Quinten van Dalen

The ushers said “well done” after we exited the theatre and that tells you all you need to know.

I don’t think neo-realism is for me. They’re always so short and still manage to be twice as long as they ought to be. Having both the really prolonged people-watching scenes as well as narration is such a jarring decision because we’re sitting there watching people walk for ages and then find out that Michel trips and falls in a voiceover. It’s possible I just missed the trip and fall, but if it did happen, why was the narration that he tripped and fell necessary? If you’re going to have a protagonist that’s motivated by little more than his unjustly inflated ego, you have to make them entertaining to watch. You can’t be boring AND selfish, that’s the worst sin in cinema.