Good Scene / Bad Scene

Chosen by Jean-Baptiste Andrea, co-director of 'Dead End'

The good: Edward Scissorhands, Tim Burton, 1990

It's the final scene, and everything you need to know about its director, Tim Burton is in there. Johnny Depp, who plays a sort of Frankenstein's monster with scissors for hands, has been banished from town again. In the last scene he starts sculpting ice, and all the ice shapes are turning in to snow and slowly falling down on to the town. It's loaded with meaning, and I think this meaning is about Tim Burton being rejected because he's weird - he is Edward Scissorhands. Each time you tackle artistic things some people will look at you in a weird way and it's hard to share that passion. Both Edward Scissorhands and Tim Burton are outcasts like that. I don't think I'm a weird guy compared to him, but I do relate to a lot to what he's saying. While it's not a Hollywood ending, I think it is positive. The town has pushed Edward away, but in this scene he still shows them love through the peaceful snowflakes.The audience is moved, and is shown that you cannot kill beauty whatever you do.

The bad: Japón, Carlos Reygadas, 2002

It's a weird movie. The director just seems to be saying, "Look at all these things I can shoot". This is particularly true in the opening scene when two guys are hunting and checking the traps that they've set and they find a beautiful small bird has been caught. One of the guys takes the bird and breaks his neck - the bird is fighting for its life and he kills it. My problem is that the bird is a real one. It's a close shot on the guy very slowly breaking its' neck. Who does that director think he is that he has to kill a poor bird for that shot? What's more, this doesn't say anything except "look at me", and that's easy. I know he was trying to shock an audience, but only beginners believe transgression equals art. It's fine once, but it's been done a thousand times. There are other shock scenes in the movie, but the bird's death is terrible. I was thinking, "He's surely not going to do that". I almost left. It's probably the only scene I've ever hated in a movie.