salome-3

wonderful French film noir, whose perhaps greatest idea is to set a Noir-ish tale in a world of dreary offices and daily misdemeanours.

Add to the mix: a wonderful female lead (a deaf, underappreciated secretary) whose life takes an unexpected turn after hiring an assistant; a good male lead (a former thief freshly released from prison who becomes her office assistant - and then something more dangerous); two good actors (Emmanuelle Devos and Vincent Cassel in absolute "no glamour" mode); a well-crafted screenplay; fresh, edgy dialogue; simple and effective direction...

French people are so lucky to still have good genre movies that manage to make strong statements about society.

oh what a terrible movie... It looks like the screenwriter/directed was locked in a room with a copy of Clerks and a copy of Chasing Amy and left there to rot for five years. Derivative, manipulative, full of wannabe "witty" dialogue that's absolutely stupid and pointless (with more of a hint of homophobia)... it was clearly made just because the male lead Stefano Accorsi (already a display of acting mannerism) helped pitching the script. A perfect example of why italian film industry is getting shoddier and shoddier.

as many recent italian comedies, "Facciamo fiesta" is yet another major bad movie. So much for the plot: two italian single guys (played by screen duo Alessandro Gassman and Gianmarco Tognazzi) take off to Cuba in order to shoot a documentary about Havana. They meet a few local people, including two girls (one of them played by spanish actress/showgirl Lorena Forteza, who had a short-lived fame following her role in another bad comedy named "Il ciclone"), they are cheated by smart ass Cubans, they listen to music, along the lines of "Cubans are poor but they know how to enjoy life, not as us stupid Euro workaholics, blah, blah, blah". This makes a poor excuse for a movie, but tries to follow the wave of italian tourists who in the past few years have been choosing Havana as a holiday resort. This also makes a dull, flat comedy which leads nowhere, except for another occasion for Gassman and Tognazzi to play their usual clichè roles (please notice that these two guys in the same couple of years did the SAME routine in two previous movies... believe me when I say being italian sucks). If you are looking for a good portrait of Havana, do yourself a favor: leave this stupid flick on the videostore shelves and rent Buena Vista Social Club.