French film Night

25, Jul 2010 | seen, watched

I watched “Father of my Children” last night, which was superb and very French – lots of chat, and not much action, but afterwards it leaves you thinking about life, and choices and all that kind of stuff. One of the (unpleasant) characters seems to...

Broken Embraces – fluent Almodovar

31, May 2010 | watched

I finally got around to watching the most recent Almodóvar – not because I was avoiding it, but because his films often have that Thornton’s chocolate factor – you know it’s going to be a pleasing indulgence, but you want to save it for a...

Lemon Tree – neither sweet nor sour!

28, May 2010 | watched

I finally got around to watching Lemon Tree this evening- about 2 years after it’s release. Amazon have been selling it for around six quid, so it was worth a punt. Although I like a lot of Middle Eastern Films, I have been avoiding Lemon Tree, since some...

Humanity in a Flanders field

1, Feb 2009 | seen

I saw Bruno Dumont’s L’Humanité at the weekend, and find that I can’t get it out of my head, not least because I can’t make up my mind about what I saw. Is the central character, Pharaon, a christ-like figure who takes on the sins of Joseph?...

Offside winner

5, Dec 2008 | thought, watched

How can a film about women not being allowed to do something be uplifting? You need to watch Offside to find out, as, once again Jafar Panahi shows us that the best Director making feminist films is an Iranian man. Like the more wrought earlier work The Circle,...