Tag: 18th centhury

[EXPRESSO] Savage House (2026) | Duke It Out in YKS

18th Centhury England, the country is swept by smallpox and Jacobin revolts, not that matters much to Chauncey Savage and Lady Savage, as they get their chance to rehabilitate the fallen house of Savage and its luster when they get news the Duke and Duchess will visit their house, rushing to host a perfect dinner night no matter what it takes.

I do find Savage House a delectable decadent period piece indeed, i think it’s a pretty solid film, yet i feel it does come off a bit short of what it sets out to be.

Aside from the narration that could have been cut almost entirely as it just explains the obvious, it’s kinda funny how the movie presents itself and starts off as a period black comedy ready to depict the decadence of the period in sordid detail…. yet it kinda forgets halfway through and it becomes a fairly typical Victorian era-set period drama about these horrible people being entertaining horrible people with their own schemes and goals.

Yes, occasionally we’ll get people interrupted mid-coitus or performing a rim-job, we’ll see the shit und piss, but – and i can’t believe i’m saying this – i feel the movie could-should have been way more nasty, the acting is good but it kinda goes into more typical period drama machinations and backstabbing with an occasional surreal flair that also isn’t strong or emphasized, like they wanted an arthouse-ish vibe but couldn’t actually committ to that or being peculiary weird or out-there.

It still remain grotesque enough to be interesting, but i feel it kinda loses itself at one point and could have been even better, or less “tame”.

It’s not quite The Favourite, but its a decent, solid effort that i do recommend seeing if you have the chance.

Final Verdict: Decaf

[EXPRESSO] Primavera (2025) | Stabat Mater

Based on the novel Stabat Mater by Tiziano Scarpa, Primavera (lit. Spring) brings up back to early 18th centhury Venice, where the protagonist, Cecilia, is raised as an orphan taken into the convent-orphanage-music school istititution Pio Ospedale Della Pietà, alongside many other young girls given in custody of the orphanage or simply abandoned there.

Cecilia, now 20 yo, has been living there since infancy, writes letters for her unknown mother, and performs alongside the other girls, trained as orchestra ensembles for the pleasure of wealthy benefactors, but Cecilia love for music is doomed since she’s already been given into marriage to a general, in exchange for generous donations to the convent-orphanage.

Then an aging and ill Antonio Vivaldi comes back to teach at the Ospedale Della Pietà, and he notices Cecilia’s talent, wants to nurture it, in spite of her knowing her musical “career” will end once the Venetian-Ottoman Wars conclude and her promised groom comes back to marry her.

An Italian-French co-production, Primavera is a stark period piece tale of female liberation in a place where religious values come optional to currying favor with the elites in exchange for money, be it in providing brides to nobilmen, compete in audience with other religious-philantrophic, the girls are nothing more than bargaining chips, trained prisoners bound to be sold off one way or another, a film willing to confront the facts that “art” itself can’t magically save, redeem or bend reality’s injustices, yet because of that is also a necessity.

All sustained by terrific acting, and while some might be let down by the fact Vivaldi isn’t the protagonist…. this isn’t his story, is Cecilia’s, and after all, the film doesn’t sugarcoat how Vivaldi himself was treated like shit in life and became famous only a centhury after his death.

Recommended.