Foreign

Cuckoo, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 17th, 2003

Synopsis

A Finnish sniper is chained to a rock by his fellow soldiers. Not far away, a Russian captainis being driven off to face a court martial (read: execution). A friendly fire incident kills thecaptain’s captors and wounds him. A Lapp widow finds him and takes him back to her home totend to him. Meanwhile, the Finn manages to free himself, and also winds up at thewoman’s place. A prickly, multicultural friendship gradually develops between the three. Not aone understands…
Read More

New World

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 15th, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

James Gandolfini is a brilliant actor. He is one of those rare talents that sneak in the back door to show business, hiding in the shadows until the public realizes just what a powerful artist he has always been. I, like many Americans, first began to notice Gandolfini through his work in the immensely successful HBO television series The Soprano’s. In the French/American hybrid film New World, Gandolfini is at top form yet again, playing an American soldier stationed in France in the 1950’s with more …
Read More

Legend of Suriyothai, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 14th, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

We first see Princess Suriyothai as she is on the cusp of adulthood. Though she loves anotherman, she agrees to marry a prince out of duty to her country. This sets a pattern that will holdthroughout her life, as any decision she makes is not for her own sake but that of the nation. Shewill have plenty of call to be selfless, as a series of palace intrigues threatens the stability of whatwill become Thailand, and leaves it at the mercy of Burma. There is a lot of voice-over h…
Read More

Diabolique

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 26th, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

Revenge is the theme of what many people consider H.G. Clouzot’s finest film, the 1955 thriller “Diabolique”. This is the story of two women who want to kill the same man. One is his kind and gentle wife, and the other is his attractive but hard-hearted mistress. The two work together to end his life, devising a plan that comes to fruition surprisingly early in the film. What initially appears to be a film about the plotting of a murder turns into a film about something else… something more sinister and unexpected. A…
Read More

Solas

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 9th, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Maria is at war with the world, and one can hardly blame her, given her life. Her mother,Rosa, arrives in the city, accompanying her abusive husband, who is undergoing surgery. Mariaunenthusiastically puts Rosa up at her dingy apartment. Maria’s life continues to get worse,thanks to a relationship with a cruel truck driver, but her mother’s quiet dignity and absolutegoodness gradually begins to win her over. Then there is the Maria’s older neighbour, who isthe first kind ma…
Read More

Y Tu Mama Tambien

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 22nd, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

Don’t be fooled into thinking that Y Tu Mama Tambien is just another trite love triangle movie, one that would have some catchy Sum 41 or Weezer song in all the promos. This movie is about far more than that. It’s about the nature of friendship, the consequence of action, teenage machismo, self-realization and learning what it means to enjoy life. This isn’t the Mexican version of Road Trip, either. They don’t get into wacky hijinks or the comedy of the absurd. Almost everything about Y Tu Mama T…
Read More

Intacto

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 7th, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

The central premise is that luck is a real force, a gift that people are born with but can betaken away. Deep in the bowels of a mysterious casino (one that sits in the middle of mountainwasteland) lives Max Von Sydow in Howard Hughes-like seclusion. He appears to be the darkgod of luck, capable of stealing any trace of your like by a single touch, and this is precisely whathe does to a protege who wants to strike out on his own. This latter, deprived of his own luck,seeks …
Read More

Tsui Hark’s Vampire Hunters

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 7th, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

The plot is an almost completely disconnected series of set pieces, and so defies easysynopsis. Essentially, a group of vampire hunters track a vampire king to the home of a richeccentric. Many battles ensue, and they are the main reason for watching this. The comedy islame, and the characterization non-existent. So many things happen, but for so little reason andwith so little relation to each other, that the story manages to be both frenzied and meandering.Apart from a fe…
Read More

Night of the Shooting Stars, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 22nd, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

We are in the final days of WWII. The Allies are liberating Italy, but the Nazis and holdoutFascists haven’t quite been beaten yet. They still hold sway in the town of San Martino. Whenthe villagers are ordered to gather in the cathedral, a large group decide to flee into thecountryside, hoping to find the Americans. The film is narrated by a woman who, at the time ofthe story, is six years old, and thinks the flight is a grand adventure. There are great momentsof tendernes…
Read More

Wings of Desire

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 17th, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

This is closer to a being a tone poem than a narrative, so there is hardly any plot as such. We move through Berlin in the company of angels. They can hear our thoughts, but they cannot interfere or feel the physical world. Two of the angels — Damiel (Bruno Ganz) and Cassiel (Otto Sander) are increasingly disenchanted with their existence, and Damiel, falling in love with a trapeze artist, wants to become mortal. This simple story is built on very gradually, and most of the film consists in our hearing the innermost thoughts of various characters, and all these thoughts are presented in poetic (often elliptical) words. The cinematography is quite extraordinarily beautiful.

Never On Sunday

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 11th, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

Melina Mercouri plays Illia, a character who makes prostitution seem like a carefree Utopia.She lives in a version of Greece where there only appear to be 5 women, and they are all ladies of the night. Into this extraordinarily male fantasy comes Jules Dassin, a deluded American idealist who wants to save Illia from herself. Naturally, he doesn’t have a hope, and Greek enthusiasm (think My Big Fat Greek Wedding on steroids) will inevitably overcome his anti-fun attitudes. Obviously, the picture has dated quite noticeably, and makes Pretty Woman look like a gritty expose.
Read More

Crime of Padre Amaro, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 6th, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Young Father Amaro arrives in a small rural parish. He is an instant hit with the locals, inparticular the obsessively devout Amelia, who abandons her more secular boyfriend. Amarobecomes entangled in the power games between the church and a reform-minded newspaper,which outed Amaro’s superior as being in the pocket of the local drug lord. Amaro also findshimself more and more attracted to Amelia, and eventually succumbs to temptation. The Crimeof Padre Amaro makes for inte…
Read More

Way Home, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 6th, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

A single mother, harried beyond all bounds and desperate for work, is forced to leave heryoung, resentful son in the care of his deaf-mute grandmother for a couple of months. The seven-year-old is mightily displeased, and repulses his grandmother’s attempts to create a bond.Gradually, however, she begins to win him over. A low-key, thoughtful film, The Way Homebenefits from very real performances, and a kid who is convincingly mean and spiteful in theearly goings.

What to Do in Case of Fire

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 7th, 2003

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/lwrept5/public_html/Upcomingdiscs.com/wp-content/themes/upcomingdiscs/functions.php on line 453

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

In 1986, a group of anarchists cobble together a home-made bomb and plant it in a hatedbuilding. Something goes wrong with the mechanism, and the bomb doesn’t go off until 2000, bywhich point most of the group have moved on with their lives. The fact that they filmedthemselves making the bomb presents a problem, however, and the reunited group must find away to break into police headquarters to recover the incriminating evidence. This film is not ablanket condemnation of se…
Read More

Secret Ballot

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 6th, 2003

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/lwrept5/public_html/Upcomingdiscs.com/wp-content/themes/upcomingdiscs/functions.php on line 453

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

In a beautiful opening shot, a plane flies across the screen at sunrise, parachuting a box tothe ground. The in the case is a ballot box, and a solider stationed on a deserted beach is to watchover the election agent who comes for the box. Together they criss-cross the island in search ofvotes, which is not the straightforward task you might think. This is very low-key satire, whereevery nuance counts for something. The extremely long, often motionless takes furtherconcentr…
Read More

Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 16th, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

There is no plot, as such, here. Each of the dreams has some sort of narrative, but moreimportant are the visuals and the themes (humanity and nature, nuclear power, and so forth).Dreams is not on the same level as Kurosawa’s great masterpieces (Ran, The Seven Samurai,Throne of Blood, and so on), and is not always compelling. But it is very frequently jaw-droppingly beautiful.

Audio

The music, a curious blend of eastern and western influences, sound…
Read More

Quitting

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 27th, 2003

Synopsis

Jia Hongsheng was a rising actor in the Chinese film scene, until drugs derailed his life. Thefilm chronicles his struggle to break his addiction to heroin, and the role his family plays in thisstruggle. What makes this film unique is that not only is the story factual, but all of the charactersare played by the actual people in question: that’s the real Jia Hongshen, those are his realparents, those are his real friends. Fascinating.

Audio

Very nic…
Read More

Nine Queens

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 14th, 2002

Synopsis

Juan is a small-time grifter. Marcos is several steps up the ladder in terms of ambition andexperience. He takes Juan under his wing, and involves him in a possible Big Score, sellingcounterfeit stamps. Can Juan trust Marcos? Can we in the audience trust anything? This superbcrime film takes great delight in making you question absolutely everything you see, and youwind up in a state of grinning paranoia. Sophisticated, fiendishly intelligent, superblyentertaining filmmaki…
Read More

M

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 3rd, 2002

Buy at Amazon.com

Film

Fritz Lang became one of the earliest masters of filmmaking. Known mostly for such classic silents as Metropolis and Spies, Lang delivers a startling film definitely ahead of its time with M. This is also the very first film for the talented Peter Lorre who would later shine in Corman’s Poe series, and of course, along-side Bogart in The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca. M is a disturbing film that constantly assaults the viewer with stark images of a city’s underworld life. Th…
Read More

Snake & Crane Arts of Shaolin (Remastered)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 27th, 2002

Buy at Amazon.com

Intro

Snake & Crane Arts of Shaolin finally gets a DVD re-release with an anamorphic widescreen transfer. It is too bad that the quality of this DVD is so low.

Synopsis

“International superstar Jackie Chan (Rush Hour) stars in the film that real Kung Fu fans call the best traditional martial arts movie Jackie’s ever made, Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin. Jackie is a young warrior suspected of poisoning all the Shaolin Masters, the creators of a new unbeatable fighting style cal…
Read More

To Kill With Intrigue (Remastered)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 27th, 2002

Buy at Amazon.com

Intro

Columbia-Tristar has re-released To Kill with Intrigue, along with New Fists of Fury and Snake & Crane Arts of Shaolin with a new anamorphic widescreen transfer. To Kill with Intrigue looks better than the other two releases, but still is nothing stellar on DVD.

Synopsis

“In To Kill With Intrigue, Kung Fu fans get a rare chance to see international martial arts legend Jackie Chan (Rush Hour) as a serious dramatic hero with a fighting style to match. Jackie plays a young …
Read More

New Fist of Fury (Remastered)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 27th, 2002

Buy at Amazon.com

Intro

It is nice to see one of Jackie Chan’s first films, New Fist of Fury, get re-released with an anamorphic widescreen transfer. Unfortunately, that is the only bonus to this disc.

Synopsis

“Jackie Chan (Rush Hour), the master of kung-fu and Chinese acrobatics, stars in this action- packed sequel to Bruce Lee’s Fist of Fury. In one of his first leading roles, he displays the style that would make him an international superstar. During WWII in Japanese-occupied Taiwan, Jacki…
Read More

Va Savoir

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 26th, 2002

Buy at Amazon.com

The sort of film it seems comes out of Hollywood only as a fluke, but emerges regularly out of Europe: the intellectual romantic comedy.

Synopsis

Camille, leading lady of an Italian-language theatre troupe, has returned to Paris for the first time in three years. Though her lover is the director Ugo, she seeks out her ex, Pierre, and her feelings are not exactly simple. Ugo, meanwhile, is searching for a rare play, and is attracted to the daughter of the woman who owns the manuscript. The set-up is…
Read More

Taboo (Gohatto)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 26th, 2001

Buy at Amazon.com

Intro

A recent effort from director Nagisa Oshima, perhaps best known for In the Realm of the Sense, Taboo continues his elegant exploration of sexuality and dangerous passions.

Synopsis

Imagine a samurai version of Death in Venice, and you have some sense of Taboo. The year is 1865, and a militia has two new recruits. One of them, Kano, is decidedly adrogynous, and the other recruit, Tashiro, promptly falls in love with him. As time goes on, more and more members of the militia fall u…
Read More

Vertical Ray of the Sun

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 12th, 2001

Buy at Amazon.com

Intro

The most recent film from Tran Anh Hung, writer/director of The Scent of Green Papaya, continues his restrained, low-key examination of human interaction.

Synopsis

In some ways, providing a synopsis for movies like this is to do them a disservice. This is not meant to imply that there is no story. There is: three sisters prepare a feast to mark the anniversary of their parents’ death, and we explore their relationships with each other and with the men in their lives. But above an…
Read More

«< 4 5 6 7 8