Latest – Page 657
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Reviews
Woman Is The Future Of Man (La Femme Est L'avenir De L'homme)
Dir:Hong Sang-soo. S Korea/France. 2004. 88mins.Unfortunately,the best thing about Korean director Hong Sang-soo's Cannes competition film WomanIs The Future Of Man is its title, taken from the poet Aragon. The film ishandsomely mounted, and the glittery shine and tawdry dirt of contemporaryurban South Korea is always fascinating to behold, but ...
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Reviews
Welcome To Switzerland (Bienvenue En Suisse)
Dir/scr:Lea Fazer. Fr-Switz. 2004. 107mins.Awould-be crowd-pleasing comedy, Lea Fazer's one-joke comedy of culturalmisunderstandings squanders a talented cast and quickly wears out its welcome.Ahighly inappropriate selection to open the Un Certain Regard section at Cannesthis year, the film is too broad to appeal on the festival circuit, and is tooculturally specific ...
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Reviews
De-Lovely
Dir: Irwin Winkler. US.2004. 125mins.De-Lovely is one of those movies which begs the question why. Why in2004 make an old-fashioned biopic of homosexual composer Cole Porter as aheterosexual romance' Why re-record Cole Porter numbers with contemporary popacts when it was done so effectively for charity 15 years ago by the ...
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Reviews
A Common Thread (Brodeuses)
Dir: Eleonore Faucher. Fr.2004. 88minsAssured and tenderly felt, ACommon Thread (Brodeuses) announces a promising new talent inwriter-director Eleonore Faucher. The story of a rural teenager coming to termswith her pregnancy and her future has some affinities with Agnes Varda's Vagabondeand the Dardennes brothers Rosetta. ACommon Thread doesn't share their gritty ...
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Reviews
Cronicas
Dir: Sebastian Cordero. Ecuador-Mex. 2004. 107minsHere comes the next LatinAmerican candidate for Hollywood glory: Ecuador's Sebastian Cordero. His tough,gritty, uncompromising first film, Ratos,Ratones, Rateros (known in English as Rodents)- about punks, thieves and petty criminals living in the streets of Quito - didthe festival rounds several years ago, landed quite ...
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Reviews
After We're Gone (En Attendant Le Deluge)
Dir/scr: Damien Odoul. France. 2004. 80minsCannes simply would not be Cannes without at least onehighly-rated French auteur coming a cropper. This year it was the turn ofDamien Odoul, who made a dazzling debut in 2000 with Le Souffle, adream-like rural coming-of-age drama.Havinglost momentum with his prestigiously cast follow-up L'Errance, Odoul ...
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Reviews
Tropical Malady (Sud Pralad)
Dir:Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Fr-Thai-It-Ger. 2004. 118minsDeeplysubmerged within Apichatpong Weerasethakul's often impenetrable andoccasionally boring fable Tropical Malady, is a wonderful exploration of a perennialtheme: what makes a human being more than an animal' It begins promisingly witha passage from novelist Ton Nakajima: "All of us are by nature wild beasts andour duty ...
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Reviews
Duck Season (Temporada De Patos)
Dir/scr:Fernando Eimbcke. Mexico. 2004. 90minsFouryears ago, Critics' Week unearthed Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's AmoresPerros. While Temporado De Patos has little chance of emulating theinternational success of Inarritu's film, which grossed over $5m in the US andsold worldwide, Fernando Eimbcke's likeable debut feature looks likely to enjoya long life on the festival ...
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Reviews
10 On Ten
Dir/scr/ed:Abbas Kiarostami. Fr-Iran. 2004. 83mins.Essentiallyan extended lecture on cinema, Abbas Kiarostami's Un Certain Regard entry willbe sure to adorn every self-respecting festival in the world yet, by the sametoken, few commercial exhibitors will ever contemplate selling tickets to apaying audience. Devised as a series of 10 lessons in film-making, the ...
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Reviews
Somersault
Dir/scr: Cate Shortland.Australia. 2004. 106 minsA haunting little story ofsex, guilt, love and all the confusion in between, Somersault marks aquietly impressive feature debut from writer-director Cate Shortland after astring of award-winning shorts. The interaction between a number of complex,interestingly developed characters is set against the unusual beauty of remoterural ...
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Reviews
Mondovino
Dir:Jonathon Nossiter. US-France. 2004 159minsSomewherewithin Jonathan Nossiter's bloated, self-indulgent new documentary Mondovinothere may lurk a fascinating hour-long offering, perfectly suitable for a spoton cable TV, that explores the contemporary world of wine but one would be hardpressed to find it. Thedirector of the genuinely affecting Sunday (1997) and the ambitious ...
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Reviews
Harry Potter & The Prisoner Of Azkaban
Dir: Alfonso Cuaron. US.2004. Alfonso Cuaron brings a newstreak of magic to the Harry Potterseries in the third picture from JK Rowling's books, The Prisoner Of Azkaban. Draining the world of Hogwarts of colourand Hollywood trappings, Cuaron delivers a genuinely spooky and emotionallyinvolving adventure which gives the world of Potter ...
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Reviews
Cavedweller
Dir. Lisa Cholodenko. US.2004. 120mins.A powerful and nuancedpiece of storytelling, Cavedwellerfollows in the wreckage-strewn wake of a woman trying to rebuild her lifeamidst the deaths of her two husbands and the bitterness of her daughters byboth men. Based on the novel by Dorothy Allison, it stars and is executiveproduced by ...
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Reviews
Nobody Knows (Daremo Shiranai)
Dir/scr: Kore-edaHirokazu. Japan. 2004. 141mins.A nightmare scenario ofparental neglect is rendered as a plaintive neo-realist ode to childhood inthis long-gestating project from writer-director Kore-eda Hirokazu. Inspired bya true event from the late 1980s, NobodyKnows offers a closely-observed portrait of four youngsters seeking tomaintain some semblance of normality after their mother ...
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Reviews
Aftermath (Lad De Sma Born)
Dir: Paprika Steen.Denmark. 2004. 100 minsAn award-winning presence in a string of Dogme films (Festen, Mifune,Open Hearts etc), actress Paprika Steen takes a very different stylisticapproach in her assured directorial debut. Aftermath is a polished, mournfulexamination of grief distinguished by its careful compositions, deeply feltperformances and rigid avoidance of sentimentality.Its ...
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Reviews
The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers
Dir: Stephen Hopkins. US. 2004. 129 minsA tour de forceperformance from Geoffrey Rush is the star attraction and saving grace of The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers, aflashy, highly selective biography of the late comedian. Sellers signaturecharacter was the defective detective Inspector Clouseau but Chance in Being There appears ...
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Reviews
The Day After Tomorrow
Dir: Roland Emmerich. US.2004. 125 mins TBA.The box office fate of TheDay After Tomorrow was sealed the moment its trailer hit theatres.Eye-popping scenes of the beleaguered streets of New York City being engulfedby a tidal wave or Los Angeles ripped apart by tornadoes created ripples ofexcitement among audiences itching to ...
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Reviews
Clean
Dir/scr: Olivier Assayas.France/Canada 2004. 80 mins.Like his film's heroine,French director Olivier Assayas returns to the straight and narrow in Clean,an emotionally fluent drama that is a world removed from his last film, theexperimental cyber-thriller Demonlover. Another predominantlyEnglish-language venture, Clean sees Assayas working again with Asianstar and ex-wife Maggie Cheung for ...
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Reviews
Exiles (Exils)
Dir/scr: Tony Gatlif.France. 2004. 103minsDirector Tony Gatlif'syearning to return to the land of his childhood is the guiding motivationbehind Exiles, a polished road movie journey of self-discovery thattakes place between France and Algeria. Unfortunately, it is the local colour,vibrant locations and use of music that linger in the memory rather ...
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Reviews
House Of Flying Daggers
Dir/scr: ZhangYimou. Chi-HK. 2004. 119minsBeyond a doubt the mostvisually ravishing film on offer at Cannes this year, Zhang Yimou's return tothe sword-fighting genre - following last year's Hero - mixes action,romance and a touch of dance to uneven but often thrilling effect.Acquired by Sony PicturesClassics in the US, the film ...