All articles by Dan Fainaru – Page 42
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News
Israel's Bonjour wins at Portugal's Festroia
Bonjour M. Shlomi, an Israeli film written anddirected by Shemi Zarkhin, has won the two top prizes - best picture and bestscript - at the International Festroia film festival which wrapped on June 13,at Setubal, Portugal.The coming-of-age story of an adolescent with an uncannygift for cooking who turns out to ...
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Reviews
Five
Dir:Abbas Kiarostami. Fr-Iran, 2003. 74minsHavingtaken his own cinema lessons to heart (see Screen International's reviewof 10 On Ten), Abbas Kiarostamihere reaches the logical conclusion, going for the most esoteric, minimalistcinema imaginable, consisting of just five long static shots taken with adigital camera, no actors, no script, no story and no ...
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Reviews
Cronicas
Dir: Sebastian Cordero. Ecuador-Mex. 2004. 107minsHere comes the next LatinAmerican candidate for Hollywood glory: Ecuador's Sebastian Cordero. His tough,gritty, uncompromising first film, Ratos,Ratones, Rateros (known in English as Rodents)- about punks, thieves and petty criminals living in the streets of Quito - didthe festival rounds several years ago, landed quite ...
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Reviews
10 On Ten
Dir/scr/ed:Abbas Kiarostami. Fr-Iran. 2004. 83mins.Essentiallyan extended lecture on cinema, Abbas Kiarostami's Un Certain Regard entry willbe sure to adorn every self-respecting festival in the world yet, by the sametoken, few commercial exhibitors will ever contemplate selling tickets to apaying audience. Devised as a series of 10 lessons in film-making, the ...
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Reviews
Control (Kontroll)
Dir: Antal Nimrod. Hungary. 2003. 105 mins.Displaying anenergetic drive seldom seen in East European cinema, Antal Nimrod'sdebut feature Control has enjoyed that rare feat of satisfying both thebox office (it was Hungary's biggest draw of 2003) and the critics (it has wona clutch of local awards). Successfully combining the dynamic ...
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News
Low budget comedy is the toast of Istanbul
A tiny coming-of-age comedy,bearing the unlikely title of Boats Out Of Watermelon Rinds, shot on ashoestring budget with a cast of unknowns in a remote corner of Anatolia,turned out to be the real discovery of this year's Istanbul Film Festival.Ahmet Ulucay'sautobiographical first film, shot on digital video, surprisingly stole theshow ...
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Reviews
Turn Left, Turn Right (Xiang Zuo Zou, Ziang You Zou)
Dirs. Johnnie To, Wai Ka-Fai. Hong Kong, 2003. 102mins.Softer compared to some of Johnnie To's recent fare like PTU, the latest offering by the prolific Hong Kong director is firmly planted with one foot in the West and the other in the East. Warner Bros Pictures first Chinese-language film Turn ...
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Reviews
Nightsongs (Die Nacht Singt Ihre Lieder)
Dir. Romuald Karmakar. Germany. 2004. 95mins.Regarded by many as one of the great hopes of German cinema, Romuald Karmakar's award-studded career risks taking a downward turn with Nightsongs, a self-indulgent, repetitive and unimaginative adaptation of a Norwegian stage play that gains nothing from being transferred to film.A static portrait of ...
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Reviews
Triple Agent
Dir: Eric Rohmer. France. 2004. 115mins.Triple Agent is another clever, witty, intelligent morality play by the dean and master of the genre Eric Rohmer, interpreted with his legendary playful earnestness. This is however, by his own admission, the most talkative of his films and as such something of a challenge ...
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Reviews
Head On (Gegen die Wand)
Dir. Fatih Akin. Germany. 2004. 120 mins.Reinforced by this year's Golden Bear award, Fatih Akin's reputation as the foremost exponent of emigrant life in Germany shines through in this tale of a mismatched couple, one a 20-year-old rebellious girl of Turkish origin, the other a self-destructive drunk twice her age ...
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Reviews
Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow (To Livadi Pou Dakrisi)
Dir. Theo Angelopoulos. Greece/France/Italy/Germany, 2004. 178mins.This majestic three hour-long epic, possibly the most abstract in Theo Angelopoulos' career, is unlikely to affect his position either in the eyes of ardent admirers, who consider him one of the last modernists in cinema, nor in the opinion of his detractors, who have ...
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Reviews
Les Choristes
Dir: Christophe Barratier. France. 2003. 95 mins.The hottest ticket at the European Film Market in Berlin this year, Les Choristes is the kind of heart-warming, sentimental yarn that some critics might look down on but which crowds are bound to queue around the block for. Fictionally covering the same territory ...
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Reviews
Daybreak (Om Jag Vander Mig Om)
Dir. Bjorn Runge. Sweden, 2004. 108 mins.Already the recipient of four Swedish Oscars and a hit in its home territory, Bjoern Runge's fourth feature turns out to be yet another one of the recently fashionable multi-episode panoramic spreads that portray contemporary family life in various states of distress. Three separate, ...
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Reviews
Country Of My Skull
Dir. John Boorman. UK-Ireland-South Africa. 2003While there is no reason to doubt the profound sincerity and laudable intentions behind this adaptation of Antjie Krog's book, John Boorman's portrait of South Africa grappling with its own terrible past during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) - whose purpose was to clear ...
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Reviews
Intimate Strangers (Confidences Trop Intimes)
Dir. Patrice Leconte. France, 2003. 104 mins.This brilliantly written, superbly acted, witty two-hander, directed with clockwork precision, finds director Patrice Leconte in top form, doing what he does best - engineering encounters between two opposite characters and watching them squirm. A sentimental thriller, to use his own definition, providing a ...
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Reviews
Walk On Water
Dir. Eytan Fox. Israel 2004. 93 mins.Back in the opening slot of the Berlin Panorama for a repeat performance after last year's Yossi And Jagger, Israeli director Eytan Fox is no longer content with modest, intimate challenges. His new effort is part spy thriller, part psychological drama, and covers much ...
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Reviews
Easy
Dir. Jane Weinstock. US. 2003. 95mins.Despite a premiere at Toronto last autumn, followed by a competition slot at Sundance this month, Easy would do best to stay aware from the glare of film festivals. Given the right treatment, this romantic romp might land some deals, especially in secondary markets. But ...
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Reviews
The First Letter (Abjad)
Dir. Abolfazl Jalili. Iran-France-Italy, 2003. 110mins.Far too long, excessively self-indulgent and often repetitive, this autobiographical reconstruction of director Jalili's own adolescence in pre-revolutionary Iran should be a surefire hit on the festival circuit and in specialised arthouses, for its blunt, in-your-face indictment of Islamic fundamentalism, which ruled over his young ...
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Reviews
Ramblers
Dir. Nobuhiro Yamashita. Japan 2003. 83mins.Looking like a manga version of Waiting For Godot, this deadpan adaptation of a Yoshiharu Tsuge comic strip about two forlorn characters stranded in the frozen Japanese countryside offers the kind of minimalist, understated satire normally expected from Jim Jarmusch. A series of successive ...
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Reviews
Summer In The Golden Valley
Dir. Srdjan Vuletic. Bosnia and Herzegovina-France-UK, 2003. 104 mins.This is another case of the message coming across much clearer than the ramshackle vehicle put together to carry it through. A inexpert crime comedy caper about an adolescent who has to produce 50,000 marks to clear up the memory of his ...