mart-burton

I saw the trailer for this foreign film in the last week. What appealed to me was the sensitivity between the male and female leads. It was shot mainly in black-and-white. It seemed to have a measured pace to it that was perhaps covering up some deep emotion. The trailer had some beautiful cinematography in a scene by a lake. The trailer set up a bit of a mystery which was intriguing.

So the timing was right tonight and on a romantic whim I went to see it. I thought I knew why the character Adrian claimed he was a friend of Frantz. But as it turned out I was wrong. I was pleased to be wrong and be therefore taken on a ride along where the film took me. The film was set in Germany and Paris in 1919 and explores the attitudes between the French and Germans still raw after WW1.

I enjoyed it. The film dealt with a number of issues: guilt, pride, love, loss, heartache, nationalism and others.

These days there is so much below-average Hollywood pap that is not worth seeing, it's a pleasant change to experience a film that is more human.

I recommend it.

Great to see Kevin Kline in a witty role again. Cleverly written lines give some snickers, excellent techniques at times transported me. The physical slapstick was a little off, but the gags made up for it. If you like Kevin Kline, you'll like this movie. Give it a try. It will appeal to the astute mind. The rich old women are entertaining and the glimpses of the other side of life are sensitively done, with tongue in cheek. The metaphor of the pigeons is a clever one observed by Henry (Kevin Kline) himself, in this high-brow yet Oscar Wildeish thrust-and-parry into the world of the Henry and his protégé, the young gentleman. Ending on a feel-good note with the credits rolling to a zany variation of a Marc Bolan written T-Rex number 'Dandy in the Underworld'. 8/10.

I thought this was a great European film by director Fred Cavayè. It blends male devotion to the woman he loves with thriller rugged stuff, as he plans to carry out her amazing prison rescue. Julien's a bright man who is told some pointers and soon has his wall covered with his hand-written cards, photos of people. And showing emotion, this normal teacher is drawn into high-risk, situations. And the husband has to hold a lot inside, even from his attractive wife, Lisa (Diane Kruger, German model and actor), so that the escape works to a happy reunion. More like a Bond with a regular life, with his son and his extended family, we want Julien to succeed. This great screenplay is well-acted and photographed. The film shows the ordinary, family world of the finely ageing French actor (Vincent Lindon) as he enters unfamiliar, knife-edge action to rescue the only woman he wants freed – his wrongly-imprisoned wife.

Harry Nisson singing bits of a few of tracks that I loved from back in the eighties. Me And My Arrow. The Moonbeam Song. You're Breaking My Heart, possibly the first song to say "so f*ck you", so sweetly with full orchestra. Nicely broken up with handwritten numbered scene headings. Kind cute. But then Kitten (Cillian Murphy) has a last name of Kitten, and this is a tranny-ish, Irish comedy. And there are serious bits, with a touch of the IRA. And Kitten moves to London. An explosion and his creative imagination helps him through it. Dry humour at its best permeates. He's hunting for his mammy. There are some gritty Neil Jordan bits as would be expected. Good soundtrack of the period as well. Well-acted scenes. Good story development. All in all, worth watching.

This is a satisfying documentary about the life of John Psathas, composer and lecturer at the New Zealand School of Music in Wellington. It was filmed in Greece and New Zealand. John outlines his early school days, his introspective teenage years, discovery of music and current family life. He describes the hardship for his family coming to NZ from Greece. Geoffrey Cawthorn writes, direct and produces the aptly-named Sound and Fury: John Psathas. I found myself hooked into John's story as he opened up and revealed his past and current family life. We also hear from his father and mother, with scenes both in NZ and in Greece. At one point, reflecting on his life so far, John says that he wouldn't have done as much intellectually if he hadn't been brought up in New Zealand. With some excerpts from NZSO concert performances, the documentary satisfies musically as well as the story does emotionally. Recommended.

The movie starts with an attention-grabbing scene of the Irish character Donal (Domhnall Gleeson) finding a place to masturbate with a girlie mag on his father's farm. He stops when he realizes the sheep are watching him. Donal's father sits dead on the stair lift when the farm lad arrives home, but Donal casually takes his time to bring him down by pushing the remote. Looking at a sex site, Donal then phones the attractive Courtenay (Luanne Gordon) to meet for sex, but she asks, and he agrees, to meet first at a café. He asks her to stay for dinner because he is hungry. Then strangely she says she is not used to such things as Donal interpreting the web profile saying she enjoys "going out to dinner" when her clients don't have to. The next scenes show that Donal wants to woo her like a girlfriend but unusually she seems slow to catch on to this. They connect at last and decide to go into the prostitution business together using the farm sale money. There is an argument in the 4WD between the two main characters which seemed like the most real scene in the movie to me, and made me keep watching. The boy-meets-girl movie then turns into a different movie – a pimp grows out of needing the girl movie. This is where the script needs work. Oops too late. The pace and scenes speed up so unrealistically when Donal suddenly becomes pimp-wise, so it then lost it for me. As a movie with current Irish feel and with the difference of having a NZ girl love interest, the movie has some intrigue. But as a movie portraying a highly-sexed Irish farm lad supposedly becoming a knowledgeable pimp the movie disintegrates.

So Lou Ford (Casey Affleck) the cop who has a girlfriend, finds a prostitute called Joyce (Jessica Alba). He falls in lust with her. There are a few times of this. Then around 26 minutes in Lou hits the prostitute one night in the face, repeatedly. Her face is bruised and swollen. And while he does this he says I love you. And then Lou hits her 6 times more. And Lou kicks her to see if she's okay. That's when this film really lost it. So gratuitous violence towards women must be okay huh? I would imagine that a man wrote this movie. Well, yeah, two men. After a while, this Ford seems as spineless and one-sided as the character Robert Ford in 'The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford'. Casey Affleck knows when he can play type. Oh wait, let's put in a hard-to-believe back-story. Then there are long spells in this movie without women and with cops chatting – boring. Then around 50 minutes in, another cop suspects that Lou is the killer, despite it being unlikely. Show the back-story again. Then someone else is the suspect. But Ford is still in most scenes. This film is pathetic. Not worth viewing, despite the sex flashbacks to Joyce and even for the few times Kate Hudson appears, and I bet she regrets being in it. Miss this people - big time.

David Lynch meets Quentin Tarantino. Just saw Drive tonight at our local cinema. Big screen is the best place to see this movie. Wide aerial shots of LA interspersed with street scenes, including freeway bridges. LA at night from the air always provides possibilities, but that moment a tad cheapened with the credit insert Nicholas trying-to-save-money? However, the nouveau-to-me director Nicholas Winding Refn shows action with the style of Hitchcock. The story starts with an initial getaway car drive - brief stunt drive - mechanic day job - as Ryan Gosling shows us his daily working life. Ryan strongly plays the lead, reminiscent of Robert Redford's understated strength as Sundance. Actions speak louder than words. It is satisfying to be able to get involved in a movie without having to put up with token dialog. Hossein Amini moves the screenplay forward without unnecessary dialog which is rare these days, and this movie shines a torch into a new future. I hope. Some of the unnecessary swearing could have been lost. But then the undercurrent love story hooks us in with slow motion soundtrack a la David Lynch of Twin Peaks. Things get difficult, and uber Tarantino violent. Very violent (warning). Ryan's few extra stomps in the elevator and no subsequent reaction don't gel. And yes I have some minor niggles with the exec producers having to show those companies that backed the film, such as Dick Smith Electronics, since we saw it was a uniden device that was used to listen to police comms (really?), with a good shot of the Aon-branded LA building, fading on Wells Fargo (oh well okay then), cinematog smooth by Newton Sigel. Not for all the ladies - as strong violence. But for the thinking man – strong, silent type, tentative lady concern, and seeking fairness, it's worth watching as it introduces slow-mo and Ryan-Clint into the genre.

It is an intriguing film, told from a woman's point of view. This film allows the viewer time to think which is a big thing. It allowed me to become involved. It is well directed and has unpretentious camera work. Claire is a sensitive woman trying to escape her present, and her past. The action is paced well and does not push a lot of dialog onto us. Like the main character, Claire, the characters draw their reactions to situations at the same time as we do, giving us time to draw our own conclusions. Vincent D'Onofrio plays Elton, the caring lover, discovering the unusual woman. I thought he played his character with great depth, and I really like finding his old films before TV. The Irish pimp, Cain, played by Colm Mearey played his role straight enough. The film shows the world of high-class prostitution with sex scenes that are never voyeuristic but tasteful, again from Claire's viewpoint. And there are nice locations like Manhattan as well as gritty ones.

Definitely worth watching if you like Joan Rivers. I think that Joan Rivers is a great comedienne for today. Joan has always pushed the envelope throughout her life. Her humor is as risqué as ever today – as you have probably seen on Fashion Police. The thing about Joan is that she has courage. She is at the edge of what is acceptable in the same way as Chris Rock used to push the edge of comedy. But Joan doesn't hold back for anyone. But Joan has a soft side. This movie takes you behind the stage performance to the real Joan. She looks after her staff who are loyal to her. She once said "I just want to be loved". She is astute and acerbic. She has no barriers, especially on herself. She knows that she sends herself up worse than anyone else. And ladies and gentlemen, that is Joan. She is sensitive. She is a lovely person. She works hard. And she will dish is out even worse to herself than she will to anyone else.

From the first scene, this movie showed it had problems. Flicking off a quick adaptation of the 1968 Charles Portis novel, the Coens should have done more re-drafts to translate it into their first actual Western. The protagonist girl, Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld), voice-overs from the start, which acts as a poor substitute for action. Mattie chooses "Rooster" (Jeff Bridges) to help her find the "coward" Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin). Rooster is not really the true grit US Marshall promised, but more like a mumbling annoying caricature. And Mattie isn't a loving daughter seeking revenge, but a rich swot balancing her moral ledger. The Coens used the book's period dialog unchanged, but inconsiderately have the characters speaking that complex dialog very fast for the period. Rooster has a forced-in-his-throat affectation. To make his dialog even more difficult to hear, he constantly leaves a cigarette in his mouth, and gravelly mumbles out of the left-hand side of it. LeBoeuf (Matt Damon) is permitted to affect a non-Texan accent for his Texas Ranger character. Add these affectations to period dialog and we endure unbearably fast speech without the benefit of subtitles. To further add to disbelief, Joel and Ethan Coen throw in a discussion discarded from earlier movies. To quote the 14-year-old, "Malum in se. The distinction is between an act that is wrong in itself, and an act that is wrong only according to our laws and mores." Huh? You get the idea. Sure the cinematography is beautiful, the period dress excellent, but the movie is boring. And if you like gritty emotion, you won't find it in this movie. The storyline has them trek into Indian Nations, implying conflict with Indians, but again, not in this movie. So for those who usually like the grit of Coen movies such as No Country for Old Men, I would suggest waiting for their next one, their next original one.

I liked this film as much as I like housework. Harrison has starred in a disappointment here. Where to start? The soundtrack was too loud and often over actors' dialog. A good soundtrack is one that you aren't really aware of, not one that spoils. Let's let people know that there's a crisis scene coming up - give them dramatic music. Oh, and after the crisis, we need to have imposing music as well. Hey more trumpets, more strings, more drama! And, let's make these scenes more dramatic. Add rain! Oh and if we have to go through some rain to get somewhere, why not find a nice fluffy towel that someone put in the lounge? Technically the film undermines itself in many places. Some scenes don't have a point and waste our time. But let's show green screen, and mention OCR and a few other technical terms that insult our intelligence. Dramatic music! Oh and let's add a scene where someone explains the story so far to someone else! And we all get it! If you haven't seen it, why bother? I'll check any film reviews first from now on Harrison.