All articles by Dan Fainaru – Page 41

  • Reviews

    5 x 2 review

    2004-09-02T00:00:00Z

    Dir. Francois Ozon.France 2004. 90mins.A kind of Scenes FromA Marriage told in reverse, Francois Ozon's latest feature is a pleasant,watchable but rather unexceptional melodrama that catches wedlock gone stale atfive emblematic moments, starting with the divorce and ending with the firstencounter.Given Ozon's smoothprofessional touch and a presentable performance from lead ...

  • News

    New Romanian film festival seeks direction

    2004-08-25T04:00:00Z

    The new Romanian Film Festival, Anonimul (the Anonymous) iscurious in more than name. A great potential, looking for great content, theevent is located in a brand new village built specifically for art events ofthis kind, in the heart of the Danube Delta wildlife sanctuary.To get there, you fly to Bucharest, ...

  • Reviews

    Private

    2004-08-25T00:00:00Z

    Dir. Saverio Costanzo.Italy. 2004. 92mins.Raw, gritty and uncompromising, Saverio Costanzo'saward-winning Locarno debut is a thought provoking and painfully realisticimage of living under occupation. As such, it is likely to become a favouriteon the festival circuit (it already has a berth in Toronto's Discovery sectionnext month) and a leading exponent of ...

  • Reviews

    Napola

    2004-08-18T00:00:00Z

    Dir. Dennis Gansel.Germany, 2004. 110mins.Earnest, sincere and vociferously outspoken, DennisGansel's portrait of a 1942 Nazi boarding school breeding the future leaders ofthe Thousand Year Reich must be one of the more diligently produced andenergetically directed films to come out of Germany in recent years.At the same time it is alsoone ...

  • News

    Locarno wrestles with growing pains

    2004-08-17T04:00:00Z

    The pains ofgrowing up were in abundant evidence this year in Locarno. And if this was notan intentional theme, it reflects the type of film the festival made itsselection from, according to at least two members of the selection committee.A boy is abandonedby his father in Catarina Ruivo's Portuguese Andre ...

  • Reviews

    Forgiveness

    2004-08-17T00:00:00Z

    Dir. Ian Gabriel. SouthAfrica, 2004. 112mins.There are two thingsgoing for Ian Gabriel's feature film debut Forgiveness. The first isthat it comes from South Africa, which promises to be the film festival flavourof the year (after a competition premiere at Locarno it plays in Toronto's South Africa: Ten YearsLater sidebar next ...

  • News

    Middle Eastern themes dominate Locarno awards

    2004-08-16T04:00:00Z

    Private, the raw, gritty and uncompromising debut of Italian director Saverio Costanzo, triumphed at the 57th Locarno Film Festival, which wrapped on Saturday night.The tense, intimate drama, confronting an Israeli patrol with a Palestinian family in whose home they have taken cover, may well be too controversial for some, but ...

  • Reviews

    My Stepbrother Frankenstein

    2004-08-13T00:00:00Z

    Dir. ValeryTodorovsky. Russia. 2004. 120mins.Mary Shelley'sgothic tale is back, this time comfortably adjusted to fit into modern life inMoscow. But no scientific mumbo-jumbo, expressionistic lighting nor extensivemake-up were needed to create this man-made monster; instead he comes not froma lab but from a dark past. If he has been created ...

  • Reviews

    Niceland

    2004-08-11T00:00:00Z

    Dir. Fridrik ThorFridriksson. Ice-Ger-Den-UK. 2004. 87mins.A modern fairytale for disenchanted adults, thelatest Fridrik Thor Fridriksson opus looks pretty and cute but lacks the edgeand authenticity that distinguish most of his previous contributions.Wrapped up inToyland colours for the first half, their tonality soiled later when the storyshifts to a junkyard, Fridriksson's ...

  • Reviews

    Wall (Mur)

    2004-08-11T00:00:00Z

    Dir/scr: SimoneBitton. France. 2004. 99minsA poetic reflectionof the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Simone Bitton's documentary focuses itsattention on the massive wall put up by the Sharon government to separate theJewish community from the Arab and, arguably, defuse the terrorist threat.Born a Jew into the Arabian culture ofMorocco but brought up in Israel, ...

  • Reviews

    The Ninth Day (Der Neunte Tag)

    2004-08-06T00:00:00Z

    Dir. VolkerSchloendorff. Ger-Lux. 2004. 97mins.Despiteinitial appearances and a long prologue set inside Dachau concentration camp,Volker Schloendorff's The Ninth Day is no Holocaust film, but a neartheological dissertation on Catholicism and how it held up under the Nazi rule.The victims thistime are not Jews but the Catholic priests sent to concentration ...

  • News

    Thirst, Or share top Jerusalem prize

    2004-07-18T00:00:00Z

    Cannes Critics' Week winners Thirst (Atash) by Tawfik Abou Wael and Keren Yedaya's Or both shared the top prize for bestIsraeli film at the 21st Jerusalem Film Festival.The awards for best actor and actress went to twowell-established veterans, each of them starring in two films screening atJerusalem. Ronit Alkabetz played ...

  • Reviews

    Leon And Olvido

    2004-07-13T00:00:00Z

    Dir. Xavier Bermudez.Spain. 2004. 112mins.A coming-of-age picture with a difference, Leon And Olvido, XavierBermudez's tale of an adolescent afflicted with Down's syndrome and hisinfatuation with his older sister walks a narrow path between bad taste andhigh melodrama. Thankfully it manages, almost until the end, to avoid slippinginto shoddy predictability and ...

  • Reviews

    Moolaade

    2004-07-07T00:00:00Z

    Dir:Ousmane Sembene. Senegal-Fr. 2004. 123minsBest intentions donot always make best films, and though there is no doubt about the relevance ofan issue as painful as female genital mutilation in Africa, Ousmane Sembene'streatment looks too much like an over-extended politically-correct tract thatwill not go far beyond the strict confines of ethnographic ...

  • Reviews

    Thirst

    2004-07-05T00:00:00Z

    Dir. Tawfik Abu Wael.Israel-Palestine. 110mins.A typical choice for Critics' Week at Cannes this year,Tawfik Abu Wael's first film is slow, elaborate and spare and, while itfunctions perfectly as a metaphor, will have trouble keeping its audience alertonce its symbols have been adequately deciphered.A brave debut for the28-year-old director, an Arab-Israeli ...

  • Reviews

    Sword In The Moon

    2004-06-30T00:00:00Z

    Dir. Kim Eui-Suk. Korea.2003. 100mins.Dark, bloody and brutal, Kim Eui-Suk's martial artsextravaganza, released in Korea last July to lukewarm response, played in UnCertain Regard at Cannes in the hope of catching second wind with a differenttype of audience. But its grim, humourless disposition is unlikely to gain itmany new friends.The ...

  • Reviews

    Earth And Ashes

    2004-06-24T00:00:00Z

    Dir. Atiq Rahimi.France/Afghanistan, 2004. 105mins.Any future attempt tocompile a visual history of the destructive folly which took hold of the humanrace at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st,will surely allocate a place of honour to this emblematic debut by Paris-basedAfghan film maker Atiq Rahimi.Going ...

  • Reviews

    Dealer

    2004-06-22T00:00:00Z

    Dir/scr.Benedek Flieghauf. Hungary. 2004. 160mins.Dark, brooding and slow, Benedek Flieghauf's second film,recently awarded the Best Director prize in Mar del Plata, is God's gift tofestivals, a feast for film buffs and art houses and a test of endurance formisguided audiences seeking pure entertainment. Thoseaccustomed to Hollywood and others' over-stylised view ...

  • Reviews

    Or

    2004-06-21T00:00:00Z

    Dir:Keren Yedaya. Israel-Fr. 2004. 100mins.This intimate, visually stylised but rather loose firstfictional film by Keren Yedaya paints a raw, grim and uncompromising portraitof the relationship between an adolescent girl and her prostitute mother, andthe daughter's effort to get her parent once and for all off the streets.Yedaya,a socially-conscious activist who ...

  • News

    Kusturica's Miracle to open Jerusalem Film Festival

    2004-06-16T04:00:00Z

    Emir Kusturica's LifeIs A Miracle has been selected for the opening night of this year'sJerusalem Film Festival.The screening will take place on July8, at the open airSultan Pool theatre located in the valley separating the new city from the oldone.Kusturica himself has been announced for the Thursday nightevent, in for ...