All articles by Dan Fainaru – Page 47
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Reviews
Vagabond
Dir. Gyorgy Szomjas. Hungary. 2002. 97mins.Exploring the growing worldwide phenomenon of dance houses - places where people can gather and celebrate their traditional music - the latest effort by Hungarian director Gyorgy Szomjas lavishes most of its attention on what would normally be considered background material, using a schematic plot ...
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Reviews
Gololed
Dir. Mikhail Barshinsky. Russia. 2003. 70mins.A former film critic, who also moonlighted as a Siberian train conductor, a Turkish restaurant waiter and a DJ on Bourbon Street New Orleans, Mikhail Barshinsky's directorial debut promises that he intends to be as eccentric in his new career as he has been in ...
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Reviews
Forest (Rengeteg)
Dir. Benedek Flieghauf. Hungary. 2003. 95mins.With a First Film award and the Gene Moskovitz prize at the Hungarian Film Week and a slot in the Berlin Forum, Benedek Flieghauf's debut feature looks set to be a regular on this year's festival circuit. Rough, gritty, quite plotless and using non-professional actors ...
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Reviews
Babij Jar
Dir. Jeff Kanew. Germany-Belarus, 2003. 108mins.Babij Jar is the kind of entry that festivals will find hard to reject, but once accepted, will tear their hair out trying to find a slot for. Devoting a fictional film to one of the most barbarous massacres of WW2 is a praiseworthy initiative ...
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Reviews
Minor Injuries (Petites Coupures)
Dir. Pascal Bonitzer. France/UK. 2002. 95mins.The old cliche of the French intellectual in crisis, talking himself silly as he rambles from one encounter or affair to the next, receives another lease of life in the third directorial effort from Pascal Bonitzer, the first of his films to be accepted in ...
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Reviews
Angst (Der Alte Affe Angst)
Dir. Oskar Roehler. Germany. 2002. 91mins.Too much navel-gazing and too little perspective will make Oskar Roehler's formulaic psycho-drama a hard sell, at home as well as abroad. Unlike his earlier, award-winning Nowhere To Go, which put the tragedy of a disillusioned woman writer in a larger socio-political context, the demise ...
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News
Israeli film industry mourns indie pioneer David Shapira
The Israeli film industry is mourning the sudden death of David Shapira (68), one of the most prominent independent film distributors in the country. A popular figure in the local film business, he founded Shapira Films with his wife Dalia, in 1968. He was a pioneer in arthouse film exhibition, ...
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Reviews
Alexandra's Project
Dir. Rolf de Heer. Australia. 2002. 103mins.Whether the portrait of a husband victimised by his vindictive and possibly disturbed wife, or a fiercely feminist tract on male insensitivity, this new addition to Rolf de Heer's track record of eccentric speculations, is certainly a skilful exercise - if not a ...
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Reviews
Infernal Affairs
Dir. Andrew Lau, Alan Mak. Hong Kong. 2002. 98mins.A smart Hong Kong action thriller, Infernal Affairs stands to prove as much of a hit on the international market as it has done at the box office at home. With both a prequel and sequel already in the works, Warner Bros, ...
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Reviews
Flower Of Evil (La Fleur Du Mal)
Dir. Claude Chabrol. France. 2003. 104mins.Opinion is likely to differ on Flower Of Evil (La Fleur Du Mal), the new opus from Claude Chabrol, one of the soundest names in Gallic cinema. His numerous admirers will once again appreciate this insidious ironic study of the provincial bourgeoisie, while detractors will ...
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News
Nine Israeli titles make it to the Berlinale
An unprecedented seven Israeli feature length titles and two shorts screen in various sections of the Berlinale this year - an impressive feat considering the present dire conditions of film making in Israel.The tally suggests that there must be something right about the much maligned Israeli Cinema Law, a ...
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News
Koltai sets start date for Fateless adaptation
Hungarian cinematographer Lajos Koltai is aiming for a Sept 30 start date for his directorial debut, an adaptation of Fateless - the Holocaust-themed novel by Nobel prize winner Imre Kertesz.Koltai has been trying for some years to find the necessary funds for the Euros 8m film.. Now the Hungarian government ...
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News
The War Is Over triumphs at FIPA
Italy's RAI TV series The War Is Over (La Guerra E Finita) won five golden awards and one special mention, to wind up as the main victor at this year's FIPA (Festival International de Productions Audiovisuelles) in Biarritz, France. Other winners includde German drama Mein Vater by Andreas Kleinert, Israeli ...
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Reviews
War (Vojna)
Dir. Aleksei Balabanov. Russia 2002. 120mins. The takeover of a Moscow theatre by Chechen rebels last year, and that incident's bloody outcome, can only emphasise the impact of Alekesi Balabanov's War. The gang wars of Balabanov's previous action-packed hits Brat and Brat 2 are replaced here by real conflict, between ...
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Reviews
Tycoon (Oligarch)
Dir. Pavel Lounguine. Russia/France. 128mins.Pavel Lounguine's latest chronicle of the new Russia must have had many of this country's high and mighty squirming on their seats - that is if they still care at all about their reputation. A major hit at home and a festival staple last year, Lounguine's ...
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Reviews
Hard Goodbyes: My Father (Diskoli Aporcheretismi: Babas Mou)
Dir. Penny Panayotopoulou. Greece/Germany, 2002. 108 min.A coming-of-age story that is richer and more original than most, Penny Panayotopoulou's first feature film effort is the most accomplished Greek film offering of this year. First unveiled in Locarno, where 10 years-old Giorgos Karayannis walked away with an acting award, it also ...
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News
Cinema City complex opens in Israel, despite troubles
A new state-of-the-art 21-screen multiplex, Cinema City, opens on the outskirts of Tel Aviv today, while plans are revealed for what could be the world's largest cinema, a 34-screen megaplex in Lisbon.Cinema City, which is the largest complex in the Middle East, boasts Sony's SDDS sound system in every ...
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Reviews
Gebirtig
Dirs: Lukas Stepanik, Robert Schindel. Austria 2002. 115minsAdapted from Robert Schindel's own successful novel of the same name, this Austrian candidate for the 2002 foreign Oscars delivers one of the more intelligent, caustic and lucid films made on the country's share in Nazi guilt, an issue that has been repeatedly ...
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Reviews
Wild Bees (Divoke Vcely)
Dir: Bohdan Slama. Czech Republic. 2001. 94minsThis good-natured countryside romp has already secured a place in a number of film festivals, from Rotterdam onwards. While there is no denying its unspoilt natural flavour and its light, insouciant charm, it is also difficult to ignore its lack of a real story, ...