watchable. In the first scene slaves are walking up the shore. They resemble refugees on hills seen in the media nowadays. But the whole film drags so badly and is so wooden, theatrical that I nearly walked out. Angelo in turns declaims, plays the flute, walks or listens to some aristocrat. At least, the scenography changes every few minutes. It's still and connotations with still life painting spring to mind, in fact it looks like a series of pictures by the old masters. The lack of background music and wooden acting precludes any potential feeling even when a man becomes stuffed as an exhibit. One fleeting moment of emotion is when Angelo's daughter realizes she's never seen the continent she belongs to. The movie also poses the question of us killing nature in order to see it up close.

Bits and pieces from the Q&A:
Markus Schleinzer, the movie director has also worked as a casting director, a producer, a director of other films and an actor. The rumour is he knows all actors, including those who say only one sentence.
According to Markus Schleinzer, "a film is lying in every minute". Though he researched the topic. E.g. people look healthier nowadays so a historic film can never be realistic.
The director comes from Vienna - a city where you hear lots of tall tales about Angelo Soliman. Those are all sweet stories. Also an empress is called Sissi by Austrians. That's why directors, like Michael Haneke, go against this perspective.
The movie starts with boats of 300 years ago filled with Africans brought by force. Nowadays we deny them entry.
Palaces were built with the wealth from the exploitation of Africa.
The director presented Angelo as somebody with no identity. They used to be presented as black princes to show how powerful the white aristocrats were.