This Must Be the Place (2011)

Genre

Director

Country

Cast
Sean Penn, Frances McDormand, Judd Hirsch, Eve Hewson, Kerry Condon, Harry Dean Stanton, David Byrne, Olwen Fouéré, Shea Whigham, Liron Levo, Heinz Lieven, Simon Delaney, Kristine Graverson, Er Li Deng

Plot
Cheyenne (Sean Penn) is a wealthy former rock star, now bored and jaded in his 20-year retirement in Dublin. He retired after two of his teenaged fans committed suicide.
He travels to New York to reconcile with his estranged father during his final hours, only to arrive too late. After reading a few of his father's diaries, Cheyenne realizes how the life of the father has been in the last thirty years: he devoted himself to obsessively seek a Nazi criminal who took refuge in the United States.
With a relentless slowness and no investigator ability, Cheyenne decides to continue the research for his father and, therefore, to go seek, through the United States, a nonagenarian German probably already died.

Opinion
This Must Be the Place is entertaining and occasionally very moving. The lyrics of the Talking Heads song that gives the title to the film, plays a role in one of the most important and intense scenes and represents a kind of summary of this film.
The directory of Sorrentino is good; the wide shots, which suggest the characters' moods, are alternated with intense close-ups, which focus on the characters' wrinkles and face's lines. The music of David Byrne emphasizes perfectly every single moment. The performance of Sean Penn is good.

Quotes
The problem is [...] without realizing it, we go from an age where we say, "My life will be that" to an age where we say, "That's life".

There are many ways of dying, the worst of them, is to continue living.

Rating
8.0/10

The Great Beauty (2013)

Original Title

La grande bellezza

Genre

Drama

Director

Paolo Sorrentino

Country

Italy


Cast

Toni Servillo, Carlo Verdone, Sabrina Ferilli, Carlo Buccirosso, Iaia Forte, Giovanna Vignola, Pamela Villoresi, Galatea Ranzi, Franco Graziosi, Sonia Gessner, Giorgio Pasotti, Giusi Merli, Dario Cantarelli, Roberto Herlitzka, Serena Grandi, Massimo Popolizio, Anna Della Rosa, Luca Marinelli, Ivan Franek, Vernon Dobtcheff, Lillo, Luciano Virgilio, Anita Kravos, Massimo De Francovich, Aldo Ralli, Isabella Ferrari, Annaluisa Capasa, Fanny Ardant, Antonello Venditti


Plot


Jep Gambardella (Toni Servillo) is a journalist and a theatre critic, with an undeniable charm, committed to disentangle the social events of Rome immersed in the beauty of the past and stands out more than nowadays' squalor.

Opinion

The Great Beauty is a mediocre film, a bad "remake" of La dolce vita. There are some decent flashes, but they should be credited to Rome and not to the film. Foreigners, in particular Americans, like it maybe because they have an unreal idea of Italy.

Two things I did like about this film: the music which was great and the photography which was outstanding. Academy Award undeserved.


Quotes

"To travel is very useful, it makes the imagination work, the rest is just delusion and pain. Our journey is entirely imaginary, which is its strength."- Céline's Journey to the End of the Night.