Tajnosti (2007) Online

I adore the movies from Alice Nellis and I think she is the best director and writer in Czech cinematography. Her masterpieces are sensible, witty and full of great ideas. Tajnosti have two main advantages: nonrecurring connection of music and picture, a talent actress in lead role and immediate atmosphere. In one moment you're moved and in a instant imaginative triple set you laughing. And never mind that you aren't woman over 40 years.

This movie can be create only thanks to Jan Svěrak, who became a producer of this movie and pay it from his pocket. And he never mind that make up a big competition to his movie The Empties in joust of Czech Lions Awards.

In my opinion Little Girl Blue represents a new low in the history of Czech cinema.

The at times sophisticated imagery, however, reveals a talent behind the camera: Ramunas Greicius. But the camera is "wasted" here, as well as Nina Simone's ingenious music. One of the greatest jazz performers of all time, Simone seems oddly misplaced in this substandard wannabe art film, a self-congratulatory and preposterous work, bereft of true art, bereft of life, bereft of emotions.

This is in fact one of the most pretentious, utterly disengaging and even infuriating films I have ever seen. Period.

Alice Nellis is, from what I know, a relentlessly overrated director whose work for me defines a new form of "speculation." She has – God knows how – managed to woe herself into the caste of renown young Czech directors, and yet it is perhaps only her debut, Ene Bene, which deserves some praise. The fact, however, that she received the New Director's Award in San Sebastian for her extraneous and numbingly boring film Vylet, is a mockery vis-a-vis all the talented newcomers around the world who have to fight hard for recognition. I rather refrain from arguing that a director has or has not been justly awarded for her or his work, but in this case I can not help being astonished.

The praise Alice Nellis has been showered with, in the Czech Republic, could be attributed perhaps to the fact that there are unfortunately not many women here making films about women. But this should by no means be a criterion for judging a film's worthiness. As a woman, I can only say that this film does not speak to my heart nor does it intrigue me on an intellectual level.

For me, the best part of Little Girl Blue comes with the end credits, not only because an irked viewer now finally breathes a sigh of relief, but also because you will find here a particular treat, an involuntary joke so to speak. Under "second boom operator," a name is listed which, placed into this context, made me want to laugh: Roman Polanski. It's fun to imagine Roman Polanski holding the boom for Alice Nellis... But of course it is not the master himself being referred to here. His name, however, should remind any cinema lover of the definition of greatness. While Polanski is synonymous to the best cinema has to offer, Nellis is, in my opinion, certainly antonymous to it.

I attended the first Canadian screening at Reel Talk (a monthly screening event sponsored by the Toronto International Film Festival) on October 21, 2007. I was utterly disappointed by this film. I ascribe my disappointment to its director from whom one should expect considerably more.

The movie seemed unsure how to present itself: it is billed as a drama but slips into comedy, song and dance. Ultimately it ranks as a film one would expect to see as a low-rated TV soap opera.

All the characters are wooden. There is no character development. Emotions are displayed by mimed movement rather than dialog or body or facial expression. Ultimately the film is simply boring. One does not care for any of the principals.

The thrust of the film is when the leading actress finds need to pay homage to the late great American jazz artist Nina Simone. However, this actress who I understand is a critically acclaimed Czech chanteuse never offers up her musical talent. I am sure with such a big name musical artist the Czech viewers will leave the theater disappointed. It is not so much that she fails to sing; it is that had she displayed her real talent the movie would have been much more engrossing.

Directors can't live on their laurels and their reputation is only as good as their last picture. This director's reputation deserves being at rock bottom.

Perhaps I've expected too much but at the end I was pretty disappointed. The first third of the movie was so awkward that I was thinking I'd rather leave the cinema. It seems to me that Alice Nellis was trying too hard to make things (mostly interpersonal and "woman-soul-stuff") look realistic and the result is a sequence of heavy-caliber cliché (starting with Julie expressing her inner anxiety by walking through her new flat at 4 AM, sitting on the floor looking like a very serious psychiatry patient, etc. etc.). I guess Alice Nellis wanted to express somehow several experiences from her life and so she put them into the movie and made up a character for them. But on the other hand - to be honest, from the second third of the movie there are many particular scenes that are very nice, some of them even breath-taking (mostly those where an important part is played by music). All in all, 'Tajnosti' cannot reach the qualities of 'Výlet' nor 'Ene bene'... no way!

Come on guys...u r reviewing like wanna be artsy people yourselves.This movie depicts how it feels to be a 40 year old woman with a 20yr old marriage...not young not old...feeling stale...to see it in a post communist setting that looks very modern was a plus.the daughter .the husband everything was just the same as here in the western world.The fact they had Nina Simone thrown in the mix added to what i think was a very sophisticated movie. The acting was great...looked like real people as European movies always do...Thoroughly enjoyed by this little nobody who was once married to a Czech.I can't wait to get to Prague after watching this film