2001-2010

Quote:
Bicycles are as synonymous with Beijing as cabs are with Manhattan, and when the hero of Wang Xiaoshuai’s superb and harrowing “Beijing Bicycle” joins the swarm of cyclists who crowd the city’s streets, he stands for countless young people who have made the journey from the country to China’s capital in search of a better life.

Cui Lin’s shy yet stubborn Guei considers himself lucky. He has a place to live–with a friend in an old compound with small quarters for working people. Even better, he has landed a job as a messenger that provides him with a uniform and an impressive silver mountain bike that will become his once he has earned 700 yuan, which is about $85.Read More »

Hartley’s conscientious assistant in Berlin receives weekly letters from her boss and sends him the books he needs as he struggles in Amsterdam to create the staging for Dutch composer Louis Andriessen’s opera, “la Commedia.”Read More »

Different black-and-white animation techniques tell several scary stories. There’s a story of a teenage boy who meets the wrong girl. Another tale deals with a small community where people disappear and are never seen again. Then there’s the narrative of a little Japanese girl who suffers from horrible nightmares followed by a tale where a man doesn’t get the rest he hoped for in an old not-so-abandoned house. These stories are connected by the story about a man with a devilish smile and four enormous dogs from hell and by a woman’s monologue about her fears.Read More »

Gina Befellafante New York Times
To many Americans — millions, really — the name Fran Lebowitz doesn’t mean much. But in certain precincts, vital to the cultural functioning of both coasts, she is famously a friend, a crank, a climber, a cautionary tale, an iconoclast and a mouth. In “Public Speaking,” Martin Scorsese’s enormously enjoyable and perceptive documentary about her, Ms. Lebowitz’s endearing narcissism is a study in the notion that arrogance and insecurity are largely two sides of the same cocktail coaster.Read More »

Written, directed and produced by René Féret, MOZART’S SISTER is a re-imagined account of the early life of Maria Anna “Nannerl” Mozart (played by Marie Féret, the director’s daughter), five years older than Wolfgang and a musical prodigy in her own right. Originally the featured performer, Nannerl has given way to Wolfgang as the main attraction, as their strict but loving father Leopold tours his talented offspring in front of the royal courts of pre-French revolution Europe. Approaching marriageable age and now forbidden to play the violin or compose, Nannerl chafes at the limitations imposed on her gender. But a friendship with the son and daughter of Louis XV offers her ways to challenge the established sexual and social order.Read More »

OUR DAY WILL COME Review

by Todd Brown, September 12, 2010 1:53 PM
Though it remains to be seen whether he will be loved our hated by audiences at large – and both seem equally likely – there is no doubt at all that Our Day Will Come announces the arrival of Romain Gavras as a significant new talent in world cinema. Though working with a very different style, Gavras embraces the same sort of fuck you abrasiveness that has made Lars Von Trier such a polarizing presence on the world scene and we should expect nothing less from Gavras.Read More »

Synopsis:
Separated at the end of the Vietnam war, an “Americanized” woman and her Vietnamese mother are reunited after 22 years.Read More »

Synopsis:
A hidden enclave in the shadow of the New York Mets’ new stadium, the neighborhood of Willets Point is an industrial zone fated for demolition. Filled with scrapyards and auto salvage shops, lacking sidewalks or sewage lines, the area seems ripe for urban development. But Foreign Parts discovers a strange community where wrecks, refuse and recycling form a thriving commerce. Cars are stripped, sorted and cataloged by brand and part, then resold to an endless parade of drive-thru customers. Joe, the last original resident, rages and rallies through the street like a lost King Lear, trying to contest his imminent eviction. Two lovers, Sara and Luis, struggle for food and safety through the winter while living in an abandoned van. Julia, the homeless queen of the junkyard, exalts in her beatific visions of daily life among the forgotten. The film observes and captures the struggle of a contested “eminent domain” neighborhood before its disappearance under the capitalization of New York’s urban ecology.Read More »

The tears of a clown give French tragicomedy Strange Gardens an unexpected power. For 15-year-old Lucien (Damien Jouillerot), there’s nothing more embarrassing than his father Jacques’ (Jacques Villeret) circus routine. Dressing up in funny feet, white makeup, and a bright red nose to entertain the village, he’s a hit with everyone except his own son. But, as Jacques’ best friend André (André Dussollier) explains, there’s a history to his act that goes beyond simple clowning and to his experiences in the Second World War.Read More »