I am not fluent or even remotely familiar with the French language. But, after watching Michael Haneke’s “Amour” and listening to it play out four more times in the movie theater where I work, I became attuned to repetitive patterns in the dialogue. From merely listening to “Amour,” I learned the French translation for the [...]
Göteborg is the home of Scandinavia’s most important international film festival, offering one of the world’s most generous prizes: a Dragon Award of 1 million Swedish kronor (nearly 158 000 USD) for Best Nordic Film. But comparatively speaking, the festival’s short film award is even more remarkable: this year, a selection of Swedish films [...]
In 1988, Chile held a referendum to decide whether dictator Augusto Pinochet should stay in power. For one month, both sides could express their views in daily 15-minute TV slots. Pablo Larraín’s new feature, No, stars Gael García Bernal as adman René Saavedra, who is asked to lead the ‘No’ campaign. When he first meets [...]
This year marked the 50th anniversary of David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia. To mark the occasion, a digitally restored edition was released, and I had the a chance to see it on the Empire Leicester Square’s biggest screen: an auditorium vast enough to complement the scale of the film’s setting, but normally reserved for mediocre [...]
As we reach the end of an inspiring year for cinema, here are ten titles that stood out for me in 2012, and an explanation of why I chose each of them. Although I saw many of these at film festivals, so they may not make it to your local art house cinema, in the [...]
Sometimes, maybe most of the time, ambiguous endings are cop-outs. The crime isn’t in subverting audience expectations—who wants movies without surprises?—but in betraying the stories themselves. Most stories deserve definitive endings, and audiences are rightfully frustrated when they don’t get them. But sometimes the situation is reversed and an ambiguous ending is the only way [...]
Paul Thomas Anderson has a taste for the epic. It was always there, from the sprawling spectacle of “Boogie Nights” (1997) to the experimental spider web narrative of “Magnolia” (1999) and the magnificent fireball of ambition and greed that was “There Will Be Blood” (1997). “The Master,” Anderson’s sixth feature, is epic, but in its own [...]
“Village at the End of the World,” a documentary set in Greenland, presents some interesting similarities with “Eat Sleep Die,” the last film I reviewed. Both revolve around unemployment, and the threat it poses to community. Admittedly, the village of Niaqornat in the north of Greenland makes the southern Swedish village of “Eat Sleep Die” [...]
“Eat Sleep Die” (“Äta sova dö,” dir. Gabriela Pichler), treats a topic of central concern in this time of financial crisis: unemployment. Set in a village in Sweden, the film revolves around 20-year-old Raša, a sturdy, virile but tender-hearted only child who lives with her father. At the local salad processing plant, Raša has [...]
“Wadjda” (Haifaa Al Mansour, 2012) and “Tall as the Baobab Tree” (“Grand comme le Baobab,” Jeremy Teicher, 2012) are set in far distant countries: the first in Saudi Arabia, the second in Senegal. But both films treat a surprisingly similar theme: girls who won’t let tradition stand in the way of their desires. “Wadjda” centers [...]
Why did we watch ‘Amour?’Short and SwedeNo: Too Good at Recreating the 80sLawrence of Arabia: Deserving of its Place in the SunTop 10 of 2012Sound of My Voice (2012)The Master (2012)‘Village at the End of the World’: Help Wanted?‘Eat Sleep Die’: Asking for a little moreFrom Senegal to Saudi Arabia: Girls working for change
