MovieChat Forums > Terraferma (2011) Discussion > Thoughts on this film?

Thoughts on this film?

posted 13 years ago by caugusto16
3 replies | jump to latest

Having watched the film a few hours ago, I have to say I liked it very much. The first part may be slightly uneventful but I think it was necessary to establish the characters and the setting; in any case, the film gets more compelling with the arrival of the immigrants and remains very watchable until the end. The subject matter is relevant and even though it could have been handled in a less simplistic way, I didn't mind because it's obvious that Crialese put a lot of heart in this project and he certainly gets his point across; I also think that the juxtapositions between grandfather/uncle and Filippo/tourists are depicted in a realistic and effective way. The direction and the cinematography might be the best parts of the film as some shots are truly breathtaking (Filippo dancing on the boat, the "Maracaibo" scene and the final scene just to name a few). All the actors give good performances even if some roles are underwritten: Donatella Finocchiaro renders her character's longing for a different life very well but I also wanted to see more of her relationship with Timnit T., whose face is just haunting. Oh, and the wonderful final song makes the ending particularly affecting (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkS9WtJW0E8).

Thoughts? What did you like/hate about it?

http://tinyurl.com/443lgpa

[–] sirjeremy 13 years ago

I saw this on Thursday night at the London Film festival at a screening that Donatella Finocchiaro and Martina Codecasa attended and agree with all you wrote here. I can't remember the last time my a film held my attention so well. I feel that it's main strengths were how he didn't trivialise the immigrants storyline and at the same time didn't go overboard with the sentimentality - it came across as being hugely powerful. The real-life events were actually unknown to me before I heard about this film last month and one of the actresses on Thursday night said that even when they were shoooting it was going on then on the island. I also really liked the score and acting, especially by Timnit T, who I found out on Thursday had been an immigrant herself. I wish all of the storylines had had a little more time to develop, though - it's maybe about 15 minutes or so too short. And the score was lovely.

I hope as many people as possible see this on the big screen rather than on DVD/TV. The cinematography is quite something.

[–] caugusto16 13 years ago

I agree, the storylines could have been more developed (Crialese's scripts are always the weakest element of his films) but, having seen his previous film Golden Door, I am also glad that the director decided to keep the running time relatively short this time.

So jealous that you got to see Donatella Finocchiaro in person.

http://tinyurl.com/443lgpa

[–] Xcalat3 11 years ago

I'm not familiar with the writer but do agree the characters and storylines were underdeveloped.

When there's no more room in hell, The dead will walk the earth...