Our Lady of the Assassins
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Movie Reviews of Our Lady of the Assassins
Movie Review: BARBET SCHROEDER, OPUS 13
Summary: 5 Stars
***** 2000. Directed by Barbet Schroeder, this film is an adaptation of Fernando Vallejo's Our Lady of the Assassins. A disenchanted gay writer comes back to his hometown Medellin, Colombia. In the company of his new companion, a young killer, he will discover a city where crime reigns. Nothing has changed here in 30 years. Filmed in HDTV, OUR LADY OF THE ASSASSINS however isn't a documentary. The director uses this new cinematographic process in a remarkable manner in order to work on the colors. The film is a symphony of yellow, red and blue, the colors of the Colombian flag. As Barbet Schroeder grew up in Colombia from the ages of 7 to 11, he's also able to render perfectly the special mood of this awesome country. Masterpiece.Movie Review: The worst movie I have ever seen
Summary: 1 Stars
I was forced to give it a star but it does not deserve any. It is slow and boring, the only time you stop yawning is to turn into disgust. It is a waste of time and a shame for the good Colombian movie makers.Movie Review: Impressive, unpleasant, but definitely worthwhile.
Summary: 5 Stars
I am not sure how much of this film is autobiographical and how much is fiction. I do know that Fernando Vallejo, the novelist who wrote the novel "Our Lady of the Assassins" as well as this film's screenplay, is a reknowned Colombian author who, like the Fernando in this film, spent much of his life in voluntary exhile. (In the real Fernando's case, the exhile was in Mexico and Italy). In another series of novels Vallejo has written extensively about the difficulties of growing up gay in Colombia, so there is a possibility that in the novel and film versions of "Our Lady of the Assassins" we are getting glympses of his own life experience coming back to Medellin as a middle-aged man.
Both the film and the novel present a touching but in many ways distasteful romance between an affluent older man and an underaged hustler/hired killer from the Medellin underclass. Neither the film nor the novel pass judgment on the relationship, but both make the viewer/reader squirm. There is the obvious question of poor youth being exploited by an older man. Additionally, the older man is an unapologetic snob, a hedonistic social-darwinist whose contempt for the indigent around him reflects very poorly on the Colombian bourgeoisie. The younger man, beneath the angel face, is nihilistic and an apparently uncritical respository of crass international pop culture. The duo's comments about their lives and their meanderings through Medellin depict a very sick society--a portrait that is the thrust of Vallejo's novel.
Other commentors on this webpage suggest that they do not find the wanton violence in this film credible. Unfortunately, the press reports on life in Bogota and Medellin (particularly the latter, as one of the capitals of the cocaine cartels) bear out Vallejo's portrait. So, too, do the stories of many affluent Colombians who have emigrated to Miami in order to escape violence. And sadly, the literature and films about slum children from other large Latin American cities--Pixote (Sao Paulo), Los Olvidados (Mexico City), Amores Perros (Mexico City)--touch on similar themes [See the recent Colombian novel "Satan", by Moreno, which is a portrait of Bogota gone to hell]. This is an unpleasant, painful portrait--and we are seeing the portrait through the eyes of people who are alternatively sympathetic and horrible. But the portrait is probably realistic, as are our guides.
The deliberate use of unsophisticated cameras in this film add to the feeling of cinema verite and enhance the film's impact. All in all, this is an impressive undertaking, and the film goes beyond the novel in engendering dispair over the well-being of Colombia.
Movie Review: Gallow's Humor
Summary: 3 Stars
Some films have a sadistic streak, and the director of "Our Lady of the Assassins" has shown his with this absurdly ghoulish film. I cannot believe that life in Colombia is this hellish. The story is interesting but is so outlandish. As another reviewer said, many of the random killings are spurred on my stupid insults and complaints about bad service. It is not credible to think a young man could gun down two men on a train in broad daylight and just waltz away nonchalantly.
As far as the acting is concerned, this was a one man show. The progatonist--the writer who's come home--is clever and played decently. The other characters serve as an audience to his quick wit and as the link between the civilized world (the writer) and the violent, savage one (the two boys he has a relationship with). As another reviewer wrote, the symbolism is really heavy handed and propelled this film quickly into the realm of total absurdity.
That being said, I did find it entertaining in a ghoulish sort of way.
Movie Review: Our Lady of the Assassins
Summary: 5 Stars
If you enjoy independent films, you will certainly like this film. It is about life as a displaced youth of Columbia. Unlike the displaced youth of the U.S., they are on their own without any significant assistance. It is very sad, as this is an adaptation of the true story of Alexis. In the areas of the world where illegal drug producers force the disadvantaged youth into terrible life styles, there should be country mandated advocacy for the youth that are unwittingly manipulated.