Be Italian...

Me and Galina have been waiting to see this for months! The time finally arrived for us to watch Nine on the big screen...

Nine is director Rob marshall's remake of Federico Fellini's semi-autobiographical film 8½. This film was just spectacular from it's costumes and lighting to it stellar cast of Golden Glode nominees.The film is about a film director Guido Contini, a man who is nearing 50 and getting quite exhausted by his career and what is expected of him. His midlife crisis seems to render him unable to even write the script for the film he is already in pre-production for.
The dance numbers were absolutely amazing! there was so much movement and colour splashed across the screen that it was hard to tell were the cuts happened. This gave great a dynamic and energy to the film. This energy was crucual as the songs were dipictions of how a character was truely feeling inside their head. These needed to be emotional and capture the right tone for the audience to be moved.I really admored Daniel Day lewis' performance. I think he's a truly gifted actor in that he can be very subtle and yet as an audience member I just knew how he was feeling. he would just pause slightly or move a fraction on a word when giving his line. He did a really good job at making Guido likable. This man has a wife, a mistress, someone he lusts after, and a sort of fantasy woman all at the one time. His wife played my Marion Cotillard is lovely and yet Guido still comes across as a charismatic character who doesn't not love his wife, simply loves many women. Which for most of the film seems perfectly reasonable, which I found interesting. It was only when we started seeing more of Luisa that I started to sympathise with her. Nearer the end I was much less keen on Guido and very on her side as she was being humiliated by his lack of responsibility. I found the scene where she watches his screen tests are realises what she thought only they shared is really just Guido's way of getting what he wants from people very upsetting. I thought Marion Cotillard played this part extremely well.
I liked the 'Italian-ness' of the film, everything had that very Dolce Vita glamour and yet it was more modernised and shiny too. Every shot was breathtaking. The car Guido drives was so chic! The cinematography was so stunning especially in the black and white sequence where the young boys run down the sand dunes. It looked almost poetic or like a painting. I was really amazed.
This film would be a dream to work on. Each woman of Guido's has a very different character and background and coming up with their costumes or dance numbers must have been awesome. Penelope Cruz played the foxy mistress of course and her costume was designed by Collen Atwood who designs many of Tim Burton costumes.Kate Hudson's character was from American Vogue and so had a very contrasting style to the Italian costumes. Her dance sequence was shot in a mixture of colour and black & White making her seem very high fashion which was just perfect. It looked like a Vogue shoot.

You must go and see Nine it really was a feast for the eyes, it was so colourfull and energetic with amazing performances and dance numbers! If you like fun you'll definitely like this movie...