Posts filed under 'Foreign'
LOURDES- 2009. Premise by Netflix. “Confined to a wheelchair for most of her life, lonely Christine (Sylvie Testud) devises a plan to change her circumstances by journeying to Lourdes, the small town in the foothills of the Pyrenees, where many flock to be healed. The journey yields startling results for our isolated hero in director Jessica Hausner‘s Austrian drama, an official selection at the Toronto International Film Festival and the Venice Film Festival.” Great reviews.
10/2/11- Despite the many great reviews of this movie I felt that it totally lacked any degree of passion and it took a long time to end. TRDB. Netflix.
Tags: drama, Foreign
April 1st, 2010
SUMMER HOURS- Premise by Netflix. “Sensing that death is close at hand, 75-year-old Hélène (Edith Scob) summons her three adult children to her home in the French countryside and tasks them with deciding the fate of her extraordinary art collection. This touching drama from internationally acclaimed writer-director Olivier Assayas stars Juliette Binoche, Charles Berling and Jérémie Renier as the three siblings forced to ponder their legacy and identity.” I saw this a year ago on Comcast On-Demand and liked it very much. Highly recommend it.
April 1st, 2010
AGATA AND THE STORM- Premise by Netflix. “The pleasant life of middle-aged Agata (Licia Maglietta) — owner of the most popular bookstore in town — is turned topsy-turvy when she begins an uncertain affair with a man 13 years her junior (Claudio Santamaria). Meanwhile, life is equally turbulent for her brother, Gustavo (Emilio Solfrizzi), who discovers he was adopted and sets off to find his biological brother (Giuseppe Battiston) — a married traveling salesman with a roving eye.”
3/10- Just OK. TRDB. Netflix.
Tags: drama, Foreign
April 1st, 2010
THE THORN IN THE HEART- Premise by Netflix. “Oscar-winning director and writer Michel Gondry(Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) turns the camera on his own family in this documentary about his aunt Suzette, a teacher in rural France from 1952 to 1986. Raised in Versailles in a family of musicians and educated in Paris, Gondry is keen on understanding a life very different from his own. In the process, he stumbles on a wealth of new stories about the family he thought he knew.” A few great reviews and a few miserable reviews. I’ll give it a try.
8/10- The biggest complaint about this movie is that nobody cares about Gondry’s aunt Suzette but I think that misses the larger point of the movie which is a depiction through narrative and film of life in rural France. As for the family stuff, you can fast-forward through lots of it. Over all I liked the movie. TRDB. Netflix.
Tags: documentary, Foreign
March 29th, 2010
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO- 2009. Sweden. Premise by Netflix. “Journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) and rebellious computer hacker Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) team up to investigate the unsolved disappearance of wealthy Henrik Vanger’s (Sven-Bertil Taube) teen niece (Ewa Fröling), only to uncover dark secrets about Vanger’s powerful family. Niels Arden Oplev directs this Swedish thriller based on the first novel from Stieg Larsson’s best-selling trilogy.”
3/10- I found it a bit difficult to understand at times but enjoyed it a lot. TRDB.
Tags: drama, Foreign
March 29th, 2010
LA CAPTIVE- Premise by Netflix. “Simon (Stansilas Merhar) is a wealthy man living a sheltered life in an affluent Paris neighborhood. He’s smitten with his companion Ariane (Sylvie Testud) and spends all his time by her side. His obsession deepens when he sets out to discover everything about Ariane, including her past, her secrets and even her most private thoughts. He even begins to follow her, stopping at nothing to allow his complete vision of her to take shape.”
3/10- Boring as hell and I turned it off. TRDB. Netflix.
Tags: drama, Foreign
March 26th, 2010
WARM WATER UNDER A RED BRIDGE- Premise by Netflix. “Inspired by a homeless man’s story, Yosuke (Koji Yakusho), an unemployed businessman, travels to a remote seaside village where a golden Buddha stolen from a Kyoto temple is supposedly hidden. Instead, Yosuke finds Saeko (Misa Shimizu), a woman with an odd affliction: She fills up with water, and when she’s full, she leaks … and the only way to express the fluid is to make love.”
3/10- A little different to say the least but I enjoyed it. TRDB. Netflix.
Tags: drama, Foreign
March 25th, 2010
SOMETHING LIKE HAPPINESS- Premise by Netflix. “Monika (Tatiana Vilhelmova), Tonik (Pavel Liska) and Dasha (Anna Geislerova) are three friends from a small working-class Czech town. Living in a depressed cloud of industrialization spewed from one of the country’s largest chemical factories, the trio dreams of a brighter life, each of the three finding solace through love, fantasy or escape. Ultimately, comfort and happiness surface as they learn to accept the things they cannot change.”
4/10- After a slow start the movie grew on me and I enjoyed it. Yet another view of post Communist living. TRDB. Netflix Streaming.
Tags: drama, Foreign
March 24th, 2010
FIREWORKS WEDNESDAY- Premise by Netflix. “As fireworks light the sky on the eve of the Persian New Year, a young Iranian maid named Rouhi begins a new job working for a middle-class couple whose marriage is on the verge of implosion. The tension mounts when Rouhi’s employer decides to use her as a spy to determine whether her husband is being unfaithful. Asghar Farhadi directs this Farsi-language drama that offers a rare glimpse of private life in modern-day Iran.”
3/10- Another interesting slice of life from Iran and I liked it. TRDB.
Tags: drama
March 23rd, 2010
VINCERE- Directed by Marco Bellocchio. Premise by Netflix. “Ida Dalser (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) falls for young Benito Mussolini (Filippo Timi) in Milan and sells everything she has to help the future dictator fund his newspaper, Popolo d’Italia. But when World War I separates the newly wedded couple, Mussolini marries another woman. Ida demands to retain her rights as Mussolini’s wife and the mother of his son, but the Fascists have other plans for the dictator’s dark secret in this gripping biopic.” Just opened nationally and has received great reviews.
3/10- I saw this and felt that the acting was superb. Mezzogiorno passionately portrayed a women with an obsession for Il Duce and was probably a metaphor for the country at the time. The film itself was enjoyable if a bit too long and I understand that the director played with the facts a bit. TRDB.
Tags: docudrama
March 22nd, 2010
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