Matteo Garrone first came to prominence internationally upon the release of his striking mafia epic Gomorrah - it might be hard to imagine just a few short years later he's off into the woods for a lavish cavort in a land of fairy tales. That is the case in Tale of Tales, though, a deliciously macabre fantasy and the director's first film in the English language and starring famous names like Salma Hayek, Vincent Cassel and Toby Jones. Matteo sat down with CineVue's Ben Nicholson to discuss the origins of the project and his inspirations in bringing the world to life.
- 6/20/2016
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★★☆ Despite eschewing colour in favour of the rich textures of monochrome, Ciro Guerra's Embrace of the Serpent (2015) manages to be one of the most vivid depictions of the Amazon committed to celluloid. Shot on sumptuous Super 35, the black and white photography lends itself to the film's sorrowful ode to a world devastated, but it is the ceaseless teeming life of the soundtrack that transports the audience into the the midst of the rainforest. They're there to witness the upriver voyages of two western explorers over three decades apart, whose parallel journeys bring into sharp relief the harrowing effect of colonialism on the Amazon and its peoples.
"The river is full of fishes; we cannot possibly end them," rages an interloping westerner when it is suggested that fish should only be eaten during a certain phase of the surrounding's natural cycle. This call to listen to nature, to hear the rainforest when it speaks,...
"The river is full of fishes; we cannot possibly end them," rages an interloping westerner when it is suggested that fish should only be eaten during a certain phase of the surrounding's natural cycle. This call to listen to nature, to hear the rainforest when it speaks,...
- 9/14/2015
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★☆☆ The distant memory of former glories fuels the tragicomedy of Ivan Ostrochovský's fiction feature debut, Koza (2015). The title is the Slovak for 'goat' and was the nickname of protagonist Peter Baláž (himself), a boxer who represented his country at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. A pretty emotionally distant affair, Koza in some ways plays as though it's directly at the cross-section of Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler and Danis Tanovic's An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker - with its loose premise concerning the financial woes of a Romany outcast - though it lacks the redemptive arc of the former, or the social confrontation of the latter.
In fact, Ostrochovský steers decidedly clear of engaging with the issues faced by the Roma population in Slovakia in the way that other recent dramas like Tanovic's or Filip Marczewski's Shameless tried to. Opening scenes call to mind Clio Barnard...
In fact, Ostrochovský steers decidedly clear of engaging with the issues faced by the Roma population in Slovakia in the way that other recent dramas like Tanovic's or Filip Marczewski's Shameless tried to. Opening scenes call to mind Clio Barnard...
- 9/14/2015
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★★☆ Aleksei German's epic Dark Ages sci-fi Hard to Be a God (2013) took over a decade to make its way onto DVD and Blu-ray this week. Shot on-and-off for more than six years, the revered filmmaker regretfully passed away before the lengthy edit could be completed, but thanks to his wife and co-writer, Svetlana Karmalita, and son Aleksei German Jr, audiences now have the opportunity to wallow in his final picture in all its repugnant glory. For Hard to Be a God is a three-hour wade through shit, mud and blood - in the best possible way. Plot is of secondary importance to German, and the majority of its transmission to the viewer comes in croaking introduction laid over monochrome images of a medieval township.
Snow gently drifts down as a static and beautifully composed establishing shot sets the scene, but it this is the last moment of such serenity. Marauding...
Snow gently drifts down as a static and beautifully composed establishing shot sets the scene, but it this is the last moment of such serenity. Marauding...
- 9/13/2015
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★★☆ It's been more than two decades since audiences last got to see a new film from visionary Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky, with Frank Pavich's documentary on an abandoned sci-fi epic - Jodorowsky's Dune (2013) - looking like being the closet they might get. Now comes The Dance of Reality (2013), an absurdist dreamscape of a biopic that begins with the director himself addressing the camera extolling the the life-giving power of money; presumably by way of an explanation for his twenty-five year absence and its abrupt end. While still a carnival of politics and sex, in keeping with his most famous work, it's significantly more sincere story of myth and memory.
The edges of his provocation have been rounded and wilful obfuscation is less of a hurdle than viewers may have had to leap in the past; though this may not be surprising for a film that purports to tell of his family history.
The edges of his provocation have been rounded and wilful obfuscation is less of a hurdle than viewers may have had to leap in the past; though this may not be surprising for a film that purports to tell of his family history.
- 9/13/2015
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★★☆ There was a shot in Joss Whedon's box office behemoth Avengers Assemble (2012) which set fan's tongues a-wagging when it popped up in a trailer. The camera panned around the team of superheroes as they regrouped against an overwhelming alien hoard. If sequels are supposed to be bigger and better, then its lucky that the equivalent shot in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) is not just superior, not just more impressive, but arguably the most spine-tingling visual interpretation of the comic book form ever committed to celluloid. Earth's Mightiest Heroes are back and it's with a right-hook that floors the competition. Chris Evans' Captain America would be oh-so proud.
With Warner Bros' DC Universe gearing up for its big push next year with Batman v Superman and Marvel's own the Fantastic Four back on screens in July, Whedon has delivered a film that outdoes his own previous offering and sets...
With Warner Bros' DC Universe gearing up for its big push next year with Batman v Superman and Marvel's own the Fantastic Four back on screens in July, Whedon has delivered a film that outdoes his own previous offering and sets...
- 9/13/2015
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★☆☆☆ The Mount of Olives in Jerusalem makes for an endlessly striking location in Yaelle Kayam's delicately constructed Mountain (2015). The oldest active Jewish cemetery in the world, it proved fertile soil for Kayam's imagination as she transposed the essence of a story from the Talmud - about a rabbi who no longer desired his wife - onto its tombstone laden slopes. It's a setting filled with great sadness and beauty, much like the film's protagonist Tzvia (Shani Klein). Klein gives a performance of great restraint and depth but her unknowability, while lending the film its enigmatic appeal, ultimately leaves an air of dissatisfaction that is only exacerbated by its ambiguous closing scene.
Tzvia lives at the foot of the Mount of Olives. Separated from the cemetery by a wire fence, in accordance with Jewish law, she is the patient and frustrated wife of rabbi, Reuven (Avshalom Polak) and their four children.
Tzvia lives at the foot of the Mount of Olives. Separated from the cemetery by a wire fence, in accordance with Jewish law, she is the patient and frustrated wife of rabbi, Reuven (Avshalom Polak) and their four children.
- 9/12/2015
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★☆☆ The subject of guilt is one that cinema often returns to for its potential to be expressed in inventive and thought-provoking ways. In Radu Muntean's pared-down and naturalistic One Floor Below (2015), he and co-screenwriters Alexandru Baciu and Razvan Radulescu choose to take a similar route to Michael Haneke's highly-regarded Hidden (2005) by giving corporeal form to the externalised spectre of remorse. "We need to lose some weight," says Sandu Patrascu (Teodor Corban) to his equally paunch dog Jerry as they jog around a park. His conscience is soon a far greater burden, however, in this absorbing investigation into the culpability of inaction.
Returning home with Jerry, Patrascu happens upon two of his neighbours in a heated argument but carries on up to the apartment he shares with his wife Olga (Oxana Moravec) and son Matei (Ionut Bora). The next day, the young woman from downstairs, Laura, is found dead,...
Returning home with Jerry, Patrascu happens upon two of his neighbours in a heated argument but carries on up to the apartment he shares with his wife Olga (Oxana Moravec) and son Matei (Ionut Bora). The next day, the young woman from downstairs, Laura, is found dead,...
- 9/11/2015
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★☆☆ Tackling the period surrounding the British Mandate for Palestine and the subsequent formation of the State of Israeli is a very brave choice for a directorial debut. With A Tale of Love and Darkness (2015), Natalie Portman has not just taken on the challenge but also adapted Amos Oz's autobiographical memoirs in such a way as to attempt to present less-than-straightforward positions around a still incredibly contentious issue. There are undoubtedly kinks to iron out - the film has a particular problem with pacing during a section that requires careful handling - but this is a handsome and assured feature and certainly suggests a bright future behind the camera for Portman, who also stars.
Portman plays Oz's mother, Fania; an effervescent woman who died at the tragically young age of 38. The centre of her son's world, she is the primary focus of the narrative which is presented through the memory...
Portman plays Oz's mother, Fania; an effervescent woman who died at the tragically young age of 38. The centre of her son's world, she is the primary focus of the narrative which is presented through the memory...
- 9/11/2015
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★★☆ Nitzan Giladi's fantastic debut feature Wedding Doll (2015), premièring at Toronto this year, is the second Israeli film in as many years to focus on the difficult relationship between a young woman with a mental disability and the family member living with and caring for her. Where Asaf Korman's Next To Her (2014) mined the more unsettling recesses of a co-dependent relationship, Giladi has chosen to make a film all about the quest for independence. Of course, that is difficult in modern society when learning difficulties of any kind still come laden with all manner of stigma. "Weirdo!" is the cry of a young boy as Hagit (Moran Rosenblatt) revels in the sunrise.
Giladi's script does an impressive job of excavating the spectrum of different prejudices buried beneath the surface. These do not just come in the form of overt nastiness, but subtle put-downs and mistrust even from those who...
Giladi's script does an impressive job of excavating the spectrum of different prejudices buried beneath the surface. These do not just come in the form of overt nastiness, but subtle put-downs and mistrust even from those who...
- 9/10/2015
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★☆☆☆ Deceit and callousness abound in Sebastian Ko's psychological drama We Monsters (2015). It begins with an effective, open question which Marcus Seibert's screenplay then continues to re-pitch and re-frame throughout its runtime; if your child murdered someone, what would you do? It's an intriguing premise which is regrettably let down by fairly pedestrian treatment. Seibert never really manages to fully engage with the incidental - and more interesting - questions that he raises and as the narrative proceeds down its predictably dark path, it never quite settles on its tone meaning that neither its drama, nor its black-comedy, land the required punches.
There's a similar dichotomy to be found in Andreas Köhler's cinematography, which maintains a cool distance but is still littered with handheld tremors that seem to be reaching for an intimacy that the screenplay never affords. If one was being particularly generous, it could perhaps be...
There's a similar dichotomy to be found in Andreas Köhler's cinematography, which maintains a cool distance but is still littered with handheld tremors that seem to be reaching for an intimacy that the screenplay never affords. If one was being particularly generous, it could perhaps be...
- 9/10/2015
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★☆☆ Igor Drljača's The Waiting Room (2015) bears no little resemblance to its cowed protagonist, Jasmin (Jasmin Geljo). A sad clown of a man, both he and the film spend much of their time patiently observing the passing of a frustrated life, devoid of narrative incident but drowning in regret and preoccupations with self-worth, the nature of performance, and a country long since left behind. Blending in elements of Geljo's own life this is a mournful character study, liberally peppered with awkward humour, that frames the emigre experience through the lens of a tired actor with many parts to play and nothing to sink his teeth into. Of course, the irony of that very fact is Geljo being afforded the opportunity to do just that.
Geljo's Jasmin provides Drljača's film with its essential centre of gravity, excelling in the variety of subtly different roles that he has to inhabit; from endeavouring father...
Geljo's Jasmin provides Drljača's film with its essential centre of gravity, excelling in the variety of subtly different roles that he has to inhabit; from endeavouring father...
- 9/10/2015
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★☆☆ An elegy for both the lost world of the Jewish shtetl and the fanciful idylls of childhood, the exquisitely lensed Song of Songs (2015) is the new film from award-winning Ukrainian director Eva Neymann. With a narrative constructed of elements plucked from across the work of Yiddish author Sholem Aleichem, it charts the burgeoning feelings between a young boy and girl growing up in close proximity in a traditional Hasidic community in the early 20th century. If a little fleeting and slightly evasive, this perfectly captures the ephemeral nature of their pre-adolescent romance and Rimvydas Leipus' stunning cinematography makes up for any possible shortcomings.
Though nothing like it in terms of form, the compositions remind in some ways of Dietrich
Brüggemann's Stations of the Cross; they resemble slowly moving tableaux somewhere between a book of fairytale illustrations and the paintings of someone like Pieter de Hooch, albeit bathed in the...
Though nothing like it in terms of form, the compositions remind in some ways of Dietrich
Brüggemann's Stations of the Cross; they resemble slowly moving tableaux somewhere between a book of fairytale illustrations and the paintings of someone like Pieter de Hooch, albeit bathed in the...
- 9/10/2015
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
This week sees the red carpet rolling into the centre of the Ontario capital for the fortieth edition of the Toronto Film Festival. Giving a headache to keen festival-goers everywhere the anniversary line-up boasts a staggering 289 feature titles including a whopping 132 world premières. Bookending the festival will be Jean-Marc Vallée's Demolition, which kicks things off on Thursday 10 September, and Paco Cabezas' Mr. Right, which draws proceedings to a close ten days later. The latter is a murderous rom-com starring Anna Kendrick and Sam Rockwell, the former stars Jack Gyllenhaal, grief-stricken and prone to random acts of destruction. But with such an enormous roster of films to choose from, it doesn't all hinge on the star-studded awards vehicles that may or not make their bow.
While the likes of Ridley Scott's The Martian, Stephen Frears' The Program and recent Venice bows such as The Danish Girl and...
While the likes of Ridley Scott's The Martian, Stephen Frears' The Program and recent Venice bows such as The Danish Girl and...
- 9/10/2015
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★☆☆ "Like a murderer jumping outta nowhere in an alley, love has jumped in front of us, like a lightning strike." This may seem a bizarre way to describe a relationship but in fact it perfectly captures the essence of the strange psycho-sexual bond that lies at the twisted heart of Remy Bennett and Émilie Richard-Froozan's Buttercup Bill (2014). It's a tantalising piece of slow-burn Southern Gothic that threatens to never get going, but even in its listless moments never relinquished a pervading sense of threat. Violence and aggression lurk just beneath the surface and the film cultivates a decidedly Lynchian vibe, particularly in the form of its striking opening.
A fractured and dizzying delve into a grief-stricken mind, the film's first section boldly attempts a formal approximation of said grief. The death of childhood friend Flo casts Pernilla (co-director, Bennett) into a state of disarray. Memory and reality collide as her past and present merge.
A fractured and dizzying delve into a grief-stricken mind, the film's first section boldly attempts a formal approximation of said grief. The death of childhood friend Flo casts Pernilla (co-director, Bennett) into a state of disarray. Memory and reality collide as her past and present merge.
- 9/7/2015
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★☆☆ "It was a low, late afternoon light ... that only spoke of distant things." And so it is that a film seems to perfectly encapsulate itself in the delivery of a single line of dialogue. Those words are spoken by the protagonist of Vítor Gonçalves' The Invisible Life (2013) in a typical moment of reflective voiceover as he traverses a dimly lit hallway. This is a film that clearly has ambition to expound poetically about existential malaise and deep-seated loneliness; but it's all fustian, amounting to little more than its muted brown hues, some strikingly elegant compositions and vague discussions of things too remote for them to ever drift into clear focus. Drifting is the apposite word.
This is not a film that is driven by any narrative or thematic concerns, but which instead moves at a gloomy glissade. The Invisible Life is Portuguese director Gonçalves' first work in over 25 years...
This is not a film that is driven by any narrative or thematic concerns, but which instead moves at a gloomy glissade. The Invisible Life is Portuguese director Gonçalves' first work in over 25 years...
- 4/20/2015
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★☆☆☆ The inertia of millennial existential malaise has been de rigueur in the horror genre of late. David Robert Mitchell terrified with a wonderful twist on teenage anxieties in his It Follows (2014), exploring the dualities of sex and the slow dread of infernal lazy afternoons. Elsewhere Starry Eyes (2014), written and directed by Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer, sought to plumb similar depths from the ennui of La creatives. Dark Summer (2015) threatens to follow suit but Mike Le's script - directed by Paul Solet - begins as though it intends to stalk the disquieting hallways of 21st century technological preoccupation before careering into rote haunted house banality.
The presence of It Follows actor Keir Gilchrist (pictured right) does little to help avoid such unfavourable comparisons. In that film he played a lovesick teen willing to sacrifice himself for Maika Monroe. On this occasion his unrequited feelings have led to some cyber-stalking and landed his character,...
The presence of It Follows actor Keir Gilchrist (pictured right) does little to help avoid such unfavourable comparisons. In that film he played a lovesick teen willing to sacrifice himself for Maika Monroe. On this occasion his unrequited feelings have led to some cyber-stalking and landed his character,...
- 3/18/2015
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Director Amat Escalante's third feature, Heli (2013), has been the subject of much discussion since it received its world premiere at last year's Cannes Film Festival. Featuring more than one scene of brutal violence, it's been described variously as a portrait of modern Mexico, a tender love story and a blatant attempt to shock squeamish audiences. Particularly unsettling is the way in which violence seems so unexceptional to the characters, many of whom are young children. With the film arriving on DVD and Blu-ray this week courtesy of Network Releasing, just over a year after its bow on the Cannes Croisette, CineVue's Ben Nicholson had the opportunity to sit down with the Mexican director and exchange thoughts on how his film has been received to date and also how Heli came to fruition.
- 8/26/2014
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Happy New Year and a warm welcome to 2014! The last twelve months have offered up some mighty fine works to suit all cinematic tastes, from barn-storming Hollywood blockbusters such as The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Star Trek Into Darkness to pioneering arthouse efforts such as Abdellatif Kechice's Blue Is the Warmest Colour, Joshua Oppenheimer's The Act of Killing and Paolo Sorrentino's The Great Beauty. But what does 2014 have in store aside from the usual slew of superhero movies and tent-pole titans? Below, CineVue's Daniel Green, Patrick Gamble and Ben Nicholson pick a handful of their own personal must-sees. Don't forget to give us your own selections via the comment box provided.
- 1/1/2014
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★★☆ Belgian director Joachim Lafosse seems to lay all of his cards on the table in the opening moments of his fifth feature, Our Children (2012). The action commences with a plaintive Murielle (an award-winning Émilie Dequenne) asking from a hospital bed for her children to be buried in Morocco, before four tiny coffins are seen being loaded onto a plane. Giving away its ending like that may seem a dangerous gambit, but since its inception in ancient Athens, tragic drama has always been about watching the lamentable decline of a protagonist whose sorrowful fate is already known to an informed audience.
The impact of this devastating finale is in no way undermined by a knowledge of the ultimate conclusion. No sooner are we aware of what awaits than Jean-François Hensgens' intimate camerawork is concerning itself with the initially flushes of passion between a vivacious young Murielle and Moroccan immigrant Mounir...
The impact of this devastating finale is in no way undermined by a knowledge of the ultimate conclusion. No sooner are we aware of what awaits than Jean-François Hensgens' intimate camerawork is concerning itself with the initially flushes of passion between a vivacious young Murielle and Moroccan immigrant Mounir...
- 10/28/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★☆☆ Cyril Frankel's The Witches (1966) has long been one of the overlooked works in Hammer's horror stable. Though attention may be drawn by the presence of writer Nigel Kneale in adapting Norah Lofts' novel The Devil's Own for the big screen, the lack of the studio's regular star talent (Cushing, Lee et al.) made it something of a curio. Kneale's subsequent criticism of the film for abandoning his humorous treatment in favour of conventional horror fare may also have led to its neglect. It is perhaps deserving of a little more attention, however, and StudioCanal are on hand to deliver a beautiful new restoration.
Joan Fontaine makes her final big screen appearance in the film playing the part of Gwen, a teacher convalescing in the pastoral British countryside. After a mental breakdown brought on by witch doctors plaguing an African missionary school at which she worked, she takes a...
Joan Fontaine makes her final big screen appearance in the film playing the part of Gwen, a teacher convalescing in the pastoral British countryside. After a mental breakdown brought on by witch doctors plaguing an African missionary school at which she worked, she takes a...
- 10/21/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★★☆ A hidden beach at the lapping edges of a glorious lake provides the sole setting for Alain Guiraudie's exceptional, erotically-charged French thriller Stranger by the Lake (2013) (released through Peccadillo Pictures next year). Having scooped a couple of awards earlier in the year at Cannes, it now arrives as the gala screening in the London Film Festival' 'Dare' strand replete with woozy visuals, heady passion, and an atmosphere of overwhelming suspense. The graphic gay sex will undoubtedly hog the headlines, but there is an awful lot more going on beneath the calm sun-dappled water than initially meets the eye.
In a shot that will be repeated during the film to deftly escalate tension, Franck (Pierre Deladonchamps) pulls up in a secluded car park. He makes his was down to the beach which, strewn with bronzed - and oft naked - men, is revealed as a local cruising spot. Men sunbathe,...
In a shot that will be repeated during the film to deftly escalate tension, Franck (Pierre Deladonchamps) pulls up in a secluded car park. He makes his was down to the beach which, strewn with bronzed - and oft naked - men, is revealed as a local cruising spot. Men sunbathe,...
- 10/17/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★☆☆ Liz Garbus' latest documentary, Love, Marilyn (2012), opens with a bold gambit; reminding us that its subject has previously been the focus of hundreds of books. This move creates an immediate air of expectation that will lead viewers to anticipate something startlingly new from what is to follow. The trump card that Garbus has up her sleeve is the recent discovery of the star's personal journals which offer the potential for revelations and a more intimate portrait than ever before. Sadly, whilst it proves stylistically innovative and emotionally thoughtful, Love, Marilyn rarely offers a deeper insight into the Hollywood icon.
In order to relay Monroe's story, Garbus has pulled together an eclectic group of actors to read extracts not just from the newly published journals, but also a range of the other books mentioned at the outset. Glenn Close, Viola Davis, Uma Thurman, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood and even...
In order to relay Monroe's story, Garbus has pulled together an eclectic group of actors to read extracts not just from the newly published journals, but also a range of the other books mentioned at the outset. Glenn Close, Viola Davis, Uma Thurman, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood and even...
- 10/17/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★☆☆ After a run of low-brow comedies that fans may have found a little disappointing, David Gordon Green - the writer and director of George Washington (2000) - seems to have made a return to more thoughtful filmmaking. His new film, Prince Avalanche (2013), may have the same potential trappings as his recent, more trivial outings, but has a lot more going on underneath - even if it never quite settles on what. Inspired by a visit to a state park in Texas which provides a wonderfully cinematic backdrop after being devastated by a forest fire, he was introduced to Icelandic comedy Either Way (2011) and decided to remake it.
Following the same plot as the Icelandic original, Prince Avalanche concerns two men, both in states of arrested development, working on revamping the highways and byways of the recently scorched park in the early eighties. Alvin (Paul Rudd) is a super-serious soul, a would-be...
Following the same plot as the Icelandic original, Prince Avalanche concerns two men, both in states of arrested development, working on revamping the highways and byways of the recently scorched park in the early eighties. Alvin (Paul Rudd) is a super-serious soul, a would-be...
- 10/16/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★☆☆ "He who robs the graves of Egypt...dies." It's sage advice oft proffered to enthusiastic archaeologists and rarely taken heed of. Unsurprisingly, it proves as valuable as the wise words from a stranger that discourage visiting that ominous Transylvanian castle, or investigating the abandoned cabin in the woods. It's the laughing-off of such a recommendation by an affable, well-dressed Englishman in rich Technicolor that assures audiences that they're about to enjoy the recognisable comforts of Hammer Horror's The Mummy (1959). No sooner has he dismissed the warning he's scared into a coma.
The tomb of Princess Ananka, a high priestess of Karnak, seems a haunted place to John Banning (Peter Cushing), son of the fabled and now committed treasure hunter (Felix Aylmer). After his father's collapse, he and his uncle (Raymond Huntley) seal off the tomb, but the mysterious Mehemet Bey (George Pastell) seems hell-bent on wreaking a terrible revenge on...
The tomb of Princess Ananka, a high priestess of Karnak, seems a haunted place to John Banning (Peter Cushing), son of the fabled and now committed treasure hunter (Felix Aylmer). After his father's collapse, he and his uncle (Raymond Huntley) seal off the tomb, but the mysterious Mehemet Bey (George Pastell) seems hell-bent on wreaking a terrible revenge on...
- 10/15/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★★☆ Hellenic cinema has, for the past few years, been dominated by the Greek 'Weird Wave'. It's a movement that has sought to encapsulate a confused and disorientated country, and which arguably peaked early with Giorgos Lanthimos' familial oddity Dogtooth (2009). Elina Psykou's The Eternal Return of Antonis Paraskevas (2013) manages to just about adhere to the national prerequisite of cinematic abnormality but plays with a significantly straighter bat. This is a fine meditation on modern celebrity that's comparatively accessible but maintains an air of the bizarre, with a stimulating, if challenging, final act.
The eponymous Antonis (played with aplomb by Christos Stergioglou) is first seen emerging from the boot of a recently parked car. He and the driver both urinate against a road-side building and then resume the prior positions. When next gets out of the trunk, it is to migrate into a cavernous and deserted hotel where he is left.
The eponymous Antonis (played with aplomb by Christos Stergioglou) is first seen emerging from the boot of a recently parked car. He and the driver both urinate against a road-side building and then resume the prior positions. When next gets out of the trunk, it is to migrate into a cavernous and deserted hotel where he is left.
- 10/14/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★★☆ Rasping breath accompanies a pristine, monochrome shot from the point-of-view of a man stumbling across an area of scrubland. Two workmen stop to stare as he is revealed like some sub-Saharan gunslinger, pistol protruding from the top of his trousers, face and shirt awash with blood. A stark close-up follows his hand as he painfully extracts two teeth that have somehow been embedded in the top of his head; he laughs maniacally. Welcome to the weird and uncomfortably disturbing world of Jahmil X.T. Qubeka's noirish, blackly comic tale of obsession, Of Good Report (2013), in show at this year's Lff.
Briefly banned in its native South Africa, this is the provocative tale of teacher Parker Sithole (Mothusi Magano) who arrives at a small provincial school with the titular commendation. Without uttering a single line of dialogue, he commands attention from the get-go with his horrifying transformation from nebbish lecturer to...
Briefly banned in its native South Africa, this is the provocative tale of teacher Parker Sithole (Mothusi Magano) who arrives at a small provincial school with the titular commendation. Without uttering a single line of dialogue, he commands attention from the get-go with his horrifying transformation from nebbish lecturer to...
- 10/13/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★☆☆☆ In 2010, filmmaker Jafar Panahi was prosecuted by the Iranian government. Accused of colluding to undermine national security and producing propaganda against the Islamic Republic, he was sentenced to imprisonment and a twenty-year filmmaking ban. Since then, whilst awaiting the result of an appeal, the director has produced two feature films. The first was documentary This Is Not a Film (2011), which details life under house arrest in Tehran. The second, Closed Curtain (2013), is a fictionalised examination of the same themes that regrettably lacks the subtlety one might expect from the venerated auteur.
A still shot looks out across a coastal landscape through a large window, across which metal shutters appear strikingly like the iron bars of a jail cell. A man arrives with a bag and locks himself into the villa in which all of the action will occur. The man, known only as 'Writer' (co-director Kambuzia Partovi), proceeds to close...
A still shot looks out across a coastal landscape through a large window, across which metal shutters appear strikingly like the iron bars of a jail cell. A man arrives with a bag and locks himself into the villa in which all of the action will occur. The man, known only as 'Writer' (co-director Kambuzia Partovi), proceeds to close...
- 10/13/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★☆☆ Umut Dağ's Kuma (2013) brought the unconventional marital arrangement of second wives into UK cinemas earlier this year to impressive effect, and the practice appears again in Chika Anadu's B for Boy (2013). A markedly differing scenario to Kuma, this potential successor is in place to take over spousal duties should the current wife fail in her familial responsibilities. It's just one aspect of Anadu's heartfelt maternal drama that tackles the considerable pressures placed on Nigerian women to bare sons. Amaka (Uche Nwadili) has a loving husband in Nonso (Nonso Odogwu) as well as an adorable daughter.
Female offspring do not, however, make suitable heirs and there is a great sense of expectation that the heavily pregnant Amaka's second child will be the much-desired boy. The couple's relative maturity has put Nonso's traditional family - specifically his overbearing Mama (Ngozi Nwaneto) - on edge. As a precaution, a new young wife has been arranged for Nonso,...
Female offspring do not, however, make suitable heirs and there is a great sense of expectation that the heavily pregnant Amaka's second child will be the much-desired boy. The couple's relative maturity has put Nonso's traditional family - specifically his overbearing Mama (Ngozi Nwaneto) - on edge. As a precaution, a new young wife has been arranged for Nonso,...
- 10/13/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★☆☆☆ There's nothing more soul-crushing than a romantic comedy devoid of either of the genre's requisite defining aspects. At least when the love story is lacking, laughs will usually pick up the slack; if it's humourless, the passion can take the weight. Nobody wants to overdose on schmaltz (well, some people might) but shunning it entirely requires an impressively sweet touch, or a piling on of the funny. Sadly, a new British entry into the rom-com canon, Hello Carter (2013), fails to do either and is all the more insipid for it. Charlie Cox of Boardwalk Empire fame takes centre stage as the titular (and recently homeless) Carter.
With no roof over his head and no job, Charlie finds himself still mooning over ex-girlfriend, Kelly, who he's not seen in almost a year. Positively passive in almost every way, he stumbles around sharing clumsy small talk with potential employers and relatives before...
With no roof over his head and no job, Charlie finds himself still mooning over ex-girlfriend, Kelly, who he's not seen in almost a year. Positively passive in almost every way, he stumbles around sharing clumsy small talk with potential employers and relatives before...
- 10/12/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★☆☆☆ Egypt's tumultuous recent sociopolitical past and the current state of the nation has provided a fertile environment for the country's filmmakers of late. Focus has ranged from the oppression of the everyday, as seen in Hala Lofty's Coming Forth By Day (2012), to the explicitly political in dramas like Winter of Discontent (2013). Those aspects have the potential to combined in new documentary Electro Chaabi (2013) which examines the emergence of nascent musical subculture. It is through this movement, Egypt's answer to rap, that Cairo's disaffected youth claim to have found their own dissenting voice.
It's the young male population that's actually being referred to when 'Chabbi' is posited as speaking for the kids. Tunisian journalist Hind Meddeb's vérité documentary follows several of these DJs whilst attempting to form an impression of this recent musical craze. Having been spawned in underground street raves referred to as 'mahragans' (festivals), the style of music and...
It's the young male population that's actually being referred to when 'Chabbi' is posited as speaking for the kids. Tunisian journalist Hind Meddeb's vérité documentary follows several of these DJs whilst attempting to form an impression of this recent musical craze. Having been spawned in underground street raves referred to as 'mahragans' (festivals), the style of music and...
- 10/12/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★☆☆ Jill Soloway is an established TV writer and producer, contributing episodes to shows such as Six Feet Under and The United States of Tara. Now she's turned her attention to the big screen with debut feature Afternoon Delight (2013), which won the Dramatic Directing award earlier in the year at Sundance. The comedy-drama arrives at Lff as part of the 'Laugh' strand and proves to be consistently humorous enough to warrant its inclusion, whilst also featuring a wonderful lead turn from Kathryn Hahn. Hahn plays Rachel, a stay-at-home mum living in a spacious La home with her son and husband, Jeff (Josh Radnor).
Life seems pretty idyllic, but through a meeting with her wonderfully self-absorbed shrink (Jane Lynch), Rachel confesses that the love life has been fairly desolate of late: "Bedtime? That's the worst time to have sex." To add a little spice, Rachel and Jeff attend a strip-club together where...
Life seems pretty idyllic, but through a meeting with her wonderfully self-absorbed shrink (Jane Lynch), Rachel confesses that the love life has been fairly desolate of late: "Bedtime? That's the worst time to have sex." To add a little spice, Rachel and Jeff attend a strip-club together where...
- 10/12/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★☆☆ Giallo fans rejoiced at the news that the fading genre's new premiere directing couple, Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani, were returning with their sophomore feature The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears (2013). As with their critically successful feature debut, Amer (2009), its entrenched deeply in the visual and aural traditions of giallo but they have once again embraced style over substance pushing narrative cohesion even further from the focus of their lushly filled frame. It makes for a visceral, sensory experience that has perhaps worn out its welcome before the end of its 100-minute runtime.
The film's premise is arguably all that one can really, in all good faith, proffer of its plot with any degree of certainty; after the initial setup, it birls down a rabbit-hole into a kaleidoscopic labyrinth of gleaming blades, blood-curdling screams and psychosexual violence. After an initial opening that sees a brutal monochrome murder, the action...
The film's premise is arguably all that one can really, in all good faith, proffer of its plot with any degree of certainty; after the initial setup, it birls down a rabbit-hole into a kaleidoscopic labyrinth of gleaming blades, blood-curdling screams and psychosexual violence. After an initial opening that sees a brutal monochrome murder, the action...
- 10/11/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★☆☆☆ In the late 1980s, maverick filmmaker Andrew Worsdale gained immediate cult status when his debut feature, the ultra-provocative Shot Down (1988), was banned by the apartheid government in South Africa. Having maintained radio silence for the best part of two decades, the director returned to screens to great acclaim, with his new film, Durban Poison (2013) plays as part of the London Film Festival's 'Thrill' strand. A Bonnie and Clyde-inflected tale of high passion and dangerous criminality, Worsdale's latest sadly fails to really cover any new ground and presents its tired tale within a confused narrative structure.
The film's plot is loosely based on the exploits of real-life murderous lovers Charmaine Phillips and Pieter Grundlingh, who embarked on a drug-fuelled killing spree in South African in the early eighties. Reimagined as Joline (first time actress Cara Roberts) and Piet (Brandon Auret) the couple begin the film in custody with their wrongdoings...
The film's plot is loosely based on the exploits of real-life murderous lovers Charmaine Phillips and Pieter Grundlingh, who embarked on a drug-fuelled killing spree in South African in the early eighties. Reimagined as Joline (first time actress Cara Roberts) and Piet (Brandon Auret) the couple begin the film in custody with their wrongdoings...
- 10/11/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★☆☆ Following on from the Kristen Scott-Thomas-starring In the House (2012), which hit screens back in March, prolific French director François Ozon returns to UK cinemas for the second time this year with Jeune & Jolie (2013). Playing at the London Film Festival ahead of a wider cinematic release, it is an elusive study of a 17-year-old girl's sexual awakening built around an exceptional performance from actress and model Marine Vacth. Vacth perfectly encapsulates the youth and beauty of the title whilst the audience is left to admire her - and the drama itself - from something of a distance and through a primarily male gaze.
Taking place across four clearly delineated seasons (each of which is also associated with a particular, pertinent, song) it opens during a sun-drenched summer holiday. Here, the teenage Isabelle (Vacth) has a brief tryst with a young man and loses her virginity during a rendezvous on the beach.
Taking place across four clearly delineated seasons (each of which is also associated with a particular, pertinent, song) it opens during a sun-drenched summer holiday. Here, the teenage Isabelle (Vacth) has a brief tryst with a young man and loses her virginity during a rendezvous on the beach.
- 10/10/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★☆☆☆ Every wondered what would happen should a tornado whip up a frenzy of sharks from the ocean and deposit them onto an unsuspecting American public? Well have no fear, as purveyors of Dtv schlock The Asylum have stepped up to answer that question in their imaginatively titled Syfy Channel feature, Sharknado (2013). Swimming with ropey special effects, groan-inducing dialogue and a narrative so ridiculous it makes the title seem run-of-the-mill, it's fun. "We shouldn't be afraid of the sharks. They're the ones that should be afraid of us," claims a snarling sea captain in the film's nefarious shark fishing opening.
The captain, of course, soon meets a grisly end courtesy of hundreds of razor sharp teeth and the action jumps to Los Angeles and an aptly-monickered protagonist, Fin (Ian Ziering); pro surfer and waterfront barman. When the storm, and a wave of black-eyed predators, hits the coast, Fin and a band...
The captain, of course, soon meets a grisly end courtesy of hundreds of razor sharp teeth and the action jumps to Los Angeles and an aptly-monickered protagonist, Fin (Ian Ziering); pro surfer and waterfront barman. When the storm, and a wave of black-eyed predators, hits the coast, Fin and a band...
- 10/8/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★☆☆☆ The rollicking heist movie is one of those genres that can easily feel redundant nowadays. With elaborate plot machinations its central tenet, this specialist variety of thriller relies on having an original way to dupe its audience who will naturally be looking for clues towards some final act twist. Trying to find a unique spin on the material is director Rowan Athale, who brings to DVD and Blu-ray his debut feature in the form of 2012 British crime caper The Rise (formerly Wasteland). Whilst it's hurtling pace means it rarely bores, it is ultimately unable to find any innovation within the genre trappings and viewers will be far from fooled.
Brutally beaten yet surprisingly smug hipster Harvey (rising star Luke Treadaway) sits in a police station as he's questioned by Detective Inspector West (Timothy Spall). Charged with robbery, GBH and only six weeks after serving a prison sentence, things don't look good for our protagonist,...
Brutally beaten yet surprisingly smug hipster Harvey (rising star Luke Treadaway) sits in a police station as he's questioned by Detective Inspector West (Timothy Spall). Charged with robbery, GBH and only six weeks after serving a prison sentence, things don't look good for our protagonist,...
- 10/6/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★☆☆ Richard Kuklinski was an infamous contract killer doing the dirty work of various New York crime organisations throughout the sixties and seventies. Estimates of how many lives he ended during his career vary from 100 to 250 according to different accounts. Based on a screenplay by Morgan Land and director Ariel Vromen, The Iceman (2012) follows Kuklinski from his unsettling appreciation for murder to his settled family life. Michael Shannon gamely inhabits the lead role, but this by-the-numbers gangster flick fails to truly get beneath the skin of its subject despite remaining dramatically engaging throughout.
Unbeknownst to his wife Deborah (Winona Ryder), with whom he is awkwardly charming and affable, Kuklinski (Shannon) has a fatally violent streak and works in knock-off pornography. One night he gains the attention of local mobster Roy Demeo (gangster movie stalwart Ray Liotta), when they have a run-in during which Richie exhibits a cool head and stone-cold demeanour.
Unbeknownst to his wife Deborah (Winona Ryder), with whom he is awkwardly charming and affable, Kuklinski (Shannon) has a fatally violent streak and works in knock-off pornography. One night he gains the attention of local mobster Roy Demeo (gangster movie stalwart Ray Liotta), when they have a run-in during which Richie exhibits a cool head and stone-cold demeanour.
- 9/30/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★☆☆ Coming-of-age yarns are a dime a dozen and it takes an awful lot to make one stand out from the crowd. Jordan Vogt-Roberts accepts the challenge with gusto in his sun-kissed feature debut, The Kings of Summer (2013), which was warmly received at Sundance. With its trio of teenage leads trekking out into the leafy, lush midwestern wilds, it punctuates the genre's habitual themes of masculinity and maturation with idiosyncratic humour and some supremely sharp dialogue. Events kick off when smart-ass Joe (Nick Robinson) stumbles upon a hidden clearing in a forest and convinces his chums to join his mild rebellion.
Joe and his bad-tempered father, Frank (Nick Offerman) have struggled to get along since his mother's passing - spitting sarcastic barbs at one another with aplomb. Desperate to escape, Joe enlists best friend Patrick (Gabriel Basso), setting off to become men and live freely in their woodland idyll. Overt oddball...
Joe and his bad-tempered father, Frank (Nick Offerman) have struggled to get along since his mother's passing - spitting sarcastic barbs at one another with aplomb. Desperate to escape, Joe enlists best friend Patrick (Gabriel Basso), setting off to become men and live freely in their woodland idyll. Overt oddball...
- 9/30/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★☆☆☆ Two attractive strangers lock eyes across the floor of a Liverpool nightclub. On their way back to her place, she ominously informs him that their respective star signs promise sex that will either be devastatingly good, or just plain devastating. What follows details the perilously destructive fling of the titular Kelly + Victor (2013). Based on the novel of the same name by Niall Griffiths, Welsh director Kieran Evans' drama charts an obsessive sexual relationship posited as the only type of love left in our harsh world. Sadly, any treatise on modern attachment is hamstrung by a clumsy script and dearth of emotional engagement.
After the couple's 'meet-cute', they have sex back at Kelly's (Antonia Campbell-Hughes) house. It's this sex, and the thrill that Victor (Julian Morris) finds he derives from asphyxiation during it, that proves the catalyst for their spiralling enthralment. There's a week before they see one another again,...
After the couple's 'meet-cute', they have sex back at Kelly's (Antonia Campbell-Hughes) house. It's this sex, and the thrill that Victor (Julian Morris) finds he derives from asphyxiation during it, that proves the catalyst for their spiralling enthralment. There's a week before they see one another again,...
- 9/26/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★☆☆ Catholicism and homosexuality is hardly a taboo partnership in modern Western cinema, but it is subject matter that retains the potential to be incendiary if mishandled. Thankfully, director Malgorzata Szumowska approaches the topic with apposite sensitivity in new film In the Name Of (2013), in UK cinemas this week through Peccadillo Pictures. Andrzej Chyra takes centre stage as a priest desperately trying to reconcile his faith and sexuality, whilst also acting as shepherd to a troubled flock. Yet, though the themes and performances combine to great effect, it remains hampered by a rough-edged, desultory narrative.
It's a dry, hot summer in a Polish backwater and Father Adam (Chyra) is the likeable head of a reformatory hostel for delinquent teenagers, along with his stern colleague Michal (Lukasz Simlat). Working days are spent on manual labour whilst the pair try to impart a sense of discipline and camaraderie through evening football matches. A...
It's a dry, hot summer in a Polish backwater and Father Adam (Chyra) is the likeable head of a reformatory hostel for delinquent teenagers, along with his stern colleague Michal (Lukasz Simlat). Working days are spent on manual labour whilst the pair try to impart a sense of discipline and camaraderie through evening football matches. A...
- 9/25/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★☆☆☆ Viggo Mortensen rises to the challenge of playing twins in Argentinian director Ana Piterberg's debut feature Everybody Has a Plan (2012) - even if the drama never quite rises to meet his beguiling performance. It's not the actor's first role in Spanish, but it is his first in the country in which he lived as a child. The tale of a man appropriating his brother's identity, Everybody Has a Plan was also produced by the Danish-American actor who also took control of the subtitling to make sure that nuances were not lost in translation. Pedro (Mortensen) is a country-mouse slowly dying of cancer in a riverside community in the Tigre Delta.
Pedro finds himself willingly ensnared in the nefarious activities of pal and consummate lowlife Adrián (Daniel Fanego). Meanwhile, in the big city, refined town-mouse Agustín (also Mortensen) is a paediatrician suffering a mid-life crisis, whilst doing his best to estrange his wife.
Pedro finds himself willingly ensnared in the nefarious activities of pal and consummate lowlife Adrián (Daniel Fanego). Meanwhile, in the big city, refined town-mouse Agustín (also Mortensen) is a paediatrician suffering a mid-life crisis, whilst doing his best to estrange his wife.
- 9/23/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★★☆ Having experienced success in front of the camera, Canadian actress Sarah Polley has now made a successful transition to a role behind it. After two fictional narrative features, her attention has now shifted to the narrative of her own kith and kin in engrossing documentary Stories We Tell (2012). Pitched as an investigation into the elusiveness of memory and an exercise in unravelling a Gordian knot of conflicting yarns, the film plays out as a courageously personal flick through an unpredictable family photo album. Released to critical acclaim earlier in the year, the doc now hits shelves courtesy of Curzon Film World.
When Polley was just eleven years of age her mother, Diane, died of cancer and she was subsequently brought up by devoted father, Michael. Years later, questions arose regarding her parentage provoked by a rumour that she was the product of an extra-marital affair. The events that ensued from...
When Polley was just eleven years of age her mother, Diane, died of cancer and she was subsequently brought up by devoted father, Michael. Years later, questions arose regarding her parentage provoked by a rumour that she was the product of an extra-marital affair. The events that ensued from...
- 9/23/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★☆☆ Inside the Nixon White House, three of the former-us president's most senior aides were enthusiastic amateur filmmakers. Between them, they managed to amass over 500 reels of Super 8 footage detailing everything from state visits to staff garden parties. Having been seized by the FBI during the investigations into the Watergate scandal, those videos are now freely available and provide the primary source for Penny Lane's award-winning montage documentary, Our Nixon (2013). Playing this week at the Institute of Contemporary Art, the film presents an intimate portrait of the life of the "Tricky Dicky" administration.
When Richard Nixon was elected in 1969, he brought with him into the West Wing a trio of young, energised and devoted advisors from his Presidential campaign; H.R. Halderman, John Ehrlichman, and Dwight Chapin. These three filled the respective roles of White House Chief of Staff, Chief Domestic Advisor, and Special Assistant whilst also supplying a...
When Richard Nixon was elected in 1969, he brought with him into the West Wing a trio of young, energised and devoted advisors from his Presidential campaign; H.R. Halderman, John Ehrlichman, and Dwight Chapin. These three filled the respective roles of White House Chief of Staff, Chief Domestic Advisor, and Special Assistant whilst also supplying a...
- 9/18/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★☆☆ When celebrated British physicist Stephen Hawking was at school, he was nicknamed "Einstein" but only considered to be at about the middle of his class; he likes to think they were a pretty clever class. Anecdotes and observations pepper Hawking (2013), an autobiographical documentary written and narrated by the man himself and compiled by filmmaker Stephen Finnigan. Conventional in terms of form it may well be, but it does manage to harness its subject's brio into an endearing and familiar portrait that gives both a brief glimpse of his glittering career and a deeper inspection into the mind behind it.
Stitching together interviews with close friends, family, colleagues, and students along with new footage and archive snippets, Finnigan's biopic looks at the breadth of Hawking's life. Beginning with his intellectualist family upbringing, Stephen was a contemplative boy who grew into a party-going undergraduate at Oxford. Despite placing more emphasis on socialising that studying,...
Stitching together interviews with close friends, family, colleagues, and students along with new footage and archive snippets, Finnigan's biopic looks at the breadth of Hawking's life. Beginning with his intellectualist family upbringing, Stephen was a contemplative boy who grew into a party-going undergraduate at Oxford. Despite placing more emphasis on socialising that studying,...
- 9/18/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
One of the films premiering at Shriekfest in Los Angeles next month is Devil In My Ride and, today, an official trailer went live
Hank and Doreen have planned their dream wedding. They are in love and plan to spend the rest of their lives together. They have invited all of their friends and everything seemed perfect. That is, until Doreen's loveable loser of a brother shows up unexpectedly and gives her a gift to remember - a cursed locket that invites the devil into her soul. Now it's up to Hank and Travis to get her an exorcism. However Doreen may prove too much to handle for this bickering odd couple as they begin their road trip from Chicago to Las Vegas to find Johnny Priest, a homeless holy man and the last known person in American to perform a successful exorcism. With 72 hours to save their devil bride...
Hank and Doreen have planned their dream wedding. They are in love and plan to spend the rest of their lives together. They have invited all of their friends and everything seemed perfect. That is, until Doreen's loveable loser of a brother shows up unexpectedly and gives her a gift to remember - a cursed locket that invites the devil into her soul. Now it's up to Hank and Travis to get her an exorcism. However Doreen may prove too much to handle for this bickering odd couple as they begin their road trip from Chicago to Las Vegas to find Johnny Priest, a homeless holy man and the last known person in American to perform a successful exorcism. With 72 hours to save their devil bride...
- 9/17/2013
- shocktillyoudrop.com
★★★☆☆ Audrey Tautou has never quite cast off the elfin shadow of her breakout role in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Amélie (2001). Over the past decade, she's taken on her fair share of more austere roles, and few have seen her turn a performance as restrained as in Thérèse Desqueyroux (2012) - out now on DVD and Blu-ray. The second adaptation of one of Françoise Mauriac's most famous novels, the period drama was brought to the screen as the swansong of French director Claude Miller. As a whole, the film resembles its protagonist: a cool, staid veneer and languorous way of life giving way to surprisingly effective tension.
Thérèse (Tautou) is the free-spirited daughter of a wealthy landowner that spends hazy summers in the South of France staying with a doting aunt. She frolics her days away with best-friend, Anne (Anaïs Demoustier), and several years later she finds herself preparing for an arranged marriage to Anne's cloddish brother,...
Thérèse (Tautou) is the free-spirited daughter of a wealthy landowner that spends hazy summers in the South of France staying with a doting aunt. She frolics her days away with best-friend, Anne (Anaïs Demoustier), and several years later she finds herself preparing for an arranged marriage to Anne's cloddish brother,...
- 9/16/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★★☆ Throughout his early career, Canadian independent filmmaker Atom Egoyan repeatedly zeroed in on the effects of loss upon those left behind. This theme received its most pronounced treatment in his most critically heralded piece, The Sweet Hereafter (1997), which now arrives on DVD and Blu-ray from UK distributors Artificial Eye. Starring Brit Ian Holm, Bruce Greenwood and Sarah Polley, and based on a novel by Russell Banks, it is the thoughtful exploration of an isolated community during the aftermath of a tragic school bus accident that tears a whole class of children from their devastated families.
Arriving in this snowy township is ambulance-chasing lawyer Mitchell Stevens (Holm) who is there to urge a class-action lawsuit on behalf of the mourning parents. He visits them in turn and slowly begins to convince them to support his legal campaign which all ultimately rests on the deposition of wheelchair-bound teenage survivor Nicole (Polley). This...
Arriving in this snowy township is ambulance-chasing lawyer Mitchell Stevens (Holm) who is there to urge a class-action lawsuit on behalf of the mourning parents. He visits them in turn and slowly begins to convince them to support his legal campaign which all ultimately rests on the deposition of wheelchair-bound teenage survivor Nicole (Polley). This...
- 9/10/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★☆☆ Released in UK cinemas this week following a world premiere in Berlin earlier this year comes light-hearted British delicacy Jadoo (2013), from the team behind 2011's Resistance. Trading the rolling hills of the Welsh countryside for an urban setting, the director, Amit Gupta, returns back to his roots with his second feature. Portraying competing Indian restaurants in his native Leicester, Jadoo is a warm comedy that neatly balances its specific and more general themes and is liberally seasoned with laughs. We begin as Shalini (Amara Karan) returns to her home town to inform her family that she is getting married.
Shalini's one wish for the wedding is that both her father, Raja (Harish Patel), and uncle, Jagi (Kulvinder Ghir), will attend but the feuding restaurateurs are cold to her pleas. Their fierce rivalry has been ongoing for twenty-odd years, with each possessing half of their mother's fabled recipe book. Between them...
Shalini's one wish for the wedding is that both her father, Raja (Harish Patel), and uncle, Jagi (Kulvinder Ghir), will attend but the feuding restaurateurs are cold to her pleas. Their fierce rivalry has been ongoing for twenty-odd years, with each possessing half of their mother's fabled recipe book. Between them...
- 9/5/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★☆☆ In the mid-noughties, hip-hop outfit Silibil n' Brains arrived in London from California with the dream of conquering the British music industry. At their first gig, their energy and humour got them spotted by a label and they had soon signed to a highly influential manager. Recording space was promptly arranged and hype had begun to build around these irrepressible Americans that would soon be topping charts worldwide. The snag was, as Jeanie Finlay explores in her absorbing documentary The Great Hip Hop Hoax (2013), that the rhyme-spitting duo was actually a couple of ballsy laddies from Angus, Scotland.
Gavin Bain and Billy Boyd quickly became friends after meeting in their small Scottish town of Arbroath, and bonding over a mutual love of hip-hop. Before long, they were taking to the stage together, but found their wider appeal muted by origins deemed ill-fitting and parochial for the genre. So, the duo...
Gavin Bain and Billy Boyd quickly became friends after meeting in their small Scottish town of Arbroath, and bonding over a mutual love of hip-hop. Before long, they were taking to the stage together, but found their wider appeal muted by origins deemed ill-fitting and parochial for the genre. So, the duo...
- 9/5/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
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