Tag: drama
Cleopatra
Saturday, May 26th, 2012 Film Reviews, Other Writing,Hollywood has never made a more difficult, more expensive movie than Cleopatra (1963). It reputedly cost between US$35-$40 million, which is approximately US$300 million in today’s money. Avatar, in comparison, has been costed at US$280 million. The shooting of Cleopatra was hardly less epic than the Roman empire itself, with a cast that qualified as […]
Bel Ami
Saturday, May 26th, 2012 Film Reviews, Other Writing,It probably requires a teenage girl to understand the attractions of Robert Pattinson, and here I’m deficient in empathy. Having missed out on all those romantic vampire flicks I must be lacking a crucial point of comparison, for on first impressions this young Adonis’s acting style consists of several variations on the theme of the […]
Silent Souls
Saturday, May 19th, 2012 Film Reviews, Other Writing,Look no further, the sleeper of the year has arrived. Aleksei Fedorchenko’s Silent Souls is a sparse, beautiful film filled with the bare, frozen landscapes of west-central Russia, and rough-hewn characters that hold the viewer spellbound. Cinephiles will recognise the atmosphere of an Andrei Tarkovsky film with its scenes of mesmeric dilapidation, but this is […]
Trishna
Saturday, May 12th, 2012 Film Reviews, Other Writing,When a story is based on Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles, you know there will be no happy ending. I’m not giving anything away because the Hardy reference is proudly displayed in the opening credits, although there will be cinema-goers who have never read this most miserable of novelists. This is the third time […]
The King of Devil’s Island
Saturday, May 5th, 2012 Film Reviews, Other Writing,Prison camp movies are a distinct genre, with many minor masterpieces – from I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang to Stalag 17, to Cool Hand Luke. It’s not easy to say why we find these films so compelling. Perhaps it’s because the prison environment is so mysterious and frightening to the average citizen. […]
Ecstasy
Saturday, April 28th, 2012 Film Reviews, Other Writing,Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting was one of the more orginal films of 1996. It was a powerful insight into the drug scene, a slab of grimy Scottish realism, and the first time many people saw that talented actor, Ewan McGregor. The film was based on a novel by cult author, Irvine Welsh, who enjoyed a brief […]
Footnote
Saturday, April 28th, 2012 Film Reviews, Other Writing,A story about two professors of Talmudic studies may not sound the most promising scenario for a night at the movies, but Joseph Cedar’s Footnote, which was nominated for an Oscar this year, will surprise the sceptics. While it is hard to believe, even in Israel, that a Talmudic scholar could become a public intellectual, […]
The Deep Blue Sea
Thursday, April 12th, 2012 Film Reviews, Other Writing,It wouldn’t be a Terence Davies film without a singsong, or several singsongs. In Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988), the bleak, powerful, autobiographical movie that brought the director to worldwide attention, the singing took on a ritualistic dimension. Every time the Liverpool locals sang, one felt a few more nails had been hammered into the […]
A Dangerous Method
Thursday, April 12th, 2012 Film Reviews, Other Writing,When a film is based on a play called The Talking Cure, it is only to be expected there will be a lot of chat, with relatively few scenes of animatronic monsters and bloodthirsty vampires. Nevertheless, in these days when even Sherlock Holmes has become a Kung Fu hero, one learns to expect anything. It […]
This Must Be the Place
Saturday, April 7th, 2012 Film Reviews, Other Writing,Sean Penn has had more dynamic roles, but he can hardly have played a weirder character than Cheyenne, a living relic of the post-punk era, complete with porcupine hairdo, lipstick, and the kind of eyeshadow usually found on Egyptian tomb paintings. Think of Robert Smith from the Cure. When Cheyenne talks, he enunciates every word […]