Skip to main content

Magnifica presenza (Italian)

I have greatly loved and admired Turkish-Italian director Ferzan Özpetek movies and look forward to them. Hence my expectations for this film were also pretty high. I feel so sad to say, that unfortunately they were not met. There’s a lack of genuine narrative motivation that leaves this very promising film without oomph and substance. More on that later.

Pietro is an aspiring gay actor and moves in a big house when he gets lucky with the pricing of the house. Pietro moves in and his life is going in order when he starts hearing strange noises in the apartment. He feels presence of people, whom he can see and feel. It turns out that the house in inhabited by a group of ghosts all dressed in from the 40s. Initially scared to death, Pietro soon realizes that all these ghosts are good souls and they are just stuck in a time-wrap. What can Pietro do to help? He listens to all the pieces of advice they give. To help these people move on, he will have to find out who gave them away during the war time and ultimately have their souls released. The only gay aspect of the film is that Pietro happens to be gay and one of the actors from the theatre ghost group is also gay. They form an unlikely love bong but both knowing very well that their love will never be fulfilled.

Technically the film is brilliant like all of the previous films by the director. All the characters are very lovable and they deliver with passion and great devotion but like I Said above it fails to leave either emotional or dramatic mark like his pervious films. There is some humor in the film that saves it. Also acting from Pietro is first calls and to the mark. The soundtrack of the film was also very good. Its hard to understand what was the film really about? Is it about art, friendship, betrayal, aspiring actor? I was a little confused and honestly, a little disappointed.

I am sure Ozpetek could do and will do better. I am waiting. (6/10)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Shortest Distance is Round 3: Fallen Flowers

Continuing with the weird trilogy of "The Shortest Distance", I am so glad that finally I am done with part 3 and won't have to deal with this again in future. Thankfully, as of now the makers have not announced any further parts; which will save all of us on this earth from the embarrassment of watching this in near future. After the first 10 minutes are used in sort of recapping bits of first two parts, the story moves forward. Haruto is now starting to have feelings for Ruka, the mysterious pole dancer from second part. In a fit of rage, Ruka ends up killing the goat man and to save him and Haruto, Shibahara asks them to go underground. Meanwhile Shibahara continues the search for Seiya (the guy who had cut off Haruto's penis). It turns out Seiya is now also taking care of the original club owner from part 1. Both of them were released after they had informed Shibahara of Aoyama's secret location. Shibahara tortures Seiya's boyfriend leading to Seiya killin...

Sei no Gekiyaku (Japanese) [Dangerous Drugs of Sex]

Every person has their own unique way of dealing with loss. This film is as much a psychological thriller as it is a soft porn BDSM portrayal of two young men that makes the film overall horrifying as well as humane. It is really hard to describe the genre of this film in one word. Its important not that the film has some really disturbing scenes so if you go into seeing this film, please proceed with caution. Although any sexual non-consensual activity is not ok, this film has its won strange way of showing that suicide is not the only solution to all life's problems. Makoto is a regular office goer, who just finds out that his girlfriend is probably cheating on him. ON top of it, his parents sudden death coming back from a trip that he forced them to take, he gets completely dejected and decides to commit suicide. Unknown to him, he is saved by mysterious man Yoda Ryoji, and he wakes up finding himself tied up in leather and belts in a very BDSM setting. This mysterious saver soo...

One Summer Night (Korean)

I really wanted to like this film but for non native speakers, these movie leaves a lot to be understood and the way scenes were unfolding in front of me, I wasn't sure many times what was really going on. The story had potential button getting any back story on any of the characters limited my ability to empathize with any of these actors. Film starts with two North Korea military guys Yong Joon and Jae Sung having sex and they are caught red handed and they run. Three years later we see Yong Joon in Seoul leading a very mundane and poor life. He has a boyfriend Tae-Kyu, who is a weird guy. He is carefree, doesn't do any work and is completely emotional and financially dependent on Young Joon. In fact, even Yong Joon will go to any lengths to protect him , fend for him and taking care of him to the extent of even taking up prostitution. Suddenly one day Jae Sung appears in their life again. His motivation is not clear but it is obvious he wants Yong Joon back in his life, who ...