MovieChat Forums > Alexandra's Project (2003) Discussion > Strong message

Strong message

posted 19 years ago by jonzot
6 replies | jump to latest

I don't believe the comments here! Doesn't anyone understand the message of this film, it doesn't have to be realistic. It's not sexist or degrading to men or women, it is meant to open your eyes to the power games that are happening in our relationships.

Somebody wanted a happy ending - well that just explains the lack of understanding shown here. And as for the comment on Australian male dominance in relationships, don't you think that is a problem in every society. I don't believe American society is free of oppression and sexism.

Look at the messages in films. The best films open your mind to perceive life in a different way and from a different perspective. Rolf de Heer's films are original and profound and if you don't gain an understanding from them then you weren't listening.

[–] Julius_Hernandez 19 years ago

Come on! Why don't you say if your male or female?

Anyway, the problem with sexism and opression is the obsession about it. The movie is written to catch fishes like you, and I see it does it.

SPOILER

The woman is a psycho. And only a real psycho deserves what she did. The movie could have been better if it had turned out to supernatural and end up being an illusion, ala Dicken's Xmas Story.

Btw, the movie, technically, is superb. Creepy, well done. But I feel depressed when I see psychos winning.

[–] jonzot 19 years ago

A supernatural ending? You have to be joking! That is exactly the problem with so many American films, they have to rely on some stupid effects and a totally ridiculous story. Isn't there enough films with bullsh_t plots.

Rolf de Heer especially made this film on a low budget for that reason. A good story should be able to stand alone and doesn't need millions of dollars thrown at it to try and keep you interested 'cause the script is crap.

If you wanted a happy ending go and see a Walt Disney film. Sometimes psyhcos do win you know. There wouldn't be unsolved murders otherwise would there.

I'm male by the way, not that that makes any difference. I know an original quality movie when I see one. I don't think we need another spiderman, batman, superman film or another great storm, tornado or tsunami film do we!!!

[–] Julius_Hernandez 19 years ago

I didn't say special effects. I said a supernatural ending (the way it seemed to be when he wasn't able to turn off the vcr). It scared me at that point.

Me and friends write and film some very interesting experimental films with extremely low budget or NO budget at all, some with home made fx only to enhance the meaning but not to rely on them. Don't confuse one thing with the other.

The other thing: not a happy ending, but here the male is so dumb that he accepts with stupid resignation an unfair revenge executed by a psycho woman. Rolf de Heer must be a misogyne, a gay, or a straight trying desperately to seek sympathy from the not-so-smart female PART (radical feminists) of his audience.

[–] smacklab 19 years ago

hey Jon (thats your name right? i CAN put 2 and 2 together...) forget this guy (who by the way hasn't told us his sex (and I'm male)) .....this message board proves what i've thought for a long time .... very few intelligent and MATURE adults write comments online on these types of sites ...

you are so right .... no one hear seems to get the point of this movie .... to think that alexandra was crazy is ... well .. crazy!!

Supernatural ending?? .... if you want to take all the emotion you felt in that movie and then just chuck it all out then yeah, end it on a completely fake note ... That would have just distroyed the movie ... also the ending were he couldnt turn of the tape would have been far less unnerving .... I never saw anything in that wasnt justified by the characters ...

Maybe this movie is very Australian and americans, in general don't get it .... i mean, they have such different priorities as well as different views on how they treat women (just look at degrading hiphop clips,,, most kids in america think thats how to behave) ...

i post the rest of this one another thred but i'm going to repeat myself

i think you got it wrong personally ... I just watched it and i got to say, yes it's bad for the kids, but its not like she never told him how she felt... he says in the movie that he had heard it all before from her, it was nothing prozac couldnt fix and actually skipped the first part of the tape that he had heard all before ... it wasn't til she pulled the gun that he started listening again....

also their house was a prison ... he was stuck in there wasn't he?... and he didnt let her have any money without alexandra having to humiliate herself buy asking for it constantly .... i think that would be a very, very big deal ... also the whole cucumber and vibrator bit, plus the constant "expected" sexual overtones would be completely degrading for alexandra ... all of these add up to a situation that i feel would be horrible for alexandra to remain in...

as far as her becoming a whore... well he constantly treated her like an object and she says she "learnt from him" ... she learnt the power of her body (not in a positive way) and that she was an object so i think she was kinda forced to see herself like that ... he pushed her that way ...

to think that any woman would want to be seen purely as a sex object is insane ... constant degrading of her like that made her feel like *beep* obviously ....

and what she did in the end was to make her husband feel like she did (she said that)... she did it for 15 or so years .... and what he did at the end (masturbate) only confirms what she thought he thought of her .. she was right she was just an object ..... this whole thing reminds me very much of what porn does to women .... degrades them and takes all the individuality away ...

personally i thought this movie touched on issues that i've never seen in anyother movie without going too hightech and they are issues that need to discussed ....

as to it being an old fashion feminist payback movie ... your just way off .... he totally had it coming ... i'm not saying that "it" would be fun though .... everyone looses from this situation .....

this is one depressing movie.......

so anyhow ... a good movie will make you think .... this one definately did ....

[–] Julius_Hernandez 19 years ago

He he, smacklab, don't put yourselves above the rest of the world only because the cultural differences... I'm a mexican, latinamerican then, and the way you talk about treating women has nothing to do with our origin. I'm a 40 y-o male and me and friends have enough sensibility to watch movies to catch the point of this one.

When I first heard about Alexandra's Project, I figured what was it about. Then, I was very excited (not sexually excited, btw) watching it. It seems to me a inventive thriller, the one you can make with two bucks and get high responses. But in a way, this movie wasn't particularly noticed. I.e., The Blair Witch Project was also a low budget film and got enough notoriety (even that bad it is).

The bad thing with "Alexandra's" is that it exceeds the feminist complains about women. A lot of intelligent and MATURE women doesn't share the bad feelings of Alexandra. They take her as a psycho woman, yes, she's crazy, and the movie's fault is not showing us her crazyness... the fault is to pretend that her crazyness is right and must be awarded with the freedom she got. Though it's only an invention, if the movie was based in a true story then we could understand it: world isn't fair; but being a god driving the character's behavior and destiny, the moral of the script can only be aimed to please crazy and depressive women as her (yes, yes! *beep* that sexist pig! yeah!!), and not for smart and liberated women (talk with your husband and be sexually pleasing together, etc). I've known a lot of girls that are liberated enough to watch porn, emulate its practice and even use their husbands as sexual objects, as a healthy accesory for a loving marriage.

Because of this, I thought the better way to handle the poor denouement of the script was turning it into a supernatural thriller, unless you find a more inventive way to end it.

[–] smacklab 19 years ago

"He he, smacklab, don't put yourselves above the rest of the world only because the cultural differences.."

ok fair enough ... i did assume you were younger and more infulenced by america... but the situations you talk of... such as women likeing porn etc... well that happens everywere but you have to have respect or its just like it is in the movie ... totally degrading ... hey ! can i put a cucumber up your arse ... or do you want to try that on your wife/girlfriend without asking?? ... didnt think so

cuturual differences do have an effect on the way women are treated... you just need to look at the media to see that ... i'm not saying you and your cuture dont respect women ... but i do know for a fact that women are portrayed as objects more in the media in the US then in australia .... and that those media programs etc do go out into the world and effect the youth of the world's attitudes towards women ... its impossible to watch something and not be influnences in some way ...

"he bad thing with "Alexandra's" is that it exceeds the feminist complains about women. A lot of intelligent and MATURE women doesn't share the bad feelings of Alexandra"

well im sorry but if any woman i new thought that she obviously didnt get the point of the movie or missed the subtle indicators of what the characters lives were about .... maybe they have never experienced anything close to this situation ... good for them i hope they never do ...

did you watch this movie?? .... she tried to talk but he didn't listen ... we know this cause hes says it... she says it ... and he fast forwards it .... i dont know how to explain this more ...

there are subtle hints at why they cant talk as well ... .like his tone when the boy hurts himself or the way he reacts when the door is deadlocked at the start .. also the fact that he controls every aspect of her life ... from money to the kids (when the boy hurts himself) and the home lock down ... you miss theses things and thats what i ment by cultural differences ...

also i dont think this movies suppose to be a triller ... its a drama ... about real characters ... that in itself would indicate that you missed the point of this movie ... i think thats cause of the subtle cutural differences ...

anyhow have you actually thought of what it would take for someone to act the way alexandra did? ... i mean what would it take to make someone you know do that ... then assume that that had happened ... thats how you get into a story ...