All articles by Dan Fainaru – Page 34
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Reviews
Mon Colonel
Dir: Laurent Herbiet. Fr-Belg-Alg. 2006. 110mins.With a pedigree that includes Costa Gavras as a script writer and Michele Ray Gavras and the Dardenne brothersin the production team, Laurent Herbiet's featuredebut is bound to draw international attention, notwithstanding his ownanonymity. Mon Colonel reads verymuch like a Costa Gavras project, a political ...
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Reviews
The Road To San Diego (El Camino De San Diego)
Dir: Carlos Sorin. Arg. 2006. 98mins.A natural crowdpleaserwhich could easily follow on the tracks of his previous film, Bombon: El Perro,Carlos Sorin's TheRoad To San Diego shows him to be that rare film-maker:one who still has some faith in human nature.Anyone who went for hisshaggy dog tale last time round ...
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Reviews
Ghosts
Dir: Nick Broomfield. UK.2006. 96mins.Labelled as fiction but closer in spirit to thedocumentaries he is best known for, Nick Broomfield's Ghosts initially looks like a milder version of Michael Winterbottom's Berlin winner In This World. But then this San Sebastian opener seems to segueinto Richard Linklater's Fast Food Nation, with ...
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Reviews
Born And Bred (Nacido Y Criado)
Dir: Pablo Trapero. Arg-It-UK.2006. 100mins.The first 10 minutes of Born And Bred seem indicate that Pablo Trapero'snew film will contain the some of the same gentle touches prevalent in hisprevious feature Rolling Family. Butthen the picture's true theme kicks in and any expectations that we are aboutto watch a story ...
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Reviews
Prague (Prag)
Dir: Ole Christian Madsen. Den.2006. 92mins.Danish film-maker Ole Christian Madsen plunges onceagain into the darker recesses of marital life for Prague, a powerful drama in which his strong direction and the overwhelmingperformances that he draws smooth over some of the script's inconsistencies.Madsen, whose earlier drama Kira's Reason (2001) dealt with ...
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Reviews
The Optimists (Optimisti)
Dir: Goran Paskaljevic. Serb-Monaco. 2006.94mins.Eight years after his feature The Powder Keg portrayed Milosevic's Serbia self-destructing with avengeance, Goran Paskaljevicreturns for another look at his homeland with The Optimists. But although the former Serbian leader is now gone,and democracy of sorts has replaced him, Pasklajevicis not really enchanted by what ...
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Reviews
Hana
Dir: Hirokazu Kore-Eda. Jap. 2006. 127mins.Rambling, overlong and at times even messy, Hana isnevertheless a delightful surprise from well known Japanese director Hirokazu Kor-Eda. Alwaysidentified in the past with slow, reflective, sad pieces such as Maborosi and philosophicalreflections on human existence like Afterlife- not to mention the heartbreaking NobodyKnows, one ...
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Reviews
Euphoria (Ejforija)
Dir: Ivan Vyrypaev. Russia.2006. 73mins.A brief, spare but intense love story, Euphoria is a ferocious and downbeatwork from debut Russian film-maker Ivan Vyrypaev, whomay have over-reached himself with its poetical effusions, but who displaysenough promise to watch for the future.Gloriously shot, withjudicious and often surprisingly effective choice of camera angles, ...
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Reviews
Still Life (Sanxia Haoren)
Dir: Jia Zhankg-Ke. Chi. 2006. 107mins.The decision of the Mostradel Cinema to screen Jia Zhankg-Ke'sStill Life in the prestigioussurprise competition film slot at Venice - and then slap its two press andindustry screenings on at 11pm and midnight respectively - is not going to dothe director nor his film many ...
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Reviews
Exiled (Fangzhu)
Dir: Johnnie To. HK. 2006.100mins.Less concerned than ever to tell an actual story, and more interested in exploring the possibilities ofcinematic language, Johnnie To's latest gang war epicis probably his most eccentric foray yet into the genre. Paying tribute toWesterns of every kind, particularly the spaghetti variety, Exiled sees To ...
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Reviews
Still Life (Sanxia Haoren)
Dir: Jia Zhankg-Ke. Chi. 2006. 107mins.The decision of the Mostradel Cinema to screen Jia Zhankg-Ke'sStill Life in the prestigioussurprise competition film slot at Venice - and then slap its two press andindustry screenings on at 11pm and midnight respectively - is not going to dothe director nor his film many ...
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Reviews
The Untouchable (L'Intouchable)
Dir/scr: Benoit Jacquot. Fr. 2006. 82mins.Resembling a vehicle for upcoming young French star Isild Le Besco, The Untouchable, the latest feature fromveteran writer/director Benoit Jacquot, follows anactress who leaves Paris for India to locate her lower caste biological father.A modest production in everyrespect that would have been better suited to ...
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Reviews
Falling
Dir/scr: Barbara Albert.Austria. 2006. 85mins.An ensemble piece exploring the existential crisises of five thirtysomething women,Barbara Albert's Falling plays like acoded conversation between its writer/director and her female cast to which therest of us are not privy. A secretive film-maker who likes her audiences to digaround and supply the details suggested ...
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Reviews
I Don't Want To Sleep Alone (Hei Yanquan)
Dir: Tsai Ming Liang. Tai-Fr-Aust. 2006. 115mins.Tsai Ming Liang is anacquired taste: either you like what he does or you don't and there are no twoways about it. If you do, then you will not be surprised by I Don't Want to Sleep Alone's static shots, absence of anyvisible narrative, ...
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Reviews
Private Fears In Public Places (Coeurs)
Dir: Alain Resnais. Fr-It. 2006. 120mins.Now well into his eighties, Alain Resnaisis firmly established as one of cinema's all-time masters and has no need toprove anything to anyone. It means that with Private Fears In Public Places he can againallow himself the luxury of adapting an Alan Ayckbourncomedy of manners, ...
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Reviews
The Banquet (Yeyan)
Dir: Feng Xiaogang. Chi-HK. 2006. 131mins.Announced as China's opulent version ofShakespeare's Hamlet and originallyexpected to surface at Cannes, Feng Xiaogang's TheBanquet finally emerges three months later as an out of competition screeningat Venice. Though the plot is definitely indebted to the Bard - and to Macbeth as well as Hamlet ...
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Reviews
Syndromes And A Century (Sang Sattawat)
Dir/scr: Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Thai-Fr-Aust. 2006. 105mins.Unconventional enough toplease fervent admirers of his previous work like Blissfully Yours and TropicalMalady, Apichatpong Weerasethakul'sSyndromes And ACentury is, even more than its precedents, a visual notebook that resistsall temptation to opt for a narrative, instead staying faithful to itsenigmatic title.Divided into almost equalhalves and ...
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Reviews
A Few Days In September (Quelques Jours En Septembre)
Dir/scr: Santiago Amigorena. Fr-It. 2006. 110mins.After some 30 odd scripts for French cinema and fournovels of his own, Argentinian writer Santiago Amigorena has finally movedbehind the camera and treated himself to a peach of a screenplay. A smartly writtenspy yarn built around 9/11, A Few Days InSeptember has the look ...
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Reviews
Sweet Mud (Adama Meshuga'at)
Dir/scr: Dror Shaul. Is-Ger-Fr-Jap.2006. 100minsDror Shaul's Sweet Mud features the obligatorydisclaimer at the end of the credits about how none of the characters nor events are based on real-life. But it does not take agenius to figure out that it is an intensely personal settling of accounts, anangry and bitter ...
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Reviews
Hounded (Verfolgt)
Dir: Angelina Maccarone.Ger. 2006. 83mins.The fascination of German cinema with encountersbetween middle-aged adults and teens, aired twice this year at Cannes (see Summer Of 04 and pingpong) takes a new and unexpectedturn in Angelina Maccarone's new feature Hounded.Here the focus is not on innocentgames of sex initiation but the sado-masochisticaffair ...