Chirphymium
It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional
Zlatica
One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.
Fleur
Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.
Tim Kidner
The opening shot is hypnotic, drawing you in. Into a world of strangeness and solemnity. A deep, Italian baritone-voiced narrator making the invite ever more enticing. Then:A middle-aged gentleman just sits in the hotel lounge, looking intelligent and distant, distinguished but also downright arrogant and rude. He never speaks to staff, or other guests, even, despite having been in residence for ten years.He does something, without fail every Wednesday - and a couple more things the same day, once a year.The sort of gentleman one could chance upon in any hotel, pretty well anywhere in the world. A poker-face of nothingness, smoking his life away, his concentration on his inner world only broken by the burned out cigarette stub. The excellent acting of Toni Servillo, coupled with the sublime direction of Paolo Sorrentino, employing a Kubrick style of slo-steadicam, with an ever sense of steady dread. Always compelling rather than propelling, the story unfolds with Servillo's character, Titta, as he leads this strictly regimented life until confronted by the stunning Sofia, the barmaid. She looks at him straight in his eye and states that she's made his bed, served him this and that, had always been polite and courteous for the three years she's worked there. And he's never had the decency to utter a single word to her. Instead of being nice back or even saying anything at all, we're aware that a flicker of something human has sparked within him. But, as the very title states, this lowering of his guard could very well be his downfall. What does, however inflame this film and raises it even higher are the occasional flurries of activity. Titta hardly does anything more than almost nothing (driving one block, or looking around - not buying, though - a shopping mall) is accompanied by very loud punk rock music. This is unsettling - is this a dream he's having? Does he yearn for the fast life? Are the people he meets from a past, productive life? Do the characters he encounters then have any relevance to him - and to his situation now? The scenes look very real; the mood and ambiance are definitely not.Moving on into the realms of more conventional crime drama, but still with a cool unease and an almost Memento meditative pace, the whole reveals lives and opportunities lost. Of redemptive longing and knowing one's own fate. This is an intelligent film that refuses to retread a potentially familiar path.If in the U.K, BBC4 shows it again, wrap yourself inside it, be enveloped by it. You'll want to watch all of it, not that you know why but you'll be glad that you did. It's only 90mins. I've seen The Consequences... four times now, and I never tire of it. The ending will have you quietly shocked and amazed, too.
sp2303
Le conseguenze dell'amore (2004)is a beautifully made film that takes small carefully positioned steps towards its ending that need to be savoured in order to be enjoyed. From the contrasting landscapes, to the tightly enclosed world that the hero inhabits, we are taken by the Director and controlled from the very moment we enter the hotel. We, like the hero, will never escape from the suffocating intensity and paradoxical monotony of his criminally driven, Mafia world. That the film resists Mafia stereotypes whilst revelling in them makes it all the more successful. The concrete grave, the inevitable brutal executions and overwhelming maleness are laid bare and exposed for what they are. Just brutality and business, and no more. Life is about being part of the corporate machine that is organised crime and not about love or living for self, family or others. Our hero is indeed a hero in that he gives up his life for the sake of the touch of the beautiful barmaid, the resolution of the misery suffered by his only neighbours in the hotel and in order to escape his decorative prison. The consequences of love are indeed beautiful and brutal at the same time. See it!!
Framescourer
A stylish, touching Italian film. Toni Servillo's ascetic, crisply presented hotel-hermit Girolamo barely speaks and looks thoroughly bored. Not promising. However, we are engaged with a double hit of Girolamo's mysteriousness and the peripheral characters that he can't avoid in and around the hotel. Not least of these is the barmaid, the dark and irresistibly fragrant Olivia Magnani. She reaches out to him - the rest of the film are the consequences of his piqued humanity.I liked the editing, the use of a broad and varied soundtrack and a fresh, non-judgemental attitude to some familiar set pieces - murder, drug use, lust. There's no specifically existential narrative. It's equally cool and noble but no issue is made of any of these facets. Rather it's a straightforwardly told story in which all these themes are interdependent on one another. 6/10
R. Nauta (rudymovie)
Judging by the comments above , this film is almost unknown in America. This is the kind of " new' European movie that " scores' on the old continent. At least in the Netherlands (Amsterdam, not representative !) it had quite a moderate to good box office success. As a film-goer who grew up on the seventies diet of Visconti, Fellini, Antonioni, etc. (in the cinema that is, not on video...) (TV hardly ever shows this art) I do not see what is so important on this movie, or on another recent Italian top-hit in Holland, La Meglio Giuventu. Italian cinema may be on a comeback trail, but in my opinion the quality here is missing. I find this film highly confusing, and , main objection against it: as we say in Dutch, "putting the viewer on the wrong leg...". Who could think of a worse ending than the main character drowning in a classic Mafia concrete bath....., if I had seen this one in the cinema (I rented a DVD instead) I would have walked out sick....And then, what is the role of the bar maid (grand daughter of Magnani) ? We expect, by the title, a role for her in saving his life from the trap he is in right now. No, not to be. Conclusion: a bad script, a plot that takes crazy turns, but, as my colleagues here agree, great camera work, and a good main role . I rate it a 5,9 out of 10.
