The first films I saw as a child were silent shorts with Charlie Chaplin. The  style had so many roots still buried in theater ground. Sure for comic scenes it worked so well-the funny faces, the grand, exaggerated gestures  meant to fill the lack of words. For drama it’s a different story…because it’s hard not to laugh when you’re not supposed to. Maybe it’s the make-up, the crazy long stares, the pace…and the contrast with today’s cinema. There were several people laughing inside Film Forum tonight during the screening and I was giggling too.

But if you think of it …well it’s not easy to make a silent film after all. It’s definitely more challenging for a director.

Almost 20 years have passed since Massive Attack’s “Unfinished Sympathy” but hell the duo is fresh and on top of their game. Their new songs are hypnotic and addictive without giving you the feeling of selling out. The beats have strength and lightness mixed together and  nevertheless an original wrap. Out of a sudden you feel relaxed while your mind  opens. wide. Your body moves from left to right and your attention sharpens. A wide screen is blinding us with white, red, green graphics and photos but the surprise consists in various interesting quotes from John F. Kennedy, Howard Zinn, Nelson Mandela and many others.  One was saying that “obedience led us to war, slavery”. Of course I wish I could have extract myself from the human sandwich I was in and write down some of those wise thoughts  on freedom, will to change and act, rebellion and courage to say the truth.  But that would have interrupted the music flow that wrapped my body so comfortable, filling it with excitement.  It’s such a delight to witness good  live music built on quality content stripped from any fake set-ups. I’m close to use even the word original but I know it’s a label that can be easy destroyed with a bag full of references.  So maybe unique works better in this context. Massive Attack were unique tonight at Terminal 5 and managed to mix new and old tracks in a  show with guitars, magic drums, heavenly voices, 90s trip-dub hit trips. “Teardrop“, Angel”, “Risingson” were some of the songs embraced with loud screams by the audience and “Karmacoma” closed Massive Attack’s concert. Robert del Naja (3D) and Daddy G blended their distinctive voices-aggressive-ironic and whispery-dreamy with confidence and let us wanting more, much more. Maybe all of the five albums created by this band born in Bristol which is touring the entire summer promoting their latest disc “Heligoland“.

After one hour and a half I was smiling walking through the rain towards Columbus square-remembering Robert del Naja’s dance moves-with his hands rolling and then punching the air as if there was an invisible enemy.

The choice in terms of cinematography and actors’ performing reminded me a great deal of “The Office” but these elements are not important in the end…The script’s unique sense of humor and precise sense of depicting reality is unmistakable. It’s the perfect combination of a documentary and a comedy with strong roots in today’s world. The English accent and colorful and suggestive expressions  match together in an irresistible way.This is the cherry on the cake. I’m glad the film got an Oscar nomination.

Firth has been always portrayed in movies this stiff gentleman, serious , funny, sarcastic but in the same time disarming and sweet but in a “Single Man” his showing much more. The way he’s wearing sadness, pain and the inconsolable lost of love is incredibly powerful and real. No underlines but each blink of an eye adds more emotion. In a subtle yet convincing way of course. Unfortunately not the same thing can be said about the two kids and the young sexy guys that meet and like George on the course of that day.Often is like  witnessing actors reading lines as robots without being one with their characters. It’s a mechanical act and their beauty doesn’t save their performance.

At the end Ford helps you see the beauty of love and strong feelings, the beauty of life’ spontaneous moments and the beauty hidden in details all captured in a symphony of senses that wraps the audience inside and out. George is overwhelmed with emotion when he touches and smells a dog similar to one he used to have, sees bright colors highlighting things he likes and is full of joy when he dances on some good music. At the end of his journey we feel that we wake up from a dream and we’re just eager to live with passion.

A fish bowl and a small boat. A hopeless dreamer with a hidden desire for traveling by the sea or a type of a passionate sailor who loves that universe? How well can you see?

After I see a film I leave my place holding to some images, thoughts and various opinions. Good or bad. Still the films I never forget are the ones who stir inside me powerful emotions. And that’s the most valuable thing I remember and cherish. This was the case with “Coco before Chanel” written and directed by Anne Fontaine. In the first 15 minutes I laughed loudly because of the sarcastic/ironic exchange of lines between Coco (Audrey Tautou) and Etienne Balsan (Benoit Poelvoorde). After some time I cried because of Coco’s love story with Arthur Boy Capel (Alessandro Nivola). I’m not sure how closely this film follows the life of Coco before gaining success as a genius designer but this script has wit, rhythm, sharpness and content…Frankly I wasn’t expecting too much of a content when I bought my ticket. I was prepared to see a gift beautifully wrapped without seeing its interior. But while watching “Coco Before Chanel” besides a concentrated and precious list of  style clues and  magic you feel the living vibrations of an interior. The interior of a human soul. And that’s exactly what I’ll remember and admire the most.

Disappointment is what I was left with after seeing “500 Days of Summer“.  The premise of the film was surely promising and resourceful but it lacked depth and sense of realism. It claimed to  have all these elements but maybe it was just an initial attempt that disappeared along the way.  Or just a beautiful lie to drag people inside the cinema. ..

A detailed analysis of the birth and death of a love story is surely a rich material but only if you have eyes to see below the surface. The screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Micheal Weber managed to portray the good part of the relationship but got lost when they had to show its slow deconstruction and the reasons beneath it.  It could be because “500 Days of Summer” is their first feature and on a personal level both of them are still  moving in the dark. At one point one might feel the authors became impatient to…simply end the story no matter what so everything turns out to be even more confusing and fake, bleached in a quick storm of  random events. Is like watching an athlete running with full steam towards the closest wrong gate.

The director of photography tried his entire range of  artistic artillery but his efforts couldn’t save a clueless second half of the story. I enjoyed seeing the film bathed in yellow and in blue afterward, in close connection to the character’ emotions, the extreme close ups that enriched the intimacy and sensuality of some tender couple moments, the graphic animation effects but it just wasn’t enough to distract me from the heavy flaws.  The music hall  park scene came in the right moment but it was too long and kind of stupid. When you see the cartoon flying bird you re temped to…kill the lovely creature in your mind.

“500 Days of Summer” is funny here and there but it’s a sort of  bad mixture of  fragments imported from “Sex in the City” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind“. When confidence and courage are missing the easiest solution might seem to copy from here and there. If you have the ability and knowledge to do that in a convincing manner.