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Lady Gaga as vengeful Patrizia Reggiani in "House of Gucci"
Photo:
Fabio Lovino / MGM / AP
From December 2nd in the cinema:
"House of Gucci"
Everything was there.
Great actors.
Gripping story, even
based on a true story
. Successful, experienced director. Great locations and promising equipment options. Unfortunately, Ridley Scott's "House of Gucci" collapses, as if the film couldn't withstand its own weight. The story of the Gucci family clan has everything a true-crime-addict audience wants: greed, glamor and a contract killing. Patrizia Reggiani (Lady Gaga) organized it to get revenge on her ex-husband Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver). Because he left her and dared to sell the family company to foreign investors. The film logically approaches this murder, and in the first half you like to watch it, the falling in love, the intriguing, the rise, the fall. The longer the film lasts, the more stencil-like the characters become,until at some point they are only mouthpieces for meaningless sentences ("Never confuse shit with cioccolato") and their environment has degenerated into a backdrop for proto-Italian kitsch (espresso, prosciutto, carpaccio, Vespa). Neither the actors nor the actually good story deserve that.
Xaver von Cranach
"House of Gucci", USA / CAN 2021. Director: Ridley Scott, book: Becky Johnston, Roberto Bentivegna.
Starring: Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, Salma Hayek.
158 minutes
Read the background to the filming of "House of Gucci" here
"Benedetta"
It's not often that a director approaching 80 makes another really strong film, especially when it's about sex and violence.
With the psychological thriller »Elle« about a woman (Isabelle Huppert) and her very own way of dealing with rape, Paul Verhoeven created a masterpiece in 2016.
The Dutchman is now 83 and his historical drama »Benedetta« is now being released in German cinemas after its premiere at the Cannes Festival.
Verhoeven has again managed a rather complex and entertaining work. It is set in the 17th century and is based on the life of the nun Benedetta Carlini (played by Virginie Efira), who started an affair with a novice in a monastery in Tuscany and was brought to court for it. Verhoeven, known for the drastic violence and sex scenes in films like "Robocop" (1987) and "Basic Instinct" (1992), is nothing earthly alien. At the same time, he has been obsessing about religious issues for decades and has written a book about Jesus. In »Benedetta« he leaves it open whether his heroine is a particularly clever deceiver or is inspired by deep faith and can even work miracles. No matter what you believe as a viewer, one way or another it's fun to watch her manipulate everyone around her.
Lars-Olav Beier
"Benedetta" F / BEL / NL 2020. Director: Paul Verhoeven, script: David Birke, Paul Verhoeven.
With: Virginie Efira, Daphne Patakia, Charlotte Rampling, Lambert Wilson.
131 minutes
Read our detailed review of »Benedetta« here
"Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets"
Saying goodbye always seems to be topical. The documentary by the brothers Bill and Turner Ross,
"Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets"
, was shot in 2016. But the story of the last night of a mangy crash bar in Las Vegas, which has to close because, like so many other things in the city, it is supposed to give way to something more handsome, comes close to you in the second Corona winter. Another meeting, at the end of which you don't know whether you will see each other again. Again the retreat into the closest circle of friends, where you have to pull yourself together so much more than with the people with whom you drink at the counter of your favorite bar until sunrise and talk wonderful nonsense. Or, as in the film, takes LSD and calls the bar acquaintances to his real family.
That this is bullshit because it takes more than beer to be family, says former actor Michael straight to his drinking or drug friend, a very lonely Australian. Michael, 58, describes himself as an alcoholic and proves to be the most clairvoyant of the group that celebrates the last evening in the "Roaring Twenties". He's there from the first to the last minute, dancing, singing, flirting, sometimes almost fighting, always drinking. His advice to the young musician who is preparing to waste his life on alcohol too: "Nobody is as boring as the guy who talks in the bar about what he actually wanted to do." You wish Michael would save it would have remained to have come to this painful wisdom. But you are gratefulthat the Ross brothers were there with their cameras to immortalize them.
Hannah Pilarczyk
"Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets", USA 2020. Director: Bill Ross, Turner Ross.
98 minutes
"Gunpowder Milkshake"
Strong women have long been rare in the action genre. A film like
»Gunpowder Milkshake«
, in which the heroines can shoot and beat to their hearts' content, is basically a step in the right direction. It premiered on Netflix in the USA, and now it's coming to our cinemas. "Game of Thrones" star Lena Headey plays a professional killer who works for a criminal organization. Her daughter (Karen Gillan) is preparing to continue this family tradition. Bones splinter, blood splatter, men whine. Unfortunately, co-writer and director Navot Papushado cannot decide whether he wants to make a film that is as elegant as possible or one that is grotesque. Often the action turns into slapstick, and whenever the scenes are supposed to be emotional, they get sentimental.
The role model Quentin Tarantino is clearly recognizable, but unfortunately Papushado does not have his artistry. He pulls out some scenes until the plot almost comes to a standstill. His attempt to create coolness through extreme stylization also fails. Soon you will want to put on sunglasses in the cinema because you can hardly bear the constant neon light on the screen. There are always strong moments and pointed dialog sentences. And Paul Giamatti shines as a windy underworld great who manages with great skill to save her own skin again and again between all fronts. But the constant carnage leaves the audience indifferent at some point. Even the determined demeanor of two professional killers doesn't help. Because at some point you lose trackbecause they leave too many dead bodies.
Lars-Olav Beier
"Gunpowder Milkshake" USA 2021. Director: Navut Papushado, book: Navut Papushado, Ehud Lavski.
With: Lena Headey, Karen Gillan, Michelle Yeoh, Paul Giamatti.
114 minutes
From now on in streaming:
"Summit of the Gods" (on Netflix)
Classic cartoons were by no means extinct when highly potent computer animation took their place.
They just hide, for example in the endless expanse of the Netflix program.
The company has a heart for animation, including all the films from the legendary Japanese studio Ghibli (including »Princess Mononoke«).
In Europe, especially in France, with its rich comic tradition, cartoons are still well worth seeing. Last year, the fantastic drama "I lost my body" also premiered on Netflix.
The mountaineering film »Summit of the Gods«, which is based on a Japanese manga, is also coming from France.
It's about a mysterious adventurer who disappears from the scene in order to prepare in secret for the auction of Mount Everest.
This spectacle shows in a fantastic way why hand-drawn pictures in film can still spread a majestic magic: The icy peaks of the highest mountain on earth don't seem realistic here, but unreal and even more powerful - poetically exaggerated.
Oliver Kaever
"The Summit Of The Gods", F / LUX 2021. Director: Patrick Imbert. 94 minutes