MovieChat Forums > Habitación en Roma (2010) Discussion > Artsy? Yes. Too Artsy? Possibly...

Artsy? Yes. Too Artsy? Possibly...


Perhaps I just wasn't in the mood for an "art-house" film this afternoon but I found myself totally unmoved by this movie. Even all beautiful artwork, vague but poetic dialogue (which I usually dig) and perpetual nudity/girl on girl action wasn't enough to hold my interest. I just really wish I hadn't wasted my time watching this.

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Sorry. I thought it was gorgeous and thoughtful. A little melodramatic at times perhaps, but gorgeous.

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I totally agree with you. It was annoyingly unrealistic, especially the dialogue. I'm not saying vague, poetic dialogue can't work but there HAS to be chemistry between the performers and some wit and spark to the script for it to stand any chance and I think this movie was sorely lacking, especially with the chemistry. I just couldn't believe that these two women had a shift in their inner universes with each other, which is what was supposedly depicted. Repeated use of the same music unnecessarily, poor, jarring editing, and just odd sense of timing overall, did not make for a satisfying experience for me. And being gay myself I found myself laughing a lot, out loud, in stunned disbelief at the way this relationship was depicted. The whole thing was very bizarre. Also a waste of my time.

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Well this is a movie for people that like women...hence lesbs and male heteros. So you're not invited anyway. :-þ

I think it was an awesome movie. Pretty chilly vacation feeling, nice dialogue, very sensual and all over an great experience.

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I am a lesbian. I said I was gay in my post. Fair enough you may have thought I was a guy, but why a gay guy might rent this I'm not sure. Regardless I would take no offense if I wasn't invited to this movie. A life long ban would be appreciated in fact.

I'm assuming you're a man because I can't believe any self respecting lesbian would think the dialogue in this movie is nice. It's pretentious and borders on funny because of it's ridiculousness. Trust me, women do not talk to each other like this. And the supposed sensuality was sooo staged that it made the whole context of two women supposedly connecting in 1 room in 1 night, farcical. There wasn't anything natural or believable in the way this movie and the performances were put together.

Each to his/her own but I think you really need to get out more if you consider this a 'great experience'.

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Well people in movies never or barely talk like people in reallife. Everything is a lil more fast-paced etc. And even though you're a lesbian, I doubt u can say how every women on earth talk to eachother, especially when they are kindalike Soulmates and had a life like this. And even if there would be no women like those, these characters were interesting and sweet to me. A lil sneaky, smart, complex, twisty but yet honest in the end. Gotta love it.

But of course, each to his/her own.

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'Everything is a lil more fast-paced etc'

what. 2001: A Space Odyssey, Hana-bi, Bridges of Madison County, Moon (2009). These are movies where a slower pace is purposefully employed. Not everything in movies is fast paced. For crying out loud the dialogue in the original Solaris is as minimalistic as the pace is.

Anyway, I digress. In the same way that lighting and costumes and gestures are adapted for screen so too is dialogue, and we as viewers accept this purposeful artificiality because we all know that the real thing would just look and sound crap. But there is a distinct difference between dialogue that is written as 'artificial real' (and accepted as such by the good grace of the audience because we can appreciate the skill and talent the screenwriter/s has employed to make the artificial pass for real), and dialogue that is just plain artificial. For me, this movie's dialogue is the latter. It's not movie fake, it's just plain fake.

But regardless, I am relieved that this flick was not a complete waste of time for others as it was for me, and although I don't understand how, I am glad you liked it :)

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The pronunciation of her name is synonymous with "Hot sexy body"!! At least that's what I thought after just viewing "Room in Rome"! She seemed very comfortable with no clothes. She and her co-star, Natasha Yarovenko, handled the nudity with amazing ease and confidence. I just thought I'd let you know that I kinda enjoyed the movie.

Altho, at 73 years of age and being a heterosexual male, I suppose many movies that has 2 fit young ladies telling their stories in the nude would appeal to me!! ;>)

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I thought this movie was very artsy but I'm not so sure I would say no one would ever act or speak like this. It might depend on your cultural background. I'm American and I can't imagine this happening in America. But I've also lived all over Europe for several years including France, Italy, Spain, and even a few countries in eastern Europe. From personal experience, observations and the many friendships I've built over the years, I think this dialogue and experience is not out of the question. But it's not going to happen in Indiana that's for sure. It also probably wouldn't happen in northern Europe either. The stereotype of the Brits and Scandinavians being a bit "colder" than their neighbors in the south kind of holds true.

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I've never said the experience is out of the question. We'll have to agree to disagree about the dialogue. My main issue with the film was the chemistry between the two women. I didn't believe them. Regardless of whether the dialogue is realistic or not, it was written and delivered in such a way that I could only hear them talking from a script, not from their characters. And there were too many other elements like the music and editing, that pulled me out of it, making me more critical.

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usuk

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your argument and addition to the thread is simply overwhelming

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Thank you for representing every lesbian in the world (I must have missed the election the last years).

I do agree that the music was irritating at times and the dialogue was not great. But honestly how many lesbian themed drama's could you call an Oscar worthy experience?? 1 - 2??

I was entertained for 90+ minutes and so was my gf.

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I never advertised or presumed that I was speaking for anyone other than myself, I only noted that I thought it highly unlikely that lesbians would find this dialogue convincing or 'nice'. You agree that it wasn't great.

I'm not being snarky when I say that I don't understand your point about Oscar worthiness... Does that mean that I should lower my expectations for this genre and not be so critical of fundamental things like music and dialogue?

I'm glad you and your gf enjoyed it, I'm in no position to judge that, only the movie.

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"because I can't believe any self respecting lesbian would think the dialogue in this movie is nice..."

maybe you shouldn't have generalized then.

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I see where you're coming from but I I did not phrase it 'no self respecting lesbian would think...', which would have made it a generalisation. I attached it to my belief, not what I considered a fact, which leaves it open to dispute, as someone has done, and which I've acknowledged. My annoyance with the movie has since dissipated but at the time it was irksome enough to make me comment more strongly than probably necessary. I consider it one of the worst movies I've ever seen, so my initial reaction was unfortunately a bit unbalanced. Sorry if I caused any offence.

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I do not agree with your general feeling, but yes, indeed, the sensuality (do I want to say sexuality?) felt really staged. And trying to hide the vagina all the time seems artificial to me.

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If it helps at all, this movie is just a loose English-language remake of a melodramatic movie about a straight couple. That would probably explain a lot of the issues you and a few other lesbians have with the movie.

Room In Rome is just "En La Cama" but with two women and in English as opposed to a man and a woman and in Spanish. IIRC, En La Cama is similarly melodramatic and artsy, which isn't really my style either.

I'll admit that I much rather prefer grindhouse over arthouse. I do like this movie due to weird nostalgia because I saw it in 2011 and remembered liking it. But it does have a lot of arthouse cliches.

It's still better than "Blue Is The Warmest Color" (which is a low bar to clear, tbh)

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startcopysend and I are of one mind on this. As a lesbian, I was curious about this film, but I couldn't continue past the first 5 minutes, as the dialogue proved so unrealistic, that I was completely turned OFF. What straight woman would accompany me to my room with that sort of come-on? They surely could have managed a spark of attraction, but what they gave us was dry.

I would argue that this film was not artsy. The script was possibly written by a teenaged boy. I cannot judge as to the quality of the rest of the film, sadly, because he lost me within the first 5 minutes.
Very disappointing.

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Agree WITH STARTCOPYSEND.
I found no chemistry, hard to believe, I am watching two beautiful naked women, and..nothing. I have seen movies in which two women are experiencing very atraction toward each other and I could sense intense chemistry, with very limited dialogue AND WITH THEIR CLOTHES ON!!
BTW I am male, 73, and like girls, I found nothing stimulating in this movie.

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that's okay. Sometimes we are just not in the right mood for a particular movie.
But the movie itself is quite original and well done.

---------------------------
Life's too short for mediocrity.

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I'm sorry. There was DIALOG in this movie? I musta tuned that out.

"Aw Dammit! Hot Bitches!"

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I was unmoved too by all the melodrama which gave us scenes that seemed to be poorly acted at times. The cinematography was pretty good though, even though I'm getting a bit bored with the whole handheld camera thing. The music was annoying at times too.

http://imdb.com/user/ur2019270/ratings

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