All articles by Dan Fainaru – Page 39
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Reviews
The President's Last Bang (Geuddae Geu Saramdeul)
Dir. ImSangsoo. S Kor. 2005. 102mins.The mostambitious feature yet from director Im Sangsoo (A Good Lawyer's Wife),his fictionalised telling of the assassination of South Korean President ParkChung-hee was released only after the late statesman's daughter had documentaryfootage removed on the grounds that the film was not accurate.But then ThePresident's Last ...
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Reviews
La Petite Jerusalem
Dir/scr: Karin Albou. Fr.2005. 96mins.Karin Albou's LaPetite Jerusalem purports to deal with the femininity of its two youngParisian sister protagonists, Laura (Valette) and Mathilde (Zylberstein), eachattempting to make peace between her respective beliefs and desires.But in truth this debutfeature amounts to little more than another impossible romance where true loveis ...
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News
Epides steps down from Thessaloniki festival
The turmoil surrounding theThessaloniki Film Festival is far from over. After terminating the contract ofveteran chief Michel Demopoulos and of president Theo Angelopoulos, thefestival is now facing the departure of yet another key programming figure, DimitriEipides - who heads the festival's New Horizons section.Epides said yesterday that hehas decided to ...
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News
Mr. Lazarescu triumphs at inaugural Hungarian fest
The First Alba Regia International Film Festival (ARIFF),claiming to be the first competitive event of its kind in Hungary, wrapped overthe weekend in the city of Szekesfehervar, an hour's ride away from Budapest.The Best Film award went to The Death of Mr. Lazarescu by Cristi Puiu, still fresh from its ...
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News
Death triumphs at Transylvania festival
Cristi Puiu's The Death of Mr Lazarescu won most of the prizes at Romania's leadingfilm event, the Transylvania International Film Festival (TIFF), held in Cluj(May 27-June 5).Last month, the Romanian director's film won the bestfilm prize in Cannes' Un Certain Regard section.The Death of Mr Lazarescu portrays the journey of ...
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Reviews
Free Zone
Dir. Amos Gitai.Fr-Is-Jor-Bel. 2005. 94mins.Even his detractors would have to agree that Free Zone,the Cannes competition entry from Amos Gitai, is his most satisfactory picturesince Kippur. The first Israel-Jordan co-production on record, his roadmovie, which features three women each representing a facet of the Middle Eastconflict, is less ideologically insistent ...
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Reviews
Shanghai Dreams
Dir. Wang Xiaoshuai,China, 2005. 120mins.Once a rebel now workingin the mainstream, Wang Xiaoshuai draws on his own reminiscences as anadolescent for Cannes competition entry Shanghai Dreams.Wang's family was relocatedfrom Shanghai to the poor, mountainous province of Guiyang, all part of theChinese authorities' decision to install fortified industrial cities near theborder ...
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Reviews
Le Temps Qui Reste
Dir. Francois Ozon. Fr.2005. 79mins.Faithful to his reputation of changing genres with everynew film, Francois Ozon reveals yet another facet of his talents with LeTemps Qui Reste, treading on a familiar path which he tries to decorate inhis own personal style.The concept - a personfacing imminent death and having to ...
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Reviews
Bashing
Dir/scr: MasahiroKobayashi. Jap. 2005. 82mins.A mystifying experience for any but a Japanese audience, Bashing,Masahiro Kobayashi's fictional rendering of a real-life event, would haveplayed more comfortably on less demanding grounds than its Cannes competitionberth.The story of a Japanesehumanitarian worker kidnapped in Iraq who then returned home to widespreadspite, Bashing is expressed ...
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News
Taiwanese, Belgian films share top Istanbul prize
Istanbul International Film Festival closed on Saturday(April 16), splitting its main prize, the Golden Tulip award, between Gilles'Wife by Belgium's Frederic Fonteyne and CafeLumiere by Taiwan's Hou Hsiao-hsien. The jury, which was headed by director Jane Campion,considered 13 films in competition.Gilles' Wife portraysa love triangle in France in the 1930s. ...
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Reviews
Words In Blue
Dir. Alain Corneau. Fr.2004. 114mins.Alain Corneau's WordsIn Blue, the veteran film-maker's first romance, promises much in its firsthalf, overcoming the initial obstacles of weak motivation to develop anintimate, sensitive relationship drama between a young girl who refuses tospeak and her single, emotionally stunted mum.But then the theme switchesfrom lack of ...
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Reviews
Silentium
Dir.Wolfgang Mumberger. Austria. 2004. 117mins.Unsubtle,blunt and brutal, Wolfgang Murberger's comedy thriller assaults Austria'sfavorite sacred cows one after the other with a relish whose rough charms willbe difficult to appreciate beyond German-language territories.Basedon the novel by Wolfgang Haas, Silentium is not so much a sequel as arepeat performance by one of ...
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Reviews
Live And Become (Va, Vis Et Deviens)
Dir.Radu Mihaileanu. Fr-Is-It-Bel. 2005. 153mins.Highlyemotional but massively overlong, director Radu Mihaileanu's Live And Becometackles a burning issue of our time, the search for identity. Here he follows ablack Ethiopian Christian over the course of 20 years, from when, aged nine, heescapes amid a convoy of Falasha Jews being flown to ...
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Reviews
Accused (Anklaget)
Dir. Jacob Theusen. Den.2005. 105mins.Jacob Theusen's debutfeature Accused, which competed in Berlin, initially looks like awell-intentioned TV drama on the topical subject of child molestation. Butwhile in its early stages it tries to depart from the genre's usual formula,this event-driven drama ultimately deviates from its course after the first andsecond ...
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Reviews
U-Carmen eKhayelitsha
Dir. Mark Domford-May. SAfr. 2004. 120mins.Bizet's Carmen,arguably the most popular grand opera written and certainly the one mostfrequently adapted to the big screen, enjoys another outing, this time to SouthAfrica, for U-Carmen eKhayelitshaMark Domford-May's updatedversion is set in the present day, performed by local talents, sung in Xhosaand shot in ...
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Reviews
The Sun (Solntse)
Dir. Alexander Sokurov.Russ-It-Fr-UK. 110mins.After Hitler and Lenin,it is now the turn of Japan's Emperor Hirohito to be the centrepiece ofAlexander Sokurov's third chapter in his projected tetralogy on politicalleaders of the 20th century.Far more relaxed, positiveand even cheerful - if such a term can be applied to a Sokurov work ...
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Reviews
Sophie Scholl ' The Final Days
Dir. Marc Rothemund. Ger.2005. 120mins.Previously the basis for two previous German features, thestory of wartime freedom fighter Sophie Scholl again reaches the screen - thistime in competition at Berlin - with the added draw of new and as yet unpublishedevidence which purports to throw additional light on her case.Scholl, played ...
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Reviews
Paradise Now
Dir. HanyAbu-Assad. Pal-Neth-Ger-Fr. 2005. 90mins.Putting a humanface on suicide bombers without lionising them is a tough assignment, and HanyAbu-Assad almost pulls it off with his feature Paradise Now, despite theminefield of unresolved issues he has to negotiate.His story about twoPalestinian childhood friends who pledge their lives to the cause, and ...
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Reviews
The Last Mitterand (Le Promeneur Du Champ De Mars)
Dir. RobertGuediguian. Fr. 2005. 116mins.A finely etched portrait of Francois Mitterand,one of Europe's last political giants, Robert Guediguian's new film finds theProvencal director in top form, dealing with the kind of material he favours:politics and its application in individual terms.Proceeding at aleisurely pace and advancing with great care, The Last ...
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Reviews
Fateless (Sorstalansag)
Dir. Lajos Koltai.Hung-Ger-UK. 2005. 136mins.Initially offered a lessprestigious slot at Berlin, the producers of Fateless have been provedjustified in holding out for the competition slot which it was awarded hoursbefore the festival began.Oscar-nominatedcinematographer Lajos Koltai's (Malena, Being Julia) grim andsober debut initially seems like any other neatly calibrated, if hardlyexceptional ...