The Unknown Woman

The Unknown Woman was directed by  Giuseppe Tornatore, an Italian director, ever directed Cinema Paradiso(1988), The Legend of 1990(1998). According to information, the film won:

David di Donatello (Italy)

•  Best Actress – Leading Role (Kseniya Rappoport)
•  Best Cinematography (Fabio Zamarion)
•  Best Director (Giuseppe Tornatore)
•  Best Film
•  Best Music (Ennio Morricone)

European Film Awards

• Audience Award – Best Film (Giuseppe Tornatore)

Moscow Film Festival (Russia)

• Audience Award (Giuseppe Tornatore; tied with Molière)
• Silver St. George – Best Director (Giuseppe Tornatore)

Norwegian Film Festival (Norway)

• Audience Award (Giuseppe Tornatore)

Irena, a mysterious woman , moved to Italia and looked for jobs in a elegant  apartment building eagerly. Nobody knew her past. In others' eyes, she was full of secrets.  She started by cleaning the stairs. However, this was not her final determine. In order to approach one of families in the apartment, she made friend with Gina, a nanny worked for the family. Irena tripped Gina on purpose which result in nanny's paralysis, however, presumed to be accidental. Then, Irena was hired by the family as a new nanny to take Gina's place. Irena developed loving relationship with the family's child, Thea. But Irena was fired by the mother because she misunderstood that Irena wanted to get the family from her. Later, a unknown man appeared. He came here to find Irena. The truth surfaced gradually. The unknown man is the boss of a illegal organization. Irena had been abused both in body and mind by him, and forced to bear nine children, all sold to adoptive families. The last one child was Irena and her lover's . Irena's lover  was murdered and buried in a dump by the boss. Irena was very depressed and she was trying her best to find her youngest child. She stabbed the boss and stolened the money to look for her youngest child, whom she believed is Thea. Especially  she saw the adoption documents which convinced her that Thea was the youngest child. Unfortunately, the mother was killed by the boss of using a car accident. The boss wanted Irena returned the money but he died during a struggle with her.  Irena was ready to start a new life with Thea and Thea's father, however, the police suspected that Irena murdered Thea's mother and arrested her. Finally, all the truth emerged as I metioned before. To Irena's surprise, Thea was not her daughter. Although Irena acquired that, she still regarded Thea as daughter. She encouraged and feed Thea who stopped eating. Then Irena was put into jail. After many years, a beautiful young lady appeared the out of jail when Irena was released.

I like the fragment that Irena trained Thea in a strict way to make Thea acquire self-protection because Thea could not protect herself after falling down. It is generally acknowledged that the maternal love is the greatest in the world. Irena fell Thea again and again. The pain was not only on Thea's body but also into Irena's mind, perhaps more painful. Irena just wanted Thea learn how to stand up by herself. I was touched deeply. Therefore, I think the theme of the film is maternal love.
Meanwhile the film also ask us a serious question about surrogacy. As the film described, Irena was controled by  a illigal organization and the organization benefit from forcing Irena and other women to bear children. These women were deprived of being real mothers. They didn't stopping give birth to children until they have no fertility, but no one is their legal children. They were physically and emotionally abused.
The Unknown Woman is a psychological thriller mystery film, which appears horror sense frequently. The director formed the Irena's complete past by her intermittent recalling. This skill absorbed audience easily and made audience grow many different conjectures about the unknown woman because of curious.

Three colours: Blue

This is a French film which directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski, who is a Polish director. This film won:

• Venice Film Festival, 1993: Best Film and Juliette Binoche, Best Actress, Best Cinematography
•  César Award, 1993: Best Actress: Juliette Binoche, Best Sound, Best Film Editing
• Goya Awards (Spain's Academy Awards): Best European Film;

Blue is the first in the three colors trilogy, followed by white and red . The title comes from the colors of French flag.According to Krzysztof Kieslowski,Blue is the symbol of liberty, White is the symbol of equality, and Red is the symbol of fraternity.

In this film, Julie, the heroine who had a happy family of home at firsrt., however, her husband who is a famous composer and her daughter died in a automobile accident except she survived. She became very depressed and attempted suicide by swallowing the pills, but it wasn’t successful. After her discharge from hospital, she moved to a new apartment without telling anybody. She left everything except her daughter’s chandelier of blue bead in order to escape from the suffering of the past. She destroyed her husband’s music scores, included the one celebrating European Unity, following the end of the cold war. By chance, the couple’s friend Olivier get the score, who is in love with Julie and try to complete the score. Meanwhile, Julie discovered his late husband was having a affair and the mistress was pregnant. Julie was  kindhearted and generous who arrange for the mistress to live her late husband's house. Finally, Julie began to build her complete new life without pressure.

The theme of the film was liberty because the entire film descibed the woman how to release herself from past and pursue a complete new life. Blue is the main color in the film, and also is one of three colors on the French flag which symbolizes the  liberty. Meanwhile, the color makes audience feel the atmosphere of  depression and sadness.

Juleitte Binoche acted the heroine in the film. Although the dialogues among characters in the film  were simple, Juleitte showed great prowess at acting through facial expression and body language. Such as Julie bit lips and touched the coffins in the funeral video which showed that she bore the pain with resignation.  Especially, there was a sense touched me deeply. Julie rubbed her hand with wall, which led her hand to bleeding. It implied that she underwent great mental aguish. She released herself from physical pain.  Music went through all the film as a significant element. I like the Symphony which is played off and on in the film. The melody was powerful, inspiring and encouraging, which revealed that Julie couldn't isolation from everything as music couldn't be made with a single note.

Krzysztof Kieślowski, the director, whose style was exquisite. He expressed character mainly through tiny details. Such as Julie was scared because there were a brood of mice in her storage. She even prefered to move again. From the detail, we acknowleged that Julie was a vulnerable actually not as strong as she looked.

Talk to her

This is a Spanish film which directed by Pedro Almodovar. According to the source "the film won the 2002 Academy Award for Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen and the 2003 Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film".

This film is about two man who never met before, and they were getting know each other in a concert. They are young male nursing, Benigno, who acted by Javier Camara and a writer, Marco, who acted by Dario Grandinetti. Filled with wooden tables and chairs on the stage, two women closed their eyes, open arms, dance to Henry Purcell's "The Fairy Queen". Marco can not stop sobbing because of the scene is touching. A few months later, they met again in El Bosque which is private clinic. Marco's girlfriend Lydia is a professional bullfighter, she was injury, and in a coma. By this time, Benigno is taking care of a young ballet student, Alicia, who is in coma. Benigno fall in love with Alicia, and he raped her. Unfortunately, Alicia got pregant, and Benigno arrested by police. Few mounth later, because of  Benigno could not see and take care of Alicia, he committed suicide. At the end of the movie, Alicia woke up and met Marco in a concert. It seemed that there would be a couple.

"Talk to her" was the major theme in the movie. Lydia and Alicia became vegetative patients in different reasons. Benigno was a experienced carer, and he kept talking to Alicia, although  Alicia couldn't repond to him. From these talks, we could see obviously that Benigno loved Alicia deeply. For the other couple, Marco was unable to adapt to his girlfriend being a vegetative patient. At begining, he didn't know how to look after her, then he began taking care of Lydia as what Benigno to do for Alicia till Lydia's ex-boyfriend came back to break them up. There is a warm scene that Benigno and Marco took the two women out to enjoy the sun which moved me to tears . Although Alicia and Lydia were vegetative patients, the two men still believed they maybe heard what they said. I think this is the power of love.

I like the song "Cucurrucu Palom" which is sang by Caetano Veloso in the movie. I am deeply touched because of beautiful melody and singer's soulful singing. This song is sorrow and heartleft. As the sad love in movie, Marco loved Lydia deeply, Benigno loved Alicia deeply, however, they did not become couples in the end because of many sakes. In addition, the silent film inside film is bold and unique which also impressed me. The director implied that Benigno raped Alicia by the indirect skill, which shocked audience.