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All articles by Lee Marshall – Page 53
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Reviews
Mysterious Skin
Dir:Gregg Araki USA. 2004. 99mins.GreggAraki is a film buff's director, one of those independent US mavericks, likeHarmony Korine, whose regular feature outings are staples of the internationalfestival circuit (it plays Toronto after its Orizzonti premiere at Venice) andultra-arthouse theatres, but register only the faintest bleeps on the radar ofthe cinemagoing ...
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Reviews
A Love Song For Bobby Long
Dir:Shainee Gabel. USA. 2004. 119mins.Oldtrooper Travolta meets rising star Johansson in A Love Song For Bobby Long,a fragile but charming slice of New Orleans bohemiana. It was a nice idea togive the on-screen stand-off between their two characters (he a washed-up,alcoholic former university professor; she a stroppy school dropout with ...
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Reviews
The Sea Inside (Mar Adentro)
Dir: Alejandro Amenabar.Spain. 2004. 127mins.Though Alejandro Amenabar's new film screened only athird of the way into the Venice festival, the gut feeling after the earlypress screening on the Lido was that we had just been watching the Leone D'Oro.Still only 32, Amenabar proves with this moving study of a quadraplegic ...
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Reviews
The Sea Inside (Mar Adentro) review
Dir: Alejandro Amenabar.Spain. 2004. 127mins.Though Alejandro Amenabar's new film screened only athird of the way into the Venice festival, the gut feeling after the earlypress screening on the Lido was that we had just been watching the Leone D'Oro.Still only 32, Amenabar proves with this moving study of a quadraplegic ...
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Reviews
Throw Down
Dir:Johnnie To. Hong Kong. 2004. 94mins.After25 years as a director of solid Hong Kong crime and action features, Johnnie Tois finally beginning to be taken seriously on the international festivalcircuit. PTU, the story of a city cop's search for his missing gun, waswell received in 2003, and Breaking News was ...
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Reviews
Ma Mere
Dir: Christophe Honore.France. 2004. 109 mins.It's not difficult to seewhy second-time director Christophe Honore was surprised when Ma Mere,his incest-laced study of sexual obsession was turned down by the Cannesselection committee: it is, after all, much more of a festival film than acommercial prospect. Striking in its stark cinematic language, ...
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Reviews
Strange Crime (Sotto Falso Nome)
Dir:Roberto Ando. It-Switz. 2004. 105 mins.Asurprise choice as closing film for this year's Cannes Critics' Week, StrangeCrime is a frustratingly unresolved erotic thriller about false identityand dark secrets from hardworking Italian indie director Roberto Ando. Mostmemorable for its steamy sex scenes between Daniel Auteill and Anna Mougalis,which take us back ...
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Reviews
The Smell of Blood (L'odore Del Sangue)
Dir: Mario Martone. It-Fr. 2004. 99mins.Italian auteur Mario Martone's latest arthouse offering is a sterile and rather dated relationship drama in psycho-thriller sauce which will be defended only by the director's staunchest fans, and make the rest of us nostalgic for the edgy originality of his 1995 breakout film, L'Amore ...
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Reviews
Tre Metri Sopra Il Cielo
Dir: Luca Lucini. Italy. 2004. 102 mins.Federico Moccia's novel Tre Metri Sopra Il Cielo (which translates as 'Three Steps Over Heaven') was a real teen phenomenon in Italy: first published in 1992, it soon went out of print, but high-school students continued to circulate photocopied copies of the work - ...
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Reviews
Don't Move (Non Ti Muovere)
Italy-Spain-UK. 2004. 121 mins.Don't Move is worth any number of seminars on the state of Italian cinema, and is ample proof that there is life in the old dog yet. The cynical might object that this is because of a standout performance by Spanish star Penelope Cruz, who does something ...
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Reviews
South Of The Clouds (Yun De Nan Fang)
Dir: Zhu Wen China. 2004. 100mins.Zhu Wen began his working life as a factory engineer before deciding, 10 years ago, that stories were his real metier. After four short story collections, a novel and two film script collaborations (he was one of three credited screenwriters on the Zhang Yuang prison ...
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Reviews
Agatha And The Storm (Agata e la Tempesta)
Dir: Silvio Soldini. It-Switz-UK. 2004. 123 mins.With his 1999 comedy Bread And Tulips, Silvio Soldini pulled off the increasingly difficult act of combining auteurish pretensions (albeit gentle and soft-centred ones) with commercial success: the film racked up an impressive $5m-plus in its home market alone - around four times its ...
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Reviews
Kick 'n' Rush (2 Ryk Og 1 Aflevering)
Dir: Aage Rais-Nordentoft. Denmark. 2004. 95mins.Mixing football with the problems of adolescence has become something of a sub-genre in recent years. Purely Belter and Bend It Like Beckham opened the scoring for England; now the Scandinavians have begun to lob their own teen soccer tales into the area, with United, ...
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Reviews
Cold Light (Kaldaljos)
Dir: Hilmar Oddsson. Ice-Ger-UK-Nor. 2004. 92mins.There must be a law in Iceland stipulating that local films should contain one or more of the following: a) a weird and lonely hero; b) an avalanche; c) cod fishermen vs the cruel sea; d) magical powers, especially the ability to predict the future. ...
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Reviews
Pearls And Pigs (Helmia Ja Sikoja)
Dir: Perttu Leppa. Finland. 2003. 113 mins.Feelgood comedy Pearls And Pigs was seen by around 1 in 40 Finns in the weeks after its home release late last year, and while being big in Finland is no watertight guarantee of international success, this likeable teen comedy has some serious Hollywood ...
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Reviews
Your Next Life (La Vida Que Tu Espera)
Dir: Manuel Guttierez Aragon. Spain. 2004. 110 mins.It's doubtful that audiences can recall seeing so many cows in a single film since O Brother, Where Art Thou' The ruminants in veteran director Gutierrez Aragon's 15th feature don't get machine-gunned like their cousins in the Coen brothers' Odyssey-caper, though one does ...
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Reviews
20:30:40
Dir: Silvia Chang. Taiwan-Hong Kong. 2004. 109mins.A cinematic weave of contemporary Asian women's stories, 20:30:40 is also a star vehicle for its three female protagonists. Sylvia Chang (who also directed and co-wrote), Rene Liu and Lee Sinje, each half a generation apart, have a cross-border appeal that stretches from Taiwan ...
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News
Rohmer, Loach lead plaudits as Berlin divides critics
With one official screening day to go, the critical consensus on this year's Berlinale competition might be summed up as "good but not outstanding".Opinions on the line-up ranged from Italian critic Fabio Ferzetti's "disappointing", through German critic Margaret Koehler's comment that this year's selection included "a lot of films that ...
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Reviews
Ae Fond Kiss
Dir: Ken Loach. UK-It-Ger-Sp. 2004. 103 mins.Ken Loach is famous for shooting in sequence and not revealing key plot details to his actors beforehand, in order to catch the freshness of their shock or anger unfiltered by rehearsal. It's been a while since he's startled his fans in the same ...
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Reviews
Lost Embrace (El Abrazo Partido)
Dir Daniel Burman Argentina/France/Italy/Spain. 2003. 101 mins.Argentinian director Daniel Burman's fourth feature, which picked up the Jury Grand Prix Silver Bear at this year's Berlinale, is a bittersweet comedy of national, personal and religious identity set in a Jewish inner city suburb of Buenos Aires at the low point of ...