finally a good movie - 4 stars !
The Ballad is essentially a less sexually charged, less dramatic version of Tirza …
It doesn’t feel as powerful but i guess its more realistic.
it’s honestly a little boring to watch, but the characters, the plot, the issues, the ending - everything feels very real.
by comparison Tirza is over the top, which makes it more fun to watch, but perhaps a bit more contrived.
with “The Ballad” i found myself constantly longing for something fucked up to happen, but again and again when it seemed like shit is about to hit the fan big time … nothing much really happened.
“The Ballad” deserves a lot of respect for this IMO - because that’s how things are in real life - we feel like the sky is about to fall and then nothing much happens. i mean you and i are both still alive at the time i’m writing this and you’re reading it - know what i mean ?
some viewers will be disappointed of course. i was also slightly disappointed so i took off one star for lack of excitement, drama, shock value and so on.
to be clear - the plot of “The Ballad” is completely different from “Tirza” but the underlying subject ( Father and his Biological Daughter being too close causing her to be dysfunctional ) is the same.
Female Director …
this is an EXTREMELY high quality film, just don’t expect to be blown away - it is quite tame.
“The Ballad” is a sort of a meditation on the subject more than anything. it is just so utterly anticlimactic it makes you wonder why they bothered making it. but it’s made REALLY WELL.
the incest is really very tame and so is the violence, and although there is some sex in the movie it’s nothing graphic / explicit …
maybe it would have been better if i wasn’t already sleepy when i started watching it and if the sun didn’t rise before i could finish …
i’m going to sleep. Good Luck !