All articles by Dan Fainaru – Page 38
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Reviews
The World's Fastest Indian
Dir/scr: Roger Donaldson.NZ. 2005. 127mins.The latest RogerDonaldson is a natural born winner through and through. An inspiring real lifestory of a man who dared in his late sixties not only to dream but to go on andaccomplish his dreams against all odds, The World's Fastest Indian hasall the hallmarks of ...
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Reviews
L'Enfer
Dir: DanisTanovic. Fr-It-Bel-Jap. 2005. 98mins.Forget everythingyou thought you knew about Danis Tanovic, whose debut feature No Man's Land(2001) won the best foreign language Oscar. L'Enfer, his sophomoreeffort, leaves behind his native Balkan territory and its stalemate politics totackle a far more subtle, complex and less evident theme.The script he useswas ...
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Reviews
Everlasting Regret (Changhen ge)
Dir: Stanley Kwan.Chi-HK. 2005. 115mins.With EverlastingRegret, Stanley Kwan delivers a women's film par excellence; the kind thatfilm-makers such as Douglas Sirk loved to spin out and that Kwan himself hassuccessfully proved adept at in the past.A sprawling, melancholystory about unrequited love adapted from one of modern China's most successfulnovels, it ...
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Reviews
Persona Non Grata
Dir/scr:Krzysztof Zanussi. Pol-Russ-It. 2005. 117mins.Krzysztof Zanussimakes films for mature specialised audiences, interested in human nature andethical standards rather than in plots, heroes and villains. If this dooms himto a small, appreciative cinema-going crowd and to selective festivals (likehis competition slot in Venice), then so be it. He has never appeared ...
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Reviews
Gabrielle
Dir: PatriceChereau. Fr-It. 2005.90mins.An analytical butstrangely alienated portrait of a 10 year-old marriage gone sour, PatriceChereau's latest feature is impressive on many counts but falls short ofdelivering the emotional wallop it seems to hanker for.Expanding on JosephConrad's novella The Return to show both viewpoints in a marital crisis,Chereau delivers an ...
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Reviews
Gabrielle
Dir: PatriceChereau. Fr-It. 2005.90mins.An analytical butstrangely alienated portrait of a 10 year-old marriage gone sour, PatriceChereau's latest feature is impressive on many counts but falls short ofdelivering the emotional wallop it seems to hanker for.Expanding on JosephConrad's novella The Return to show both viewpoints in a marital crisis,Chereau delivers an ...
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Reviews
The Secret Life Of Words (La Vida Secreta De Las Palabras)
Dir/scr: IsabelCoixet. 2005. Sp-UK. 112mins.Produced once more by Pedro Almodovar's El Deseooutfit, Isabel Coixet's second English-language feature proves itself to be adeeply felt work that is much stronger on emotions than it is on form.Initially affecting,her story of a recluse tending a temporarily blinded man eventually becomesrepetitive before stating its ...
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Reviews
A Perfect Day
Dir/scr: JoanaHadjithomas, Khalil Joreige. Fr-Leb-Ger. 2005. 88mins.The perfect metaphor in search of a plot, thesecond feature from Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige assembles thenecessary ingredients to paint a portrait of life in Beirut but lacks thedramatic momentum to pull them all together and spark some life.Set in the Lebanesecapital, A ...
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Reviews
Antarmahal: Views From The Inner Chamber (Antarmahal)
Dir: RituparnoGhosh. India. 2005. 118mins.Returning to thelate 19th century, Rituparno Ghosh spins another sumptuous, yet intimate familystory with Antarmahal: Views From The Inner Chamber, playing once morein the same register he successfully used two years ago for fellow Locarnocompetitor Chokher Bali.Less enticing andnot as rich as his previous effort - ...
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Reviews
Rag Tale
Dir. Mary McGuckian.UK-Lux. 2005. 123mins.Bashing newspapers hasalways been popular sport for film-makers. But Mary McGuckian's Rag Taleadds nothing to the genre, despite its radically different technical approach,and ultimately only results in a muddle.Shot mostly in hugeclose-ups by three madly swinging HD cameras and using every type of distortinglens to twist ...
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Reviews
Familia
Dir. LouiseArchambault. Can. 2005. 102mins.Louise Archambault's cheerful debut may bebookended by some ambitious statements about the inevitability of geneticinheritance, but by the end has proved to be a light romp that is more than happyto settle for crowd-pleasing solutions.If audience responseat Locarno, where Familia played last week, is any indication, ...
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Reviews
A Perfect Couple (Un Couple Parfait)
Dir/scr. SobuhiroSuwa. Fr-Jap. 2005. 104mins.Tailor-made for film festivals and those with apenchant for obscure material, Sobuhiro Suwa's A Perfect Couple is the sort offeature that will deter audiences whose patience is tried by films that delaydelivering their message.Shot in Paris with aFrench cast, this chiaroscuro (more scuro than chiaro) portrait ...
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Reviews
What A Wonderful Place (Eize Makom Nifla)
Dir/scr: EyalHalfon. Is-Ger. 2005. 104mins.Eyal Halfon's WhatA Wonderful Place, about the plight of foreign workers in Israel is a grim,angry and uncompromising drama. Three inter-related plots leading to violentfinal clash offer the bitterly ironic conclusion that Israel - or any othersupposedly liberal western country that treats its economic migrants in ...
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News
NHK invests in first ever Israeli film Sweet Mud
Japanese broadcaster NHK hasinvested in its first ever Israeli film, Sweet Mud directed by DrorShaul.Sweet Mud is set 30 years ago in a kibbutzand tells the story of a 12 year old boy, Dvir, who realizes that his mother,Miri, is mentally ill. In this closed community bound by rigid rules, ...
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Reviews
The City Of The Sun (Slunecni Stat Aneb Hrdinove Delnicke Tridy)
Dir. Martin Sulik. CzRep-Slovak. 2005. 99mins.At the start Martin Sulik's feature about four unemployedCzech men promises some sort of a social comment on the collapse of EastEuropean industry, with its images of violent clashes between management and redundantworkers.But before long The CityOf The Sun settles into the predictable patterns of ...
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News
Wonderful Place takes top Jerusalem prizes
Eyal Halfon's corrosive view of foreign labor in Israel, Whata Wonderful Place, won two of the top Wolgin awards at the 22ndJerusalem Film Festival.What a Wonderful Place won the best film prizeand the best male performance prize for Uri Gavriel. Earlier this month Eyal Halfon's film won a grand jury ...
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Reviews
Unveiled (Fremde Haut)
Dir: AngelinaMaccarone. Ger-Aust. 2005. 97mins.Using the premiseof a woman passing herself off as a man for political purposes, Unveiledmakes for an earnest and well-meaning, if at times rather humourless and lessthan imaginative, feature from film-maker Angelina Maccarone.Closer in spirit toa didactic lecture rather than a dramatic experience, it follows a ...
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Reviews
No Song Of Love
Dir/scr: Lars Kraume.Germany. 2005. 98mins.A hybrid of drama anddocumentary, Lars Kraume's sophomore screen effort deserves full points forbreaking down the barrier between the two genres, even if the story he uses forthis purpose is not always the most original or imaginative one.Kraume uses two brothers asthe basis for No Song ...
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Reviews
Colour Blossoms
Dir/scr:Yonfan. HK-Chi. 2004. 106mins.A glorified soap opera wrapped up in silk, satin anddisrobed models, Yonfan's Color Blossoms will be hailed by his faithfuladmirers as a stylish melodrama about over-ripe divas, fresh ingenues and sexyhulks, whose fleeting basis in reality is a springboard for magnificent flightsof decadent fancy. Just imagine an ...
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Reviews
Avenge But One Of My Eyes (Nekam Achat Mishtey Eynay)
Dir/scr: AviMograbi. Is. 2005. 75mins.Avi Mograbi's well-deserved reputation for systematicallybaiting the official policies of the Israeli government will spread evenfurther with Avenge But One Of My Eyes, his explosively provocativedocumentary essay that played out of competition at Cannes.As usual, itwill be highly appreciated by all those who share Mograbi's radical ...