Our Lady of the Assassins

Rating:
Summary: riveting
Review: I read the boook first,(English translation)and was quite surprised that the film was so much better than the movie.
The film is infused with irony without really being judgemental. The main character is a living/dying man full of contradictions. One moment in despair, another moment renewed in hope. Hating and loving all around at the same time. always changing between being atheistic and spiritually religious. Living in a past too painful to remember and a present too painful to endure. The main character's unhappy life, past and world is constantly contrasted with the young Alexis who while living in the same "present" as the older man, lives an entirely different reality. The film is an indictment of our times forcing us to look at some ugly truths about the inadequacies of our culture, our governments and ourselves.

Rating:
Summary: Very interesting Colombian movie
Review: We watch how life really is in Medellin, the centre of the drug
cartel: murderous, insane...And still there's a love story going
on. For some viewers the movie is cruel, but certainly less cruel
than most productions in Hollywood: the film doesn't want the
viewers to hate the young killer: it's just his way of indecent
life. This is a great movie for experienced audience and it has
a message for us.

Rating:
Summary: You have to see it!
Review: This is a masterpiece from Colombia I am so impress that our latin directors are giving us great movies like this one.

Rating:
Summary: Realistic, even things have changed a lot
Review: Great movie, show how was Medellin situation by that time.

Rating:
Summary: Very Disturbing.
Review: Althrough beautifully filmed and the soundtrack is mesmerizing, it is one of the most depressing movies I've ever seen. It's decadent, sad, and simply immoral. The film showed some of the darkest sides of humanity. Me and my friend are pretty open minded but we were very disturbed by the non-stop pointless shootings throughout the film as well as the decadent and perverse relationships. I wanted to leave in the middle of the film so bad but waited for a more comforting ending which never came. Months later, images of the story still gives me the creeps. If you have a heart and morals, this film won't fail to upset you.

Rating:
Summary: True Picture
Review: We found the movie to be well done with good direction and photography.For over 50 years we have been very familiar with the city where it was filmed.
The movie and book moved us to great sadness and many memories
of what was, what is, and what could have been for this latin city and the country of Colombia.
Certainly worth seeing if you like foreign movies.

Rating:
Summary: These Ladies are Ludicrous!
Review: This movie was HORRIBLE! I am sooooo tired of these "gay" movies where these two men are supposed to be together but all they do is put their hand on each other's shoulder. It is so unrealistic and just cheesy. All the violence was just stupid and very humorous. If the director would have dealt with it in a different way then maybe it would have been affective but it truly wasnt. Over and over this kid just shot people-- it was really silly. I dont understand how anyone could have enjoyed this? My friend and I couldn't take any more of the foolishness and we just WALKED OUT after a little of a hour. Please don't waste 10 dollars and 100 minutes of your life on this. Also, I would have helped if movie phone could tell you the movie is in SUBTITLES...????????

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Well done cinematic, realistic, and non pretentious. It is quite violent but it needs to be to carry the story. The "kids" were incredible actors considering they were not actors. Recommended highly.

Rating:
Summary: Where Death is accepted as a way of Life
Review: Barbet Schroeder has directed some fine films: "Reversal of Fortune" is one and some not so good films: "Single White Female." All his films have shown Schoeder to be interesting at least and profound and vibrant at best. In his "Out Lady of the Assassins," Schroeder returns to the city of his youth, Medellin, Colombia after a very long absence. Schroeder shares this homecoming with the lead in this film, Fernando played by German Jaramillo who is shocked and revolted yet attracted to the city of his birth. You get the feeling that Fernando, weary with life and too many bad love affairs, has come home to die. We are all taught as children to revere life but Fernando has stepped back into a world where life is not held at a premium and people are gunned down in the streets by roving gangs of young men and boys whose philosophy is "kill first...or be killed." The tone of this movie reminded me very much of Francis Ford Coppola's in "Apocalypse Now" in which we view a world out of kilter; a world gone crazy. Fernando, a gay writer in his 50's meets a young man at a party, Alexis (Anderson Ballesteros) who looks to be 15 or 16 and they are drawn to each other and eventually fall in love. The usual route in this type of affair would have one using the other in one way or another. But Schoeder is too shrewd for that and Fernando and Alexis fall in love without hang-ups or regret. This film is also one of contradictions: Fernando, a unrepentant critic of the Catholic church yearns to see the beautiful gothic cathedrals of his youth. And longing to see the house and neighborhood in which he grew up he finds that his parents and relatives have been killed or died and that his neigborhood has been flattened by bombs and gunfire. "Our Lady of the Assassins" was shot in the same guerrilla-style look as was "Amores Perros," which gives the film a grainy newsreel look that enhances the world-gone-crazy tone of the movie. What makes this film such a sobering and astringent experience is the realization that Schoeder has exaggerated very little here and that the world of Medillin, Colombia is very much as he portrays it. A Major achivement.

Rating:
Summary: Where Death is accepted as a way of Life
Review: Barbet Schroeder has directed some fine films: "Reversal of Fortune" is one and some not so good films: "Single White Female." All his films have shown Schoeder to be interesting at least and profound and vibrant at best. In his "Out Lady of the Assassins," Schroeder returns to the city of his youth, Medellin, Colombia after a very long absence. Schroeder shares this homecoming with the lead in this film, Fernando played by German Jaramillo who is shocked and revolted yet attracted to the city of his birth. You get the feeling that Fernando, weary with life and too many bad love affairs, has come home to die. We are all taught as children to revere life but Fernando has stepped back into a world where life is not held at a premium and people are gunned down in the streets by roving gangs of young men and boys whose philosophy is "kill first...or be killed." The tone of this movie reminded me very much of Francis Ford Coppola's in "Apocalypse Now" in which we view a world out of kilter; a world gone crazy. Fernando, a gay writer in his 50's meets a young man at a party, Alexis (Anderson Ballesteros) who looks to be 15 or 16 and they are drawn to each other and eventually fall in love. The usual route in this type of affair would have one using the other in one way or another. But Schoeder is too shrewd for that and Fernando and Alexis fall in love without hang-ups or regret. This film is also one of contradictions: Fernando, a unrepentant critic of the Catholic church yearns to see the beautiful gothic cathedrals of his youth. And longing to see the house and neighborhood in which he grew up he finds that his parents and relatives have been killed or died and that his neigborhood has been flattened by bombs and gunfire. "Our Lady of the Assassins" was shot in the same guerrilla-style look as was "Amores Perros," which gives the film a grainy newsreel look that enhances the world-gone-crazy tone of the movie. What makes this film such a sobering and astringent experience is the realization that Schoeder has exaggerated very little here and that the world of Medillin, Colombia is very much as he portrays it. A Major achivement.