the lady nitwit . the waiter

the lady nitwit - loud, ridiculous and farcical and played as such is the story of two sisters in medieval spain- one bright and lovely but poor and the other beautiful and rich but an idiot. both are pursued by men seeking money or intelligence- one a bandit of sorts and a swordfighter, while the other an effeminate dandy. love it seems conquers arrogance and poverty. mounted like its on stage a costume drama and a fairy tale, funny enough.

the waiter - the joke wears thin too fast when the extraordinarily depressing life of a dutch waiter is suddenly broken by a confrontation with the scriptwriter of his miserable life. i am never very fond of these characters whom we watch suffer through the most violent humiliations and are supposed to empathize with. like the scriptwriter is making us suffer. so when, suddenly the story is revealed for what the fiction it is- for a while you do feel relieved. but as the same cycle of humiliation and self consciously clever meta-narrative inserts continue, you realize that actually at its very core the film has no heart; and these are merely the devices of a self obsessed film maker with very little to say and therefore wrapping it up in the most juvenile of narrative tricks.