Film Reviews by DW

Worth a watch, possibly, if you have fond memories of Woody's back catalogue and, in spite of more recent disappointments, still hope for something better. Midnight in Paris comes to mind as an exception to his more recent output, witty, imaginative and above all, clever.

Cafe Society doesn't match up to Midnight's standards but provides a very pleasant watch offering gentle humour, some nice performances and a real period feel not least due to some well-chosen music. Does any other director choose such brilliant soundtracks?

I realise I had taken a look at this a few years ago when I was still a member of LoveFilm, and had run out of patience then with, not the music nor the performances, but with the production values which, to my mind, are not at all suited to Stravinsky's oratorio. I have seen live, staged performances which offered no movement, no sets and definitely no ballet. These productions, one by Northern Opera, I recollect, suited the work perfectly. I'm convinced Stravinsky would have absolutely hated this.

Two stars for Langridge, Norman and Ozawa. As I say, musically,of high quality. but that's where one's praise begins and ends.

Friedrich Gulda was an exceptional pianist, always true to each composer whose music he performed. His playing and conducting, here maintain the high standards one would expect. My only regret is that the one Gulda DVD on offer from Cinema Paradiso is of Mozart rather than Beethoven whose music I find more rewarding than Mozart's. That's just a matter of my own tastes of course.

A few years ago I watched Alice in the Cities and found it quite engaging. Certainly it held my interest throughout. So when I had the opportunity to follow it up with Wrong Move, the second of Wender's Road Trilogy movies, I looked forward to adding to my experience of his films. Unfortunately this was a poor choice on my part as I simply lost patience with the sparse dialogue and the incredibly slow pace it took. from the opening scene to about 30 minutes in when I simply gave up on it.

Paris Texas also possessed similar "faults", you might say, but to my mind it is a masterpiece. I will take another look at it shortly but I don't expect to change my opinion about its quality.

Pulchinella is simply a wonderful recreation of the original Ballet Russe choreography, every bit as lively and creative as one could possibly wish for. Full of wit and invention, the playing with the LSO under Abbado quite glorious. By contrast, Glen Tetley's Firebird does not follow the original story and is, to my mind, utterly lack lustre. 5 stars for Pulchinella, 3 for Firebird.

This film, I imagine, will hold most interest for those particularly interested in the work of Johannes Vermeer. I certainly count myself as one very taken with his work and who has travelled to galleries here and there to see his paintings which are limited in number. The painting copied in the film is owned by the Queen so I haven't seen it for myself but Tim Jennison is allowed to have a precious 30 minutes in a face-to-face close encounter, an experience which both inspires him to pursue his ambition but also a sense of helplessness that his dream will ever be fulfilled.

Jennison then begins to undertake a seemingly impossible task given that he acknowledges he has himself no great artistic talent. He already has a theory as to how this may be achieved which means employing camera obscura techniques, a theory held by many other art historians and artists, including David Hockney, who holds similar views,

Will he, won't he? Definitely worth following his journey. This was a second viewing for me and I still found it as interesting as the first time round.

Heimat is a gem. This will be my third viewing, each as compelling as my first, around thirty years ago. It may initially appear slow and lacking much in the way of drama and narrative but perseverance will reward those who continue to view Edgar Reitz's masterpiece.

The Simon family saga, spread over decades as well as many hours of viewing, allows one to build relationships with the family members so that their lives brcome almost as familiar as those of one's own. That the series of films also educates the viewer in aspects of German history perhaps little known, particularly how rural life in the Hunsruck, in many ways unchanged for centuries, becomes caught up in and dramatically affected by the rise of Hitler and the Third Reich.

This ended up on my list because all I had noticed was Bauhaus, Read the small print!. It's a pop group and not the world famous art school established by Walter Gropius in around 1920.

For those who can remember the real Gloria Grahame I'm curious to learn what they made of Bening's performance as the 50s' actress. Good as Bening is there is something missing from her interpretation and this is, essentially, the voice, just about Grahame's trademark.

She looked the part well enough but there was this missing element which, for me, made the film less convincing than it ought to have been. The story is intriguing and until the film's release I simply had no knowledge of it. The saddest element of Grahame's story was that, at the time she was making films, there were so few opportunities for female actors, once past their so-called "prime" , to continue a career in Hollywood. I like to think she would have been offered more roles had she been acting today, witness Bening herself.