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In the ’30s a man is obsessed with a painting of a woman that reminds him of his long-lost mother. He models his girlfriend exactly after the woman in the painting and after she attempts to commit suicide she is committed into a sanatoriumRead More »
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There are times in “Mephisto” when the hero tries to explain himself by saying that he’s only an actor, and he has that almost right: All he is, is an actor. It’s not his fault that the Nazis have come to power, and that as a German-speaking actor he must choose between becoming a Nazi and being exiled into a foreign land without jobs or German actors. As long as he is acting, as long as he is not called upon to risk his real feelings, this man can act his way into the hearts of women, audiences, and the Nazi power structure. This is the story of a man who plays his life wearing masks, fearing that if the last mask is removed, he will have no face.Read More »
The dictatorship forced thousands of Argentines to leave their country and settle in different corners of Europe. This film follows the daily routine of a community of Argentine exiles in Paris. While waiting to return to Argentina, the days pass and liven up the wait with the tangos, which were the exile of Gardel and now represent the only connection of these people with the land that saw them born.Read More »
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The first Bosnian film to win the Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival’s International Critics Week focuses on six women living in a small village one year after the war has ended. All of the men (including male children) have been rounded up and killed by the Serbian army. The surviving women work hard to keep the village’s only industry, jam and sauerkraut production operational. It’s grueling work to create a delicate product that the women then transport in handcarts through rough mountainous paths to sell on the roadside. We see the women raise the orphaned children left behind all the while trying to keep each other’s spirits up with games and craft projects but the fact remains, the only commonality they have is that their former middle classic lives have been transformed by tragedy. Read More »
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“Aparajito” is the second film of Satyajit Ray’s ‘Apu Trilogy’ (Pather Panchali, Aparajito and Apur Sansar) continues to document the life and maturation of one young Indian boy. The film opens with Apu, son of Harihar and Sarbajaya, wandering and exploring the Temple City of Bananas on the banks of the Ganga (Ganges river) where they reside. The story focuses on Apu leaving the embrace of his family nest to work and become educated in a more modern world than what he has become accustomed in his youth. The struggle to remain separate is exemplified by the dire need of his Mother, Sarbajaya who is deathly ill and depressed. She remains desperately lonely in her small village after the death of her husband and departure of her son. Continuing the cycle of life Satyajit Ray continues to explore the inner conflicts of conforming to a more contemporary world than our parents. The strength to overcome our bonding of birth is another universal theme of traditional respect and independent personal advancement.Read More »
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Ostensibly a fiction film about a foster mother (Cherry Pie Picache) in the outskirts of Manila spending her last day with her latest foster child (Kier Segundo), Foster Child is actually a home movie tour de force. It takes a Dziga Vertov or Hou Hsiao-Hsien to make sense out of every aspect of quotidian living, and so Foster Child is merely content with a strong sense of cluttered, bustling place: children running everywhere, playing everywhere, peeing everywhere, and parents wrangling them together for dinner, dances, school, appointments, and trips around the neighborhood. Like Cristian Mungiu did in his recent 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, Brillante Mendoza attempts to take the camera from the opening shot of Touch of Evil to quotidian life in the slums.Read More »
Pediatric Alex Beck (François Cluzet), still devastated by the savage murder of his wife Margot (Marie-Josée Croze) in the early days of their marriage eight years ago, receives an anonymous email.
When he clicks on the link he sees a woman’s face standing in a crowd and being filmed in real time – Margot’s face. Is she still alive? And why does she instruct him to ‘tell no one’?Read More »
Last film by Assi Dayn.
Dr. Yoel Pomerantz, 64, is an unemployed clinical psychologist who lives in poverty with his 30 year old son Yoav in a 12th floor apartment. Pomerantz volunteers at ANA, the psychology hotline and is an expert at dialoguing with potential suicide callers. Occasionally he suggests that they come to his clinic for private therapy sessions.Read More »
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A yakuza member embarks on a trail of revenge for his murdered boss. Senzo, the successor of the Mita Family, searches for the man bearing a tattoo of a dragon who is said to be responsible for the death of their former leader. – LetterboxdRead More »