2001-2010

Quote:
Dog Days is an incredible film, though what it has to offer will certainly not be appreciated by every viewer. This is not to be meant as condescending – I simply mean not everyone will enjoy Ulrich Seidl’s aesthetics which have more than a little in common with Von Trier’s Domga 95 movement. Though Seidl doesn’t explicitly articulate his aesthetics the way Von Trier does, it features the same sense of realism. The characters are mostly non-actors wearing their own clothes and without makeup (except where diegetically necessary). The acting is very raw with many scenes calling for displays of intense emotional pain. There is no non-diegetic music. The film is shot entirely with hand-held DV. The film is, however, very aesthetically appealing. There are many beautiful, sun-drenched compositions, even if all the characters are sweating!Read More »

Sakiko returns home to care for her mother, who is dying of cancer. What she doesn’t expect is that she will come to discover the existence of her father, the truth of which her mother has concealed for many years. Going through her mother’s box of love letters, she decides to go Tokyo to seek out her father. Her hope is that she will be able to fulfill her mother’s last wish before it is too late.Read More »

Quote:
Terence McDonagh is a drug- and gambling-addled detective in post-Katrina New Orleans investigating the killing of five Senegalese immigrants.
Read More »

Quote:
Juliette lives in a mundane housing development outside Paris with her two brothers and single mom. Director Aziza films the children in the contemporary Albert Camus school, where students are lively and attentive. Juliette’s class has the usual sexual curiosities, and Madame Solenska unhesitatingly turns remarks on menopause, oral sex, and even “teacher’s tits” into grammar exercises. Juliette becomes fascinated with Solenska; she’s thrilled when the teacher loans her a personal copy of The Lacemaker with its cover illustration of a nude young woman with her back to us, facing the sea. At home, Juliette studies the inscription on the title page from perhaps the teacher’s lover, its smudged pages, a single hair caught in the book’s spine, a hint of the teacher’s scent. The girl applies eyeshadow and tries on her mother’s bra, dress, perfume, heels… trying to picture her own adulthood.Read More »

Synopsis:
Two men and a woman meet in a Moscow bar and weave extravagant lies about their lives and professions, setting in motion a ruthless, relentless three-lane journey into the dark, secret corners of modern Russia.Read More »

Stumbling across an uncompleted 1939 film called “Princess Marushka”, filmmaker Sam becomes intrigued with the young actor Sylvain Marceau, who last appeared in the film. Hoping to discover the mystery behind Sylvain’s disappearance, Sam decides to make a documentary and sets off to interview those who knew Sylvain, including elderly Lisa Morain. Through her interview, Sam learns the story of Lisa and Sylvain’s doomed love affair on the eve of World War II.Read More »

Review by Roger Ebert-
Her father asks Chuyia: “Do you remember getting married?” She does not. He tells her that her husband has died, and she is a widow. She is 8 years old. Under traditional Hindu law, she will be a widow for the rest of her life. There are two alternatives: Marry her husband’s brother, or throw herself on his funeral pyre.Read More »

A group of friends in Peru walk across the sandy outskirts of Lima in order to pay their respects to a fallen gang member.Read More »

Quote:
Nanayo is the latest film from Naomi Kawase, the winner of the Grand Prix at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival with The Mourning Forest and BAFF 2003 with Shara. Making a change from Kawase’s former films, which are all set in her native Nara, Nanayo was shot in a poetic village in Thailand. The movie details the human drama that unfolds as different people of different nationalities happen to come together under one roof in a house in the middle of a forest. Lacking a common language, the art of traditional Thai massage becomes the tool they use to communicate. Read More »