MovieChat Forums > Il cartaio (2004) Discussion > am I the only person who likes this film...

am I the only person who likes this film??


Everyone is saying how much this film sucked. Am I the only person to think this is probably one of his best films? Don't get me wrong, its pretty commercial but I think he filmed it in a very tasteful manner. I like the natural lighting and (although sometimes a little over the top) I thought the music was great. However I will admit that the main actresses voice was quite annoying at times.

Don't get me wrong, it's no SS, but it's a damn great movie.

"Joe Franklin raped me." - Big S

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No,you are not the only one...I like the film very much too!

I like the leads (especially Stefania Rocca,a fine actress who really delivers here one of the best performances in a Dario Argento film),the cinematography,the tight pace,the music...and some of the set-pieces are very good,for example the long chase in Roma's streets and river and the creepy and tense attack in Rocca's house.

A good film,and ex aequo with MOTHER OF TEARS/LA TERZA MADRE,Argento's best film since THE STENDHAL SYNDROME!

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I liked it. I thought it had a good plot line, decent acting, pretty even in its gore as usual, had some interesting scenes, like when the kid that was lucky at poker had to choose a door (reminded me of Saw in a way, though Saw is way more influenced by Argento than the other way around of course!)

I don't know why this and Do You Like Hitchcock get put down. They seem to be put together a lot better than Mother of Tears. I wasn't annoyed with either movie, I wasn't bored at all, they were great all the way through.

I liked TCP's railroad scene where the two characters were chained to the railroad.

I also liked DYLH's Hitchcock references...they were so many of them, fun to point them out when you watch.

I've never really hated any Argento film and seeing Mother of Tears in the theatre was amazing to me, because I'd never seen one of his films on the big screen. It was fantastic! All his movies play out like gory fairy tales. I really like them!

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I thought it was one of his best movies.
I liked the soundtrack, I liked the story
I think its definitly his best film post 2000.

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I'm a lifelong Argento fan who bought this movie 2 years ago and just mustered up the nerve to watch it tonight with my wife...all of the bad press had me fearing the worst, hence the reason that I hadn't yet given it a chance. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised! I mean, I wouldn't rank it with his best, but it was well paced, the characters were well drawn, and though it was one of the dumbest thrillers I've seen in awhile, it was wickedly entertaining; certainly better than the deadeningly dull 'Sleepless' or the incomprehensible 'Phantom of the Opera'. Sorry now I took so long to give it a chance!

That house is not fit to live in. No one's been able to live in it. It doesn't want people.

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I like it for the first 80 minutes... unfortunately the ending is really weak!

Argento has never been a filmmaker known for tying up loose ends, but the last 10 minutes of The Card Player are almost insulting. For me, it completely ruins what is otherwise a serviceable, modern-day police procedural.

No reasons, no motivation, no plausibility; and he totally cut off Stefania Rocca's final moment by running the credits over it, almost as if it's not even important (it's not a set-piece, so who cares, right?). The whole thing just feels rushed; it feels as if a more interesting or ambitious climax proved unsuccessful and the filmmakers had to fall back on a 'plan b'.

On the positive side, Rocca and Cunningham both deliver credible performances and do at least have some believable chemistry (even if their relationship is horribly undeveloped, as relationships in Argento's work often are), the atmosphere of the film is very good, benefiting from the slick cinematography of BenoƮt Debie, which seems to be channelling the spirit of Michael Mann with those amber-lit streets and cool blue interiors, and the scene where Remo chases the girl through the labyrinthine backstreets of Rome is one of the most tense and exciting cat and mouse sequences of Argento's career.

So yeah, I do like the film... but that terrible ending ruins it slightly. It's definitely better than the abysmal Phantom of the Opera and the almost as-bad Mother of Tears, but nowhere near the same level as The Stendhal Syndrome or Sleepless.

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