All articles by Lee Marshall – Page 39
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ReviewsThe Pleasure Of Being Robbed
Dir: Josh Safdie. US. 2008. 68mins.A glance at the multi-tasking names in the credits is enough to show just how homemade New York film-maker Josh Safdie’s debut film is. And at just 68 minutes, it challenges the definition of full-length feature. But it would be a ...
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ReviewsPrivate Lessons (Eleve Libre)
Dir: Joachim Lafosse. Belgium-France. 2008. 105mins.Reunited with the same co-writer, the same crew and many of the same themes he explored in his 2006 Venice competion entry Private Property (Nue Propriete), buzzy Belgian auteur Joaquim Lafosse crafts another original, disturbing work which fails however to scale ...
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ReviewsThe Rest Of The Night (Il Resto Della Notte)
Dir/scr: Francesco Munzi. Italy. 2008. 103mins.Frederico Munzi lives up to the promise he showed in his debut Saimir with this dark multi-linear drama-thriller set amongst Italy’s new immigrant underclass. It’s a timely theme given the ongoing crackdown on illegal immigration by the country’s recently elected centre-right ...
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ReviewsThe Headless Woman (La Mujer Sin Cabeza)
Dir/scr: Lucrecia Martel. Argentina-Spain-France-Italy. 2008. 87mins.
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Reviews
Blind Loves (Slepe Lasky)
Dir: Juraj Lehotsky.Slovakia. 2008. 76mins.A film its actors will never see, Blind Loves traces four blind people in theSlovakRepublicand investigates, in a seamless meld of documentary and fiction, how they experience love. Touching and original, this first full-length outing from documentary and music-video director Juraj Lehotsky ...
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ReviewsSalt Of This Sea (Milh Hadha Al-Bahr)
Dir/scr. Annemarie Jacir. France-Palestine-Switz-Belgium-USA-UK-Neth-Spain. 2008. 89mins.
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News
The critical view - Is niche cinema losing its hold on audiences'
Every so often we are told that audiences are ripe for a 'return to genre'. This is not just academic; genre-oriented production companies, such as Filmax in Spain, NoShame in Italy or Sahamongkol in Thailand, have money riding on our appetite for contemporary Euro-horror, hard-boiled Milanese crime classics or Muay ...
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Reviews
The Guard Post
Dir. Kong Su-chang. South Korea . 2008. 122 mins.Like Park Chan-wook's Joint Security Area (2000), The Guard Post is set on the edge of the demilitarized zone that separates the two Koreas. Also like JSA, it uses an investigation into an incident involving a group of army recruits as an ...
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Reviews
An Empress And The Warriors
Dir. Tony Ching. Hong Kong/China. 2008. 93 mins.Celebrated action choreographer Tony Ching's latest and most ambitious directorial outing is a case study in the dangers of setting out deliberately to make a martial arts epic with wide territorial outreach and broad audience appeal. A light yarn about a female ruler's ...
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Reviews
L: Change The World
Dir: Hideo Nakata. Japan . 2008. 130 mins.A strong whiff of the well-milked cash cow hangs around this pedestrian follow-up to the hugely popular Death Note films - live-action versions of Takeshi Obata's bestselling manga. Though Goths the world over will rejoice at the top billing given here to cool, ...
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News
The critical view: the art of the film ending
Those of you who have been living in a forest hut for the last year and haven't got around to seeing the Coen brothers' No Country For Old Men should stop reading here.This week my subject is film endings - in particular the frustratingly brilliant climax to their adaptation of ...
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Reviews
The Chicken, The Fish And The King Crab ((El Pollo, El Pez Y El Cangrejo Real))
Dir: Jose Luis Lopez-Linares. Spain. 2008. 87mins.Jose Luis Lopez-Linares'nuanced documentary is at once an enjoyable satire on the modern cult of the top-flight chef and a telling human story about shattered illusions and personal growth. Following its late slot at the Berlinale - where the film managed to lift and ...
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News
Critical Mass: Lee Marshall looks at disappearing critics
The trend is undeniable: US newspapers and weekly magazines have shed around 30 film critics over the last two years, either by sacking them outright or by forcing them into early retirement. Some - such as veteran David Ansen at Newsweek - are likely to be replaced; but many more, ...
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News
Critical opinion: The industry should take a fresh look at film theory
To many ordinary film-goers, film critics are like sexologists: they spoil an enjoyable activity by talking about it too much. Film critics and sexologists argue their job is to help people enjoy that activity more - by realising what they're doing wrong and avoiding the positions that don't work or ...
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News
The critical view - Riding microtrends
Mark J Penn is the polling analyst famous for helping Bill Clinton to re-election in 1996 by identifying 'soccer moms' - busy, smart suburban women - as a crucial, overlooked sector of the electorate.Dubbed 'the guru of small things' by The New York Times, Penn has built a career on ...
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Reviews
Before The Fall (3 Dias)
Dir: Francisco Javier Gutierrez. Spain 2008. 93 mins.The buzz surrounding this Spanish sci-fi thriller at Berlin was fuelled by both the co-production involvement of Antonio Banderas and the news that Euro genre giant Filmax had picked up international rights. It's difficult to see what all the fuss is about: for ...