Eva Braun (2015)

Powerful

Absolutely Fantastic

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Not the biopic of Hitler's mistress that one might suspect from the title, this unusual film is rather set in contemporary Italy with the focus being an Italian millionaire who hires five youths to act out his sexual fantasies. While they are all paid, it is gradually revealed that each person has other reasons for agreeing to essentially be a sex slave; one is an aspiring filmmaker looking for funding, another hopes to be introduced to his contacts, and the list goes on. In this regard, the film seeks to be a study of how much people can be persuaded to degrade themselves with the promise of something worthwhile, and while the film has garnered comparisons to Pier Paolo Pasolini's 'Saló', the subjects of 'Eva Braun' are willing participants, even if they are physically repulsed by it all. It is clearly the filmmakers' intention to draw parallels to Pasolini though; the millionaire is called Pier after all, and -- like a movie director -- he often sits back in a chair, shouting instructions at those he hired - occasionally even demonstrating how to act. Curious as all this may sound, the film is let down by a nasty sense of humour that tends to trivialise the degradation; a virgin is deflowered through misuse of modern technology, the reason for the title turns out to be an unfunny joke before the end credits roll, and so on. The film also has a - perhaps unavoidable - sense of repetitiveness as everything gradually devolves into one act of depravity after another. It is a daringly different movie to say the least though, and Andrea Riva's take on a man with the spirit of Pasolini is arguably worth watching for alone.

This movie is about Italy, but it goes deeper than any documentary could do.However it's not a pessimistic movie: it's full of gags and humour, symbol of a Country that is impossible to portrait in a serious way.Pier, the leading character, is a sort of Silvio Berlusconi, former Italian prime minister, but he's more human, but not less tragic.He is obsessed by sex and by stealing each other's souls and bodies, and he is just a man with an empire in decline.Erotic scenes fading in humouristic ones, tragic mixed with grotesque, brilliant dialogues and extreme sequences: this movie is quite unique.The actors are all good. The most talented one is the girl who plays Bea (Adele Raes), really moving.

It's a strange movie. I thought it was an erotic one, but it's a sort of comedy. It's about Italy and scandals, but it's quite a cruel portrait of people searching quick ways to fame and success.Many sequences are visually charming (like the orgy's one), and the dialogues are always funny.The leading actor, who plays the character of Pier, is a sort of Pasolini mixed with Madds Mikkelsen, and he's really good. The actress are quite good looking, and they are all perfect in their roles.Usually I don't like Italian movies, but this one seems like a German one, or a Korean one.

Random, pretentious, pointless.The synopsis for this movie was interesting, in that it is (purportedly) based on the Marquis De Sade's "120 Days of Sodom" (which I haven't read) and Italian politics. It also seemed to have parallels with Pier Paulo Pasolini's "Salo - 120 Days of Sodom". I haven't seen Salo, but it is one of the most controversial movies ever made (and by many accounts one of the most offensive movies ever made).So, could be interesting from a movie history perspective, and a literature perspective.However, it is a total waste of time. Plot is random, at best, and incredibly pretentious. There is no point at all - it's just barely-connected scenes.If there is any link to the book or movie there is the fact that the one character is named Pier and he is a rather eccentric, creepy film-maker. So it could be some sort of abstract Pasolini biopic, set in 2014. But that would be giving the writer and director of this movie far too much credit...