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Re: The Films of 2018
Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2018 3:19 pm
by Persona
Is there a dedicated thread for Happy as Lazzaro?
Not that I'd even be able to figure out what to say about it. So simple and yet not?
Re: The Films of 2018
Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2018 3:25 pm
by domino harvey
No, there is not (even for the correct spelling
). If enough discussion generates in this thread, it may get split off into one, but for now this is the place to post thoughts on it
Re: The Films of 2018
Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2018 6:49 pm
by Persona
domino harvey wrote: Sun Dec 02, 2018 3:25 pm
No, there is not (even for the correct spelling
Ah... thank you.
Even though it was nothing new, I think I was digging the film more before the twists occurred. That said, the twists do make the film a good deal more interesting and thought-provoking. Can't say my thoughts have arrived at any solid conclusions, though. I mean, I have plenty of ideas as to meaning and/or intent but some of the other story choices kind of fly in the face of however I might try to interpret the overall themes or effect of the film. Which is fine, but I guess I didn't enjoy the journey in the back half as much in the front half; and the casting of (much) older Tancredi really took me out of the back half (they did such a good job with how they handled everyone else, though). For some of the things that happen in the latter part of the film, I'm also not sure if Rohrwacher spent quite enough time on the development of Tancredi's and Lazzaro's "friendship." All that said, the film is in my current top 10 for the year and for anyone who's dreamed of a modern-day Fellini doing a story that's like Dostoyevsky's The Idiot crossed with M. Night Shyamalan's The Village plus, like, time travel/resurrection--this one's for you!
Re: The Films of 2018
Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2018 1:37 am
by spectre
It's kind of quintessential magic realism, isn't it? I think one's reaction to the film will really depend on how they feel about that – personally, I found it very inventive and beautifully composed, and the first half felt really exciting. I was even totally on board with the major 'twist' (or whatever you'd call it) when it happened, but things started getting a little too sentimental/self-conscious thereafter and I have to confess that my interest started to wane as a result.
Re: The Films of 2018
Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2018 2:46 am
by nitin
I thought it was an interesting film but a failure overall. The themes were a bit too simplistic for my liking, especially in the second half. And I didn’t care too much for it on a character/narrative level, so once my interest in the themes dwindled, so did my interest in the film.
Re: Lazzaro felice (Alice Rohrwacher, 2018)
Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2018 12:49 pm
by Persona
Went back and watched The Wonders on Netflix and think it's the better film. I'd say Lazzaro felice is certainly the more ambitious and technically accomplished movie but where The Wonders felt organic and observational, Lazzaro feels much more programmatic, as if constructed towards some eventual harmonic resolve. When it tries to pull the same sort of ambiguous tricks at its conclusion that The Wonders applied with some degree of grace, it just doesn't work as well.
Re: Lazzaro felice (Alice Rohrwacher, 2018)
Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2018 4:48 pm
by Fiery Angel
Persona wrote: Thu Dec 06, 2018 12:49 pm
but where The Wonders felt organic and observational, Lazzaro feels much more programmatic, as if constructed towards some eventual harmonic resolve. When it tries to pull the same sort of ambiguous tricks at its conclusion that The Wonders applied with some degree of grace, it just doesn't work as well.
My reaction was completely the opposite: for me, the new film does everything
The Wonders tried to do and failed at. Of course, her first film,
Corpo celeste, remains her best.
Re: Lazzaro felice (Alice Rohrwacher, 2018)
Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2018 5:27 pm
by Persona
And I can see why someone would feel that way. The first half of Lazzaro does work better for me than The Wonders does in general, just in the sense that the filmmaking feels a bit more confident and perhaps Rohrwacher was a little too close to the subject matter in The Wonders. But as a whole I feel like The Wonders kind of holds together in a way that Lazzaro almost can't because of its plot contortions--which, again, are quite daring and interesting, but I'm not sure what they add up to. I keep coming back to The Idiot/Christ-figure as the central sort of character theme for Lazzaro but then I don't know if there's much insight or subversion or even just eloquence that the film brings to the table there, other than a very unusual sort of context for that narrative.