lasttimeisaw It is such a delight to watch a gay-themed film which is not over-indulged in melodramatic sentiment and what's more precious is that it innovates an authentic and positive gay community within to encourage more people to look on the brighter side of the world.Ozpetek's self-imposed gay identity opens a gate for us to see more scrupulously into contemporary gay communities, without the thwart of the religion, the social prejudice, the indoctrinated moral standards from family and friends. It manifests that sexual orientation is much of a choice rather than any mammoth title being forcefully added upon this minority group.The film is epidemic to all kinds of demographic classes, gay/straight/bi-sexual, man/woman/transsexual, everyone could dip into it and acquire different nutrition which he/she needs.The acting is generally agreeable, Margherita Buy as the female protagonist, manages an amiable appearance to elevate the inner intricate complexion of her character. Stefano Accorsi, on the other hand, is more an unsubdued opposed image to underline the other facade of Margherita's role, a quirky chemistry could emerge between this two friend and foe (demonstrated by an explicit kiss scene where both try to find the scent of her husband/his lover), as a matter of fact, it is individual nuance matters here, anything else could not be exerted as a criterion anymore.The Turkey-born director Ferzan Ozpetek's skill hones to a new state after his debut STEAM: THE Turkish BATH (1997) and LAST HAREM (1999), the milieu and the myriad of different characters develop an affluent emotional touch eventually (although most of them are underwritten as a sacrifice of the main storyline).Anyhow, Ozpetek has established his fame and poise as the most promising contemporary Italian directors, his latest work LOOSE CANNONS (2010) will be my next object.

Keyne At first, I figured I'd hang in just because I enjoy watching different cultures on film. It had a mood blasted on the screen; gloomy, depressed, all the right moods for which I was in at the moment. (Need I say it was 3:00 in the morning, couldn't sleep, and there it was, playing on Sundance)...The movie did have enough of a mystique to keep my interest at hand. I believe the husbands' love and even his interest of not losing her, for fear he was (perhaps)intellectually below her,( remember the conversation between his lover and her, how the husband and he met)may have felt she could've done better, or would be falling out of love with him. As you remember, the scenes before his death were pretty non-talkative, just 2x2-his and hers. I believe, therefore, just maybe this may have been a love-conscious effort to be nearer to her, then, as time wore on (7 years, mind you) he fell in love with the guy, who wouldn't? Personalities are personalities, man or woman!

wonderfulfable Antonia was living the life of most women would dream of. A good medical career, a loving husband, and a wonderful marriage. All that came to a crumble one day when he died in an accident leaving Antonia is grief and mourning.But an accidental discovery of a painting hinted that Antonia's husband Massimo has another lover. Burning with anger, Antonia sought to find out more about this lover. But there is a catch; Massimo's lover is a man, Michele. Which shocked Antonia more to realising that her husband had lead a double life; one a straight married man, the other a gay lover. Through Michele, she learnt more of her husbands secrets. A circle of friends Massimo has known through Michele, drag queens, immigrants, gay men, quirky apartment neighbours, and also AIDS patients. This circle of friends shared a warmness that all frienships has. Her open minded curiosity led her to befriend Massimo's circle of friends. Indirectly, she has replaced the vaccuum left by Massimo's death. At the same time, there is a growing attraction between her and Michele, as both are brought closer together. She then contrasts her life with Massimo and then with this 'new life' she has found after his death. Furthermore, she has to address her growing affections for her departed husbands lover. Turkish director Ozpetek captures the warm bindings of this motley group of friends and in realistic detail in the confines of Michele's flat which serves as the groups meeting point for dinners and chats. The audience can feel the warmth emmitted from the togetherness of these people. A beautiful scene is where we see the dance party which is played to the tune of a slow song number overshadowing the dance beat in the background. We see all the circle of friends, Antonia and Michele included having a good time, bonding (yes even literal bonding!). Longing glances were exchanged between Antonia and Michele. This serves as a powerful scene and many assumptions or predictions can be made from this tease.There are many side stories to Antonia and Michele's friendship as well such as dealing with rejection, pain suffered by an AIDS patient. Some of these issues are delicately dealt and while some humorous. There is plenty of humour in this film. Never has it made me laugh out loud. We see quirky characters like Louiselle the quirky supermarket cashier, Serra the 'apartment secretary', Mara the drag queen turned transvetite, Ricky, Sandora and Emir, all of them add together the humouros elements and warmth. A special mention would be Antonia's mother whose opened and profound views on life and adultery really had my sides splitting. The main leads by Margherita Buy and Stefano Accorsi depicts two people coming in terms of both of their loved one's death are very well potrayed. The emotion and the passion is felt from these two actor's performances.Cheers to Ozpetek for creating such a warm and sentimental film! Almost made me shed tears when the ending loomed.

nhoney1 Rating 6/10I found it hard to enjoy the film much. It was not easy to be sympathetic to the protagonist. She moped around and was rather dull. I know Antonia's husband had just died and she then discovered his dread dark secret, but even so she did not provide a strong core for the film to be structured around. The film contrasted the coldness and sterility of her life (didn't she have any friends?), with the warmth of her dead husband's lover and his circle of friends. The movie didn't give any convincing reason why she wanted to insert herself into her dead husband's secret life, or why his lover and circle of friends wanted her in their lives. Then when she didn't need them any more, she moved on.Another difficulty was that I had trouble deciding what the film was trying to say. I might could describe it as a 'slice of life', but that is something of a cop-out unless you can define what particular slice of life the film is trying to show. Otherwise, you might just as well have a camera following some random family going about its normal business. Oh yes, we do and it's called reality TV. And no-one has ever accused reality TV of having any pretensions of having any intellectual or artistic value.I thought for a while that the main theme was the importance of honesty and the cost of keeping secrets. But then Antonia had her own secret that she was quite happy keeping, for no good reason that I could see. I ended with the conclusion that the film is about the widow coming to terms with her husband's death. But does that mean that the husband's homosexual side was nothing but a plot device of the worse possible thing that a wife could find out about her husband?That brings me to the question of why is the film titled "Ignorant fairies"? Sure, it describes a particular plot device and it refers to the fact that the lover and many of his friends were gay. But does fairy have the same negative connotation in Italian as English? And why ignorant? If anything, it was Antonia who was ignorant because of her unawareness of her husband's secret life.By the end of the film I was left feeling vaguely uneasy about the intentions of the director and the subtext of the film.