THROUGH YOUR EYES (2006, Rodrigo Fürth, Argentina, A+25)

Films seen on Monday, November 19, 2012

1.THROUGH YOUR EYES (2006, Rodrigo Fürth, Argentina, A+25)

Extremely touching. Extremely humanistic. The first part of the film made me assume beforehand that the film would look down on its middle class characters. Fortunately, I was wrong. The film may satirize its middle class characters a little bit, but the film also makes them complete human beings.

What I find interesting in this film includes:

1.1 Its lively supporting characters from various nationalities, including Sara, the woman who has permanent makeup on her face, Sara's daughter and her boyfriend who refuse to speak Spanish, the black nurse, the morgue guard, the Russian female thief, Peru, the meat seller, and the oil thief in Argentina.

1.2 The film is very touching at the end, when we see what is recorded in the camera. The scene seems to be a bit cliched, but it still works very well. Normally I hate a scene like this, but I don't know why it works for me this time.

1.3 The performance of José Soriano is great.

1.4 I prefer this film to ENGLISH VINGLISH (2012, Gauri Shinde, India, A+), which also deals with characters who can't speak English and have to find a way to survive in New York City. ENGLISH VINGLISH works very well as a fantasy film for housewives, but the financial problems of the characters in THROUGH YOUR EYES make the film much more compelling than ENGLISH VINGLISH, of which the characters don't have financial problems.

2.THE LOVERS ON THE BRIDGE (1991, Leos Carax, France, A+20)

I like the visuals of this film very much, though I don't feel involved with the story of this film. As for films dealing with amour fou, I much prefer HIMIZU (2011, Sion Sono, A+30).

3.THE DEPARTURE TIME (2012, Salem Salavati, Iran, A+10)

I like the melodramatic quality of this film very much, but at the end it seems like everybody is shouting all the time. I also like the dilemma of the characters in this film.

4.THE HAPPY HOUSEWIFE (2010, Antoinette Beumer, Netherlands, A+)

I like the first half of this film very much. The first half of the film made me assume that I would give it A+30 at the end. Unfortunately, I don't feel involved with the second half of the film. My problem with this film is the same problem that I have with SHARA (2003, Naomi Kawase, A+) and THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER (2012, Stephen Chbosky, A+). In these three films, the protagonists who have mental problems resulted from childhood trauma can overcome their problems at the end. I usually don't feel involved with characters who can overcome this kind of things.