Twice Upon a Time (French 2006 - original title: “Desaccord Parfait”)
Story: Alice, a famous English actresss meets up with Louis, an equally famous French director 30 years after their famous abrupt breakup. The two had been one of the most glamorous and amorous couples in the 1970s.
Well crafted French comedy (more to my liking than OSS 117). Louis is brilliantly played by Jean Rochefort and is magnificently balanced with Alice’s (Charlotte Rampling) caustic and razor sharp wit and beauty. This is very reminiscent of 1950s films with Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant trading intelligent barbs, quips, and wit. I wish more films were written and made today. This is a fun light comedy with a great cast.
Film: +++++ (5/5)
Movie: +++++ (5/5) highly entertaining and full of silver screen magic
Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams (Sarajevo 2006)
for a trailer click on over to yahoo movies info
Powerful Film! Made me cry and didn’t expect to.
Story: It is Sarajevo 10 years after the Balkan Wars and we zoom in on the struggling relationship between a Bosnian woman and her daughter. Esma (Mirjana Karanovic) is living with her 12-year-old daughter Sara Luna Mijovic in Grbavica, a district of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo. When Sara wants to participate in a school trip, Esma tries to find a way to pay the full price, even though the school will allow children of parents who died as martyrs in the Yugoslav civil war to got on the trip free. Esma, however, doesn’t have the papers to prove her husband’s death. Sara gets suspicious and confronts Esma.
The filming takes place during the winter months so the sky is grey, cold, and oppressive. Everything is grey. Kind of like the story Esma keeps telling her daughter. Another aspect of the film that makes it so impactful is its local. For all intents and purposes Sarajevo was a bustling center of modern Europe then the war happened. Realizing that this is a real place on earth is shocking every time you glimpse it.
I have long wondered when the real life impact of the Balkin Wars would be showing up in film and story. Emotionally challenging and genuine. This was beautifully done. You really don’t know where you are being guided in this film until it smacks you in the face and heart. If you are interested in a solid contemporary story in hard to wrap your brain around circumstances see this movie.
Film: +++++ (5/5) beautifully edited and crafted
Movie: ++++ (4/5) challenging for some audiences, but highly education
Plot Summary: After his father’s death, Cufe, the youngest son, follows his father’s wishes and buries him in the lake behind the house. Unfortunately this puts a crimp in any memorial plans the family and community has. This is a coming of age and breaking out of the mold film as Cufe leaves his home in a Native American reservation in search of a life outside the reservation.
Review: Slow measured film that delights and surprises and wraps up nicely. Cufe is played by Cody Lightning is a delightful new comer to the screen. Laura Baily is lovely and plays adventurous girl next door to Cufe’s sister’s apartment. Tamara Podemski plays Cufe’s sister Miri, the estranged daughter who left the reservation to live life in the big city and is not doing so well. All in all this was a gentle film, perhaps a good spiritual cinema flick. We debated whether or not this film was too long or not and in the end came to the conclusion that we wouldn’t have cut anything and that it was meant to be a look from a different perspective of coming of age in America.
Premise: Spoof on James Bond, Austin Powers, The Pink Panther, Get Smart, and Casablanca. French Secret Agent OSS 117 is sent to Cairo to investigate the disappearance of another agent.
Review: Kind of an “Ugly American” but in this case an “Ugly Frenchman” in its audacity and cultural ignorance, but that is the point. It pokes fun at religion if not insults it. It pokes fun at governments, spies, films etc. Most of the crowd enjoyed it. I was non plussed. The gags got old quickly and I found some of the humor insulting. Not my form of humor I guess.
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Twice Upon a Time (French 2006 - original title: “Desaccord Parfait”)
Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams (Sarajevo 2006)