Newsgroup: it.arti.cinema
Titolo: [Trovato - URL] Recensione definitiva di EWS

http://www.scoopthis.com/pages/article.cgi?file=reviews/001_eyeswideshut_a.htm
La segnalo alla cieca. Non ho ancora avuto modo di andarci,
ma su Cinema-L dicono che e' divertente.
Alberto :-)
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 ma su Cinema-L dicono che e' divertente.
Esilarante. Se il film č davvero cosě cretino, 'Rubik' :-) ha creato il film
giusto per questa era di merda.
stanz

ma su Cinema-L dicono che e' divertente.
sai come la penso, non ci andro' mai
ho paura di spoiler
anche minimi
N.

 anche minimi
vai tranquillo
Valentina

ma su Cinema-L dicono che e' divertente.
come butta su cinema-L?
qualche ragione per tornare a darci un'occhiata?
com'e' la scena, al momento?
vanz
Cialtrone Nr. nonmiricordopiu'

On Sat, 24 Jul 1999 17:26:32 +0200, 
fu.m...@iol.it
 (Valentina)
wrote:

non sai quanto sono maniaco degli spoiler
N.

cielo", che mi sono salvato (interessa?).
si', molto. e' un film che ho sempre amato senza mai capire veramente il
perche', visto che e' indubbiamente lungo e noioso.
lvan...@adhoc.net
grazie.
vanz
Cialtrone Nr. nonmiricordopiu'

 com'e' la scena, al momento?
C'e' sempre Shari, c'e' sempre Kristen. Rolando ha postato una
stroncatura di EWS meno divertente delle sue solite. Io mi sono flammato
col solito kjf su Cimino e Landis (ma in realta' e' ormai da tempo una
questione personale) e ho trovato un norvegese simpatico -tale Dag- che
mi ha fatto passare un pomeriggio a scrivere un post chilometrico su
"C'era una volta in America", che non gli era piaciuto. 
La flammata nasceva proprio da un bel post di Dag su "I cancelli del
cielo", che mi sono salvato (interessa?).
Leggo di fretta, di questi tempi, e scrivo anche meno. Su EWS non ci ho
letto niente di trascendentale, non ancora. 

mezzo...
ci sono stato per un paio d'anni fino a circa due anni fa. 
non lurkavo affatto (mai stato capace), ma ci scrivevo di brutto.
dava parecchia soddisfazione, ed e' sicuramente un modo eccellente di
affinare ed esercitare l'inglese. ricordo che avevo raggiunto una
fluidita' mai vista (che poi ho perso quando ho smesso).
ho smesso perche' son successe delle cose con una certa Sasha che ci
scrive(va?), cose che hanno avuto poi delle conseguenze, vabbe', robe
personali, magari un giorno te le racconto a quattr'occhi.
grazie per la rece.
vanz
Cialtrone Nr. nonmiricordopiu'

 asked what I had missed.  "He walked into a bar," someone said.
Some SPOILERS I guess:
The key to fully appreciate HEAVEN?S GATE is understanding the
characters.
The acting is as naturalistic as in THE DEER HUNTER (and Kristofferson?s
performance is as internalized and enigmatic as de Niro?s), but when
most
of the action of that film took place in a quiet, semi-rural community,
GATE seems at first sight dominated by a few convulsive, enormous
set-pieces. It is easy to ?lose? the characters in all this and the
quiet
episodes come across as drawn-out and boring (This was my first
impression
of the film by the way, impressive but uneven).
But in addition to being archetypes (Kristoffersen as the aristocrat
with
democratic ideals, Huppert as the innocent and natural ?pioneer spirit?
and
Walken as the upwardly mobile person, obsessed with materialist status),
I
later discovered that GATE is actually giving us an elegaic, tender
character study. The enigmatic Walken character must be one of his best
roles, a ruthless, strangely androgynous character, obsessed with
self-development, both culturally and material, in that he teaches
himself
to read and write and wears suit and tie and an elegant coat. (Surely,
this
must be the one Western with the best-clothed villains! Clothing is one
of
the motifs of the film, and one of the prime objective of the bounty
hunters hired by the the cattle barons, seems to be the ability to buy
themselves some high-quality clothes. This is of course to emphazise the
theme of blind, material greed). Seen as a careful character study, the
film takes on a mesmerising quality in that all the quiet, slower
episodes
become resonant, and the large action scenes take on an added urgency.
Isn?t this something all serious directors would give their right arm
for?
.
HEAVEN?S GATE is a strange beast and incredibly ambitious, a combination
of
careful character study and a Marxist western! I have seldom seen such a
successful blending of the personal and societal, which the film
alternates
between like a pendulum. No wonder that 1980?s audiences was bewildered,
especially since the main ?message? of the film is one of stalemate,
resignation and powerlessness!  It is fitting that GATE was the last
gasp
of the ?Director?s Seventies?, that produced such a successful blending
of
European art film and American storytelling.
The brilliant prologue at Harvard, besides being breathtakingly staged,
establishes the carefree, irresistible charm of money, power and
tradition.
Aside from  being brilliant prose (and reflecting the refined culture of
the rich), John Hurt?s commencement speech puts forth one of the
predominant themes of the film, the complacent view of the rich that
?the
world is all well arranged? as it is, a view that is certainly shared by
the cattle barons, but they are not so nice about things?
The prologue also introduces the circle motif that runs through the
film:
(1) the dancing around the big tree, (2) the students that form a ring
around the tree, (3) the graduate students fighting their way through
the
ring (and note the brutality Kristofferson is showing, emphasized by
close-ups of fist-fighting), (4) the roller skate dance of  the
immigrants
around the oven in the big community house (the Heaven?s Gate of the
title), (5) the replication of that dance later on by Kristofferson and
Huppert alone, (6) when the bounty hunters trap Walken in his cabin and
lastly, (7) the magnificent, infernal last battle when the immigrants
trap
the bounty hunter camp in an ever-contracting circle.
This last sequence is an overwhelming virtousity piece of energetic
editing. It is quite amazing to see that Cimino being able to sustain
the
feeling of intensity in a battle that must go on for at least twenty
minutes! The sequence (as with many others in the film) is not simply
grand-standing by Cimino (although I am sure he was pleased with his
abilities), this is a general misunderstanding of the film. By
emphasizing
the enormity of the forces at work, the enormity of the historical
struggle
between the haves and have-nots, he want to reflect on a larger picture,
not just this local battle in Johnson County, but similar battles
throughout history.
The coda, which, according to Steven Bach?s book about the making of the
film, seemed so confusing to the audience, is emotionally devastating.
Kristofferson, after finally having taking the decision to side with the
immigrants in the final battle, only  to see it all end in a stalemate,
has
lost his ideals, seen his loved ones killed, and have ended up with the
burnt-out shell of his well-to-do existence, married to a woman that
epitomizes the emptiness of material wealth. He seems only to be left
with
resignation and stasis.
I could write a lot more, for example about the use of music. All the
diegetic and non-diegetic music seem to be different arrangements of the
same, acoustic guitar tune of the opening credits. Sound is effectively
used to show the hectic acitivity of the western town, with its
thundering
drone of cartwheels and general mayhem (the verisimilitude of the
environment is one of the film?s particular strong suits), and silence
is
nicely used in other scenes. Just take the opening sequence: The camera
shows the overcast sky, pans down to see Kristofferson running through a
gate (not that it is particularly important,  just a nice touch, but
this
states visually the title of the film), we only see this one man
running,
but then we faintly hear the din of a larger crowd and Kristofferson is
then swept up by the throng. This states visually the theme of the
individual in relation to larger societal forces. Just to show that this
film is very well thought out, on several levels.
Enough for now!
Dag

 non lurkavo affatto (mai stato capace), ma ci scrivevo di brutto.
Avevi lo stesso nick e indirizzo? E se vado a sbirciare negli archivi?
(Sasha c'e' ancora, ha avuto una figlia e ha messo su una mailing list
di sceneggiatori, che ho subscribed ma che non riesco mai a leggere:
Screenplay...@onelist.com
)