Touches You

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Nico (Julie Fournier) is a spoiled-but-troubled brat, and Swiss indie musician Paco (Carlos Leal) is her one chance to escape the world of wealthy weasels she has grown up in. Now this girl, why haven't I seen her before? Why isn't she on the covers of magazines? Maybe she is, but only in Switzerland? Either way, Julie Fournier is the most beautiful young actress I have seen in a long time, and, believe me, check out rising female stars is pretty much all I do. A good-looking girl makes for a good-looking movie: swimsuits, parties, dancing, all with a somewhat 1980s feel, down to the visual gadgetry: split screen, patchwork interlace, spaghetti preparation time-lapsed into a three-second sequence. The same goes for subject matter. It's all there, the coke and the rap and the booze and the pain. What you see is what you get, and it's watchable enough as it is, although there is probably a more substantial movie here, struggling to get out. Go see it if you liked "Tempo" (1996/II). Typical line: "I'm too cranked up on coke to get laid. Let's smoke some pot first."

I saw this piece in Dark Nights Film Festival almost by accident but I'm true to my feelings when I say I'm so very glad that I did. The piece itself has it all what I would look for in a movie - catching photography that makes you forget everything else and really connect to the movie, great ((acting)) by which I mean the storyline being so somehow close to the heart that it doesn't even feel like the characters are acting out parts, amazingly soulful touch of music background all through. I would advise anyone who have ever had a deep emotional bonding in a relationship to go see this one. I felt for the main characters all the way through and the story reminded me of the beauty of having and losing in a relationship. This movie has incredible warmth to bond with and at the same time it has the sweetly cold takes that show you the beauty of loss and losing control. My words can't do justice for this one - You just have to see it for yourself.

Snow White is in my opinion a bad movie on an artistic point of view. The plot is pretty much foreseeable, the characters are stereotypes, the editing too exaggerated. Anyway, the movie seems not to have a lot of artistic ambitions. Instead, I think this is a straight commercial thing. Including a character from the french part of Switzerland (the actor IS the leader of the band he is touring with in the movie - the band's called SENS UNIK) seems to aim to a larger audience. A straight German-swiss movie would not have sold in the french part - and vice versa. What really got on my nerves were the product placements all over the movie. Sometines scenes remembered of advertisement clips! I also think the topic of "young people taking drugs without any other targets in their lives" is a wide spread reality in Zurich. Therefore, it should be elaborated with more care. I hope Samir got enough money with Snow White, in order that his next movie is gonna show his true artistic skills.

Snow White, which just came out in Locarno, where I had the chance to see it, of course refers to the world famous fairy tale. And it also refers to coke. In the end, real snow of the Swiss Alps plays its part as well.Thus all three aspects of the title are addressed in this film. There is a lot of dope on scene, and there is also a pale, dark haired girl - with a prince who has to go through all kind of trouble to come to her rescue.But: It's not a fairy tale. It's supposed to be a realistic drama located in Zurich, Switzerland (according to the Tagline).Technically the movie is close to perfect. Unfortunately a weak plot, foreseeable dialogs, a mostly unreal scenery and the mixed acting don't add up to create authenticity. Thus as a spectator I remained untouched.And then there were the clichés, which drove me crazy one by one: Snow White is a rich and spoiled upper class daughter - of course her parents are divorced and she never got enough love from them, because they were so busy all the time. Her best girlfriend, on the other hand, has loving and caring parents. They (a steelworker and a housewife) live in a tiny flat, poor and happy - and ignorant of the desperate situation their daughter is in. The good guy (= prince) is a musician (!) from the French speaking part of Switzerland (which is considered to be the economically less successful but emotionally fitter fraction of the country). He has problems with his parents. They are migrants from Spain, who don't seem to accept his wild way of living - until the father becomes seriously ill and confesses his great admiration for his son from a hospital bed.And so it goes on: Naturally, the drug dealer is brutal, the bankers are heartless, the club owner is a playboy and the photographer, although a woman (!), has only her career in mind when she exposes Snow White in artsy pornographic pictures at a show.This review doesn't need a spoiler in order to let you add these pieces to an obvious plot. As I like other films by Samir, e.g. "Forget Baghdad", I was quite disappointed. Let's hope for the next one.