Cinema is an art with an immense transformative power, and here it makes a neglected, impoverished Lisbon slum into a poetic no-man's-land with abstract shots of empty white building that seem to be nowhere and anywhere at the same time, and painterly compositions of destitute shacks with natural lighting; and it turns its residents into ghostly mythical figures living both in present and past and in the character of Ventura takes a simple retired bricklayer and suffused the screen with his spirit and the depth of his life and melancholy... only cinema (in the hands of the right artist) can express poetry and beauty out of such seeminly unpromising locations, this is what this film showed me.
Got to add, it is still at the same time remaining authentic to the people and the community of Fontainhas, who are thoroughly involved in the making of Pedro Costa's films there, and whose trust he had to work hard to get. This is the difference between a film like this, and one like beasts of the southern wild where "poverty" is also attempted to be poeticised but in a totally unauthentic and artificial way compared to a film like Colossal Youth.
A fine performance from the young lead in a dark; harrowing; incredibly brutal; atmospheric; disturbing; shocking; intensely real but with the occasional almost dreamlike sequence.
Come and see: Klimov said of his own film: "If I had shown the whole truth, even I could not have watched the film"... It is of course impossible for a film to depict the full horrors of war, but this film sure comes as close as any film ever has to doing so (without glorifying and sentimentalising a la Spielberg's war films, although of course it is somewhat manipulative) and it is therefore extremely important and an immense technical feat.
Colossal Youth: Very good film that explores poverty, humanity, loneliness.. The characters are all stuck in the past which is really difficult to watch, especially when Ventura keeps repeating (and sending) the letter over and over again, he genuinely feels he will be replied to. We the audience know he won't and it's just gutting to see him still have a hopeless kind of belief in it, since he will go on hurting unless he lets go. But he won't. I liked that was a contrast in scenes, some of them were stylised (like when Ventura is sitting alone; the editing on these in particular was superb) and then there were scenes like the ones between Ventura and Vanda which I liked a lot, they were so natural.
Come and See: It's true that this is a difficult film to watch, it is harrowing, it is dark, but it had to be and this is what makes it great, because I think it is true to what the conditions were like, there isn't any sugar coating to accompany it. It does have beautiful moments in it, like when Florya and Glasha are protecting each other and cuddling in the hut to keep warm. A lot of scenes will stay with me, including that one but also, other examples include the ''mud'' scene where Florya and Glasha are trawling through the deep mud, looking for Florya's family. Another scene is at the very beginning actually, where Florya and his commander have that conversation where Florya is ordered to shoot anyone who doesn't stop or say the password, shows that kind of brutality in a subtle way.
Colossal Youth:
ReplyDeleteRemarkably framed shots, often using architecture; scenes that go from one to another without explanation or the more usual continuity editing.
A humanistic, visually stunning and compelling film.
Cinema is an art with an immense transformative power, and here it makes a neglected, impoverished Lisbon slum into a poetic no-man's-land with abstract shots of empty white building that seem to be nowhere and anywhere at the same time, and painterly compositions of destitute shacks with natural lighting; and it turns its residents into ghostly mythical figures living both in present and past and in the character of Ventura takes a simple retired bricklayer and suffused the screen with his spirit and the depth of his life and melancholy... only cinema (in the hands of the right artist) can express poetry and beauty out of such seeminly unpromising locations, this is what this film showed me.
ReplyDeleteGot to add, it is still at the same time remaining authentic to the people and the community of Fontainhas, who are thoroughly involved in the making of Pedro Costa's films there, and whose trust he had to work hard to get. This is the difference between a film like this, and one like beasts of the southern wild where "poverty" is also attempted to be poeticised but in a totally unauthentic and artificial way compared to a film like Colossal Youth.
ReplyDeleteCome and See:
ReplyDeleteI have never really liked war films.
A fine performance from the young lead in a dark; harrowing; incredibly brutal; atmospheric; disturbing; shocking; intensely real but with the occasional almost dreamlike sequence.
I still don't like war films.
Come and see:
ReplyDeleteKlimov said of his own film: "If I had shown the whole truth, even I could not have watched the film"... It is of course impossible for a film to depict the full horrors of war, but this film sure comes as close as any film ever has to doing so (without glorifying and sentimentalising a la Spielberg's war films, although of course it is somewhat manipulative) and it is therefore extremely important and an immense technical feat.
Colossal Youth: Very good film that explores poverty, humanity, loneliness.. The characters are all stuck in the past which is really difficult to watch, especially when Ventura keeps repeating (and sending) the letter over and over again, he genuinely feels he will be replied to. We the audience know he won't and it's just gutting to see him still have a hopeless kind of belief in it, since he will go on hurting unless he lets go. But he won't. I liked that was a contrast in scenes, some of them were stylised (like when Ventura is sitting alone; the editing on these in particular was superb) and then there were scenes like the ones between Ventura and Vanda which I liked a lot, they were so natural.
ReplyDeleteCome and See: It's true that this is a difficult film to watch, it is harrowing, it is dark, but it had to be and this is what makes it great, because I think it is true to what the conditions were like, there isn't any sugar coating to accompany it. It does have beautiful moments in it, like when Florya and Glasha are protecting each other and cuddling in the hut to keep warm. A lot of scenes will stay with me, including that one but also, other examples include the ''mud'' scene where Florya and Glasha are trawling through the deep mud, looking for Florya's family. Another scene is at the very beginning actually, where Florya and his commander have that conversation where Florya is ordered to shoot anyone who doesn't stop or say the password, shows that kind of brutality in a subtle way.
Иди и смотри
ReplyDeleteThis film shows that those who happen to survive the horrors of a war are not the lucky ones.