This is probably the best digital video movie I've watched. The travelogue-like scenes do have that cheap home digital video look (I don't think this is high definition), but the character scenes are mostly dark and very well lit, they do their job helping the mood of the movie, and not getting in the way with their uglyness, as happens many times with this format. Anyway this would be nothing without a decent script, which this movie has too. You really get into the story and the main character's predicament (there's not a scene he isn't in). The less 'nice' parts of his personality (depression, etc) didn't take me away from the movie, as has happened to me with other mentally troubled characters like catherine deneuve's in 'Repulsion', where I always feel they go way too far. Though perhaps it's not a good comparison becouse this one is not nuts. Enjoy this character study/love story, becouse I think everyone has been around there sometime. The dvd is 1.85 non-anamorphic but quite good. You can't take the subtitles off, and they're only on when characters don't speak english. I think that's unfair becouse the movie is really trilingual.
Hints of Alain Resnais
Rodolphe Marconi is a young, talented filmmaker as LOVE FORBIDDEN (Defense d'Aimer) demonstrates. Marconi wrote the script, directed and is the principal actor in this dark but very sensitive melodrama. No, 'melodrama' may be the wrong word here, because 'film noir' seems to suggest its antecedents more clearly. Anyone who loves Resnais' "Last Year At Marienbad" will understand the comparison when viewing this extended meditation on obsession.
Rome is the site for an Academy of students from all forms of the arts and the students are from many parts of the world. The film is shot in French, Italian , and English as each set of circumstances dictates. The main character is Bruce (Rodolphe Marconi), a loner of a film maker student who meets a few students as friends ('Orietta' played very well by Orietta Gianjorio) but encounters a 'boarder' Mateo (Andrea Necci) who works in the library and is a writer. Mateo manipulates Bruce into letting him use his 'better room condition' and ends up sharing Bruce's bed - platonically. Bruce becomes aware of his sexual feelings towards Mateo and eventually those feelings are reciprocated and acted out, only to have Mateo exit Bruce's room and life as abruptly as he entered. Mateo avoids Bruce, takes up with an American girl Aston (Echo Danon) and Bruce becomes so obsessed with his lost love that he begins to stalk Mateo. Eventually Bruce and Aston become friends and share frustrations with the self-indulgent Mateo and the end of the tale is at hand as a surprise. The filming is by video and I do not find that interfering in this case. The result is an intimate, secretive appearance to the story, allowing the camera to linger on nocturnal images, feel the ancient rhythms of Rome, and be a voyeur like Bruce. The music score is at times heavy handed (why choose Bach's 'St Matthew Passion' for the sensuous lovemaking between Bruce and Mateo?) and too often it covers the dialogue. Marconi is a fine actor and says more with his body language and eyes than with his words. In all, this is a dark, moody, but sensitive work that deserves more attention than it is receiving. Try it. The English subtitles are excellent.
Self Indulgent
This low budget self indulgent vanity production deals with a gay film student who becomes obssessed with a straight friend. Shot on video- the productions best feauture is the travel logue photography of Rome.
The moving Yossi & Jagger, at 65 minutes in length, has the focused impact and emotional clarity of a fine short story. A multiple award winner (among other prizes, Yossi & Jagger took a Best Actor honor for Ohad Knoller at the 2003 Tribeca Film Festival), this unusual love tale, set on a snowy Israeli-Lebanese border facing possible Hezbollah incursions, has an unexpected sweetness and buoyancy. Knoller plays square-jawed, no-nonsense Yossi, company commander of an Israeli Defense Forces unit exhausted from sleepless nights anticipating an ambush. The handsome, fun-loving Jagger (Yehuda Levi), nicknamed for his rock-star appeal, is platoon leader and, unknown to all, Yossi's secret lover. The two arrange trysts by going off together on missions, and while Jagger begs Yossi... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Ohad Knoller - Yehuda Levi - Assi Cohen (II) Director(s): Eytan Fox DVD Release Date: Released the 30 March 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Torrid sex and tortured emotions fill the screen in Leaving Metropolis. David (Troy Ruptash), a successful painter, has lost his inspiration. To find stimulation, he gets a job at a small, out-of-the-way diner, run by married couple Violet (Cherilee Taylor) and Matt (Vincent Corazza, Owning Mahoney). When sparks fly with Matt, David gets stimulation and inspiration--but the portraits he paints of Matt may break the couple apart. The machinations of a bitter friend bring the situation to a boil. Though filled with lots and lots of sex (both gay and straight), Leaving Metropolis pays as much attention to the character's minds as to their flesh (well, almost as much--the sex scenes are quite extensive and the bodies are all beautiful). Some of the script's... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Brad Fraser DVD Release Date: Released the 06 April 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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A Love story about "What could have should have might have been" IF ONLY... is the basic premise of The Trip. The Trip follows two gay men through young adulthood into early middle age. One a fully realized gay young man living in truth to himself with honor without shame. This first young man was doing what he could as a gay activist from the 1970's onward to champion causes of gay rights, HIV awareness and diversity. The other gay man was a conflicted deeply closeted homosexual chap from one of those hellish super religious conservative homes where father rules with an iron fist and every aspect of waking life is lived daddy's straight arrow conservative way or no way.
On his own and away from his militaristic thought police father at home the young seemingly... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Miles Swain DVD Release Date: Released the 09 December 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Bravo to Aaron Brown for constructing a superior screenplay not seen in most predictable, "been there, done that" plots we see in so many movies today. As a viewer, you will be played with constantly througout the film up to the very end. Just when you think you have settled on a spectrum of feelings and opinions about the characterrs and the storyline, the next scene will vanquish your new pre-conceived, constantly changing notions.
It was a shame that the film did not get bigger distribution, especially on the festival circut. The unfounded and short-sighted criticsm was that a movie should not be seen or made that puts "gays in a bad light." Rubbish! Gay people aren't a large group of apostles. This decision kept this movie from gaining the larger viewing audience and exposure it... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Susan Turley DVD Release Date: Released the 23 March 2004 Usually ships within 4 to 8 days
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Poor Alain......what a strange man. He is damaged goods, and perhaps that's why we are shown several scenes of his mother:: The Queen of Damaged Goods. Alain can sometimes show passion with someone, but he can't be constant with someone.....he can't be monogamous. What a question mark of a human being!
But it is not only Alain who needs our pity:: Poor Christophe!! Alain is the opposite of what this young man needs (recall, if you will, what C's own father says that he needs). Cyrille Thouvenin does a very good job with the Christophe role, and his performance alone makes this review's 4th Star. (Thouvenin is able to do oh-so-much more in that greater French production: "JUST A QUESTION OF LOVE" --Read about IT, get IT; you won't be sorry)
