The English translation of ritornello enda Dat is not only more faithful to the original name of this Swedish film, but also what goes through the whole movie, different from the bland Secrets two marriages, which was chosen for distribution in Latin America. In the Anglo market, the film is named A rational solution ("A rational solution"), and just talk about it, the weight to load someone trying to solve all the emotions aside.
Erland (Rolf Lassgard) is married to Maj (Stina Ekbald) and seem to keep a marriage where there is more camaraderie than love. The two live in a small industrial town in Sweden and alternate work activities with marriage counseling groups conducted in a church. In turn, we have the timid, hypochondriacal Sven-Erik (Claes Ljungmark), Erland partner factory, which was rescued by him from a suicide attempt in a not too distant past. It is in the party in honor of Sven-Erik Erland know where Karin (Pernilla August), the wife of the birthday boy. Love (or passion, that discussion of nomenclature covers the entire length of the film) is almost at first sight, but not be among them a emotional fence can barely contain those desires. The resulting inevitable temptation ends and the two begin an affair (admittedly the mastery with which the actors Jorgen Bergmark and solve the first intimate encounter in the parking lot of a supermarket) that is maintained until the two decide to talk to your respective pairs.
That's where the film hits its most important tip, when the two couples are joined in a roundtable to discuss the situation. The funny thing is the decision they make, the four try to live together, assuming that Erland and Karin love is just a passing passion. Developed a kind of decalogue of coexistence whose articles are not being able to have sex in view of others, and not be swayed by emotions. The rationale for the list, far from smooth things over and allow a more healthy life together, going back to the characters, first against the most clearly affected, trying to sleep listening to small bed rechinares they confirm that their partners are having sex in an adjoining room, but then also reach the same ideologues of the plan.
The film exudes "suequés" everywhere. Beyond the nature of cold weather and the dim light of the Nordic world, sometimes aesthetic choices independent film thickness of this region seems that was filmed by the same director of photography: pale colors, as opposed to celestial filters faint yellow, like the winter sun (and only in movies that could be cited paraded Cinematheque The king of -pong also Jorgen Bergmark, but also Nord-Denstad Norwegian Rune Langlo-or The comedy of life - Roy Andersson). In The comedy of life could noted a curious detail that appears to be in this film: the alternation of a tone desafectivizado with pent-up emotions that leave the body as weeds between the tiles.
At one point, Sven-Erik becomes obsessed with a paper cutter which is staged him and the rest of the workers being sectioned into pieces perfect. The image of the cutter easily lends itself to the metaphor of breaking that are going through all the characters, but digging deeper, it seems not just talk about the life of the cast, but also in Sweden itself, a country that from its social position Democrat so recognized, shapes its inhabitants from its source (eg career guidance policies in high schools and universities, which limit the range of choice to the student), with a society welfare which leaves very little room for spontaneity, or at least permitted, but in close quarters, almost in a predefined and controlled. Not for nothing is the country's most violent black metal and one of the highest suicide rates. The latter would seem a fitting detail, but seem to fit the same movie, with an indefinable tone from melancholy, despair and comedy. Secrets two marriages, one might say that it is almost a comedy, but also a bitter slap to those progressive ideals and liberal Europe feathering
More than any other comedy from the makers of the Scandinavian countries, Jorgen Bergmark seem to realize that love is not so simple, and that in certain circumstances, rationality is the craziest of the elections.
The movie could be viewed as the Yang Ying was the gruesome Kids by Larry Clark. Both focus on the daily lives of a group of Latino teenagers in a New York ghetto, with a natural tone particularly boosted by the decision of the two directors to incorporate the young cast from the same neighborhood without prior film experience. Sex (or rather, the obsession of the protagonists on sexuality), travel throughout the film, but while in Clark's film this search was the head of his characters (in the most violent possible) against a dense wall of nihilism with Latino youth Raising Victor Vargas , which begins only approach failed exercises, ending with some lofty goal of knowledge mutual love and understanding.
Victor lives in a tiny apartment managed by a grandmother so outdated that it seems out of Macondo, Melonie with his sister and his brother Nino (who, instantly, by the resemblance it has with respect to Victor, leaves no doubt that the main character's brother in real life).
The first capture enough of the film speaks about life and means of Victor, with the camera slowly inspecting her body, while wet her lips and fits in seductive poses. The eyes that are watching the fat Donna, a neighbor with whom he tries to lose her virginity, but the camera could perfectly be staging the projected image that the hero himself. And it really feels like Victor a lover, perhaps taking a post that was invisible from his grandfather (known for his abilities of hummingbirds), who has, as only information, some distant tales of his grandmother and faded in the dining room table from home. As the film began, the link of the character (actually, all the male characters) to women, is given pose in pose, losing any kind of naturalness, finishing by turning against him in his quest to conquer the exotic
Judy (whose appearance is in a curious middle ground between Jennifer Lopez and Chloe Sevigny, who began to become known for her role in Kids ), an exotic little girl notorious for being friendly with her suitors. From there, more or less the same familiar battle of the sexes, where Victor (parallel to his friend Harold with a friend of Judy and Charles, who attempts to woo the sister of the protagonist), the hard way, trying to win the heart of the girl. Sentimental Education by Victor (not for nothing called Raising Victor Vargas ) is what separates him from acting like a man (those posing the beginning, those ridiculous flatteries, such invitations to her room inelegant) to be a man , which also installs the film in the genre of " coming-of-age films " (stories that focus on the passage from adolescence to adulthood) with redemptive message.
The movie is certainly sympathetic, with believable characters, but certainly not something stereotypical (for "stereotypical" must understand "unreal", considering that there are few things more truly stereotypical courtship in times of adolescence) . In any case, the film departs from various movie cliches focused on poor Latino neighborhoods (over the footage there is no mention of those traffickers, unwanted pregnancies, diseases like the Yankees much fear), to stay in others. Throughout the whole film invisible prevailing notion about seduction rather annoying to the woman who is "not that I want to be with me, is that it resists his desire" that leads men to triumph over his women, mostly based on persistence and boredom. Still, there is less capable than the fault of the film as sexist cultural context in which it builds its history.
Beyond this, the lure of the movie (unlike Clark, who in interviews said they intended to do "The Great American Teen Movie") is modest, and the aesthetic and narrative Raising Victor Vargas correctly goes hand in hand with these purposes. It is not the first, and sure as hell not the last of these films, but still staying true to the world of conventions that preceded it, it lacks that "something" exceptional yes knew how to juice the Tunisian Abdellatif Kechiche in L 'Dodge , courtly love story between two pubescent an Arab neighborhood in France, which was able to capture something of their own, distinct language, values \u200b\u200band means of the nuclei of young immigrants.
Two wolves without herd
movies based on true characters of war is a task full of pitfalls. On the one hand, the war hero (even anti-hero) is wired completely with the viewer emotionally direct. One when shooting movies about them going to have to choose their treatment, especially if you intend to make him an epic hero or a person of flesh and bone. This is one of the first problems: one must choose one or other record, still doing the two simultaneously operating a very difficult task. Second, if one covers a real war (and is not intended to handle a ucronia, as beautifully made Tarantino Basterds ), be aware if you intend to make an epic fantasy movie or a more contemplative, with some control to the spectacular But what when the stories and are themselves, in actual fact, spectacular, epic, amazing? We use the example of Audie Murphy, most decorated American soldier
, there are heroes and heroes, as there are wars and wars, and that is where a very interesting point and Citronen Flammen. Directed by Ole Christian Madsen, best known for his lower-budget films (related to
The first half of the film is mired in a perfect pulse, navy based on a dynamic that does not have an accurate map, but what happens to and in the stars of a hit to another. Flammen, skinny, young, fast, accurate, takes its name from the red of her hair (in Danish means "flame"), who shakes his hand to shoot their enemies. In this pair, Citronen is almost the opposite, driver official blows that becomes a murderer, always sweating, tormented by doubts and emotional debts to his family. The episodic structure is filmed with sobriety, elegance and an enviable time management. The film itself never leaves this sequence, only in the second half of the film, begins to overturn different atmospheric and emotional. Far from the sympathetic presentation of several members of the Danish resistance presented in the table of a bar at the beginning of the film, it soon begins to find the intrigues, the informers and the pursuit of ends other than the mere struggle against the Nazis . In this world noir, money, betrayal and double or triple agents, appears expected femme fatale, a woman who never, as in all good genre film, know what are their real purposes and that drags the protagonist to his ultimate destination. Here comes the film's neurotic stage (as Gilbert points out in a perfect confession Flammen about the different types of soldiers) and the rhythm is broken, starting to introduce us to characters from his doubts, not as figures. There is a time when Citronen Flammen and do not serve anyone as too crazy to resist, obviously dangerous to the Nazis. Is that so strange and Citronen Flammen, the two anomalies, lines of flight between two systems corrupt (both Nazi like mere resistance), they end up being a crazy, two wolves who lost the pack and, like the protagonist of The Hurt Locker (in an entirely different war, as war Iraq) in the bottom crave his death as the Nazis. There are moments that seem more typical of the heroes of comics, with a talk between Flammen and Hoffmann (leader of the Gestapo
But the time when the rises from this place, they are also providing one last go of remorse and failure. And that is where the most relevant, which is that, despite the contraindications mentioned in the beginning, the film never stops working (although the second half has some bumps, like the shooting that Madsen is going out of hand, seeming at times to the famous scene of Scarface.)
You end up understanding their lights and shadows the reality of a historical fact not widely used in the film (the chiaroscuro of the resistance, which only with the black book began Verhoeven out to be), while Flammen and Citronen would like to continue killing, surviving the blows, with the possibility of sequels and sequels. But that is asking too much to the story.
