All articles by Jonathan Romney – Page 42
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Reviews
The Right Of The Weakest (La Raison Du Plus Faible)
Dir, scr: Lucas Belvaux. Belgium/France 2006. 116 minsA Belgian proletarian caper movie is hardly the first thing anyone expected from Lucas Belvaux, whose Trilogy, a set of three interlocking features, was an audacious formal anomaly in recent French mainstream cinema. The Right Of The Weakest lies halfway between working-class realism ...
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Reviews
Climates (Iklimler)
Dir/scr: Nuri Bilge Ceylan. Turk-Fr. 2006. 97mins.In 2002, Turkish director NuriBilge Ceylan made his mark on the Cannes competitionwith Distant (Uzak). That, his third feature,struck many audiences as a resounding blow in favour of the great art-cinematradition of films as contemplative, thematically rich personal essays. Ceylan's growing reputation as a ...
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Reviews
Lights In The Dusk (Laitakaupungin Valot)
Dir/scr: Aki Kaurismaki. Fin. 2006. 80mins.LightsIn The Darkrepresents business as usual, more or less, for Finnish gloomsterAki Kaurismaki - albeit leavened with somewhat lessof his distinctive dry humour. This social-realist tale, with a dash of filmnoir, is about a loner whose life goes from bad to worse to worse still, ...
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Reviews
Princess
Dir: Anders Morgenthaler. Den. 2006. 80mins.It's a sometimes dazzling curio rather than afully-fledged achievement, but Anders Morgenthaler'sadult animation Princess is certainlyone of the more attention-grabbing items on the Cannes menu this year. Kickingoff Directors' Fortnight, this tale of vengeance in the Danish porn underworldresembles the sort of grim material usually ...
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Reviews
Paris, Je T'Aime
Dirs: see credits below. Fr-Liech-Switz. 2006. 120mins.That largelyunloved genre, the portmanteau film, no doubt works best in specialised slots -such as that of the opener in the Un Certain Regardsection at Cannes. Fitting the bill as a light, generally celebratory sectioncurtain-raiser, Paris JeT'Aime is a postcard-like, sometimes genuinelycharming, whistle-stop city ...
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Reviews
The Unforgiven (Yongseobadji Mot-hanja)
Dir/scr: Yoon Jong-bin. S Kor. 2005. 126mins.The traumas of masculinity and themilitary life are sensitively and obliquely probed in The Unforgiven, the debut feature fromKorean writer-director Yoon Jong-bin. Despitecurrents of menace and brutality, it lies at the more contemplative end ofSouth Korea's cinema spectrum, its elliptical, two-strand structure making itakin ...
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Reviews
The Peter Pan Formula (Peterpan-eui Gongsik)
Dir/scr: Cho Chang-ho. S Kor. 2005.108mins.Teenage angst has rarely felt seemed more decorous ormore downbeat than in the hands of South Korean director ChoChong-ho in his debut The Peter Pan Formula. A moody, atmospheric coming-of-age film witha perverse streak of eroticism, it explores the emotional links betweenmourning and sexuality in ...
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Reviews
Hotel Harabati (De Particulier A Particulier)
Dir: Brice Cauvin. Fr. 2005. 94mins."Sublimely enigmatic" is one way to describe Hotel Harabati;for many viewers, "maddeningly inscrutable" will becloser to the mark. Either way, Brice Cauvin'steasing debut will keep audiences arguing long after its unexpectedly beatificending.Personably spikylead performances, a willfully fractured narrative and a defiantly provocativeattitude to viewer expectations ...
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Reviews
Absolute Wilson
Dir/scr: Katharina Otto-Bernstein. US-Ger. 2006.105mins.Absolute Wilsonmight not be not be quite 'absolute' in the sense of 'definitive', but Katharina Otto-Bernstein's documentary is certainly anexhaustive introduction to the life and work of Robert Wilson, American theatrevisionary extraordinaire.The Texan-borninnovator has worked at a frenzied pace since his arrival on the avant-gardetheatre scene ...
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Reviews
Dead Run (Shisso)
Dir: Sabu.Jap. 2005. 124mins.Aptly named, Dead Run is a morbid crawl, a tediouslyover-extended wallow in good, evil and teenage angst that manages at once to beluridly over-heated and grindingly turgid.A first literary adaptation from Sabu(Postman Blues, Unlucky Monkey), it proves a rambling and confused melodrama thatrelies largely on the spurious ...
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Reviews
The Kick (Der Kick)
Dir: Andres Veiel. Ger.2006. 82mins.A severely minimalist exercise situated onthe interface between cinema and theatre, TheKick is a rigorously executed, highly disturbing combination of performanceand documentary reportage. Two performers - a woman and a man - act outstatements from a range of people involved in a real-life murder case, sheddingunforgiving ...
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Reviews
It's Winter (Zemestan)
Dir: Rafi Pitts. Iran 2005.86mins.Rafi Pitts' remarkable It's Winter is one of those films that forces you to rethink your preconceptions about Iraniancinema. Although recognisably in a taut, austereIranian mould, the film feels new in several ways. Its central figure is notjust an anti-hero but is abrasively unsympathetic; its narrative ...
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Reviews
Vitus
Dir: Fredi M Murer. Switz. 2006. 120mins.From an opening that suggests a feelgoodchildren's fantasy, Vitusturns into a much odder confection - an intelligent, spiky, sometimes movingcomedy-drama with a satirical eye turned on the Swiss bourgeoisie.Directed by Helvetic veteran Fredi M. Murer, best known for his 1985 Alpine Fire, Vitusis an ...
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Reviews
1:1
Dir: Annette K Olesen. Den. 2005. 90mins.1:1is nothing if not timely, addressing the ethnic and religious tensions inDenmark highlighted by the recent furore over anewspaper cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed.Annette K Olesen's follow-up to InYour Hands comes across as a passionate, socially concerned cri de coeur, albeit one executedin a ...
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Reviews
The Free Will (Der Freie Wille)
Dir: Matthias Glasner. Ger.2006. 163mins.Even audiences inured to the rigors of snail-pacedEuropean introspection face a grueling ride in Matthias Glasner'sdrama about a rapist in search of redemption.Digitallyphotographed by the director himself in murky shades, The Free Will mostly eschews incident for sombrecontemplativeness. But, in the odd moments when Glasnercranks up ...
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Reviews
Offside (Sweden, 2006)
Dir: Jafar Pahani. Iran. 2006. 88mins.Destined to be referred to as a Farsi Bend It Like Beckham, Jafar Panahi's football story Offside is his most approachable filmsince The White Balloon, which puthim on the map in 1995.Essentially a realistcomedy, this digital ensemble piece is also bitterly outspoken about thetreatment of ...
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Reviews
The Comedy Of Power (L'Ivresse Du Pouvoir)
Dir: Claude Chabrol. Fr. 2006. 110mins.A sleek, hand-tooled, extremely sophisticatedpackage, A Comedy OfPower is a very grown-up entertainment that artfully walks a line betweenmoral comedy and political thriller. A deluxe cast of French actors, headed byIsabelle Huppert in winningly brittle form, bring distinction to a complexdrama about corruption and intrigue.It ...
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Reviews
Longing (Senhsucht)
Dir:Valeska Grisebach. Germany.2006. 88 mins Astory of ordinary love in a defiantly non-glamorous mode, Valeska Grisebach's Longing packs a formidable emotional punch, all the moreso for its spare aesthetic and sure-footed restraint. The director's secondfeature, following 2001's acclaimed Be My Star (Mein Stern), thrives on elliptical storytelling andundemonstratively subtle ...
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Reviews
The Road To Guantanamo
Dirs: Michael Winterbottom, Mat Whitecross. UK. 2006.95mins Michael Winterbottom's reputation as afiercely enterprising and provocative film-maker gets another boost from TheRoad To Guantanamo, co-directed with Mat Whitecross, his editor on 9 Songs.Thedigitally-shot film is a docudrama-style reconstruction of the fate of a groupof young British Muslims who went to Afghanistan ...
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Reviews
Snow Cake
Dir: Marc Evans. UK-Can. 2006. 112minsWith itstale of two misfits who improbably bond in a snowbound small town, Snow Caketakes a surefire formula and delivers a gently crowd-pleasing if somewhatlow-key - comedy-drama.A sweetlyintrospective execution, it marks a signal departure for British director MarcEvans, cranking the stylistics down several notches ...