Film Reviews by DF

A movie where the viewer is not fed a narrative dialogue but instead a visual dialogue. People in streets, trams, and faces. In the faces we create the dialogue. Faces reacting as in a documentary but telling a story of a dream or a quest that we know hardly anything about. In spite of the documentary background of a very pretty city peopled with more than a fair share of pretty people, there is very much a tension in the way the laid-back dreamy protagonist zig-zags through the streets following the woman whom he imagines is someone he met a few years earlier. The stunning filmography, as well as the music and street sounds combine, unobtrusively, to make the movie mesmerizing. Watching the movie had me looking (like the protagonist) to recognize perhaps some familiar face amongst the myriad reflections in tram and shop windows. An excellent, but very different, movie, and certainly not one for those who expect chirpy banter and car chases in their movies.

A low-key pleasant movie with a cast of village characters in a Spanish village long lost to the outside world. The movie has no pretentions to be a classic or arty. It works it way through a story of a gangster on the run, mistaken identities, an arranged funeral and quirky characters with strange hang-ups; a woman in love with the dying, a doubting priest, an artist secretly painting the woman across the street, but everyone proud of the village's funeral expertise. No Oscars, but enjoyable.

Looks like 'comedy' in Iceland is hardly a barrel of laughs. The opening scenes had me puzzled for a while. Is this Iceland? Looks a bit like Co. Roscommon in Ireland and the people (and horses); not so dissimilar. The film, with little narrative or dialogue, tries to qualify psychological links between the irascible horse characters and the rather strange 'hillbilly' human community. At least a link is established in the spontaneous way both species choose to mate! There is a scene where horse whinnies and humans laughing is juxtaposed. Another scene depicting a crazed alcoholic swimming out to a Russian trawler seems, more than likely, to have been based on some exaggerated local legend. Ultimately, the movie is strange, but not engaging and not an encouragement to visit Iceland (or, at least, that part). Like Bjork the chanteuse, such Icelandic artistic endeavour might be 'an acquired taste', but not for me.

In spite of very favorable reviews from the media I failed to see any greatness in this movie. I do appreciate so called 'art movies', but in this case I did in fact fall asleep half way through watching; I continued next day to see the complete film. The story seemed interesting enough but as cinema it was heavy going and lacked a compelling dramatic narrative. The movie is overall very much of 'the camera'. The film however does provide some insight into areas of Iranian society (at the time the film was made) especially what appeared to be a rather casual but benign justice system for minor offences.

Overall yet another excellent documentary from Herzog. The first half is outstanding showing the extraordinary ordeals of the pilgrims on the journeys to Bhod Gaya and Mt. Kailash; Herzog is respectfully observing but mostly leaves the images for the viewer. The second part shot in Austria I found less compelling and drifted into areas of politicking which changed the tone of the film.

An intriguing enjoyable movie with Juliette Binoche, as usual, brilliant. Shimell plays a good part (however, the character's day job as an author doesn't really hold water). Beyond the main 'mysterious' relationship, there is quite a fascinating relationship between Binoche's character and her son. The Tuscan town, as backdrop, frames the whole movie beautifully,

Is this a good film? Yes, it is. But some resilience is necessary to see it through. The attention to period detail is without fault and there are the lovely lingering visuals that we expect in continental films. The movie's storyline, whilst valid, is very suffocating as we, the viewers, are dragged into the lives of high-bourgeois families and their almost medieval social behaviours. We are introduced to the central character Therese and her lifelong friend Anne and it is soon apparent that Therese is a cerebral type whilst Anne is very 'earthy'. To fulfil social expectations, Therese enters into a joyless marriage with Anne's self-obsessed brother and Anne herself sets off on a secret relationship with the local young intellectual, who is definitely not acceptable to the 'families'. Therese is given the job to persuade the young man to give up on Anne, but she herself is attracted to the young man, but more as an intellectual outlet for her thoughts and emotions. Nevertheless, it is a betrayal of her friend. From now on Therese's token marriage disintegrates. The treatment of both Anne and Therese by their families is a mixture of banishment and imprisonment (the rather strange family servants take on the role of wardens). There are several scenes of opening windows and closing doors. In comparison, Chekov plays carry more passion and hope for their characters! Throughout the film I was hoping for some form of redemption for the character of Therese, but Tautou's performance is dour and I found it difficult to sympathise or empathise with her the character's predicament. She smiles a couple of times in a somewhat bizarre manner. Is the movie worth watching? Yes, but perhaps not a great French movie. Words of warning: the movie should carry a caution; 'smoking can seriously damage your health' and also in the movie, wild animals do not fare well.

On release in 2002 this movie received many, in my opinion, overblown reviews. The sort of reviews that are applied to movies from the likes of directors such as Almodovar and Allen, reverential and full of critic-babble. Yes, it is a good movie with good acting performances and an intriguing, but rather disturbing story line. It does follow themes of friendship and loneliness, but hardly 'romance'. In this movie, Almodovar focusses on male leads and the female leads are reduced to passivity. the characters Marco and Benigno are shown as emotionally sensitive, but also carry complicated psychological baggage. Benigno is, to say the least, strange and ultimately his behaviour is reprehensible. Almodovar's excursions into clever wit are not so much comedy, but more comical; Almodovar is not good with irony and this is evident in the b&w movie sequence. (The hospital featured is a bizarre set-up and hopefully not normal in Spain!) As a director's movie, it depicts a very personalised, but dubious, insight in relationships and sexuality. Nevertheless, the movie is worth watching.