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8 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :- Big commercial production. Luscious and dumb., 7 February 2007 Author: rasecz from United States
War between Constantinopolis and the Turks; a good looking Christian warrior and lustful damsels; and castle intrigues. Good elements for an adventure and love story. Package this with a rich production, luscious imagery, elaborate carnivalesque costumes, and famous actors. Sounds good? Alas, this titanic effort meets its iceberg in the form of dumb and Disneyesque bombastic dialog. The intellectual level is that of children, though young teens may find pleasure in the action. I could tolerate such dumbing down for just an hour. A wasted evening.I felt sad for Giancarlo Gianini, an actor for which I have great admiration. To see him in such a wreck! I guess the pay must have been good. He redeemed himself when, after one bit of shaggy-dog dialog, he looks askance at the perpetrator of the utterance with a disgust filled sneer. Yes, Giancarlo, that the way I felt throughout the time I endured this albatross.
7 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :- It could have been better, 19 April 2006 Author: daniel Carbajo López from Barcelona, Spain
Well, the story is based on the book "Tirant lo Blanc", written by Joanot Martorell in XIV century. Tirant is the best knight of Aragon Kingdom and must go to Constantinople to help the Emperor to fight against the Turkeys. There, he will fall in love with little princess Carmesina and will fight in the war. Unfortunately, things will not happen as our lovers like, as politics are between them. The movie is well done, the task of clothes and photography is very good, as the choice of actors and their acting. Unfortunately, as the movie focuses only in the bed aspects of court's live, the vision of the story is very partial (the story is not bad, but I think the director could have taken more profit of it), and, in addition, the war scenes are horrible. This is possibly due to lack of money, but, used to see Hollywood wars, the effect is terrible and disgusting. The material (the main book) is good, as the director, but the result could have been much better. I expected more of the director Vicente Aranda.
10 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :- Beautiful and different, 9 April 2006 Author: carlospartagas from madrid
I hadn't read the book prior to seeing the movie, so I can't compare them. Honestly, I expected it to be deadly bad. And I was really surprised. The story is beautiful, filled with both humor and drama. It's not the "Troya" kind of film, the battle scenes are somehow poor (maybe due to a bad production?) yet Aranda gives them a personal touch. Aranda surprises again with his ability to investigate love, passion and human feelings. I loved the fact that Tirant is not the typical hero. Shame that the actor is sometimes empty...specially in comparison to the women of the film. Sure that Esther Nubiola is a discovery, we can read everything from her eyes and she's the perfect image for sensuality. Leonor Watling and Ingrid Rubio bring brightness to the movie, as well as Victoria Abril,able to catch the eye of the camera even from the back. A special congratulations to Giancarlo Gianini, this guy is always perfect whatever he does. Amazing dresses,by Ivonne Blake and beautiful music, with those breathtaking child chorus. The only shame, that Vicente Aranda didn't have the right producers and sometimes you can feel it through the movie.
5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :- Of course it's not the book, but..., 13 April 2006 Author: translatology (translatology@yahoo.com) from Valencia, Spain
Of course it's not the book, but what screen adaptation ever is? There's no way a work of over 800 pages and full of digressions can be adequately condensed into a two-hour film. As some people have said in the Message Boards section, we should be grateful that the film will make this neglected masterpiece known to a wider audience.So Aranda does what so many other screenwriters have done in the circumstances: chooses one incident or aspect out of a multitude, elaborates on that and tries to remain faithful to the spirit of the book. But does he remain faithful? That's the trouble. Certainly there's a love story with sensuality in the Tirant and not the platonic stuff of other mediaeval romances, but Aranda piles on the sex until it becomes a bawdy romp. It's a pity that people will get the impression the whole book is like that.That said, the acting is good, the hero is handsome, the heroine is delicious dressed and undressed, Yvonne Blake's costume designs are truly gorgeous, and the film has humour - in fact it could be classed as a romantic comedy. I especially liked the ending, but no spoilers! You can also learn a bit of romanticised history about the Turks and the end of the Byzantine Empire. (Tirant goes to Constantinople to defend it, but truth is that Constantinople had already fallen before the book was written.)A special tribute to the dubbers is in order. I saw the version in Valencian, and the dubbing was so perfect that it could well have been the original.
4 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :- 8 out of 10 for costumes, 30 November 2006 Author: int32 from Copenhagen, Denmark
Excellent costumes, three times over. The story may be weak, but frankly, I didn't care, lush colors and beautiful women in beautiful apparels, - that was more than sufficient for me. Those who enjoyed Greenaway's experiments such as "The Baby of Mâcon" and "Prospero's Books", should enjoy "Tirante El Blanco" as well. 8 out of 10.I'm not sure why other reviewers give so many low marks for the film, but I guess that's typical for productions of one's own country. Like the famous "Goodbye Lenin", where literally everyone but East Germans praised the film, Spanish reviewers here create a picture as if the film doesn't worth a look. I think this is completely unfair, and the film deserves to be known better.
Nothing except Costumes, 8 April 2009 Author: Devil98 from Istanbul
I have looked for a long time for this movie. But a great disappointment. Story has nothing with historical facts. Acting is terrible. During war scenes it is not possible to understand what is happening. Beauty of Esther Nubiola doesn't help to much. OK, costumes are very nice but not according to the tradition of that time.This movie can be much shorter then 122 minutes. I accept that a movie is not a history book, facts can be changed according to the point of the director but there should be a respect to the history. Or at the beginning it should be clearly indicated that the facts have nothing to do with the history. Movie is based on a story of 15th century but it is shot in 21th century. The director has forgotten this .
5 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :- Rotten pleasure of my life, 23 April 2006 Author: Joel Segarra from Lleida, Catalonia
Oh boy! What a shameful experience. Stakes were high with this one. Four fine actresses on a 'Dangerous liaisons' type of film but somehow in the process everything witty and entertaining contained in this great novel of the 15h century was lost in translation.The film gives no clue whatsoever if the tales being told have anything to do with some army in particular in some period of history or with the lord of the rings saga..(Hint: the turks are the orks, and Tirant resembles Aragorn, though no Virgo Mortensen in sight just a lookalike). (Another hint: the standard flag of Tirant's side in battle scenes)The film carries a solemnity that echoes through the halls and chambers of every step of flight of stairs of the palace in which the static action takes place. Can you hear my yawn from the aisles of the castle?Esther Nubiola as Carmesina -the princess-, Ingrid Rubio as Estephania, Leonor Watling as Pleasureofmylife, Victoria Abril as the Peacefulwidow and Jane Asher as the queen do their best in trying to liven things up. But the dead funeral air of Vicente Aranda's take at sex scenes won't make you have a hard on if it's not in the way of rigor mortis.
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