Ginger & Rosa (2013)

Sorry, this movie sucks

Memorable, crazy movie

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

From independent film director Sally Potter comes this small tale about friendship in the early 1960s as the world is heading towards the Cuban missile crisis. Ginger & Rosa is about two teenage girls growing up together. Ginger (Elle Fanning) and Rosa (Alice Englert), are 17 years old both on the verge of entering adulthood but having fun together, discussing religion, politics, playing truant and jumping in cars with boys.Ginger though is facing a personal crisis. Her parents have separated, her bohemian and free thinking father might be a womanizer and the dangers in the world is causing her to be filled with dread. Ginger gets involved with the nuclear disarmament movement and her relationship with Rosa enters an upheaval that threatens to shatter both families.The film starts interestingly enough especially with the casting which for a tale set in Britain has rather a lot of American actors such as Oliver Platt, Annette Bening, Christina Hendricks and Fanning who is excellent. Englert herself is Australian but the tale gets dull rather quickly and only livens up at the end. Just as the film gets interesting and the actors elevate the drama it finishes.

I bought this DVD months ago, but before I could watch it my dog ran off with it and buried it somewhere. I finally found it the other day (remarkably preserved) and read the DVD box to refresh my memory. Well the description doesn't exactly leap out at you: "Two teenage girls dream of lives bigger than their mothers' frustrated domesticity as the Cold War meets the sexual revolution..." Yawnsville, right? I was tempted to give it back to my dog. But I'm glad I didn't.Right off the bat, "Ginger & Rosa" is an absolute feast for the eyes. I have no idea what special filters, lenses & lighting techniques were used to achieve it, but writer/director Sally Potter puts us in a hazy, nostalgic state while maintaining crisp shots and vivid colors. She used Elle Fanning's red hair to the fullest, complimenting it with an equally glowing, autumn-like palette in the background. Contrasting scenes, the colder ones, seemed bleached & blue, bringing to mind the memorable Beatles lyric "If the sun don't come you get a tan from standing in the English rain." Why am I harping on colors so much? Because, although subtle, the colors are what bring this film to life, and like my review title suggests, you can take a snapshot of any scene and hang it on your wall as art.The story is equally captivating, not in a bang-em-up action way but in a quiet, uneasy "Catcher in the Rye" sort of way. Ginger (Elle Fanning) is reminiscent of the iconic Holden Caufield, a character with deep sensitivities coming to grips with feelings of confusion toward a human world full of hypocrisy and apathetic phonies. In "Catcher", Holden was obsessed with the impossible task of protecting all the children of the world. In "Ginger & Rosa", Ginger is obsessed with saving the world from a nuclear holocaust. As the missile threat looms with no rationality from political powers, and as her home life becomes increasingly troubled with no rationality from parental authority, she starts to come apart at the seams.Elle Fanning truly knocks this one out of the park. I haven't seen this sort of emotional performance from a young actor in ages, if ever. Everyone did a great job of acting, but it was Elle who really took the cake. Her final scene is so powerful it makes you wonder how she conjured up that sort of emotion and if she can ever do it again. I'll definitely be following her career to see.If you like artistic films with powerful visuals that transport you to a nostalgic, not-too-distant past, films like the Italian masterpieces "I'm not Scared" (2003) and "Denti" (2000) by Gabrielle Salvatores, maybe "The Squid and the Whale" (2005) by Noah Baumbach, another 60s British coming of age flick "An Education" (2009), and dare I mention the Spanish masterpiece "Spirit of the Beehive" (1973), then you'll really like this. Don't let your dog run off with this DVD.

Well the movie is about two teenage girls from London, Ginger and Rose, who are very close since their birth. They share everything, talk and discuss about stuffs, partying, sex, roaming everywhere and late night home comers, overall in one word they are inseparable. But destiny is envious of their bond and won't let em live like that forever.The movie is partially divided into two different stories in parallel stream of story telling. One was a family affair and the other one was a nuclear missile crisis. The blend was super between these two, one after another scene to scene changes the story's depth and notion.Elle Fanning and the new girl Alice Englert from New Zealand, both were good enough for the respective roles. I liked Timothy Spall's tiny role, it was very handy for the movie. And other too were given very decent performances.The movie had a fair and substantial amount of scenes that make us interest on it. It will also make bore for certain audience who are not comfortable for slow in pace. The tale was clear on the complex of the teenager's desire from the 1960s, so be aware of theme before choosing to watch it. For me it was a simple and good movie.7/10

The most amazing thing about this film is the interview with Elle Fanning amongst the extras on the DVD. (People who saw the film in the cinema will not have seen it, of course.) Fanning seems to have been acting since before she was in the womb, and being in front of cameras for her is as familiar as being surrounded by curious crowds must be to performing dolphins in an aquarium. As someone who has been on display all her life (she is now 16), Fanning appears not to have the slightest trace of vanity and is unfazed. In the interview, she seems to be as innocent and good as if she were an angel who had been sitting on the side of Heaven admiring the view, fell off, and landed down here by mistake, and is making the best of it. Everybody loves not only working with her but even being in the same room with her. Now how rare is that? In this film she gives a powerful and mature performance, despite being only 15 at the time. This is a Sally Potter film, so that it means it is going to be unusual. Sally Potter is an absolute perfectionist. She gets some quirky idea and then bites into it like a bulldog and does not release it until it is perfectly executed. She appears to be an obstinate person, and I wish she had less weird ideas for films. But once we accept that the film is about whatever it is about, we can be certain that it will be exquisitely made, in other words a pure masterpiece of Potterism. Potter, being a woman, has the capacity for deep and profound rapport with her actors and her crew, and they all love her. That is how she gets such spectacular technical results, performances which are classic, camera work and editing which are magnificent, and everything clicks. I love watching and listening to the tango, but I found her tango film THE TANGO LESSON (1997) somewhat irritating because of her quirkiness and her peculiar angle on things. She is far from being an ordinary person. I wish she were 5% more ordinary, whereas with most people I wish they were 95% more weird. That shows how dissatisfied I am with the underlying conceptions she sometimes comes up with, whilst being full of admiration of how she realizes them. I would like to sit down with her, hold her hand reassuringly, and say to her: 'Now, look here, Sally …' But having said all that by way of prelude, I must go on to say that this film is marvellous as a film, and something for all to be proud of. The camera-work by cinematographer Robbie Ryan, so much of which is hand-held, is spectacular, which greatly adds to the effectiveness of this intense and personal work. Together, the director and cinematographer managed incredible intimacy in the presentation of this sensitive tale. Supporting roles are well carried out by four famous actors, Christina Hendricks, Timothy Spall, Jodhi May, and the amazing Annete Bening (see my review of BEING JULIA, 2004, where I describe her performance as miraculous), all clearly drawn to the project by Potter's creative reputation and renowned rapport with actors. As Fanning's best friend Rosa, Alice Englert does a wonderful job in the second lead role, which is her first major film appearance. It is no surprise that having done so well, she has gone on to play leads in three new films in quick succession, and we will certainly be seeing a lot more of her, as she is talented, dynamic, and sensuous. Perhaps she takes so naturally to film acting because she is the daughter of the famous director Jane Campion, and her father also was in the film business but seems to have left it in 1996, except to produce a short in 2004. It often makes a difference to be brought up in a family where there is no fear of the camera and making movies is looked upon as a normal occupation. One must also praise the editing of this film by Anders Refn, and once again the closeness of the cooperation between the editor and the director in turning out this flawless realization of Potter's vision. I live in hope that a woman of such talent will one day have a vision more sympathetic to my own interests and inclinations, but that of course is merely my subjective view and has no objective validity. Hence, don't listen to me if I grumble, or take it as any ill reflection upon this film, which is what it is to a consummate degree.