La Dolce Vita (1960)

I came to La Dolce Vita, being curious about such an influential classic and having recently seen 8 1/2, curious to get more of a flavour of Fellini. I thought 8 1/2 was all well and good but it was a little aimless- like it was procrastinating about the matter in hand... but that's almost forgivable since that's basically what the film is about. Maybe I was naive but I thought La Dolce Vita would be more.. focused?, not a magnification of everything that was wrong with 8 1/2 or if i have to be polite, everything i didn't like.
Clocking in at an extreme 3hrs, this film seems like the narcissist's director's cut of 8 1/2, if this film hadn't come first. It's Marcello Mastroianni gadding around Rome, smoking, wearing sunglasses at midnight, romancing and falling for some of the world's most luscious ladies and politely donating his love to some of the world's most desperate women. You know the deal. There's something very wierd about why Mastroianni makes for an attractive man. He looks like a chubby faced Alain Delon, he has this intense gaze but it looks less likely he's concentrating, more like he has an acute migraine. Probably what the perpetual sun specs are for. You should stop all the espresso and fags, mate. But then it DOES work for him. Who is I to complain?
Again, Fellini takes another interesting idea, the emergence of the 'paparazzo' and showbiz journalist and COMPLETELY forgets to use it and investigate it. Why do that when we just spend swathes of time hanging out at private parties, listening to overt philosophical conversions and getting wasted. Admittedly these things do happen and surely as fun is fun, as any designated driver will tell you - drinking and talking shit is not a spectators sport and in fact, there is nothing more sobering than watching people having a good time unable to join in.
But y'know, this is all immutabally beautiful to look at, of course. Everything is perfectly photographed and lit. The way the female actresses move, almost seems balletic but I'm afraid this is the negative intonation of 'style over content'. You can make the most astetically beautiful movie but i don't think you can make it over 3hrs long. It's exhausting to watch because you have to concentrate on this particularly dense and at the end- nothings really changed and we haven't really learned anything we didn't know...

I watched La Dolce Vita (1960), on DVD via LoveFilm.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Freakonomics (2010)...

Killer Nun (1978)

I've come to realise that Black Swan is just a nunsploitation movie without the nuns. 

You might thing that nuns were the operative part of a nunsploitation picture. Guh. You are a silly goose. nunsploitation is about almost supernatural paranoia and the nieve and innocent entering the path of cruelty & violence and/or sex. So there. Just don't ask me to explain nursesploitation. Please Do ask me about royalsploitation.

I digress. Killer Nun is about a trio of children who find a portal to magic kingd-No, it's pretty much about a killer nun. 
Made in the 70's for 2 lira, Killer Nun is about a matron-ly nun who works in a mental hospital. She had a brain tumor removed? And is still suffering from extreme headaches (we know this because she keep doing the Solpedine pose), which in turn causes her to develop a morphine addiction. And if she's blacking-out due to the dope or pain, she’s killing too. Did i mention this film is called Killer Nun?
It was also made in Italy so bad dubbing is a natch as much as the Aldi-brand film-making. If Killer Nun had a smell (god forbid), it would smell of Yugoslavian bleach. It's kinda hard to judge this film, in so much as if it accidentally does anything right, it goes a long way. It's shitty story and shitty acting are forgotten cos it's a fun dumb watch. At one point, the titicular sister of Christ steals a dead womans wedding ring to pawn for money for drugs. So she leaves the hospital but she also leaves her morals and matronly frumpitude behind to get dolled up and pick up a random bloke at an airport bar! We get to hear her inner-monologue during her choosing process-
"Asian guy? - Not with my digestion.
Him? Oh he's married to her-i'm a sex-nun, not a whorebag.

Him? He looks... Clean?'- Yo Mario! Grab your Faggio -You've pulled !"If you were hoping for a lot of violence, there's not much-certainly not the sort of viceral gore you might expect. It's not shy about nudity though. Nuns share cots and sleep in the nude together... I did not know that. Educational. Some women enter the church to hide their Sapphism... Well i guessed that.
I said the story was no good but it's not plot heavy; it's not convoluted which is good. Which also means somehow the film you waited your life to watch (if unconsciously) called Killer Nun is instantly forgetable but that's not the point. 
You know, somethings' aren't about savouring forever. You can still enjoy something in spite of its disposablity. I'd suggest you watch Killer Nun but on a Friday or Saturday night after coming home drunk and in a leery mood. Perfect viewing but not if you're looking to be challenged.

I watched Killer Nun (1978) via LoveFilm Online - http://bit.ly/gS7MYT

My 2011 in Movies will return with The Ghost (2010)...