The Hand Of God

[MikeBiDude]

I streamed this on Netflix last night. Really enjoyed it, watched in original Italian with English subtitles my pref for foreign language movies. The long plot of the story is spelled out in a series of little events, stories, sub plots. Seems to be slightly autobiographical for the director. Fun, fun Italian family vignettes.

Being the dirty old man that I am I was distracted throughout by Filippo Scotti 😈 Still, he did an amazing acting job and won the Marcello Mastroianni Award at the 78th Venice International Film Festival.

 

 

[Rod Hagen]

I like his movies, particularly The Great Beauty, and his HBO series.  The Hand of God is beautiful (I saw it in the theater).  I wish he had shortened it after what happened in the alpine house, it seemed like he didn't know when to end it actually.  But definitely worth seeing.  (I still prefer the Amalfi Coast over nearby Naples, but he definitely opened my eyes to it's sometimes hidden depths and beauty)

Edited February 7, 2022 by Rod Hagen

[+ purplekow]

Rod, I watched this on your recommendation and I must say that I was disappointed.  The first 30 minutes were total confusion and after finally figuring out who was who, I had little to no interest in knowing what was what.  The seduction scene was a combination of Harold and Maude, The Graduate and every horror movie ever made.  The main characters trip to Capri and friendship with a smuggler were pretty random events.  Granted real life can be pretty random, but this is a movie and one of the things movies may do it remove the randomness from life in an attempt to tell a story with a cogent message.  Not an epic fail but a long and winding road to nowhere for me.  

[Rod Hagen]

On 2/10/2022 at 5:29 PM, purplekow said:

Rod, I watched this on your recommendation and I must say that I was disappointed.  The first 30 minutes were total confusion and after finally figuring out who was who, I had little to no interest in knowing what was what.  The seduction scene was a combination of Harold and Maude, The Graduate and every horror movie ever made.  The main characters trip to Capri and friendship with a smuggler were pretty random events.  Granted real life can be pretty random, but this is a movie and one of the things movies may do it remove the randomness from life in an attempt to tell a story with a cogent message.  Not an epic fail but a long and winding road to nowhere for me.  

I get that.  He stuck in a bunch of stuff from childhood, and not all of it needed inclusion.  I'm a sucker for movies that have images, the chandelier, and scenes, the outdoor lunch with the family, that stick with me, and as a result forgive things, non-cohesive stories and random, unattached, scenes, too much of a pass. p.s. this movie would not be nearly as enjoyable, for me, on the small screen.  I neglected to mention that.    Hope you like the next movie you watch :-)

Edited February 14, 2022 by Rod Hagen

[+ purplekow]

8 hours ago, Rod Hagen said:

8 hours ago, Rod Hagen said:

The scene where the nasty woman's husband gets arrested for his overlooking things at the veterinarian's office and she yells at one of the women only to have them knock her to the ground and kick her.  That seemed totally out of character for women who have been putting up with her for a long time.  Then, their actions are left disconnected from the rest of the story.  If you are going to have the story take such and unexpected turn, at least have the turn lead someplace.  At least the son losing his virginity to the ancient baroness is in keeping with his father's advice to getting the first one over and done and the baroness was fairly kind in saying that she did it to allow him to look forward not back.  Those connections made that scene seem a little less creepy.