Reviews by johanlefourbe

I remember it quite well when this movie was released. Indeed, back then, I must have been 12 or 13 years old when it was released, and there was quite some buzz about this movie, at least in France. I remember also very well this big bull on the poster. Sure, it seemed rather weird and obviously really inappropriate for someone of my age but, somehow, I thought it looked really intriguing. Eventually, it took me about 20 years to finally see the damned thing. The first interesting about this flick is that it was the first movie starring Penélope Cruz and, if I'm not wrong, she was just about 18 years old at the time. It was also one of the first movies starring Javier Bardem but they would eventually get romantically involved only 15 years later. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, it was basically a slightly erotic drama with some rather messed up characters but the story was mostly quite spellbinding to watch. To conclude, even though it might not be a masterpiece, I thought it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Spanish movies.

I already saw this movie but since it was a while back and since I had it on DVD, I was quite eager to check it out again. To be honest, even after re-watching this movie, it was still tricky for me to judge this movie. I mean, it is so subtle and I was never really sure what Luis Buñuel was actually trying to achieve here. The interesting thing is that, the first time around, I thought it was great and inspiring and I really loved the damned thing. After all these years, it is rather difficult to imagine how shocking this movie must have been when it came out at the beginning of the 60's (in fact, even though it was made and produced in Spain, it was banned in this country for many years). Maybe, what Buñuel meant with this movie, was that the traditional religious dogma might be actually a waste of time as it goes against many of our basic urges. Eventually, we are all sinners some way or another so there is really no need to feel so guilty about it, as displayed in the last scene, and our sins are basically what makes us human. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t completely blow me away, it was still a really intriguing flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Luis Buñuel's work.

I already saw this movie but since it was ages ago, I was quite eager to check it out again. Indeed, the first time I saw it, I must have been about 16-17 years and, at the time, I didn’t get this movie at all. Indeed, back then, I kept hearing some really great things about this flick and since I always had a weak spot fot Luchino Visconti’s work, I was expecting a masterpiece but, to be honest, I wasn't really blown away eventually. Well, I was hoping that, 20 years later, I was now mature enough and that I would be more able to enjoy this movie but, unfortunately, I still struggled to connect with this movie. Eventually, what bothered me the most with this flick was that nothing much really happened through the whole thing. Indeed, the main character was walking around in Venice, going to the beach, to the restaurant and, that was it basically. On top of that, I won’t blame Dirk Bogarde as he gave a really solid performance but I didn’t care much about this guy who was rather uncharismatic and even rather unlikable. Of course, the fact that he was basically a pedophile fantasizing on a very young boy obviously didn’t help. At least, as usual with Luchino Visconti, the whole thing was just really beautiful to look at but, to be honest, it did feel like watching paint dry. I mean, I understand that the whole thing was about the relationship between the main character and Art and also his relationship with mortality but I was never really convinced but, above all, I never really cared. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t really work me, I still think it is worth a look though , especially if you are interested in Italian movies.

There was a time when I started to discover the great classics and, of course, at some point, I got intrigued by Federico Fellini. From all his movies, the one I loved the most was by far ‘La strada’ but, to be honest, I had a rather hard time to really connect with such huge classics like ‘La dolce vita’ and ‘8½’ (I’m actually planning to re-watch  at least ‘La dolce vita’ in the near future though since I have it on DVD). However, later on, I have also watched this flick as well and even though it is probably one of the least appreciated movies directed by this director, I thought it was actually pretty good. I have to admit it, the whole thing was maybe  too similar to '8 1/2' and it is probably why it was dismissed but I thought there was something quite mesmerizing about the damned thing (something I actually didn’t really feel with ‘8 1/2' to be honest). I don’t know, the fact that it was only focusing on his obsession about women seemed to work better for me somehow. Anyway, to conclude,  I think this movie is actually quite underrated, I really liked it and it think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Federico Fellini’s work.