MaestroReviews

Deb and I are artists, painters actually. We go see films as often as once a week. That's right, we go to the theater and sit in a dark room with strangers to see movies. We rarely rent. We like "little" movies, foreign and documentary films. We try to stay away from mainstream and blockbusters whenever possible, but a couple sneak in each year. We seek out the obscure. We try to avoid violent movies, and that really limits our choices, most film makers seem to think violence makes a story interesting.
I try not to give anything away in the reviews, but offer an honest reaction.
We rate them 1~10, 10 being highest.

Saturday, September 1, 2012

The Well Digger's Daughter

Deb 9    Me 10

The opening montage sort of set the stage for me. The first shots were quiet and ran long and set a nice pace for the rest of the movie to follow. The credits were in French and looked like random letters from a keyboard, some of these names were totally abstract, it was amusing. The players were all authentic in their look and actions. It takes place around the time WW1 breaks out. The set direction was incredible, everything, all the little details were carefully picked and placed in a most natural way (with the possible exception of what appeared to be a Bic lighter). And that's the way the movie moved, it just naturally cruised through the story. There were a few moments of sap, but they were moments. I really liked the people in the movie, they were all so earnest. For the most part it was good people in difficult situations doing the best they could given their time and place in the world. I might give it a 9, but I just enjoyed sitting there watching so it got a 10. The subtitles allow you to enjoy the melody of the French language. I have just finished a couple paintings where I had to pay close attention to trees and weeds, and this film was chock full of great flowing weeds under trees bent by the breeze. Stupid me, I thought I was going to see another movie and when this unexpected one started it just sucked me in and kept me captivated all the way through.

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