20 Luglio 2017
WHO’S WHO AND THE DILEMMAS OF BEING
Atomic Blond is un upsetting, clever thing, focused on a Wall, that of Berlin in 1989.
The Wall encompassed 70 miles of barbed wire, 310 guard towers, 65 anti-vehicle trenches and 40,000 Soviet-trained frontier soldiers.
Seeing this movie makes one think about contemporary walls: Mexico, Austria, Israel, and the actual reality of espionage, privacy and what need to be known.
Let’s start from what the picture is not.
It is not a simple movie but, first of all, a sort of Krav Maga accelerated course for beginners.
It is not only a course of Israelian martial arts, but also a very sofisticated iconic musical full of songs which can tear one’s heart apart, overwhelmed by remembrances of the 80’s.
An amazing selection, quoting the best, Blue Monday’s Health in the trailer, The Cure and David Bowies’s Under Pressure, an homage to the unforgettable George Michael’s Father Figure smoothing a combat, to Depeche Mode’ Personal Jesus, Falco with Der Kommissar and the KALEIDA’S 99 Luftballon, all these lirics are strikingly conceived and chosen by the genial David Leitch in order to carve, decelerate, defuse or sharpen intense fighting, sex, flashbacks scenes or CIA - M16 interrogations. They perfectly act and run at the same pace of the tailored editing and of the already excellent script. Strangely enough THE WALL from Pink Floyd has been left out.
This excellent soundtrack, made by music supervisor JOHN HOULIHAN and composer TYLER BATES, collaborate to create and destroy a raincoat and Borsalino atmosphere, making it more pop or rock and letting you melt in the armchair.
Atomic blonde is not simply a musical, but an excellent parade and choice of costumes, dresses, hats in short, a fashion show of two wonderful women such us Charlize Theron in the role of Lorraine Broughton, always in an iridescent black and white silhouetted on a opalescent platinum-blonde bobbed hair, versus the sensual brunette collegue Delphine, a French agent interpreted by Sofia Boutella.
Not happy enough with such beauties, between the two burst a saffic love and a total feminist revenge on bright intelligences, normally 007 - 100% masculine.
Atomic blonde is not only a fashion show, but a global piece of art with an excellent cast, where everything or everyone is calibrated to its role and nothing is out of order.
Not the role, nor the faces, nor the setting: the city of Berlin in 1989 before the fall of the wall, during the cold war, shooted and photographed with a rare elegance, together with magnetic indelible Theron’s close-up.
The movie is an interesting quotation from reality to fiction, intertwinement of lies and truth, interwoven between the eternal dilemma of good and evil and social latest news and events on the deviated secret services and on some sold rogue agents. It is definetely a perfectly shooted spy story in spite of the numerous and traumatic hand-to-hand combat that have made Charlize Tehron lose two theet during the hard training for the fighting scenes of whom she excells and stands out.
Thanks to the director we do love her character which is not only charismatic, chamaleonic and of a powerful enchanting beauty, but also with a great deal of empathy with the spy life dilemmas.
So to recap, an interesting script, adapted to life from the graphic novel “The coldest city”, with wonderful costumes, beautiful faces, neverending action, a breathtaking soundtrack which alone, does and its wotrth the movie, all this make Atomic Blonde a real masterpiece of savoir faire: art, cinema, music and mainly beauty with the capital B.
My compliments to David Leitch and to all his staff. Un unmissable picture released in Italy by the Universal Pictures on the17th of August.
