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Latest reviews – Page 434
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Reviews
Dumplings
Dir: Fruit Chan. HK.2005. 91mins.Described by the directoras a "post-feminist horror film", Dumplings is the full-length versionof a 30-minute short presented in Venice last year as part of Three Extremes,an omnibus film which also showcased twisted tales by Asian directors TakeshiMiike and Park Chan-Wook.Dumplings was easily the best thing about ...
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Reviews
Sophie Scholl ' The Final Days
Dir. Marc Rothemund. Ger.2005. 120mins.Previously the basis for two previous German features, thestory of wartime freedom fighter Sophie Scholl again reaches the screen - thistime in competition at Berlin - with the added draw of new and as yet unpublishedevidence which purports to throw additional light on her case.Scholl, played ...
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ReviewsThe Beat That My Heart Skipped (De Battre Mon Coeur S'Est Arrete)
Dir:Jacques Audiard. Fr. 2005. 107mins.
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Reviews
The Sun (Solntse)
Dir. Alexander Sokurov.Russ-It-Fr-UK. 110mins.After Hitler and Lenin,it is now the turn of Japan's Emperor Hirohito to be the centrepiece ofAlexander Sokurov's third chapter in his projected tetralogy on politicalleaders of the 20th century.Far more relaxed, positiveand even cheerful - if such a term can be applied to a Sokurov work ...
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Reviews
Wolf Creek
Dir: GregMclean. Australia. 2005. 98mins.Worldpremiered at the Sundance Film Festival last month but picked up byDimension/Miramax late last year, Wolf Creek is an extremelywell-crafted horror movie supposedly based on "real events". Although those"real events" are largely fabricated, the film has a ring of truth toit which renders it genuinely disturbing. ...
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Reviews
Paradise Now
Dir. HanyAbu-Assad. Pal-Neth-Ger-Fr. 2005. 90mins.Putting a humanface on suicide bombers without lionising them is a tough assignment, and HanyAbu-Assad almost pulls it off with his feature Paradise Now, despite theminefield of unresolved issues he has to negotiate.His story about twoPalestinian childhood friends who pledge their lives to the cause, and ...
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Reviews
Rabbit On the Moon (Conejo En La Luna)
Dir/scr: JorgeRamirez-Suarez. Mex-UK. 2005. 114mins.A tightly-paced politicalthriller, Rabbit On The Moon opened to peppy reviews and buoyant boxoffice takings on its home release in Mexico last October. A rare Mexico-UKco-production, it proves to be a hardworking film with some rough edges but asurefire genre instinct. Its overseas prospects will not ...
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Reviews
The Last Mitterand (Le Promeneur Du Champ De Mars)
Dir. RobertGuediguian. Fr. 2005. 116mins.A finely etched portrait of Francois Mitterand,one of Europe's last political giants, Robert Guediguian's new film finds theProvencal director in top form, dealing with the kind of material he favours:politics and its application in individual terms.Proceeding at aleisurely pace and advancing with great care, The Last ...
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Reviews
Tickets
Dirs:Ermanno Olmi, Abbas Kiarostami, Ken Loach. It-UK. 2005. 118mins.Three famous directors joining forces to direct one film is not new, but Ticketsdiffers from other recent "celebrity trio" showcases (Eros, ThreeExtremes) in that its film-makers share the same setting, some of the samecharacters and the same screenplay (or, in the case ...
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Reviews
Tickets
Dirs:Ermanno Olmi, Abbas Kiarostami, Ken Loach. It-UK. 2005. 118mins.Three famous directors joining forces to direct one film is not new, but Ticketsdiffers from other recent "celebrity trio" showcases (Eros, ThreeExtremes) in that its film-makers share the same setting, some of the samecharacters and the same screenplay (or, in the case ...
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Reviews
Asylum
Dir:David Mackenzie. UK-Ire. 2005. 93mins.A dark, assured period piece about passion and madness, and the way societyrestrains them, Asylum is a much slicker product than Scottish directorDavid Mackenzie's previous outing, Young Adam.It has not had an easygestation: US distributor Paramount has been involved since Patrick McGrath'snovel was published in 1997; ...
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Reviews
Hayat
Dir:Gholamreza Ramezani. Iran. 2004. 78mins.Want to make a heartwarming Iranian kids' movie' Take an endearing kid froma poor background, give her a goal, and then provide an obstacle. It worked forThe White Balloon (goal: buy goldfish; obstacle: money goes down thedrain, literally), and it works for Hayat, which opened the ...
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Reviews
Fateless (Sorstalansag)
Dir. Lajos Koltai.Hung-Ger-UK. 2005. 136mins.Initially offered a lessprestigious slot at Berlin, the producers of Fateless have been provedjustified in holding out for the competition slot which it was awarded hoursbefore the festival began.Oscar-nominatedcinematographer Lajos Koltai's (Malena, Being Julia) grim andsober debut initially seems like any other neatly calibrated, if hardlyexceptional ...
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Reviews
Hayat
Dir:Gholamreza Ramezani. Iran. 2004. 78mins.Want to make a heartwarming Iranian kids' movie' Take an endearing kid froma poor background, give her a goal, and then provide an obstacle. It worked forThe White Balloon (goal: buy goldfish; obstacle: money goes down thedrain, literally), and it works for Hayat, which opened the ...
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Reviews
One Day In Europe
Dir/scr: Hannes Stohr.Ger-Sp. 2005. 101mins.The idea, at least, is promising: four mini-stories set in four Europeancities, all playing out against the background of a major internationalfootball match. But in the end there's something frustratingly inconclusiveabout One Day In Europe, Hannes Stohr's follow-up to Berlin Is InGermany, which won the Panorama ...
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Reviews
Idiot Love (Amor Idiota)
Dir: Ventura Pons.Sp-And. 2005. 95mins.Catalan director Ventura Pons is something of a Berlin fixture: IdiotLove sets a festival record by being the sixth consecutive feature by thedirector to premiere here. It's an original love story, self-deprecatinglyironic but also fizzing with eroticism.If Italian director NanniMoretti ever decided to take on the ...
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Reviews
Son Of The Mask
Dir: Lawrence Guterman.US. 2005. 86mins.A decade after the aggressively manic original helped make Jim Carrey astar, New Line's family-oriented sequel to The Mask tries to make up forCarrey's absence by adding warm and fuzzy elements to the cartoonish,CG-enhanced (and still pretty in-your-face) comedy.It's a logical approach to abelated sequel: plenty ...
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Reviews
Smalltown, Italy (Provincia Meccanica)
LeeMarshall in RomeDir: Stefano Mordini. Italy. 2005. 107mins.The only Italian film in competition at Berlin this year, Smalltown,Italy depicts a bleak, post-industrial, dysfunctional Bel Paese that is along way from the tourist postcard cliches. Though the film is not without itsflaws, this is a promising debut for first-timer Mordini, a ...
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Reviews
Hitch
Dir: Andy Tennant. US2005. 115minsWhile it may not be on apar with benchmark romantic comedies like Pretty Woman, Andy Tennant's Hitchproves that even the unlikeliest love story works if backed up by a solid freshscript and believable, ingratiating characters.Columbia can expect a solidreturn on its this perfect date flick, both ...
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Reviews
Man To Man
UK-Fr-S Afr. 2004. 125mins.An uninspiring Berlinopener, Man To Man offers audiences an efficient but ultimately rathertrite Technicolor workout for their European post-colonial guilt.Regis Wargnier, director ofIndochine, here returns to a different jungle and a different colonialera with a story of three nineteenth-century Scottish scientists who use twocaptured African pygmies to ...