All articles by Lee Marshall – Page 59
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Reviews
Monday Morning (Lundi Matin)
Dir: Otar Iosselliani. Fr/It, 2002. 122 mins.The first ten minutes of Georgian director Otar Iosselliani's delicate new film break all those script workshop rules about snappy, cut-to-the-chase montage. We see a man getting up, having breakfast, going downstairs, crossing a muddy yard, getting into his car, driving, parking, catching the ...
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Reviews
The Trespasser (O Invasor)
Dir: Beto Brant. Brazil, 2001. 98mins.Ten years ago, Brazilian cinema was almost dead and buried. But Beto Brant's third full-length feature is further proof that the revival that hit paydirt with Walter Salles' Central Station is far from over. The Trespasser, which screened in Berlin after an outing at Sundance, ...
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Reviews
The Three Marias
Dir Aluizio Abranches. It-Brazil. 2002. 103mins.Part Brazilian Western, part Jacobean tragedy in Tarantino sauce, Aluizio Abranches’ The Three Marias is a stylish follow up to the London-trained director’s 1999 debut, the festival-pleasing A Glass Of Rage (Un Copo De Colera). This was a surprise indie hit in Italy - which ...
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Reviews
Amen
Dir: Costa-Gavras. France. 2001. 132mins.Costa-Gavras is no stranger to controversy; in fact, the hard-hitting political expose has become something of his stock-in-trade. But in the 20 years since Missing, the Greek-born director has struggled to find a distinctive voice. Betrayed and Music Box, his two collaborations with screenplay king Joe ...
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Reviews
A Map Of The Heart (Der Felsen)
Dir: Dominik Graf. Germany, 2002. 117mins.The second of three German films in competition at Berlin, A Map Of The Heart is a story of mixed-up emotions and crossed destinies set on the island of Corsica. Shot in mini-DV, the film is also unusual in its narrative structure - based on ...
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Reviews
Uncle Frank
Dir: Matthew Ginsburg. US, 2002. 84 mins.The first documentary to be produced by Kevin Spacey's Trigger Street Productions, Uncle Frank is an affectionate, touching and often hilariously funny portrait of the director's octagenarian uncle, who plays the electric piano in old people's homes. Although it deals frankly (so to speak) ...
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Reviews
Sound Of Brazil (Moro No Brasil)
Dir: Mika Kaurismaki. Ger/Fin/Fra/Brazil, 2002. 105 mins.A well-known European arthouse director goes on a musical pilgrimage in a Latin American country. Sounds familiar, no' Echoes of Wim Wenders' Buena Vista Social Club come thick and fast in this roots-of-Samba documentary by cuddly Finnish director Mika Kaurismaki. But in the end, ...
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Reviews
Happy Times (Xingfu Shiguang)
Dir: Zhang Yimou. China/US. 2000. 96mins The first film from Edward R Pressman and Terrence Malick's Sunflower Productions, Zhang Yimou 's Happy Times is a Chaplinesque sentimental comedy which has its moments of greatness. Even during the more pedestrian scenes, it is difficult not to be warmed by ...
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Reviews
Travelling Birds (Le Peuple Migrateur)
Dir: Jacques Perrin. Fr/Ger/Sp. 2001. 97mins.Travelling Birds offers audiences a rare chance to fly like a bird without recourse to mind-expanding drugs. This is the third in a trilogy of big-screen nature films produced - and in this case directed - by former French matinee idol Jacques Perrin. Microcosmos, the ...
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Reviews
Heaven
Dir: Tom Tykwer. 2001. Germany/US. 97mins.If Run Lola Run was Tom Tykwer's breakthrough film, then the Miramax-backed Heaven is his first big commercial test. The message that we are in very different territory from his smart and stylish 1999 indie hit is made clear in the posters plastering Tykwer's hometown ...
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Reviews
Beneath Clouds
Dir: Ivan Sen. Australia, 2001. 87 mins.Billed as the first feature film by an indigenous Australian director, Beneath Clouds is a promising debut, although its tight-lipped sense of cool tips over into pretension on more than one occasion. It deals with race relations in modern Australia without stridency and without ...
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Reviews
The Last Kiss (L'Ultimo Bacio)
Dir: Gabriele Muccino. Italy. 2001. 117 mins.Thirty-five-year-old Roman director Gabriele Muccino is the only player on the contemporary Italian scene who has the potential to be as big as Roberto Benigni. His third film, L'Ultimo Bacio (The Last Kiss) was the top grossing Italian film of 2001, grossing Euros 13.1 ...
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Reviews
Burning In The Wind (Brucio Nel Vento)
Dir: Silvio Soldini. It-Switz. 2001. 118 mins.An Italian director makes a film set in Switzerland with mainly Czech actors and dialogue, based on a novel by a Hungarian refugee who writes in French. Sounds like a recipe for an indigestible Europudding. In reality, however, Brucio Nel Vento is Silvio ...
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Reviews
Vajont
Dir: Renzo Martinelli. Italy/France. 2001. 116 mins.Vajont is an all-European disaster movie. Although it's tempting to shuffle the word-order, producer-director Renzo Martinelli's $8.2 million production is not an all-European movie disaster: it's just a mediocre example of the genre. Although it boasts a couple of French co-stars (Daniel Auteil and ...
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Reviews
Luna Rossa (Red Moon)
Dir: Antonio Capuano. Italy. 2001. 117mins. "The only way you can control people", says the Mafia boss, "is if they know you can kill them anytime you want". This upbeat moral epigram could provide the poster tag for Antonio Capuano's new film, which screened in the main competition at Venice. ...
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Reviews
Asoka
Dir: Santosh Sivan. India. 2001. 150 mins.Could this be the Indian Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' Probably not; but Santosh Sivan's loose historical biopic of Mauryan emperor Asoka is a hugely enjoyable swords-and-saris romp which should have no trouble crossing over from speciality Asian circuits to general release. Juhi Chawla ...
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Reviews
One Man Up (L'Uomo In Piu)
Dir: Paolo Sorrentino. Italy. 2001. 100mins.Paolo Sorrentino's first full-length feature, which screened in the Cinema del Presente competition at Venice, shows promise. Its tight budget is betrayed by the flat, TV-style camerawork and one or two amateurish moments; and it is quite a conventional work to come out of ...
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Reviews
Light Of My Eyes (Luce Dei Miei Occhi)
Dir: Giuseppe Piccioni. Italy. 2001. 108mins.In the run-up to Venice there were hopes that Giuseppe Piccioni might pull off the big one-two for Italian cinema, after Nanni Moretti's Cannes success. But the optimism soon evaporated. Not that Light Of My Eyes is a bad film; it's just that it fails ...
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Reviews
Tosca
Dir: Benoit Jacquot. France-Italy-Germany-UK. 2001. 120mins.The latest director to accept the challenge of filming opera - a notoriously difficult genre - is French director Benoit Jacquot (Sade, Pas de Scandale). Jacquot has taken on Puccini's Tosca - a smart choice, as it is not only a crowd-pleaser, but also one ...
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Reviews
Monsoon Wedding
Dir: Mira Nair. India. 2001. 115mins.Since the late 1980s, Mira Nair has acted as the official face of Indian cinema in the West. Most high-frequency cinemagoers in Europe and the US will have seen at least one of Nair's trio of exportable Indian features: Salaam Bombay! (1988), Mississippi Masala (1991) ...