Disappointing picture by Aki Kaurismäki lacks a compelling plot and has few laughs. The Other Side of Hope is the long awaited film of the outstanding Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki. His most successful films such as The Match Factory Girl and The Man Without a Past with their distinctive minimalist style and acerbic jokes made
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Wild Mouse (Wilde Maus) Review – Berlinale 2017
Wild Mouse, the directorial debut of cabaret artist Josef Hader, is a film about a small man made for a small audience. The film “Wild Mouse” (Wilde Maus) directed, written and starring Josef Hader was screened in competition at the 2017 Berlinale. The picture is the film debut of Hader who is well-known in Austria
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Hostages (2017) Review – Berlinale 2017
Gripping drama by Rezo Gigineishvili about a plane hijacking in 1983 Georgia The film Hostages (Mdzevlebi) directed by the young Georgian director Rezo Gigineishvili was shown at the Berlinale in the Panorama section. It is based on the true events of a plane hijacking in 1983 by a group of youngsters belonging to the artistic
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Return to Montauk Review – Berlinale 2017
Stellan Skarsgård stars in Volker Schlöndorff’s lyrical adaptation of the autobiographical novel by Max Frisch. The film Return to Montauk by veteran director Volker Schlöndorff was screened at the Berlinale in competition. It tells the story of the famous aging writer Max Zorn who has regrets about this past, in particular about his failed relationship
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The Midwife (Sage Femme) Review – Berlinale 2017
Catherine Deneuve plays Béatrice in Martin Provost’s forgettable picture. The Midwife (Sage Femme) was shown at the 2017 Berlinale out of competition. The film provokes many questions and the most important one is why this trashy opus of Martin Provost was selected for the program of the festival. Perhaps the answer is the participation of
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The Party Review – Berlinale 2017
Sally Potter’s smart and funny dark comedy features an all-star cast. The Party, a black comedy directed by Sally Potter was screened in competition at the Berlinale. Great acting by the all-star cast and Potter’s smart and funny screenplay made the film one of the highlights of the Berlin film festival. The picture was made on
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Viceroy’s House Review – Berlinale 2017
Gurinder Chadha’s skillful examination of the political turmoil in 1947 India. The picture Viceroy’s House directed by Gurinder Chadha was screened out of competition at the Berlinale. The film tells the story of love between Jeet and Aalia set against the historical scenes surrounding partition of India in 1947. Their differing religious backgrounds become a
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Elle Review
Paul Verhoeven, favorite director of many film fans has finally broken his ten year cinematic hiatus with the new film Elle. The motion picture was shot in France with a French crew and actors. Paul Verhoeven is a Dutch filmmaker, who started to make films in the Netherlands (Turkish Delight, Katie Tippel, Soldier of Orange)
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Collector
The film “Collector” (Коллектор) is the directorial debut of Alexey Krasovsky starring Konstantin Khabensky. The director has achieved the quite complicated task of creating a film with only one actor and using a single set. The actor who plays the role of a debt collector created an impressive character whose different aspects of personality unfold
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The Student (2016) – Review
The Student is an amusing character study of a religious fanatic “The Student” – “(M)uchenik” directed by Kirill Serebrennikov is an attempt to reconsider religious fanaticism in the modern world. The picture is based on the play “Martyr” by German author Marius von Mayenburg and it was adapted to the reality of modern Russia. In a
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Paradise (2016) – Review
The film “Paradise” directed by Andrei Konchalovsky was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 2016 Academy Awards. The subject of “Paradise” is the Holocaust, which has been often covered in film and has always been a popular topic at the Oscars. Konchalovsky tried to avoid clichés common in films about the topic.
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La-La Land Review
La-La Land is a very important film. It received so many Oscars, but we have seen weak films awarded before that. It is important as a proclamation of incompetence. This film invaded the musical genre which traditionally belonged to artists who can sing and dance. Falsification of art began a long time ago, for instance
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Despite the Falling Snow – PIFF 2016
The film was shown on the 17th of August, 2016 at the Prague Independent Film Festival (PIFF) and won the awards for Best Feature Film, Best Actress (Rebecca Ferguson) and Best Supporting Actor (Anthony Head). It is a romantic drama with elements of an espionage thriller adapted from the successful novel by Shamim Sarif with
