Friday, April 30, 2010
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Sketches of Frank Gehry (2005)
I am probably the least competent man in the world to give opinions about architecture, except, since buildings affect places that belong to all people, I am probably the most competent man in the world to give opinions about architecture. Anyway, being the favorite architect of Hollywood stars says much about someone. And the great and depressing truth that this documentary shows is that much of the world has become a cultural extension of Hollywood. One of the buildings is described as "an object from outer space that has descended upon the city" -- enough said.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Lo sguardo di Michelangelo (2004)
English titles: The Gaze of Michelangelo; Michelangelo Eye to Eye.
Short film. It's just a guy contemplating and fondling a statue (the "Moses"), which is shot at different angles and distances.
Short film. It's just a guy contemplating and fondling a statue (the "Moses"), which is shot at different angles and distances.
Monday, April 26, 2010
The Wild Blue Yonder (2005)
Footage of astronauts in a spaceship with no gravity, and of deep-sea exploration, plus interviews which space scientists, all of which are linked by a tale of an alien who came to Earth.
Not a serious movie.
Rating: 0
Not a serious movie.
Rating: 0
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Le couperet (2005)
English title: The Ax.
A highly qualified engineer who lost his job and for more than two years has unsuccessfully tried to get a new one architects a plan to identify his competitors in the marketplace and kill them.
The plot has several implausibilities, but is sufficiently coherent to make possible a discussion of the consequences of the tyranny of financial capitalism over our society. It is not only a question of the inhumanity of the system, although this is the center of the film's concerns. But it argues further that replacing experts with inexpensive young professionals is bad for the companies, and in the long term for countries as well. These issues are not negligible, and the film is not without entertainment value.
Rating: 60
A highly qualified engineer who lost his job and for more than two years has unsuccessfully tried to get a new one architects a plan to identify his competitors in the marketplace and kill them.
The plot has several implausibilities, but is sufficiently coherent to make possible a discussion of the consequences of the tyranny of financial capitalism over our society. It is not only a question of the inhumanity of the system, although this is the center of the film's concerns. But it argues further that replacing experts with inexpensive young professionals is bad for the companies, and in the long term for countries as well. These issues are not negligible, and the film is not without entertainment value.
Rating: 60
Saturday, April 24, 2010
La demoiselle d'honneur (2004)
English title: The Bridesmaid.
A young man falls in love with a nutsy young woman, who says four acts are required from lovers in order to "prove" their love to each other.
This is like a slow-paced "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" episode, and has been smartly (and perhaps too severely) criticized at the "Hated It" section of IMDb's User Comments. One thing is sure, insanity -- because it allows for reckless behavior from the protagonists -- attenuates suspense, and identification. But there are interesting things in it that sort of make up for those absences. The film can perhaps best be savored as a psychological study of the oedipal character. One may notice points of contact with classics such as Rope and Strangers on a Train.
Rating: 53
A young man falls in love with a nutsy young woman, who says four acts are required from lovers in order to "prove" their love to each other.
This is like a slow-paced "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" episode, and has been smartly (and perhaps too severely) criticized at the "Hated It" section of IMDb's User Comments. One thing is sure, insanity -- because it allows for reckless behavior from the protagonists -- attenuates suspense, and identification. But there are interesting things in it that sort of make up for those absences. The film can perhaps best be savored as a psychological study of the oedipal character. One may notice points of contact with classics such as Rope and Strangers on a Train.
Rating: 53
Friday, April 23, 2010
Seinfeld: The Andrea Doria (1996) (TV)
Newman the postman has stopped delivering mail; the undelivered mail has been placed on Jerry's storage space. Newman is faced with the prospect of a much-wanted transfer to Hawaii and needs to deliver that mail, so Jerry helps him because he wants to get rid of him. George has been deferred in an apartment rental in favor of a man who has survived the Andrea Doria shipwreck. Elaine dates a guy who specializes in insulting break-ups; he calls her "big head", which causes her to develop a neurosis over that part of her body. Kramer has a bad cough but doesn't trust doctors; he finds a dog with a similar problem and accompanies it to the veterinary; he then starts taking the same medication as the dog.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Amor & Cia. (1998)
English title: Love and Co.
Based on the novella Alves & Companhia, by Eça de Queirós (1st ed. 1925).
A man returns home a little earlier than usual one day and finds his wife and his business partner sitting close to each other in an amorous way.
This tale of quasi-adultery is an interesting comedy of customs. It benefits from a great leading performance and also from being filmed in a historical town, and from nicely staged outdoor sequences.
Rating: 60
Based on the novella Alves & Companhia, by Eça de Queirós (1st ed. 1925).
A man returns home a little earlier than usual one day and finds his wife and his business partner sitting close to each other in an amorous way.
This tale of quasi-adultery is an interesting comedy of customs. It benefits from a great leading performance and also from being filmed in a historical town, and from nicely staged outdoor sequences.
Rating: 60
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Primo (2005) (V)
Filmed play. Based on the memoirs "Se questo è un uomo" (If This Is a Man), by Primo Levi (1st ed. 1947, revised 1958).
A monologue. The stage is bare but for a chair and a set of walls. The narration of Levi's recollection of Auschwitz is very vivid and intelligent (both as text and as performance) and makes for a moving viewing experience. On the other hand, it is hard not to imagine how interesting it would be to see a real movie of this, or even a multi-actor play.
Rating: 60
A monologue. The stage is bare but for a chair and a set of walls. The narration of Levi's recollection of Auschwitz is very vivid and intelligent (both as text and as performance) and makes for a moving viewing experience. On the other hand, it is hard not to imagine how interesting it would be to see a real movie of this, or even a multi-actor play.
Rating: 60
Monday, April 19, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Frost/Nixon (2008)
A talk-show host sets out to do a TV interview with Nixon right after his resignation from office.
Really not a big deal. If you've seen the trailer, that should probably do.
Rating: 43
Really not a big deal. If you've seen the trailer, that should probably do.
Rating: 43
Marple: The Sittaford Mystery (2006) (TV)
Loosely based on the novel by Agatha Christie (1st ed. 1931).
A politician who is considered for prime-minister is murdered at a hotel near his mansion. Miss Marple is a guest at his mansion, and so is a young woman who is engaged to the politician's adopted son. With her is a man who claims to be a reporter. At the hotel there are several guests. The politician's personal assistant takes charge of the investigation. A trip to Egypt made in 1927 by the politician may hold the key to the mystery.
Entertaining and well-made whodunit.
Rating: 50
A politician who is considered for prime-minister is murdered at a hotel near his mansion. Miss Marple is a guest at his mansion, and so is a young woman who is engaged to the politician's adopted son. With her is a man who claims to be a reporter. At the hotel there are several guests. The politician's personal assistant takes charge of the investigation. A trip to Egypt made in 1927 by the politician may hold the key to the mystery.
Entertaining and well-made whodunit.
Rating: 50
Friday, April 16, 2010
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Marple: By the Pricking of My Thumbs (2006) (TV)
Based on the novel by Agatha Christe (1st ed. 1968).
Tommy and Tuppence are a middle-aged couple. Tommy's aunt, who is living at a rest home, dies leaving a letter who throws suspicions over her death. Another guest at the same rest home disappears. Tuppence meets Jane Marple, an elderly woman, who is visiting someone at the rest home. Marple joins Tuppence in an investigation about Tommy's aunt's death. It leads them to a small village.
Entertaining and well-made whodunit.
Rating: 50
Tommy and Tuppence are a middle-aged couple. Tommy's aunt, who is living at a rest home, dies leaving a letter who throws suspicions over her death. Another guest at the same rest home disappears. Tuppence meets Jane Marple, an elderly woman, who is visiting someone at the rest home. Marple joins Tuppence in an investigation about Tommy's aunt's death. It leads them to a small village.
Entertaining and well-made whodunit.
Rating: 50
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Coeurs (2006)
English title: Private Fears in Public Places.
Several characters, one thing in common: loneliness. A man and a woman who work together as realtors, yet do not have any personal relationship. He lives with his sister, who meets people through date sites in the internet. There is also a couple who is looking for an apartment. He is an army reject and an alcoholic. His favorite bartender, a homosexual whose partner has died, lives with his invalid father.
The script is very British, comical in a mild and antiquated way. It is filmed in a very French way, the emphasis being on melancholy, whence the change of title. It is like watching two films at once, a weird experience.
Rating: 59
Several characters, one thing in common: loneliness. A man and a woman who work together as realtors, yet do not have any personal relationship. He lives with his sister, who meets people through date sites in the internet. There is also a couple who is looking for an apartment. He is an army reject and an alcoholic. His favorite bartender, a homosexual whose partner has died, lives with his invalid father.
The script is very British, comical in a mild and antiquated way. It is filmed in a very French way, the emphasis being on melancholy, whence the change of title. It is like watching two films at once, a weird experience.
Rating: 59
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Friday, April 09, 2010
Celebration (2006) (TV)
Two couples sitting at a fancy restaurant are celebrating the wedding anniversary of one of the couples. The men happen to be brothers, the women, sisters. At another table, a younger couple. They talk with one another, with the waiter, with the maîtresse d', and with the restaurant's owner.
Quite hard to describe. The aesthetical effect is based partly on a suspension of decorum. Interesting stuff.
Rating: 57
Quite hard to describe. The aesthetical effect is based partly on a suspension of decorum. Interesting stuff.
Rating: 57
Thursday, April 08, 2010
Find Me Guilty (2006)
A drug dealer belonging to the New Jersey Mafia is arrested and convicted. He then must face a new trial, a collective one that seeks to bring down several members of the Mafia. He decides to be his own lawyer.
An interesting film which works mainly as a sociopsychological study. The film does not clarify the reasons behind the verdict. This is not 12 Angry Men.
Rating: 61
An interesting film which works mainly as a sociopsychological study. The film does not clarify the reasons behind the verdict. This is not 12 Angry Men.
Rating: 61
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
Steal This Film II (2007)
Documentary about file sharing, peer-to-peer networks, copyright infringement, legal battles, this sort of thing. It is publicly available on the Internet (of course).
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006)
It's about Ireland's struggle for independence in 1920.
Watchable historical drama. The film tries to problematize the dual issue of a) one country's dominion over another, and b) one class's dominion over others. In my humble opinion, movies with political content such as this one are never truly one-sided (unless you are very influenciable or naive), because you can always interpret it in complementary ways, for instance the hero's death can always be construed as a defeat of his ideas (even if the movie refuses to add a final caption explaining foreign and lesser informed viewers that the current situation in Ireland implies this defeat) as opposed to romantic martyrdom. Anyway, this is a topic for a longer discussion which is not going to happen here. And the film is not that much of a success in the artistic plane to motivate me down that road.
Rating: 50
Watchable historical drama. The film tries to problematize the dual issue of a) one country's dominion over another, and b) one class's dominion over others. In my humble opinion, movies with political content such as this one are never truly one-sided (unless you are very influenciable or naive), because you can always interpret it in complementary ways, for instance the hero's death can always be construed as a defeat of his ideas (even if the movie refuses to add a final caption explaining foreign and lesser informed viewers that the current situation in Ireland implies this defeat) as opposed to romantic martyrdom. Anyway, this is a topic for a longer discussion which is not going to happen here. And the film is not that much of a success in the artistic plane to motivate me down that road.
Rating: 50
Monday, April 05, 2010
The History Boys (2006)
A group of high-schoolers (or the British equivalent) in Sheffield, England, is trained by a newly-hired teacher for the admission exams to Oxford and Cambridge.
Easy to watch, but not really much more than an exercise in nostalgia and sentimentality. There is no convergence to a theme, several aspects of school life are shown without a sharp focus. It's very much a theater play, and I wouldn't say a very bright or exciting one.
Rating: 49
Easy to watch, but not really much more than an exercise in nostalgia and sentimentality. There is no convergence to a theme, several aspects of school life are shown without a sharp focus. It's very much a theater play, and I wouldn't say a very bright or exciting one.
Rating: 49
Sunday, April 04, 2010
The Ground Truth (2006)
Documentary about the process of, in sequence, one, convincing youngsters to join the army with deceitful propaganda, two, shaping them into killing machines during training, three, subjecting them to a barbaric and meaningless war in Iraq, four, not caring for them and their war-originated problems once they get discharged.
Good documentary.
Good documentary.
16 Blocks (2006)
An alcoholic cop gets a last-minute assignment of escorting a prisoner to court where he is supposed to testify against a cop.
People are saying this has a very similar premise to that in The Gauntlet, a film I remember little of. The screenplay of 16 Blocks, although founded on a completely implausible set-up, has some reasonably intelligent set-pieces built around the schemes that the old cop engenders in order to accomplish his mission.
Rating: 51
People are saying this has a very similar premise to that in The Gauntlet, a film I remember little of. The screenplay of 16 Blocks, although founded on a completely implausible set-up, has some reasonably intelligent set-pieces built around the schemes that the old cop engenders in order to accomplish his mission.
Rating: 51
Saturday, April 03, 2010
Sybil (2007) (TV)
It is about a woman being treated for dissociative identity disorder, stemming from a childhood of terrible abuse and suffering.
My comments follow the general pattern, namely, that the extreme temporal compression produces a rushedness in the presentation which makes it impossible for the viewer to have an adequate appreciation of the story in its full dimensions, dramatic and otherwise. The direction job is fine, nonetheless.
Rating: 35
My comments follow the general pattern, namely, that the extreme temporal compression produces a rushedness in the presentation which makes it impossible for the viewer to have an adequate appreciation of the story in its full dimensions, dramatic and otherwise. The direction job is fine, nonetheless.
Rating: 35
Friday, April 02, 2010
There Will Be Blood (2007)
Loosely based on the novel Oil!, by Upton Sinclair (1st ed. 1927).
An oil prospector in the turn-of-the-century U.S. makes his way to success. He adopts a son. The social prosperity brought by the oil business favors the appearance of a Christian church between whose leader and the oil magnate a sort of rivalry arises.
A lot of impressive sequences, and a storyline which sheds some light on some sociological truths, e.g. the parasitical quality of religion. The film has limitations, though. The main character seems to solve all his conflicts through murder or violence, in ways that do not seem warranted by the context in which they arise. An intelligent analysis of the film's shortcomings is to be found here. I agree with most of what the reviewer (Dan Sallitt) says, except with his opposition of "charismatic and powerful evil figure" versus "slimy and unattractive one"; these adjectives (except "powerful") are interchangeable here, and as for "evil", I totally reject this simplistic use of this term.
Rating: 60
An oil prospector in the turn-of-the-century U.S. makes his way to success. He adopts a son. The social prosperity brought by the oil business favors the appearance of a Christian church between whose leader and the oil magnate a sort of rivalry arises.
A lot of impressive sequences, and a storyline which sheds some light on some sociological truths, e.g. the parasitical quality of religion. The film has limitations, though. The main character seems to solve all his conflicts through murder or violence, in ways that do not seem warranted by the context in which they arise. An intelligent analysis of the film's shortcomings is to be found here. I agree with most of what the reviewer (Dan Sallitt) says, except with his opposition of "charismatic and powerful evil figure" versus "slimy and unattractive one"; these adjectives (except "powerful") are interchangeable here, and as for "evil", I totally reject this simplistic use of this term.
Rating: 60
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