“All the anxiety we bear with us, all our thwarted dreams, the incomprehensible cruelty, our fear of extinction, the painful insight into our earthly condition, have slowly eroded our hope of an other-wordly salvation. The howl of our faith and doubt against the darkness and silence, is one of the most awful proofs of our abandonment and our terrified, unuttered knowledge.”
Trying to figure out what this all means might be as useless as the two main characters trying to…
“So far, so good…”
This must be that absolute cinema everyone keeps talking about. I’m still wrapping my head around some of the camera work—the bathroom scene and dolly zoom mainly—but beyond shots that belong in a filmmaking hall of fame, it’s an insanely bold critique of urban disparities and the cycles of violence they perpetuate. Almost 30 years later and this depiction of a broken society remains relevant and accurate. “Hatred breeds hatred.”
Easily one of my favorite watches this year. I’ll be recommending this to every stranger I meet. Hang it in the Louvre.
Sam playing that one piano melody while the camera sits on Ingrid Bergman’s reaction is the best part of the movie. I’m not disputing the fact that it’s a masterpiece, but maybe I went into it with too high expectations and found it slightly underwhelming. Also, Isabella Rossellini is a carbon copy of her mother.
There’s so much that can be said about this movie, but what stood out to me the most is the fact that it’s still incredibly relevant 40 years after it came out.
A movie about the kind of thing that will restore your faith in humanity. What a story.
