MovieChat Forums > Baarìa (2009) Discussion > What's the point?

What's the point?

posted 14 years ago by groggo
4 replies | jump to latest

This film was a huge disappointment in my opinion. With its budget (reportedly the highest in the history of Italian cinema), it is (understandably) beautifully photographed; it has a cast of thousands; it has appealing actors.

So what went wrong? Well, how about its glaring lack of an engaging, consistent narrative, one that would compel us to watch the screen for a laborious 2 1/2 hours? There is little real depth to this movie at all; it keeps the audience at an emotional distance, a great idea if you're exploring a Brechtian theme, but otherwise a recipe for a long, boring and often confusing ride.

The film was a bombastic directorial self-indulgence (he built an entire town -- in Tunisia -- to replicate his Sicilian childhood). He gives us a series of overcrowded set pieces that seem to be disconnected from one another and have little to do with the 'plot,' although there doesn't appear to BE a 'plot'. This creates a detachment that shouldn't be there. I kept whispering to myself: 'just what is the POINT of all this?' After finishing the film, I still don't know the answer.

[–] Lord_Gyaldhart 14 years ago

I didn't like this movie, I had such great hopes since Cinema Paradiso is my favorite movie of all time, and I also enjoyed 1900 and Malena (all of these movies by Tornatore).

But I found Baaria going too fast at the beginning, making it difficult to familiarize or identify correctly all the characters, and then it got painfully slow about halfway, focusing in extreme in politics and becoming too boring.

The ending is horrible, hated the misplaced and pointless surrealism there, I know that it is supposed to make a comparison between the old Italy vs the modern one and it is supposed to evoke a sense of nostalgia, but I think it didn´t succeed in doing so (as opposed to Cinema Paradiso, where the confrontation with the past and the sense of nostalgia was made as a masterpiece).

I was really dissapointed, and I hope that Tornatore's next film will be a better one.

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[–] cmp_gr 9 years ago

I do agree. I don't know what Tornatore wanted to present. More than the half of the film is engaged with the Italian Communist Party, it repeats the same and the same things. I found it awfully tiring, especially after the first 45 minutes or so. In addition it is unbelievable long (163 minutes or so). All in all I think the film is a failure.

[–] kissthepink 14 years ago

I see this film more as a collection of postcards from Sicily. It's a string of anecdotes, episodes and little stories kept together by the common thread of a family saga, with a touch of magic realism. In some points it reminded me "100 years of solitude" by Marquez.

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[–] Itneverrains 13 years ago

I kinda agree in the sense that i was disappointed after i watched it
I found it boring and not very exciting. Overrated.

I'm italian and i usually like Tornatore's movies but i think that his other more "recent" movie, "the unknown woman", is way better.
I recognize his style but something is missing in this movie so I can't define it his best or one of his best.

That said, aside from my personal taste that could be the reason of why i don't like this movie too much, i think that some of the things that you consider flaws are actually done on purpose in the movie.
For example: "it keeps the audience at an emotional distance"
I think that you were supposed to feel like that especially if you're not italian or you're young so you're far away from that culture and the historical times the movie is referring to about.
You're supposed to find some dynamics weird and boring. I think that Tornatore wasn't trying to make his characters sympathetic nor he wanted you to like them of see any depth in them. But they're real, or at least real at the time. Today things are very different even in Sicily (like it's hinted in the surreal ending where past and future merge).
He's one of those directors whom style is kinda "aseptic", he doesn't tell you how to feel about the characters it's totally up to you.
It's a bit like a documentary.

I see this film more as a collection of postcards from Sicily. It's a string of anecdotes, episodes and little stories kept together by the common thread of a family saga, with a touch of magic realism. In some points it reminded me "100 years of solitude" by Marquez.

I agree.

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