This film by Juan Antonio Bardem presents a fascinating psychological situation, showing sensibilities of one particular group of people who struggle to regain control of their careless and self-absorbed lives.
Category: World Cinema
Short Reviews: Raise the Red Lantern, Quiz Show, & Close-Up
With an exquisitely beautiful cinematography (by Zgao Fei), Raise the Red Lantern is one of the most important films of the 1990s and a true cinematic masterpiece.
“Departures” Review
Departures [2008] – ★★★★1/2 Departures is the Japanese winner of the 2009 Academy Award in the category of the Best Foreign Language Picture. Loosely based on a memoir by Shinmon Aoki titled Coffinman: The Journal of a Buddhist Mortician, it tells the story of Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki), an ex-cellist who comes to his home…
“Parasite” Review
Parasite [2019] – ★★★★★ Parasite or Gisaengchung is a South Korean dark comedy-thriller from Bong Joon-ho (Okja ((2017)) that won the grandest award at the Cannes Film Festival 2019 – Palme d’Or. And, a well-deserved win, too, since this film must be seen to be believed. In Parasite, the Kim family, consisting of a mother,…
“Museo” Review
Museo (Museum) [2018] – ★★★ This heist movie is by Mexican director Alonso Ruizpalacios (Güeros (2014)), starring Gael Garcia Bernal (No (2012), The Motorcycle Diaries (2004)) and Leonardo Ortizgris (Güeros). Loosely based on a real story, the film won the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay at the Berlin International Film Festival 2018, and is about…
“Happy as Lazzaro” Review
Happy as Lazzaro (Lazzaro Felice) [2018] – ★★★★1/2 Alice Rohrwacher may only have three major feature films under her belt (Corpo Celeste (2011), The Wonders (2014) and Happy as Lazzaro (2018)), but this Fiesole-born director proves to be the one to be reckoned with. Happy as Lazzaro is an unusual, surreal and imaginative drama which…
“Everybody Knows” Review
Everybody Knows (Todos lo saben) [2018] – ★★1/2 This mystery-thriller comes from acclaimed director Asghar Farhadi (The Salesman (2016)), and stars such big stars as Penelope Cruz (Volver (2006)), Javier Bardem (Mother! (2017)) and Ricardo Darin (The Secret in Their Eyes (2009)). It thus seems as though this film can do no wrong, but, unfortunately,…
The Greatest Film I’ve Never Seen Blogathon: Pickpocket (1959)
Debbie at Moon in Gemini is hosting The Greatest Film I’ve Never Seen Blogathon, which is a fabulous idea since it is an opportunity for everyone to discover or re-discover classic and “must-see” films, or even find hidden gems. I have chosen to write on Robert Bresson’s Pickpocket because it is considered one of the greatest…
“The Third Murder” Review
A strangely compelling murder-mystery, which, together with a peculiar Japanese understatement and an insight into the Japanese criminal justice, delightfully subverts expectations.
“Burning” Review
Burning [2018] – ★★★ “You don’t have to convince yourself that a mandarin orange exists, you have to forget that it does not exist.” (Haemi, explaining the art of pantomime in Burning). In Chang-dong Lee’s film Burning, Jongsoo (Ah-In Yoo) is a country lad who rekindles friendship and begins a romance with Haemi (Jong-seo Jeon),…
Jean Renoir: “La Règle du Jeu” (1939) & “La Grande Illusion” (1937)
La Grande Illusion is, undoubtedly, one of the greatest anti-war films of all times.
“L’ Amant Double” Review
L’Amant Double (Double Lover) [2017] – ★★★1/2 François Ozon (Frantz (2016), In the House (2013)) is a French director who is uninhibited when it comes to portraying sexuality/erotica on screen and was exploring it freely in his previous films Jeune et Jolie (2013) and Swimming Pool (2003). His latest psychological thriller L’Amant Double is another…
“La Notte” Review
Movie Movie Blog Blog hosts a blogathon that celebrates movies originating in 1961, and Michelangelo Antonioni’s La Notte is one of those films. Like Antonioni L’Eclisse, which followed a year after, La Notte concerns itself with the existential theme of personal alienation in the world which becomes busier and more progressive. In such a place,…
“120 BPM (Beats Per Minute)” Review
120 BPM (Beats Per Minute) [2017] – ★★★★ This French-language film about ACT UP-Paris’s activities to promote AIDS-related issues in the early 1990s is defined by director Robin Campillo’s personal experience, which makes the film even more potent, significant and poignant. At the centre of the story is the ACT UP-Paris organisation itself, a non-violent…
The O Canada! Blogathon: Xavier Dolan’s It’s Only the End of the World (2016)
It’s Only the End of the World [2016] – ★★★★ This is my second post for the amazing O Canada! Blogathon hosted by Ruth of Silver Screenings and Kristina of Speakeasy (check out some of the amazing entries here). “There I was…after twelve years of absence, and in spite of my fear, I was going to visit them. In life,…
The O Canada! Blogathon: Laurence Anyways (2012)
Ruth of Silver Screenings and Kristina of Speakeasy are hosting the O Canada! Blogathon to celebrate all things Canada in film and TV, and I thought I would contribute because Canadian cinematography is close to my heart. It has always tried to be different and often experimented. Xavier Dolan, my choice for this blogathon, is no different….
The Food in Film Blogathon: Facing Windows (2003)
Speakeasy and Silver Screenings are presenting The Food in Film Blogathon, and I thought I must participate since food in films has always fascinated me. Food can be used for sensual purposes in a film, as in Como Agua Para Chocolate (1992), I Am Love (2009) or even in The Lunchbox (2013), or can have morbid…
The Horrorathon: Les Diaboliques (1955)
🛀 A true classic in the suspenseful thriller/horror genre, with a twist “to die for”.
The Colours Blogathon: Betty Blue (1986)
Catherine at Thoughts All Sorts is hosting The Colours Blogathon, and my contribution to this colourful parade of entries is a French cult classic film from 1983 titled 37°2 Le Matin or simply Betty Blue. Nominated in 1986 for an Academy Award in the Best Foreign Language Film category, this film of a passionate, doomed…
“The Odyssey” Review
The Odyssey [2016] – ★★★ “No, no, no, you did not understand, no…I am not making animal documentaries. I am going to tell the story of men who are going to explore a new world” (Jacques Cousteau in The Odyssey). I grew up watching Jacques-Yves Cousteau’s TV documentaries, amazed at all the underwater world, unusual…
Spotlight on Film 