God Loves Caviar (2012)

Very Cool!!!

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

The original matter is excellent , but the movie is bad. First of all the storyline, is not follow the historical events so the movie is not historical. The original story is much more interesting and complicated, but if the movie based exactly on history the production would be very expensive.Even thought the scenario is interesting.Is a low budget production, but some scenes looks completely unreal like to be filmed by not professionals. I think could be used old buildings instead of cheap graphics .Also, the film never shows why Varvakhs is a great benefactor for Greek and Russian people too. Better film than El Greco, but the producer should think seriously if he wants to make another historical movie without the proper funds.

A movie very close to Varvakis life. A movie that shows that Greeks are exactly like that , we always let our Βenefactors like Varvakis to die & always act like traitors for the interest of the wealthy countries(as long as our pocket is full with money). Something that still happens today. I believe that this is what Smaragdis is trying to tell us. But unfortunately we cannot handle the truth. If Smaragdis had more funds he could make it even better. Some of the special effects (like the destruction of the Turkish fleet) could have been better. But these cost. The change between languages might sound a little confusing but it was a necessity . A big bravo for Mr Smaragdis, i enjoyed the complex of this movie much more than El-Greco.

I will agree with tinakewy's review. The screenplay was confusing a lot. I liked the actors a lot, especially the Greeks who were very serious with their roles. They didn't look like the usual Greek actors. I also really liked the mother of Varvakis when she came down to earth to talk with him. Her expressions and her eyes were very beautiful.I would like to mention some technical issues that I noticed. Is it possible to have Out of Focus shots? There were lots of shots like this and there weren't a screenplay reason. It was a technical mistake. Even if the budget was low, controlling Focus is a basic thing. In some cases the video editing was a bit disturbing, too. You could tell the cuts. Also, the dubbing was noticeable in some cases.I would really like to watch a great story, a great film as a Greek. But it wasn't that great.Thank you.

God may love caviar but I did not love the film. I wanted to, desperately. I am Greek so I *really* wanted this to be an awesome, magical film... it wasn't.The story starts off great, as being told by Varvakis' loyal footman, on a sandy beach of Zakynthos (Zante), to a bunch of children. It starts like a beautiful fairytale, but gets confusing very quickly.It feels like there are 500 people being introduced into the film and we don't even get to get their names. There is zero, and I mean zero, depth to them. As a Greek, I recognized all the Greek actors, some of them pretty popular in Greece, who only got maybe 5 minutes of acting... some only 30 seconds on screen. We are never told who they are, why they are doing the things they are doing...Another issue I had was, that time was not acknowledged as passing. We see Varvakis who is dressed as a Cretan but we later find out by accident he was from the island of Psarra, getting introduced to his baby girl who is at the time less than a year old. Then then next solid time reference we get is, it is 10 years later in Russia. He doesn't appear aged one bit and his daughter appears all the way from Greece, but instead of the child being 11-12 years old, she looks to be about 30-ish (yet Varvakis is still the same, not a single gray hair, he could have posed as his wife).Another thing that struck me as odd was the choice of key actors... they were ugly. I am not used to seeing unattractive people on screen. No, I did not expect to see models but at least some sort of make-up, some sort of aesthetics... their looks made them uninteresting.Another thing is, there is no explaining of historical facts at all. For instance all the references to the Greek Revolution were only understood by the audience, because we are Greek and we have been taught our history in school. However when some history of Russia popped up during the film, we had no clue and no explanation was given. I imagine if this film makes it to an international audience, unless they are avid history buffs, they will be mystified as well. I imagine the film was intended to be presented to an international audience, because the lead is a German actor, and the whole thing is shot in English.There are positive aspects of the film as well. Sebastian Koch is absolutely magnificent in his role. He is very believable and convincing. So is Evgeniy Stychkin!! These two make the film barely watchable and bravo to them!! Another bravo to all the Greek actors, who for once!, learned their lines in English perfectly and with a good accent!!Taking into consideration all the biographical films I have seen, this attempt seems cheap and amateurish. The story was there, it was an interesting life but it felt half-baked and soulless. I did not connect with a single character except his footman (Evgeniy Stychkin). There was no drama, no thrill, no romance, no danger... it felt like reading the newspaper to me. The costumes were also very cheap, you could tell, there was no detailing.. they felt like Halloween costumes. However the sets were very nice!!In short, amateurish attempt, felt like reading a biography in Reader's Digest to me. I was left confused and in a blur about what had happened, the time line in which it happened and couldn't remember a single character from the dozens that were presented to us other than the two main ones...