kfrbot

I'm a huge fan of the American musical remake, YOU WERE NEVER LOVELIER (1942) with Fred Astaire, Rita Hayworth, and Adolphe Menjou, and it came as a rather pleasant surprise that it was a remake of a film that came out the year before. And in watching it, it does not disappoint in the slightest. The plot is the same (I'll keep this spoiler-free): a straight-laced girl is disillusioned with the men around her, but has dreams of tender romance, and it's not until her father secretly takes some rather presumptuous action that her eyes are opened and she can experience the love of her dreams. I only saw a poor version online and used my passable Spanish to follow the movie, but even so, I found it both very funny and very smartly written. The cinematography and editing emphasize the brilliant comedy, and as with the best of classic comedy films, there's never any cue for you to laugh because it happens so naturally. For me, the star of the show was Enrique Serrano, who plays the father surrounded by his whole family of women, often being confronted by them, and I think he's every bit as good as the great Adolphe Menjou of the sequel, but Juan Carlos Thorry and Mirtha Lengrand certainly pulled their weight too. This is a true gem of classic Argentinian cinema, and classic cinema in general, and it very much deserves a Blu-ray release and rediscovery - I would be first in line to preorder.

I'd like to preface this by saying, I think every film deserves to have an audience and I wish that films could not be so easily forgotten. I don't want to deter viewers, so I'll try to clearly outline reasons for my opinions so you can judge for yourself whether you'd like to see this.

Zwarte Zwanen (Black Swans) begins with a perfect-strangers kind of romance on the beach, between a rather attractive Carice van Houten and a somewhat less attractive Dragan Bakema. To call their love one of fiery passion is adequate, but I think this oversells the invested emotion, it is more accurate to call it a voluminous montage of intertwined beach activity and sex. But as their passion for each other eventually grows, so too does a rift in their relationship, and the two must try their best to face their metaphorical demons. The film is told in three languages: Dutch primarily, and Spanish and English in various side conversations that advance the plot slightly, but just understanding the Dutch is sufficient. I hope there's a subtitled version somewhere for the majority of viewers who don't speak all three. The camera work was generally functional, with only a few jarring shots that feel like inexperienced experimentation. Sadly, the bland script relied on sex to keep the viewer's attention, for the characters, plot events, and dialogue did not feel especially engaging or well-written. A movie buff might notice some obvious but appreciated references to From Here to Eternity, A Star is Born, and Titanic. Carice van Houten is certainly the one who elevates this to watchable, and is probably one of the few actresses who could competently deliver dialogue in all three of these languages.

I'm not going to claim this is a perfect movie. It has its flaws, and it seems that most other reviews here see these most clearly. But for me, the flaws did not define the movie, far from it. The plot is simple enough: Kim van Kooten (in a brilliant performance, I wish she made more films like this and Zusje) follows her boyfriend Michiel Huisman to New York on his "business trip", and must deal with the half-truths he told about precisely what his business was. It is not the plot that makes this movie great, it is the inventiveness in storytelling. There is definitely great influence from well-known classics like Tom Jones, Annie Hall, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and very possibly Jean-Pierre Melville's Magnet of Doom, but with a 2003 digital effects update that causes much of the polarity in the other reviews. I don't typically enjoy absurdist humor, but I found myself constantly laughing in amusement and surprise at the startling use of effects and van Kooten's quick asides to the camera. The film gets very sleazy at times, and it could be argued that this sleaze is a centerpiece, but I would instead define the film by the emotional journey of these two lovers, who make terrible mistakes and cause each other harm, but ultimately can apologize and forgive each other, and I thought that much was very well done. I have not yet read the book, but it's high on my list after watching this film. There is some debate about how well it adapts the book, but this does not affect my evaluation of the film; I'm not evaluating what could have been but what is. I expected that this would be a trashy romantic comedy like so many other Dutch romantic comedies, but to me this one rises far above.