Matthew’s Blog

The Banquet (China 2006 original title “Yeyan”)

If you have seen Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and/or Hero - you’ve seen this before.

Of the three Hero in my opinion is the best of the three.  This film was in fact produced by the same production team as Crouching Tiger.   I kept having the sensation of “haven’t I seen this before.” To those who have not seen either of the above films this will be a novel experience for you.    This is the new age of Chinese cinema.   Big, bold, beautiful and full of outlandishly incredible martial arts moves.    It is visually stunning as all in this genre are.
They try to woo audiences with the claim of this being akin to loose interpretation of Hamlet.  loose is the operative word.   At 131 minutes at least 30 minutes could have been removed without damaging the film.   I was surprised to find that this was the final edit and has been in release for over a year.

Film: +++ (3/5) too long, been there done that cinemagraphically
Movie: +++ (3/5) too long, non hollywood ending (but neither is hamlet), been there done that

Four Minutes (German 2007 original title “Vier Minuten”)

This movie stole the show for me. The best film of the fest.

“Brilliant Relationship Drama and 4 minutes you will not forget.”

Story: (Yahoo Movies had such a great synopses, why reinvent the wheel)

Schubert, Mozart, Chopin and a bunch of killers. That’s life for 80-year-old piano teacher Traude Krueger. The old lady has been teaching music at the women’s prison for ages. But she has never met an inmate like Jenny: a killer who beats everything around her to a pulp just to amuse herself. However, she used to be a great talent. A piano prodigy even. And beneath her fierce facade, she still is. With Traude’s help, she could manage to win a prestigious piano contest. But a contest is no challenge to those who want their lives to stand still.

Review: Powerful, evocative, and mesmerizing film.   I don’t know where they found this actress/artist who plays Jenny (Hannah Herzsprung) but she is phenomenal.   If she wasn’t actually playing the piano, she did an absolutely award winning performance of someone playing.   Highly complicated maneuvers and passion.     Monica Bleibtreu is also amazing as an almost monastic spinster of a piano teacher with a huge secret.    The movie is gripping from the start and ends with spectacular performance that I challenge you to forget.

Film:+++++ 5/5 - outstanding cinema
Movie: +++++ 5/5 - outstanding drama and performances

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

Youtube Trailer in French - no subtitles
http://youtube.com/watch?v=64rLHTOSPw8

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

Four Sheet to the Wind (2007)

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.

Film: ++++ (4/5)
Movie: ++++ (4/5)

OSS 117: Le Caire nid d’espions (2006 France)

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.

Film: +++ (3/5)
Movie: ++ (2/5)

Charming and well performed. It was like watching a well performed Moliere play on film. Moliere is a period piece in a narrative style perhaps worthy of Moliere, of a time in his early twenties when he mysteriously evaded prison and came under the employ of Monsieur Jourdain, a nouveau rich bourgeois who wants to learn how to act to woo the affection of a widowed countess who loves men of wit and intelligence. This is an undocumented period in Moliere’s history and therefore an historical fiction full of
fun,intrigue and delight.

Some may question whether this will play to an American audience. If they can tolerate subtitles I would say a strong yes. Upon reflection I had forgotten that there were even subtitles. Fast paced and playful, it will have you rocking in your seat with laughter.

The only reason I don’t rate this film a 5/5 is for what I feel is a choppy transition in time at the beginning of the film and at the end. It just didn’t work for me, but the meat of the film was outstanding, well shot and edited. (Note to Rita & Jerry: This is what that horrible Parisian period piece should have been cinemagraphically - watch for the leaving Paris city scape scene - nicely matted.)

Film ++++- (4/5) artistic quality
Movie +++++ (5/5) entertainment/escape value