Callie
A multilayered masterpiece
I honestly wasn’t going to write a review for this, simply because I didn’t know if I would be able to capture in words everything I felt watching it. This is an art film made into a drama, and done well. The story, cinematography, characters, the lack of artificiality, everything was raw. This is not simply a steamy story about a risque affair. It is a slow, seductive, and painful concerto about finding yourself, your center, your own truth, and letting go.
Story: It isn’t writing you can skim along the surface with. You have to discern the undercurrents and figure out what’s hidden in everything they say and do. This is the opposite of flash over substance, despite the salacious title. If you can enjoy watching a chess game played with people’s lives and reputations, if you like dynamic lead characters that grow and transcend, and if you like complex and multilayered relationships contrasted with shallow ones, then this is created for you. It is very reminiscent of Les Liaisons Dangereuses in its style and nature, only with more heart.
It was fascinating to observe how we can get caught up in the needs and expectations of others, augmented by our own ambitions, just by living our lives; as a contrast, we also see what happens when a catalyst comes and changes the world around us. In my own mind I keep picturing the main character as a bird in a cage that others keep tightening around her with their own selfish needs. She stays in it for her own desperate sense of security, complacent enough to the point of not realizing how small her world has become until that world is shaken. It is so difficult to watch her start to beat to her wings against the bars that are stifling her.
Production: The cinematography is brilliant: the way they use raindrops and the set itself to truncate the edges of scenes and create a sense of intimacy, the moody and often bleak monochromatic coloring scale. The music, which this entire film is woven around, transports you, even if you’re a layman like I am. Don’t mistake me, I enjoy music deeply, but I have no real knowledge of it, I only recognize what it makes me feel. I can only imagine how profound it might be to someone who actually understands and has a passion for classical music.
Acting: Phenomenal.
Misc: I'm not one to hand out five star reviews just because I liked something. In a lot of ways, this still raised the bar for me. This is a drama that I absolutely could not binge watch the first time around. I had to save it for a time when I could not be distracted by anything, and even then it was so emotionally charged that I had to pull myself out of it and breathe.
There are some people that are naturally not going to like it because things are still very black and white for them, and they haven’t developed a sense that there is always more to a story than that. This is not for the very young or very idealistic, or for those that have the idea of marriage being some sort of sacred thing, regardless of circumstances or differing reasons as to why it might have been entered into.
Unlike far too many western shows, this completely defies making the parts involving intimacy base or gratuitous. The title is meant to be ironic, and you see very quickly the truth of that. Honestly, after the piano sessions, any physical intimacy is a bit anticlimatic.
As an aside, the ending music can be very startling if you’re as wrapped up in it as I was. It made me jump a few times, I won’t lie. I had to start clipping the end because it became like an alarm clock to me- and I developed an internal alarm clock just so I won’t have to ever use a real one. So be forewarned.
TL;DR: Don’t watch this right now, you won't understand what's going on if you couldn’t even get through a review. (That wasn’t what you expected, was it…. ^.^) But seriously, it is complicated, and you'll have to pay attention.
Also, in all honesty, if you’re thinking of going in with preconceived judgements and a fistful of holier-than-thou notions, please don’t bother, it will only make you frustrated. But if you can give them a chance to tell you the tale, and accept the intricacies of being human, then give it a solid try. I’m not one to condone breaking promises of any sort, but I had absolutely no issues with this often sad but still lovely story.
Story: It isn’t writing you can skim along the surface with. You have to discern the undercurrents and figure out what’s hidden in everything they say and do. This is the opposite of flash over substance, despite the salacious title. If you can enjoy watching a chess game played with people’s lives and reputations, if you like dynamic lead characters that grow and transcend, and if you like complex and multilayered relationships contrasted with shallow ones, then this is created for you. It is very reminiscent of Les Liaisons Dangereuses in its style and nature, only with more heart.
It was fascinating to observe how we can get caught up in the needs and expectations of others, augmented by our own ambitions, just by living our lives; as a contrast, we also see what happens when a catalyst comes and changes the world around us. In my own mind I keep picturing the main character as a bird in a cage that others keep tightening around her with their own selfish needs. She stays in it for her own desperate sense of security, complacent enough to the point of not realizing how small her world has become until that world is shaken. It is so difficult to watch her start to beat to her wings against the bars that are stifling her.
Production: The cinematography is brilliant: the way they use raindrops and the set itself to truncate the edges of scenes and create a sense of intimacy, the moody and often bleak monochromatic coloring scale. The music, which this entire film is woven around, transports you, even if you’re a layman like I am. Don’t mistake me, I enjoy music deeply, but I have no real knowledge of it, I only recognize what it makes me feel. I can only imagine how profound it might be to someone who actually understands and has a passion for classical music.
Acting: Phenomenal.
Misc: I'm not one to hand out five star reviews just because I liked something. In a lot of ways, this still raised the bar for me. This is a drama that I absolutely could not binge watch the first time around. I had to save it for a time when I could not be distracted by anything, and even then it was so emotionally charged that I had to pull myself out of it and breathe.
There are some people that are naturally not going to like it because things are still very black and white for them, and they haven’t developed a sense that there is always more to a story than that. This is not for the very young or very idealistic, or for those that have the idea of marriage being some sort of sacred thing, regardless of circumstances or differing reasons as to why it might have been entered into.
Unlike far too many western shows, this completely defies making the parts involving intimacy base or gratuitous. The title is meant to be ironic, and you see very quickly the truth of that. Honestly, after the piano sessions, any physical intimacy is a bit anticlimatic.
As an aside, the ending music can be very startling if you’re as wrapped up in it as I was. It made me jump a few times, I won’t lie. I had to start clipping the end because it became like an alarm clock to me- and I developed an internal alarm clock just so I won’t have to ever use a real one. So be forewarned.
TL;DR: Don’t watch this right now, you won't understand what's going on if you couldn’t even get through a review. (That wasn’t what you expected, was it…. ^.^) But seriously, it is complicated, and you'll have to pay attention.
Also, in all honesty, if you’re thinking of going in with preconceived judgements and a fistful of holier-than-thou notions, please don’t bother, it will only make you frustrated. But if you can give them a chance to tell you the tale, and accept the intricacies of being human, then give it a solid try. I’m not one to condone breaking promises of any sort, but I had absolutely no issues with this often sad but still lovely story.
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