All articles by Dan Fainaru – Page 27
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ReviewsTokyo Sonata
Dir: Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Japan/Netherlands-Hong Kong. 119min..Taking a break from his regular diet of fantasy and horror, Japan’s Kiyoshi Kurosawa delivers here a fierce indictment of modern-day Japan. Kurosawa has often hinted, in earlier pictures, that he smells something rotten in his homeland, and this time he ...
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ReviewsBoogie
Dir: Radu Muntean.Romania. 2008. 103mins.InRomania, Radu Muntean’s third feature film will ultimately be seen as a carefully-studied, remarkably accurate image of the country’s thirtysomething generation right now. Elsewhere, however, Boogie looks like an old-fashioned throwback to those endless talky New Wave films. A far cry from ...
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ReviewsThe Chaser (Chugyeogja)
Dir: Na Hong-Jin.South Korea. 2008. 123mins.Already a major hit inKoreaand set for a remake with Warner Bros, this bloody, frenetic serial killer thriller should keep themidnightscreening crowd happy, especially inAsia. Na Hong-jin’s promising but over-long debut is reminiscent of Bong Joon-ho’s highly-regarded Memories Of Murder and ...
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Reviews
Summer Book (Tatil Kitabi)
Dir:Seyfi Teoman. Turkey , 2008. 92 mins.Winner of Best Film in the national section at Istanbul, Seyfi Teoman's small-scale but poetic evocation of summer in a small provincial Turkish town will elicit a warm response both from festival programmers and Turkish communities abroad. The quiet, peaceful beauty of its landscape ...
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News
Egg wins international competition at Istanbul festival
The top honors in the international competition of this year's Istanbul Film Festival have gone to Egg (Yumurta) by local film-maker Semih Kaplanoglu, the story of a poet returning to his mother's home in the country after her death.Kaplanoglu's picture, which opened last year in Cannes' DirectorsFortnight, is the third ...
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Reviews
Correction (Diorthosi)
Dir/prod:Thanos Anastopoulos. Greece , 2007. 83 mins.Hailed as the best Greek film of last year, Thanos Anastopoulos' second feature is a purposely-mystifying affair which leads its audience in a hide 'n seek game from the beginning and refuses to reveal itself until the final frame (a gambit which also makes ...
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Reviews
14 Kilometres (14 Kilometros)
Dir: Gerardo Olivares. Spain , Bolivia , 2007. 93 mins.14 Kilometres, which documents the woeful journey of three immigrants from Sub-Saharan Africa who leave home in search of an imaginary Europe 'where no one dies of hunger', is a well-intentioned effort but seems far more comfortable dealing with the spectacular ...
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Reviews
Os Desafinados (Slightly Out Of Tune)
Dir: Walter Lima Jr. Brazil, 2008. 138 mins.A tribute to the golden age of bossa nova, Os Desafinados tells the story of four young musicians from Rio trying to make it big in New York in the sixties, just as Joao Gilberto and Tom Jobim were influencing popular music there ...
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Reviews
Don't Look Down (No Mires Para Abajo)
Dir: Eliseo Subiela. Argentina, 2008. 85 mins.Once the darling of art cinema circles and festival programmers, veteran Argentine filmmaker Eliseo Subiela (Last Images Of The Shipwreck, The Dark Side of the Heart) could be looking at a comeback with this erotic romp, which doesn't take itself as seriously as some ...
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Reviews
The Investigator (A Nyomozo)
Dir: Attila Gigor. Hungary / Sweden/Ireland 2007. 110 mins.This quirky little thriller brings to mind Patricia Highsmith's Ripley series, where the perverted morality of the ending requires the reader to take sides with the villain. Here, a gruff pathologist (Anger) takes on the role of a contract killer only to ...
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Reviews
Drifting Flowers (Piao Lang Qing Chun)
Dir: Zero Chou. Taiwan, 2007. 97 mins.Following on from last year's Spider Lilies and seemingly catering for the same market - gay festivals and specialised distribution - Zero Chou's episodic drama about unrequited love through childhood, adolescence and old age is another step in her 'Rainbow Colours' project about finding ...
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Reviews
Restless
Dir: Amos Kollek. Israel/ Canada/ Germany/ France/ Belgium, 2007. 100 mins.Back home in Israel after many years of self-imposed exile in Manhattan, Amos Kollek presents Restless as his most personal film to date. With a reputation as an American independent specializing in portraits of anti-social dropouts, he has apparently decided ...
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Reviews
Our Mother (Kabei)
Dir: Yoji Yamada. Japan 2007. 132 minsIn Kabei - Our Mother, Yamada's 80th film to date, the veteran Japanese director offers a sweet, gentle, weepy recollection of Japan on the eve of the Second World War (1940-41), based on the autobiographical story by Teruyo Nogami.An out-and-out melodrama, the picture tells ...
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Reviews
Night and Day (Bam gua Nat)
Dir: Hong Sangsoo, S. Korea, 2008. 147mins.Light, charming but not terribly engaging, and as French as any Korean film is ever going to get, Hong Sangsoo's full-on tribute to the New Wave follows Korean expatriates around the City Of Lights. While brevity has never been one of Hong's particular talents, ...
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ReviewsLater (Plus Tard Tu Comprenderas)
Dir: Amos Gitai. France / Germany, 2008. 89mins.The first Gitai film in a long time not to deal with Israeli politics, Later (Plus Tard Tu Comprenderas) is also one of his most emotional outings to date. This Franco-German co-production based on Jerome Clement’s autobiographical book (Clement ...