M. Septime rules the renowned Paris restaurant “Chez Septime” with an iron fist. Grovelling before his rich and powerful customers, M. Septime feels free to treat his employees like children at best or like slaves at worst. M. Septime would be very happy if things just continued the way they are. But Destiny will have it otherwise. Indeed one day, Novales, a South American president, disappears while dining in his restaurant and it looks as if Septime has something to do with itRead More »
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A history teacher mets a hippy girl in Paris, he drops his job and starts a relation with her. So they start live together (vivre ensemble). A some point they do a trip to NY. Then they come back… Well this is the first film of Anna Karina as writer and director. Some images of Paris and NY in 72 are nice as an old postcard.Read More »
Synopsis:
Two parallel stories about two identical women; one living in Poland, the other in France. They don’t know each other, but their lives are nevertheless profoundly connected.
Review:
It is important to resist the temptation to figure out every last detail of “The Double Life of Veronique,” the mysterious and poetic new film by Krzysztof Kieslowski. That way lies frustration.Read More »
Synopsis:
While investigating a high-profile murder case, a savvy but unorthodox veteran police inspector has to cope with a bad conscience, bad health, an overzealous partner, a timid superior and interference from political interests. This is an existential whodunit, but a good one, and like any good whodunit, ends with a very surprising conclusion, which will be spoiled for you if you read much of anything at all about the movie.Read More »
Plot:
Abbas Kiarostami and his assistant, Seifollah Samadian, travel to Kampala, Uganda at the request of the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development. For ten days, their camera captures and caresses the faces of a thousand children – all orphans – whose parents have died of AIDS. Recording tears and laughter, music and silence, life and death, the film attests to Africa’s sunny resilience in the face of so much suffering and disease.Read More »
Godard. Fuller. Rivette. Endfield. Tarr. In his celebrated career as a film critic, Jonathan Rosenbaum has undertaken wide-ranging dialogues with many of the most daring and important auteurs of our time. Cinematic Encounters collects more than forty years of interviews that embrace Rosenbaum’s vision of film criticism as a collaboration involving multiple voices. Rosenbaum accompanies Orson Welles on a journey back to Heart of Darkness , the unmade film meant to be Welles’s Hollywood debut. Jacques Tati addresses the primacy of décor and soundtrack in his comedic masterpiece PlayTime, while Jim Jarmusch explains the influence of real and Hollywoodized Native Americans in Dead Man. By arranging the chapters chronologically, Rosenbaum invites readers to pursue thematic threads as if the discussions were dialogues between separate interviews. The result is a rare gathering of filmmakers trading thoughts on art and process, on great works and false starts, and on actors and intimate moments.Read More »
Synopsis:
The story of Saartjes Baartman, a Black domestic who, in 1808, left Southern Africa, then ruled by Dutch settlers, for Europe, following her boss Hendrick Caesar , hoping to find fame and fortune there. Once in London her master turned manager does nothing but exhibit her as a freak in a phony and humiliating carnival show. After a series of troubles caused by their act, Caesar, Saartje and their new friend, bear-tamer Réaux, head for Paris where once again, and against her will, she has to mimic savagery and expose her body, first in carnivals, then in the aristocratic salons of Paris, later on among the libertines and finally in brothels where she ends up being a prostitute. Read More »
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Anthem tells the story of Luke (Monaghan) a teenager who foresees the death of his new best friend Stan (MacNicoll), the most popular guy in school. When this premonition becomes reality, Luke must deal with the trials and tribulations of being dubbed “The Prophet of Death” and being titled a freak by the entire town. It doesn’t help that he’s fallen in love with Faith (List) who just happens to be Stan’s girl or that he’s on the outs with his childhood best friend Fang (Grayson Gabriel) or that the premonitions just keep coming – In a story that expertly navigates that often rocky, at times inspiring road to adulthood, Anthem authentically balances the teenage experience of confusion, anxiety and rage with those exceptional moments of clarity, self discovery and human connection. Hormonal, funny, exhilarating and wise, Anthem slyly explores the need to belong, the isolation of youth and the powerful brew of fear truth and noise that plays inside us all.Read More »
Synopsis:
A year after the accidental death of their father, three brothers — each suffering from depression – meet for a train trip across India. Francis, the eldest, has organized it. The brothers argue, sulk, resent each other, and fight. The youngest, Jack, estranged from his girlfriend, is attracted to one of the train’s attendants. Peter has left his pregnant wife at home, and he buys a venomous snake. After a few days, Francis discloses their surprising and disconcerting destination. Amid foreign surroundings, can the brothers sort out their differences? A funeral, a meditation, a hilltop ritual, and the Bengal Lancer figure in the reconciliation.Read More »