18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Best Movie You've Never Seen, July 13, 2000
This review is from: Beautiful People (DVD)
I will be brief here as I'm about to write a seperate, more detailedreview. . . but let me just tell you, DO NOT MISS THIS FILM! In thetradition of Magnolia and Short Cuts, Beautiful People gives you a look into the seemingly ordinary lives of a large group of characters in London, England. Perhaps it is centered around a World Cup match between England and Holland, but in reality it is centered around human emotions. This film will make you cry tears of sadness and tears of joy just a few minutes apart. It will make you want to stand up and cheer only seconds after arousing hatred in you. I loved Short Cuts, (and I'll admit that I haven't seen Magnolia yet), but this film is even better. At a shorter length (under 2 hours), it stirs up more emotions and tells more incredible stories than Short Cuts does in over 3 hours. Beautiful people just came out in your video stores, and it has just recently become available on Amazon.com. I'm going to go order my DVD right now, and I hope you at least give it a chance. I'm sure you'll see that it's a treasure worth discovering!
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Is Life Beautiful?, June 2, 2005
I was first introduced to this film when I read New York Times' film critic A.O. Scott call it one of the best films of 2000. After all this time I have only now seen it.
Something that occured to me as watching the film was that the London presented here could very easily be mistaken for New York. London is presented as a melting pot of different cultures and social classes and by the film's end most of these people will have met and realize the impact they have on each other's lives. That may sound a little corny, but Jasmin Dizdar has not directed a tear-jerker. The movie brims with power. Dazdar is able to make the camera come to life with rapid edit shots and the frantic movement of the camera as it tries to pick up every last detail. You could compare the style of the film to Jan Hrebejk's recent film "Up and Down" or the films of Emir Kusturica ("Underground", "Black Cat, White Cat"). But the content of the film is very different from their work. In that sense it is closer to American films such as Robert Altman's "Short Cuts" or John Sayles "City of Hope".
The movie has no real focal character it intersects various stories which involve an upper-class nurse, Portia (Charlotte Coleman) who comes from a stuck-up family. Portia falls in love with a poor foreigner Pero (Edin Dzandzanovic). Then we have a doctor Mouldy (Nicholas Farrell) who is having legal trouble with his wife over who gets custody of their children. And there is a story about a reporter who has gone to Bosnia, I should mention the film takes place in 1993 during the fall of the former Yugoslavia, and when he returns home finds that he wants to do more to help but simply doesn't know what. Finally there is some comedy thrown in as a croat (Faruk Pruti) and a serb (Dado Jehan) find themselves constantly fighting, both verbally and physically, to the point where they both end up in a hospital.
But perhaps you're wondering what exactly do these stories have to do with one another? What I think the film is about is, people should try and come together despite our differences. In the end we are all really the same. We all have hopes and dreams and want the best out of life. Or as Dr. Mouldy says at the end of the film "If life works out just a tiny bit in your favor it can be beautiful." That is what this film is about.
"Beautiful People" I thought took a few misteps. I didn't feel the comedy should have been involved. And if Dizdar really felt the need for it,it should have been approached differently. It doesn't seem to gel with the rest of the story. But overall I think people will enjoy this film. It is worth going out and renting.
There is also something of sarcasm to the film's title as Scott rather aptly pointed out. The movie is not about "beautiful" people at all. It is about racism, intolerance and war, these subjects are anything but "beautiful" and never show people in a "beautiful" way. Scott makes the comparison to Mike Leigh's "Life Is Sweet" and how that title is also misleading.
I may not like the film as much as Scott did, but "Beautiful People" is a very ambitious film that pretty much succeeds at what it wanted to present.
Bottom-line: Director Jasmin Dizdar has set a pretty high bar for the film and it delivers. This is one of those "slice of life" film but it is not preachy or overly sentimental.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful People, August 1, 2006
This review is from: Beautiful People (DVD)
Its a real good movie, I first saw it on the IFC channel...had to have it...if you watch it think out side the box and dont be to transcendental, it is a low budget high quality film
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