guigui-paul

An honest, frank, moving and sometimes painful to watch documentary on this great underrated songwriter that was Adrian Borland. A beautiful, moving, haunting, passionate, pure voice, which sometimes evoked Jim Morrisson and Jim Kerr, and a gift for catchy lovely melodies. The Sound at the time should have been the equal of The Cure, U2, Joy Division, Simple Minds, Echo & The Bunnymen... but unfortunately fate decided otherwise. Borland's relatives recount his life, his personality in this beautiful documentary. For my part, I only discovered this band very late, in 2021, but in a very short time The Sound and its singer became some of my favorite musicians, there was a lot of emotion and beauty in their music, listen for example to their masterpiece FROM THE LION'S MOUTH and SHOCK OF DAYLIGHT, the electrifying and legendary live album IN THE HOTHOUSE, and the magnificent songs "Winning", "Silent air", "Total recall", "You've got a way", "Longest days", "A new way of life", "Where the love is"... Adrian Borland deserved to be as recognized as Robert Smith or Ian Curtis during his lifetime. A recommended, heartbreaking documentary.

Despite a decent cast and a few captivating moments in the last part, a return to the 2015 horror that too often lacks embodiment and stays on the surface, with the script lacking any ideas, thematics. Shame. The director was maybe afraid of hurting, of being indecent, of creating controversy with regard to the government perhaps, but the problem is that his film does not bring anything new compared to what we know. Through the medias of the time. What is the real point of describing this hunt for terrorists when we already know the events? Unfortunately, the script sounds pretty hollow. The big film on the subject with its possible implications (economic, political, etc.) remains to be made. Imagine what the Yves Boisset of the 1970s and early 80's could have done with this hot topic...

A minor commissioned film, modest, short and dry, the production of which was apparently complicated. Argento, who is not at the origin of the project, apparently did not have the "final cut" of GIALLO and there were conflicts with a part of the production (casting and crew paid very little or not, it is even said that there was a strike on the set) It probably lacks the scale and the passion associated with the director's best thrillers, and if the irredeemable character of the policeman Enzo and his degenerate double played by Adrien Brody have potential the result struggles to totally enthuse because of an uneven script. Despite everything, there are still a few small remnants of the Maestro's signature: the opening 15/20 minutes, the flashback scenes on Enzo's childhood, Céline's attempt to escape and a rather unexpected ending, between darkness and light irony. A bit of a disappointment compared to the expectations it could initially raise, but still remains a watchable little thriller, worth a little more than its poor reputation. A minor Argento is still interesting, whatever the critics who have been slamming each of his films for 40 years say!

A charming little "giallo". Argento strolls through the streets of a summer Turin and remembers his "animal trilogy", his taste for urban architecture, his slightly eccentric characters and his youth as a cinephile. Supported by a decent cast (Elio Germano and Cristina Brondo in particular), some nicely colored late-night moments, two scenes of unexpected violence, a dizzying finale, some light-hearted eroticism, and Pino "Body Double" Donaggio's sultry score, Argento in the limits imposed by television delivers an honorable film, a little wise and futile in the end, but whose lightness remains pleasant.

Somewhere between Dario Argento, Tod Browning, Tim Burton and David Cronenberg, Beauty is the Beast!

A cruel, minimalist, touching and cyclical tale that strikes the right balance between hard and repulsive horror, unsettling drama, deviant eroticism and black comedy. A rather atypical and brilliant work by Dario Argento who, supported by the involved performances of Carrie Ann Fleming and screenwriter/actor Steven Weber and a sober but solid production (among other things, a beautiful opening and a pretty poetic end shot), delivers which certainly remains the best episode of the uneven "Masters of Horror" anthology.

"The Year of the Shark" is a drama that makes you smile, a comedy that does not make you laugh, a toothless shark film that makes Bruno Mattéi's "Cruel Jaws" reevaluate, and which it is unworthy to compare to the yet uneven series of "Jaws". Incredible but true: "Jaws 3D" and "Jaws 4: The Revenge" are good films compared to "'The Year of the Shark'"! Admittedly, French "genre" cinema has not always shone with its dazzling successes, its indisputable masterpieces, but in the case of "The Year of the Shark" we can speak of a complete failure as the film fails in all registers and bores its viewer, because of the lack of a decent screenplay, direction and rhythm.

Without even comparing with the style of the Carpenter of 1978, I find David Gordon Green quite anonymous on this trilogy and his three films are singularly lacking in rhythm, tension, suspense and atmosphere.. we therefore end up logically asking the question if this author (he is a screenwriter and producer of his HALLOWEEN films) is really made for thrillers and horror.

Here there is all the same a small idea at the base with this tormented hero who puts Myers in the background for a good part of the film, but it is not for all that very convincing in the end because we do not really believe in this hasty conversion to the dark side of the Force, and the whole last part which returns to the rails of yet another sequel is really weak with its improbable and grotesque situations and "twists".

It is therefore high time indeed, to bury, or rather crush, the remains of this poor Michael Myers... .

A supposedly transgressive and disturbing film but which turns out above all to be childish, anachronistic, harmless in substance and ugly and hilarious in form. Admittedly, Paul Verhoeven is hardly helped by his casting (Virginie Efira a good actress usually is oddly bad here) but after the already ugly tv movie ELLE the director confirms his sad decline of style and obsessions. Verhoeven perhaps wanted to rediscover the caustic baroque power of Ken Russell's THE DEVILS, but in the end BENEDETTA in its indigent and cheesy style and screenplay evokes more the guilty pleasures of Jacques Dorfmann's VERCINGETORIX.

New Model Army has been one of the greatest independent English Rock/Folk bands since 1980, just listen to their album THUNDER AND CONSOLATION, a masterpiece, major album of the 80s and an unforgettable marvel of emotions, of lyricism and catchy melodies. BETWEEN DOG AND WOLF THE NEW MODEL ARMY STORY is a very good documentary that paints a fair portrait of this little-known group. Far from being exhaustive however, the (very good) albums from "Impurity" (1990) to "Today is a good day" (2009) are not mentioned there for example. The film retraces the history of NMA in a convincing way, being able to address its audience of faithful as well as "profane". It may even make some people want to discover the little jewels of melodic and sensitive indie rock that are "Thunder and consolation" but also "The ghost of Cain", "Impurity", "The love of hopeless causes", "Eight", "High", without forgetting the superb Folk solo excursions of "Navigating by the stars" and "Surrounded"...in short, practically the entire discography of the brilliant songwriter Justin Sullivan!

En savoir plus sur ce texte sourceVous devez indiquer le texte source pour obtenir des informations supplémentaires Envoyer des commentaires Panneaux latéraux.

A wonderful story of resilience, loneliness and love. An unexpected little miracle in the era of Netflix and Marvel: Il Maestro Dario Argento, with only his sensitivity, his considerable craftsmanship, a precious team (the lead actress Illenia Pastorelli, the editor Flora Volpelière, the director of photography Matteo Cocco and the composer Arnaud Rebotini) and with a very small budget, finds the talent and the energy - at 81 years old and after 10 years of cinematographic eclipse - to compose with OCCHIALI NERI one of his most warm, touching and stripped down pared down films. Far from the opulent baroque, the gore and the slightly cold formalism of his "golden age" of the 70s. A concise and tense film which puts the characters and the emotions in the foreground. The point of view adopted here is that of the victim, the pariah of society, an almost unprecedented approach for the filmmaker. Wonderful Illenia Pastorelli. Wonderful opening scenes, from the outstanding eclipse to the moving waking up in the hospital. And one of the most beautiful closing sequences seen in an Argento film: a sweet, bitter and poignant farewell. An intimate and endearing film which could well be the ideal conclusion to a 50-year career, and which would also deserve to be released in more theaters, big screens, if the distributors were not so cautious...

Dario Argento's new film is a rather enjoyable adaptation of "Dracula", full of affectionate nods to old horror movies made in the 50's and 60's, like the ones directed by Mario Bava, Riccardo Freda, Antonio Margheriti and of course the vampires movies from Hammer Films. It doesn't rank among the Maestro's best films because the screenplay is very generic, the editing a bit abrupt and the pace (never the director's biggest strength) slow at times, but overall "Dracula 3D" has an appealing "old school" style, nicely enhanced by Luciano "Suspiria" Tovoli's polished, colorful cinematography, Antonello Geleng's nice set design and Claudio Simonetti's pleasing retro soundtrack (aside of the out of place, loud "Kiss Me Dracula" which can be heard during the end credits!). Most of the FX are decent (except the CGI used for the wolf bit and the weird, nosferatu-esque scene of praying mantis..) and the casting is OK, especially Rutger Hauer as a solid and charismatic Van Helsing, Marta Gastini as the appropriately cute and -not so- fragile heroine and last but not the least, a deliciously wooden Thomas Kretschmann as the melancholic Count Dracula. Neither "Deep Red" nor "Phenomena", "D3D" is just a fun, charming throwback to old style Horror.

Following the positive experiences of JENIFER and PELTS for the "Masters of Horror" TV series,MOTHER OF TEARS/LA TERZA MADRE received the typically mixed reviews for a Dario Argento work: People liked the film,or they disliked it,but very few of them were indifferent at the experience of watching MOTHER OF TEARS!

True,the last chapter of the Mater trilogy is a very different "beast" in comparison to SUSPINFERNO:

this time Argento doesn't repeat the totally surreal,colorful,abstract dream worlds of SUSPINFERNO but the director instead throws his viewer into our modern urban world.

In fact,MOT offers itself as a clever metaphor of the end of our days,our regular apocalypse.

The "second fall of Roma",as shown in the film, isn't the fake,typical "CGI-zed" apocalypse view of the world that you can see in many horror films like DAWN OF THE DEAD 2004 or 28 WEEKS LATER,but it is rather the daily,sad and gruesome chaos and madness that we can see in our every day lives: People beating and killing each other,rape,mothers killing their children,suicides,racism,etc.

If MOT is of course a (crazy!) fairy tale,the film has overall a more "down to earth" and tongue in cheek,ironic approach to its subject:

The characters in the film (especially Sarah,Michael and Marta) are likable human beings,they are slightly more defined than the puppets of SUSPIRIA and especially INFERNO...the relation between Sarah and her dead mother is also somewhat touching,and subtly linked to the past life of the Argento's family. The "baddies" in the film are deliberately over the top,they are cackling,"punk" witches who are governed by a sexy top model who enjoys her catwalk,the beautiful Moran Atias!

As usual with Argento,the use of locations (old buildings,streets,museum,book shop,station,catacombs...) in the film is really striking,also nicely enhanced by the use of 2:35 cinematography...there are also some nice use of moving cameras,from the opening shot in the cemetery to the beautiful and "argentoesque" long Steadycam shot when Sarah finds the Mater's lair. There's nothing here as spectacular as the crows's scene in OPERA or the carpet crawl in SLEEPLESS,but Argento's direction is quite solid,with its nice use of frame compositions and editing (see the first Roma's fall scene,for example!)

The opening scene in the museum,the incredibly nasty "TENEBRAEesque" scene with the likable lesbians and the night taxi ride/Mater's house's scene are really effective set-pieces that easily rank among the best set-pieces in the glorious career of Argento.

Frederic Fasano's camera-work in the film is also good,but unlike the "Technicolor Disney style" of SUSPIRIA and INFERNO,the film is shot in mostly cold,naturalistic and dark tones full of shadows,even if Fasano also delivers from time to time some welcomed and subtle bursts of vivid colors in the key "Mater" scenes set in the witch's lair.

The casting is quite good too,Asia Argento delivers an uneven but very physical,energetic performance,Adam James is a decent lead and it's always nice to see old legends of Euro cinema like Udo Kier,Coralina Cataldi Tassoni and Philippe Leroy doing some fun cameos.

The special effects from the great Sergio Stivaletti are mostly good and gory,delivering many effective nasty shocks in the murders's scenes.

Claudio Simonetti's music isn't as loud and memorable as SUSPIRIA and INFERNO's soundtracks,but it does the job very well and it is again a slightly different composition for the ex Goblin: full of electronic beats (remember IL CARTAIO?) but also with some lyrical,effective nods to Jerry Goldsmith,Bernard Herrmann,etc.

MOTER OF TEARS isn't a flawless film (Daria Nicolodi's character is questionable,the few CGI effects are quite average,the ending -like the one of SUSPIRIA- is a bit too rushed,...),but it is overall an enjoyable and touching tribute to Arts and especially to the sadly missed Italian "cinema de genre" from the 60's to the 80's:

There are lots of references in the film to Mario Bava,Lucio Fulci,Sergio Martino,Ruggero Deodato,Mario Caiano,Dario Argento (!),the "fumetti",Goya,Bosch,the 19th century painting,etc.

And finally,it's always a great pleasure to see that in 2008,a year where some opportunists directors like Rob Zombie or Alexandre Aja are somewhat considered like "Gods" by the young horror fans,an old cinema legend like Dario Argento is still breaking taboos and experimenting audacious,fun and personal stuff,with each one of his new work...

A box office failure and some lukewarm reviews in 2001,but "Ali" is in my opinion a very good and underrated film. Mann's direction is great as usual: you just have to watch and to admire the wonderful 10 first minutes and the incredible bouts scenes with Liston and Foreman to understand that Mann is one of the most stunning directors working nowadays. Emmanuel Lubezki's camera-work is also inspired and beautiful,and the overall casting is very good: Will Smith gives here an unexpected,great and complex performance,and Jon Voight,Mario Von Peebles and Jamie Foxx are also very good. The story is dense and sometimes really moving (the last half in Africa is especially successful,with the heartbreaking jogging scene and the great finale),"Ali" is a beautiful film...see it!

i think that MANHUNTER is really one of the best Thrillers of the 80's. The screenplay is neat,complex and disturbing and Mann's use of Cinemascope,locations,colors and music is great as usual. Dante Spinotti's camera-work is inspired and beautiful and all the performances here are great: William Petersen,troubled,strong and ambiguous is the PERFECT actor for Graham's character and Tom Noonan's performance is also very impressive,Noonan is at the same time chilling and moving,almost likable. The supporting actors are good too,Joan Allen is a wonderful and beautiful Reba and Brian Cox is quite good and more subtle here than Anthony Hopkins in HANNIBAL and RED DRAGON! The dreamy and surreal mood of MANHUNTER is really haunting,greatly enhanced by Mann's clever use of songs: all the scenes between Tom Noonan and Joan Allen,underlined by the Shriekback's score,are really amazing! MANHUNTER is a too underrated film,another great work from Michael Mann and a much better film than HANNIBAL and RED DRAGON,and it's even a better film than the famous THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS...see this film!

Michael Mann is one of the best directors working nowadays,with so many great,ambitious and beautiful films like "Manhunter","Ali" or "Collateral",and "the Keep" is no exception. "The Keep",a critical and box office disaster when it was released in 1983,is a really daring,strange and unusual mix between Horror and War movie. There are some flaws in "The Keep" (the visual effects aren't always good,the ending is a bit rushed),but the film offers some really good things like its visuals: the sets and Alex Thomson's stunning cinematography are wonderful,michael Mann's sense of composition,space and use of Cinemascope is great as usual and the story and the connection between the characters are really interesting and complex. Tangerine Dream's soundtrack is also haunting and fits well the dreamy mood of the film...i really hope that the Keep's DVD and the Keep's soundtrack will be available one of these days!!

"white dog" is one of the best films of the 80's,it's a very very hard film but also a really clever and lucid film about racism,conditioning,hatred and the complex connections between people and animals. The acting (especially from Kristy McNichol and Paul Winfield) is great,Fuller's direction and his sense of editing and use of slow motion are really effective,the screenplay is brilliant and ennio Morricone's soundtrack is really beautiful and haunting. I have only an old VHS (with bad dubbing and full screen format)of "white dog"...this underrated masterpiece really deserves a beautiful edition on DVD!

I agree with Scott Davies's comments,this film is really a masterpiece,and it's probably one of the best ghost stories ever made,but it's also one of the best "horror" movies of the 70's. The story is complex and moving,the acting is very good (Mia Farrow's performance is amazing),the direction is elegant,the use of Cinemascope,the sets and peter Hannan's cinematography are wonderful,and colin Towns's famous and beautiful soundtrack perfectly fits the sad and chilling mood of the film. I must add that the ending,without revealing anything,is one of the most stunning and PERFECT ever,in every ways (direction,cinematography,acting,music)! To sum up: this film is sad,chilling,haunting,poetic,moving... is there a DVD available??

After the interesting but sad failure of "the phantom of the opera" and the uneven Giallo "non ho sonno","il cartaio" is a little surprise and a nice return to form for il Maestro Dario Argento.

I enjoyed this film for several reasons:

1) the actors:

the acting here is much better than in "non ho sonno",Stefania Rocca in particular is really terrific,Silvio Muccino is also very natural and Liam Cunningham,even if his character is a bit stereotyped,is very good too.

2)the cinematography:

i liked Benoit Debie's camera-work,his cinematography is interesting and often beautiful. the use of natural lights and shadows is really good and striking,especially in the night scenes

SPOILERS

Silvio Muccino's chase,the cat-and mouse chase in Stefania Rocca's house,the last scenes

SPOILERS'S END

3)the pace and the main idea :

the video poker idea is quite funny,modern and original,it's at the same time silly,disturbing and exciting. the pace is fluent,the story starts right from the opening scene until the offbeat and great final showdown.

4) some very good "Argentoesque" scenes:

SPOILERS

Muccino's chase and Rocca's attack are tense and very well shot,i also liked the poetic,sad and dreamy scene where Cunningham is in the killer's lair and the final poker game between the lead character and the killer is very funny and daring.

SPOILERS'S END

so,if "il cartaio" is not a masterpiece like "Opera","Phenomena" or "the Stendhal syndrome",it's an interesting,good little film and a different kind of thriller and storytelling for Dario Argento.