Dol Maani This is my third Tornatore movie, Watching "La sconosciuta" made me want to check out this director's other works, as I quite enjoyed that movie even though it didn't bring anything new to the table and the ending is kind of forced,but the over all flow of the story and how he reveals the protagonist's motives in a kind of chaotic way which demanded some effort from the viewer to grasp the plot. I had high hopes for Tornatore as "La sconosciuta" was miles better than any recent Italian movie I've seen,but the second one I watched, "Legend of 1900", quickly rendered my hopes to major disappointments, that movie made me vomit a little in my mouth, from the first moments of the movie I could tell that this was aimed for fat American overly emotional housewives, Oprah's drones for short, it was nauseatingly commercial, drowned in cheesy Hollywood clichés, boring camera work and over the top emotional scenes with sappy music playing in every second of the movie.The moment I saw that boy fly at the beginning with the cheap score playing on the background, I instantly knew "Baaria" is no different from "Legend of 1900", it has no soul at all, it is so irksome and unengaging I can picture the director and his stuff sitting around with their material on all these scenes, it is that bland. The characters are so hyperactive and over the top it's like all the actors had vibrating dildos up their bungholes, shouting and hoping around like gay little bunnies during the whole time.This is another fecal matter in audio visual form, this kind of lazy film-making abominations seems to be loved by movie fests audiences and organizers, another outrageous trend that plagues the modern Cinema as seen with the Spanish turd "Tres Dias" and the German diarrhea "NimmerMeer".Avoid like AIDS.

JCR-4 I thoroughly enjoyed this film for the great performances of the two lead actors (only later did I find out they were debutants) and for how well Tornatore brought us a vivid picture of life in Sicily over a period lasting from the 20s to the 80s. We are reminded of just how strong a grip fascism had over Italy in the early parts of the 20th century, and how the average Italian had little power to offer an alternative. Sicily is depicted as a place of poverty, corruption and confusion. Life is tough and for many it's only their faith or their ideals that keep them going. The star character is a man that does not lie down easily to the fascist influence, challenging the system with little success, taking a few beatings along the way. He marries a local girl that was destined to marry into the rich and fascist way of life, bearing many children and leading as pure a life as possible given the harsh conditions. We come to understand why socialism and communism has a strong following in southern Italy. This is the story of one man's fight to raise a family with dignity, as a political activist hoping to make things better for the common people of his town, requiring heaps of courage given the dangers of speaking out against fascism in those days. Overall the film succeeds although doesn't offer anything I haven't seen before regarding Italian and especially Sicilian life. My vote 8 out of 10

kolo-5 "Baaria" is definitely a movie to be seen. It's not Jet Lee. It's not Brangelina. It's a movie, not fast food. Tornatore has put all his nostalgia and memories in it. There is a lot to explore and to understand. The movie is full of interesting characters, there is a little magic too, with the old woman that appears just in pasta time. What we see is not the saga of a boy, but the saga of a whole country. Its run-time is more than the usual, 163 minutes, but once you get in the movie you won't mind unless you have Big Brother to watch at home. There is a bit of "Cinema Paradiso" in Baaria, there are bits that remind you of "The Starmaker" there is something of "Malena" too. But Baaria stands of itself. If you like Tornatore, this movie is not gonna let you down.

johno-21 I saw this last month at the 2010 Palm Springs International Film Festival. From famed writer/director Giuseppe Tornatore this was Italy's official submission to the 82nd Academy Awards for Best foreign Language Film and was nominated for a Golden Globe in the same category so despite its rather lengthy 150 minute run time I was looking forward to seeing this. Also it is set in beautiful Scicily and features 40 of Italy's top actors in lead and cameo roles and a music score from the great Ennio Morricone so on paper this looks like a sure-fire hit. It certainly has an epic quality about it and it's nice to look at but there are just too many acting roles with very little for them to do. The time frame of it's setting covering three generations is too ambitious. The story line is too weak. the story takes place across the first half of the 20th century. Peppino (Francesco Scianna) is the son of a Shepperd who grows up to be a local rep of the Communist Party and has a forbidden romance and marriage to the beautiful Mannina (Margareth Madè). Beautiful photography from cinematographer Enrico Lucidi complementing the lovely art direction and production design of Maurizo Sabatini and Cosimo Gomez with some nice special effects this is a great looking film but it's wandering story line and fairly weak dialog drags it down. There is a lot to like in this film but despite the expense that must have gone into making it it falls way short of being an excellent film. I would give it a 7.0 out of 10.