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All articles by Lee Marshall – Page 37
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News
The critical view: reading classics
To mark its 75th anniversary, the British Film Institute asked 75 key figures 'from the world of film and current affairs' to choose the one film they would most like to share with future generations.It's an interesting line-up - not one of those utterly predictable critics' selections that are always ...
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News
Venice: A critical preview
The 2008 Venice line-up looks like one of the riskiest major festival selections in recent memory.Cross the Italian contenders, the Coen brothers, Kathryn Bigelow, Jonathan Demme and a few other media darlings off the list, and you are left with directors such as Semih Kaplanoglu from Turkey, Algerian Tariq Teguia ...
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ReviewsMid-August Lunch (Pranzo di Ferragosto)
Dir: Gianni Di Gregorio. Italy. 2008. 73mins.Small but utterly charming, Gianni di Gregorio's low-budget feature about an ageing Roman who suddenly finds himself looking after four ancient ladies over the mid-August dog days has enough heart to make up for its paper-thin story, and conceals a ...
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Reviews
Tonight (Nuit de Chien)
Dir: Werner Schroeter. France/Germany/Portugal. 2008. 121 mins.Pascal Greggory - and the audience - stumble through a violent, decadent war-torn Eurocity in veteran German filmmaker Werner Schroeter's Tonight, trying to salvage some sort of meaning from the mess. Though it flares up occasionally with noirish atmosphere and post-apocalpytic ennui, Schroeter's first ...
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Reviews
Queens Of Langkasuka (Puen-Yai-Jom-Sa-Lad)
Dir: Nonzee Nimibutr. Thailand. 2008. 133mins.A big-budget Thai period epic that mixes pirates, magic, martial arts action and a kneejerk eco-pacifist subtext, Queens Of Langkasuka is good to look at but clunky in pretty much every other department. Those in the mood for a chaste action-laced love story with dazzling ...
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ReviewsIl Seme Della Discordia
Dir: Pappi Corsicato. Italy. 2008. 84mins.Neapolitan director Pappi Corsicato conjures up the spirit but little of the dramatic and thematic depth of his acknowledged master Pedro Almodovar in this bright but lightweight comedy-melodrama. But though its afterglow is short-lived, Corsicato’s amusing little film still came as ...
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ReviewsInland (Gabbla)
Dir: Tariq Teguia. Algeria-France. 2008. 145mins.For anyone with the strength to sit through the whole 145 minutes of this sadistically-paced cinematic reflection on the state of contemporary Algeria, there are a few small compensations: some moments of visual poetry, particularly in the final desert scenes, and ...
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ReviewsThe Sky Crawlers
Dir: Mamoru Oshii. Japan. 2008. 122mins.Mamoru Oshii’s most meditative feature-length animation to date tells the story of a group of genetically modified eternally-young fighter aces in a world where war has become a company-sponsored reality game. Like the Peter-Pan ‘Kildren’ that it depicts, The Sky Crawlers ...
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ReviewsMilk (Sut)
Dir: Semih Kaplanoglu. Turkey-France-Germany. 2008. 111mins.Painfully slow but at the same time a resonant, elegiac coming of age story, the second installment in Turkish arthouse director Semih Kaplanoglu’s Yusuf trilogy shows him to be something of a magic-realist Terence Davies. But with its overlong shots in ...
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ReviewsGoodbye Solo
Dir: Ramin Bahrani. US. 2008. 91mins.An odd-couple relationship fuels a slow-burning but ultimately moving emotional and spiritual journey in Ramin Bahrani’s third feature. As in the well-received festival faves Man Push Cart and Chop Shop, the US director of Iranian origins unspools a story set among ...
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ReviewsPlastic City (Dangkou)
Dir: Yu Lik-wai. Brazil-China-Japan. 2008. 118mins.An underdeveloped yakuza-in-Brazil storyline and a hip- hop VJ sound-and-image assault do not add up to a rounded arthouse film in Yu Lik-wai’s PlasticCity. Despite some moments of visual brilliance, this third directorial outing by Jia Zhangke’s regular cinematographer betrays the ...
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ReviewsL'Autre
Dirs: Patrick Mario Bernard, Pierre Trividic. France. 2008. 97mins.This rather frosty but nevertheless intriguing study of one woman’s descent into jealousy, which premiered in competition at Venice, is one of those well-crafted exercises that plays better in the viewing than in the recall. That’s because it’s ...
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ReviewsKabuli Kid
Dir: Barmak Akram. France-Afghanistan. 2008. 95mins.What makes this small French-backed Afghan charmer, which premiered in Critics’ Week at Venice, more than just a heartwarming quest comedy is its grounding in the everyday chaos and strict social and religious codes of war-ravaged Kabul. Though honed by script ...
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ReviewsThe Burning Plain
Dir: Guillermo Arriaga. USA. 2008. 105 mins.His much-publicised falling out with director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu seems to have done Guillermo Arriaga the world of good. The Burning Plain, which the Mexican writer directed from his own script, is a powerful contemporary melodrama, more restrained but also ...
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ReviewsCold Lunch (Lonsj)
Dir: Eva Sorhaug. Norway. 2008. 86mins.A few good scenes, some quirky characters and a striking visual style don’t quite add up to a hot meal in Eva Sorhaug’s bite-sized Cold Lunch. Screening as an out of competition title in this year’s Critics’ Week, the Norwegian interlinked ...