A nagy füzet (2013)

English title: The Notebook

Based on the novel Le grand cahier, by Ágota Kristóf, first published in 1986.

During World War 2, a pair of identical twins is sent to live with their rude grandmother, who was estranged from the family. The boys engage in a series of exercises intended to strengthen their character. They befriend a girl living in the vicinity of their house. They go through a series of experiences that constitute their coming-of-age in those brutal times.

I struggled with the above synopsis... Anyway, this is a stupid movie. Don't bother. The greatest douchebag in present times has written a review of the source novel; perhaps it will give you a better idea of this movie than I am able to, so read it here.

Rating: 15

A Little Chaos (2014)

17th century. King Louis XIV plans to move his residence to Versailles. He wants to build a majestic garden in his estate there. A woman applies with a project for one of the sections of the planned garden. She faces some initial resistance due to her unconventional ideas, but soon conquers everyone's support and the love of the man who is overseeing the work.

This is a fictional episode with a fictional protagonist within a real macroevent (the building of the Versailles gardens). To be honest, none of it interested me, and much of it I found quite ridiculous, not least of which the casting.

Rating: 15

Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

Two troubled teenagers in love escape together and are frantically searched by the community of the island they inhabit.

A congenial film, imaginative in its visual compositions and fairly intelligent in its character constructions. Anderson is a really talented filmmaker. The fact that this and his other latest output do not match his two first extraordinary films must be weighed against the difficulties of pursuing a strictly authorial line and being responsible for all the aspects of screenplay (albeit with collaborators) and direction.

Rating: 60

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

The concierge of a posh hotel at a remote European location is wrongly accused of murder. He and his Middle Eastern bellboy will go through many adventures while figting to clear his name and receive a fat inheritance to which he is entitled.

Somewhat feeble as a textual object, but quite impressive as a succession of images. Anderson is a master of mise en scène and composition, but I am not sure this story and these characters are of any consequence.

Rating: 50

Hail, Caesar! (2016)

A day in the life of the head of a fictitious Hollywood studio in 1951. The male star is kidnapped by communist writers.

Amusing satire which derives mainly from two disconnected elements: the phrase "they just happen to be Jewish" (the context is provided by Joel Stein's article) and a gossip in Suetonius's Lives of the Twelve Caesars regarding a favor granted by Julius Caesar in his youth to king Nicomedes IV (read about this and other related stuff here). The former of these elements is driven to its last consequences in the form of a studio head who is a Catholic. The latter is straightforwardly transposed to the Hollywood universe.

Rating: 70

Agora (2009)

English title: Mists of Time

Fictionalized biography of Hypatia of Alexandria (b. c350-70; d. 414), a mathematician and a teacher. Conflicts among Christians, Jews and Pagans are frequent in that city and bring about -- in this fictional version -- the destruction of the famous library. Hypatia gets caught in the middle of that conflict due to her friendship with Alexandria's mayor.

Ambitious yet amorphous historical fiction. Mostly it plays very loose with historical facts, although the events which led to Hypatia's death seem to follow the consensual historiography more closely. The film lacks something essential: the establishment of a bond between the viewer and its characters. The main lesson it teaches is that multicultural societies are doomed to self-destruct. However, that gets a little submerged under a paean to the (mostly imaginary) scientific achievements of the protagonist.

Rating: 33

Suffragette (2015)

An account on the suffragette movement in England at the beginning of the 20th century. Women organized around the cause of extending voting rights to their sex. The main character is a working-class woman who joins the movement a bit reluctantly at first, and gets more deeply involved as time goes by. She faces problems at work and at home because of her involvement.

This follows the exact pattern of modern so-called politically-aware productions: didacticism, no humor and an appeal to the audience's emotion rather than reason. Perhaps one could care to read the other side of the coin as expressed in this article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/11509811/Why-has-everyone-forgotten-about-male-suffrage.html.

Rating: 45

Mortdecai (2015)

Based on the novel Don't Point That Thing at Me, by Kyril Bonfiglioli, first published in 1972.

An art dealer investigates the death of a restorer who was working on a Goya painting. Always accompanied by his selfless manservant, he goes through numerous adventures in several countries. At home, he is having troubles with his wife due to his recently grown mustache.

Amusing comedy which has an outdated style of humor. It's always pleasant and entertaining, which perhaps explains its having flopped at the box office.

Rating: 65

Survivre avec les loups (2007)

English title: Surviving with Wolves

Based on the faux autobiography by Misha Defonseca (b. Monique de Wael), published in 1997.

During World War 2, a Jewish girl is placed with a family living in the country and loses contact with her biological parents. She is then forced to flee her adoptive home and take refuge in the woods. From then on, she wanders from place to place, going through numerous adventures.

Ridiculous Holocaust fantasy which piles one improbable event on top of another while feeding on every cliché ever concocted on the theme and then some. You could say it's a mix of The Jungle Book and The Painted Bird. Only for very undemanding viewers.

Rating: 12

The Help (2011)

During the 1960s in a Southern American town, a woman interviews maids with the intent of collecting their stories in a book.

Very silly in the premise and in some of the events imagined; its thesis seems to be that gossip is revolutionary. Most of the actresses do a good enough work that the dullness is somewhat, say, dulled. The lead actress has a remarkable resemblance with the lead actress in The Accused.

Rating: 32

Theeb (2014)

English title: Wolf

I will copy the synopsis provided by IMDB: "In the Ottoman province of Hijaz during World War I, a young Bedouin boy experiences a greatly hastened coming-of-age as he embarks on a perilous desert journey to guide a British officer to his secret destination."

This film has a somewhat lower than average rate of events and feels like it could be compressed to half its length. It is watchable nevertheless, and well staged and well photographed.

Rating: 43

The Hateful Eight (2015)

A stagecoach carrying a bounty hunter and his prisoner -- a woman whom he will deliver to the authorities -- picks up a few more passengers along the way and makes a stop at a commercial establishment where some other dangerous characters are staying.

Entertaining Post-Civil War Western where some ancestral conflicts which plagued or plague the United States are acted out inside a confined space.

Rating: 70

The Tudors (2007-2010) (TV series)

This series, despite its title, does not encompass all things Tudor; it is rather the story of Henry VIII and only that. The first season is exceedingly vulgar and kitschy. It tones down these characteristics a bit in later seasons, but there isn't much effort done to evade mediocrity, except on the last two episodes of Season Two, for which an excellent director was hired.

Rome (2005-2007) (TV series)

Second viewing of the first season (first viewed on October, 2006).
First viewing of the second season.

Not much to comment on here. The first season is as good as I thought. The second season is good, but not on the same level as the first one.
In the second season, the author found a way to pay tribute to his own ethnicity by including a superfluous subplot involving a conspiracy to kill Herod.

The Candidate (1972)

Second viewing; first viewed between 1983 and 1986.

A liberal-minded lawyer with no political experience receives an invitation to run for the Senate as a Democrat.

I once loved this film. Not anymore. It is well-made, sure. But its premise of corruption of ideological virtue is at best simpleminded and at worst -- well, I'd rather not think about that. Anyway, they made a masterpiece of mise-en-scène based on false principles. So, what to do?

Rating: 69 (down from 76)

Per sempre (1991)

English title: Forever

Bernice feels attracted towards her womanizing father, ever since she was a teenager. After his death, presumably during a sexual encounter, she spends time at the apartment where he met his lovers, and recollects her moments with him. During that time, she meets several of his past mistresses.

I am not sure a plot point which is at the center of this film makes sense, but revealing anything about it would perhaps be a spoiler, so I will not go into it. Eroticism is the foundation of the drama, a notion which for me is hardly compelling; everything, on the other hand, is done with good taste.

Though the action is set in Brazil, the film -- or anyway the copy which is widely distributed -- is entirely spoken in English. The copy I saw had subtitles in Portuguese, made by someone who doesn't know the difference between state and estate.

Rating: 36

São Paulo, sociedade anônima (1965)

Second viewing; first viewed on April 1, 2001.

Carlos has several lovers and little money. He meets Luciana, who is a respectable girl. Carlos gets a job in an automobile factory.

Ambitious attempt at combining psychological drama with social panorama. The main character is a chronic malcontent who gets on everybody's nerves. The events are set to the backdrop of the Brazilian transition to a modern society in the late 1950s. The film is excessively discursive but a masterpiece comparatively to the average Brazilian production. It has strong characters and articulates a coherent social critique.

Rating: 68 (unchanged)

Relatos salvajes (2014)

English title: Wild Tales

(1) The passengers on a flight find they all have something in common. (2) A waitress at a roadside restaurant recognizes one of her customers. (3) Two drivers on a deserted highway conflict with each other. (4) An implosion expert has his car towed while he is buying a cake. (5) A wealthy man tries to free his son from jail after he hits and runs on a pregnant woman. (6) During her wedding reception, a bride finds out about her husband-to-be's infidelities.

'Loss of control' is what the tagline wants us to believe this film's theme to be. Many commenters have mentioned revenge as well (or instead). I have to disagree strongly with both. I live in Brazil and this film captures a portion of my country's reality just as well as it presumably captures Argentina's. And yet, I do not picture Brazilians as particularly out-of-control individuals, or especially prone to vengeance. I suppose Argentinians wouldn't fit in those categories either. It is important to distinguish the essential theme, as opposed to contingent ones. What I see here is a society that has lost its bonding element. And when that is lost, people turn against people. Men against women. Rich against poor. State against citizen. And so on. Earlier works which dealt with related issues (and which have been mentioned in connection with this film) are Duel and Falling Down. Probably there are others.

Rating: 60

River of Death (1989)

A man guides a heterogeneous group of people with diverse interests on a search for a lost city in the Amazon jungle. An escaped Nazi doctor is said to be hiding there.

Third-rate adventure which would probably be less painful if watched with the audio switched off. It is basically a collection of very old clichés, some of which are geographically or anthropologically wrong. The cinematography is good, though.

Rating: 30

Carnaval em lá maior (1955)

Musical comedy. The semblance of a plot revolves around a guy who romances a girl and later marries her. There are some scenes at a school for actors, at which  the girl lives for a while after her house burns up.

This follows the pattern for musical comedies in Brazil from the 1930s onward: a thin plot as a mere excuse for a succession of random musical numbers featuring radio stars (at that point in time, possibly TV stars as well). It has a slightly freer than usual approach to humor, evoking at times the Marx Brothers' style. One subplot borrows the central idea from On demande un assassin. Apparently, only a fragment of the original movie was exhibited, as a scene involving a furniture salesman is mentioned on the literature but is absent from the copy I saw; possibly that scene was lost (this is a newly restored copy). Another possibility is that it was cut by the TV channel.

Rating: 31