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Nobody's Children - Movie Club 2018
Topic Started: Jan 15 2018, 04:21 PM (52 Views)
kanafani
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I did not like Nobody's Children. I have no strong feelings towards melodrama one way or another. Like other genres, it has its own conventions and grammar. Sometimes this grammar/vocabulary/whatever is used to create transcendental, lyrical, devastating works of art. Other times the results are pedestrian. For me, Nobody's Children is an example of the latter. I really have nothing against the outrageous plot twists, the tragic deaths and near-deaths, the mistaken identities, the temporary amnesia… Some of the movies I adore have even more outlandish elements. The problem here is that this never lifts itself above the level of manipulative, tedious, tearjerker material. None of the emotions ring true for me. It just sticks to a tried and tired formula and milks it for all its box office potential. There is an attempt at naturalism, but it feels like décor and does not ring true, because there is no attempt or desire to represent real life in its complexity. A couple of people online compare this to Sirk, which is just outrageous to me. I didn’t buy the romance between the country aristocrat and the peasant woman for even a second on any level. The aristocrat matinee idol actor is a disaster. Such a stiff and lifeless performance. The woman fares better, at least she has screen presence. The child is bad too. I guess the villain was the best of the bunch. There is some Catholic imagery here and there that I suppose some might find intriguing, but I couldn't care less. Anyway, sorry Erika, we did not click. Sorry if this lacked details. I’ll let others chime in and then maybe I can revisit my comments with more concrete thoughts and examples.
letterboxd
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josiahmorgan11
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g legs' sweetheart
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Well I suppose my issue with NC was that in its melodramatic trappings it mostly ignored a conventional emotive response to most of what it was setting up i.e. most melodrama is at least effective in recognizing and being proactive about a response within the audience but this one seemed both totally reticent *and* nonchalant. And yes, comparing it to Sirk is bold - and unfounded.
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Holymanm
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moats n groats
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Yeah most of what Kanafani said is how I felt about it... with the exception that I myself am a big fan of melodrama - though not so much of 'scandalous plot twist' soap opera type melodrama. So this movie started off well, but I liked it less and less as it went on, the more inexplicable and manipulative it got. It's like melodrama as an exploitative horror movie - milking all the nice characters getting brutally murdered by a greasy guy in a mask for cheap entertainment. Only this time it has more dogs and babies and boring Christian imagery everywhere. (Like that Pieta painting near the end, yikes!)

Anyway I didn't hate it, it was sort of okay! The doggy in it was really nice, and I liked the umm mountain photography. I like old Italian movies with on-location scenes! Rocks! Stones!
Edited by Holymanm, Jan 16 2018, 08:18 AM.
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mesnalty
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g legs' flame
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It took me a few films to get into Sirk, even, so melodrama's never been easy going for me. That said, I've learned to go along with them. Nobody's Children strikes me as a pretty standard melodrama, though I have to say that it does manage to fit like 3 hours worth of plot into 90 minutes. I appreciate that, though your mileage may vary based on how you feel about melodramas in general, I suppose.
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sacmersault
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Like someone said, I don't really mind the melodrama aspect too much. This movie was just average for me. There was nothing special about it. It seemed like something that was shown in movie theatres and was really popular at the time, the equivalent of a Hollywood blockbuster from the time. Also, I guess the director was known for his melodramas so there's that.

There is a Mexican soap opera waiting to happen in how melodramatic it was though. I can totally see it.
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Lencho of the Apes
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Let's go do some crimes
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I Figli Di Nessuno certainly is a fine-looking movie. I've seen dozens of melodramas with plots comparable to this, but rarely have I seen one that presented such an attractive visual field. (Rarely -- of course -- have I seen one that's been honored with a state-of-the-art 21st century restoration, either....)

As for the narrative content, it only became interesting to me when I stopped to think about what wasn't being shown or told onscreen; the whole scenario seems like a hokum-engine designed to address post-war anxieties without ... actually addressing them. Most obvious example; the action takes place from around 1938-39 to 1951, so where's... um... the war? Or anything else that happened in Italy during those years? If you do the arithmetic, the idea of pre-teen boys wandering around Italy in 1951 seems like a reconstruction issue, like the bombed-out street orphans in Rossellini. Ditto for labor vs capitol issues (without ever invoking the spectre of communism), and for the schism between the countess' business philosophy, and the modernized/industrialized one her son espouses. (Thanks to Nat Zzing on letterboxd for pointing out that last one.)
Edited by Lencho of the Apes, Jan 18 2018, 08:23 AM.
"The four cardinal points of the compass? In reality, there are only three: North and South."
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Mario Gaborovic
g legs' wife's lover
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Sort of melodramatic routine drag but thankfully it got much better in the second half, when the boy is grown up.

I would like to know how many folks actually watches these films; judging by Letterboxd seems like 5 at most.
Edited by Mario Gaborovic, Jan 20 2018, 05:52 AM.
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javierquintero
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Gifts must affect the receiver to the point of shock. - Walter Benjamin
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Just watched "Nobody's Children". Not much too say. I just did the structure/twist checklist and it perfectly matched into a pre-conceived idea of melodrama as many of you have mentioned. As always my main objection to this genre is that sentimental drama is prioritized above social conflicts. By the same token, words were prioritized above images. Those spaces surrounding the quarry were accurate for the story, however I was hoping to get to see more landscapes, mountains, rivers, etc., as well as some camera movements. This is a sample of that global filmed theater trend that Bresson referred to in his 'Notes on the Cinematographer'.

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bluesoldier

Mario Gaborovic
Jan 20 2018, 05:48 AM
I would like to know how many folks actually watches these films; judging by Letterboxd seems like 5 at most.
I've watched them. I just don't use letterboxd. It'd be way too cumbersome at this point, it seems, for me to bother with it. I have other ways to keep track of what I've seen.

That being said, sorry I haven't posted much in this thread, or contributed to the conversation. I find reading people reactions to different things more interesting than posting my own. Besides, I'm not sure if I'm too ready to defend my opinions on these things to (some) people I really don't know too well. In due time, I suppose.
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Mauries
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g legs' sweetheart
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Nobody's children was a fine film, but didn't do much for me. It's melodrama that tries to evoke emotions by plot events, rather than by a good depiction of emotions through acting/cinematography/conversations. Only the happening of certain events is usually not enough for me to really feel a movie.
The Economy stinks, bees are dying, and movies are pretty much all sequels now
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sacmersault
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bluesoldier
Jan 21 2018, 08:10 AM
Mario Gaborovic
Jan 20 2018, 05:48 AM
I would like to know how many folks actually watches these films; judging by Letterboxd seems like 5 at most.
I've watched them. I just don't use letterboxd. It'd be way too cumbersome at this point, it seems, for me to bother with it. I have other ways to keep track of what I've seen.

That being said, sorry I haven't posted much in this thread, or contributed to the conversation. I find reading people reactions to different things more interesting than posting my own. Besides, I'm not sure if I'm too ready to defend my opinions on these things to (some) people I really don't know too well. In due time, I suppose.
Yeah, I don't use Letterboxd either. I have an account but I've never updated it since I use other sites to keep track.
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Brotherdeacon
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It conjures willy-nilly
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Nobody's Children: If one gets a bit lost in the machinations of this Italian melodrama, just follow clues from the German Shepherd. There are many unusual scenes in Nobody's Children (1951) as when the hitch-hiker with his guitar (Giorgio Consolini) sings a song to his Momma in the back of a truck, certainly reinforcing the mood. Locations and exterior compositions helped as well, but the plot line was the work horse in this Raffaello Matarazzo film. A fine treat if I'm able to leave my irony and sarcasm in the vestibule, otherwise it's fresh meat. I was oddly reminded of Werner Schroeter films without the historical/fetish remove (not irony)-- I'll say, endearment. Although Holymanm's quip "It's like melodrama as an exploitative horror movie," seems also true. This film wasn't made for for a group of film geeks in 2018, but that's part of it's innocence and dare I say, charm. Javier's note: "As always my main objection to this genre is that sentimental drama is prioritized above social conflicts," I agree with, except that post-war Europe was rife with social conflicts being prioritized over any other thread of film storytelling, some of it Italian and notably great, some of it less great by leftist nonetheless. History almost demanded so, which makes Nobody's Children more of an enigma, though it still poked at greed, aristocracy (the devious old mother), the troubles of the poor etcetera, less Internationale music swelling at the end, but instead a WTF weird over-the-top-of-the-top -of-the-top ending which included the nun's 21 gun salute to tragedy (Camille in a habit). Also, although the film's Catholicism with a capital C was more of the mystical (interior) resolve for our courageous Mama/Sister Addolorata, the Church got its ad time, no doubt. Maybe I'm being fussy. Maybe I just liked the dog and the quarry and the cottage that no one could find until everyone could find it--say magical. My critical port got tired and fell to the floor.
Edited by Brotherdeacon, Jan 22 2018, 10:28 AM.
“Somebody has to do something, and it’s just incredibly pathetic that it has to be us. “
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bure420
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deadpan darling
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i watched NOBODY'S CHILDREN

didn't like it. can't really say why. didn't like the acting. i didn't feel sad or sympathetic a single time. i mostly just didn't care about these characters. they felt more like caricatures
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