Tuesday, May 31, 2016

The Pianist (2002)



 

Cannes Film Festival 2002

Won
Palme d'Or
Roman Polanski

Academy Awards, USA 2003

Won
Oscar
Best Actor in a Leading Role
Adrien Brody
Best Director
Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski was not present at the awards ceremony, being a fugitive from U.S. justice since ... More
Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay
Ronald Harwood
Nominated
Oscar
Best Picture
Roman Polanski
Robert Benmussa
Alain Sarde
Best Cinematography
Pawel Edelman
Best Costume Design
Anna B. Sheppard
Best Film Editing
Hervé de Luze

Focus Features
Directed by Roman Polanski
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Universal)

Jewish families are forced to relocate to the Warsaw ghetto where they are relentlessly harassed, and sometimes murdered, by Nazi soldiers who treat them no better than animals. We follow one such family through the horrible ordeal. They are eventually separated at a train station where some are taken to their deaths but one escapes through the actions of an unlikely friend. He spends the next several years on the run: at first living in vacant apartments provided by the underground resistance, but a few years later barely surviving in the bombed out remnants of the city. These harrowing scenes are the most effective in an otherwise familiar, if well-made, story. Even the final gesture of good will by a Nazi officer will come as no surprise.

The Immigrant (2013)



Cannes Film Festival 2013

Nominated
Palme d'Or
James Gray

The Weinstein Company
Directed by James Gray
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Netflix)

Two Polish sisters arrive at Ellis Island in the early 1920s: one gets sent to the infirmary where she is diagnosed with TB while the other is marked for deportation because of an incident on the boat on the way over. She gets "rescued" by a man posing as traveler's aid, who takes her home and puts her in his burlesque show. Needing money to get her sister out of the hospital, she soon succumbs to the man's pressure to become a prostitute. Meanwhile a magician falls in love with her, but her pimp becomes insanely jealous. His final gesture of reconciliation rings hollow as all the characters meet their predictable fates. A good story somewhat wasted by the final act. Joaquin Phoenix as the leader of the show and pimp for the girls struggles with a tendency to chew up the scenery. Marion Cotillard as the girl is his polar opposite.

Monday, May 30, 2016

The Conversation (1974)

 

 

 Academy Awards, USA 1975

Nominated
Oscar
Best Picture
Francis Ford Coppola
Best Writing, Original Screenplay
Francis Ford Coppola
Best Sound
Walter Murch
Art Rochester

Cannes Film Festival 1974

Won
Palme d'Or
Francis Ford Coppola
Won
Prize of the Ecumenical Jury - Special Mention
Francis Ford Coppola

Paramount Pictures
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
My rating: 4 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, Lionsgate)

Security expert Gene Hackman makes his living by secretly recording conversations. He is hired by a mysterious "director" to record conversations between a man and a woman at a park in San Francisco. He does not know what they are suspected of doing or why he has been hired, however when he overhears them saying they might be killed he begins to fear for their safety. A brilliant character study of a lonely man unable to connect with people despite a job in which he listens to their most intimate conversations. It is also a shocking thriller with a clever plot twist that revolves around the inflection of just one spoken word.

Saturday, May 28, 2016

Rosetta (1999)



Cannes Film Festival 1999

Won
Best Actress
Émilie Dequenne
Tied with Séverine Caneele for Humanité (1999).
Won
Palme d'Or
Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Luc Dardenne
Won
Prize of the Ecumenical Jury - Special Mention
Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Luc Dardenne

USA Films
Directed by Jean-Piere and Luc Dardenne
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, Criterion Collection)

Belgian teenager tries to survive while living in a trailer park with her unreliable mother. She frantically tries to stay employed, but gets fired from a series of menial jobs. She meets a boy at a "waffle stand" near a bus station. Her inability to express her feelings nearly ruins their relationship, and when she turns on him in order to get his job she fears for her safety. Well-developed character study shot in the trademark Dardenne bothers style featuring handheld camerawork and low budget aesthetics.

Thursday, May 26, 2016

The Third Man (1949)

 

 

 Academy Awards, USA 1951

Won
Oscar
Best Cinematography, Black-and-White
Robert Krasker
Nominated
Oscar
Best Director
Carol Reed
Best Film Editing
Oswald Hafenrichter

 

Cannes Film Festival 1949

Won
Grand Prize of the Festival
Carol Reed

British Lion (UK)
Directed by Carol Reed
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Criterion Collection)

Writer Joseph Cotten arrives in post-war Vienna to take a job with an old friend. Instead, the friend dies under mysterious circumstances and Cotten decides to find out what happened. His investigation takes him into the shadowy underworld of the Vienna black market. His allegiance to his old friend is tested and he slowly falls for his girlfriend as well, although her motives are suspect. Talky and a little too convoluted for its own good, but cinematographer Robert Krasker makes the most of the Vienna locations, particularly the spectacular architecture of its sewers! The constant zither soundtrack eventually outstays its welcome, and almost destroys the mood.

Beyond the Hills (2012)


Cannes Film Festival 2012

Won
Best Actress
Cristina Flutur
Cosmina Stratan
Won
Best Screenplay
Cristian Mungiu
Nominated
Palme d'Or
Cristian Mungiu

Sundance Selects
Directed by Cristian Mungiu
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Netflix)

When an aspiring nun's former lesbian lover shows up at her convent she struggles to keep control of the situation. Her former girlfriend is still deeply in love with her and cannot accept the fact that she has given her life to God. Her emotional and sometimes violent outbursts upset the usual tranquil life at the remote Romanian convent. The other nun's attribute her behavior to something more sinister, leading to a bizarre confrontation and tragedy.  A plot holding much promise instead proceeds at a snail's pace under the direction of Mungiu and lands with a giant thud. It has its moments, if you can stay awake for them.

Amour (2012)


Cannes Film Festival 2012

Won
Palme d'Or
Michael Haneke

Academy Awards, USA 2013

Won
Oscar
Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
Austria
Nominated
Oscar
Best Motion Picture of the Year
Stefan Arndt
Margaret Ménégoz
Veit Heiduschka
Michael Katz
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Emmanuelle Riva
Best Achievement in Directing
Michael Haneke
Best Writing, Original Screenplay
Michael Haneke

Sony Pictures Classics
Directed by Michael Haneke
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, Sony)

An elderly Parisian couple, retired piano teachers, live in a small apartment and actively participate in the city's classical events. One morning at breakfast his wife suffers a stroke. At first it seems as if she will be unaffected, but an operation leaves her paralyzed on her right side. She becomes more and more dependent on him for her daily life. More strokes leave her bedridden and unable to speak. Fulfilling a promise not to put her away in a hospital or hospice, he hires nurses to help take care of her. As her health continues to deteriorate, her personality disappears and she lives in almost constant pain. This forces him to make a drastic decision. Haneke's matter-of-fact treatment of her deteriorating condition almost seems like an invasion of privacy.  It might work as a training film for caretakers, or as a depressing glimpse as to what we all might expect in our last few years. Exquisitely acted, but it would be hard to call this entertainment.

Outrage (2010)


Cannes Film Festival 2010

Nominated
Palme d'Or
Takeshi Kitano

Magnet Releasing
Directed by Takeshi Kitano
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Netflix)

Yakuza in modern Tokyo kill each other in a never-ending struggle for power. A gang war is purposefully initiated in a staged shakedown at a nightclub involving rival gang members.  Rather than a film driven by plot and character, director Takeshi decides to exploit the violence. Slickly filmed but ultimately numbing. 

Gomorrah (2008)


 

Cannes Film Festival 2008

Won
Grand Prize of the Jury
Matteo Garrone
Nominated
Palme d'Or
Matteo Garrone

IFC Films
Directed by Matteo Garrone
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Netflix)

Poverty, overcrowding and drug abuse in the large tenement buildings surrounding Naples, Italy, drive its inhabitants to turn to crime. Two teenage friends aspire to become "bosses" when they find a stash of hidden mafia guns. An even younger boy turns informant on the woman who stands in for his absent mother. At the top of this food chain of violence and murder are the aging mobsters, themselves ripe targets for takeover. A disorganized look at organized crime, what it lacks in plot it more than makes up for in rich characters.

Friday, May 20, 2016

Taste of Cherry (1997)


Cannes Film Festival 1997

Won
Palme d'Or
Abbas Kiarostami
Tied with The Eel (1997).

Zeitgeist Films
Directed by Abbas Kiarostami
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Criterion Collection)

A middle aged Iranian man intent on committing suicide searches for someone to bury him the next morning. He drives around dusty landscapes near Tehran picking up various passengers and trying to convince them. A young soldier listens intently but runs away at the first opportunity and an Afghani seminary student argues against him on religious grounds, but he finally finds someone in an older Turkish man who works at a museum. It's tough going in this dialogue-heavy, snail-paced, enigmatic film from Kiarostami.

Thursday, May 19, 2016

Killing Them Softly (2012)


 

Cannes Film Festival 2012

Nominated
Palme d'Or
Andrew Dominik

The Weinstein Company
Directed by Andrew Dominik
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Netflix)

Two low level thugs are hired to hold up a mob card game. They get away with the money, but the gangsters hire professional hit man Brad Pitt to find and kill them. Pitt, friends with one of the thugs, hires aging hitman James Gandolfini to help. Interesting character study of various sundry types with little regard for the value of human life. Pitt tries to stay above the fray and ruminates on the nature of his job. Gandolfini may be the most repulsive of the bunch: a middle aged sex addict and alchoholic. Occasional political imagery from the 2012 presidential election is nothing more than bacground chatter.

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

The Hireling (1973)


Cannes Film Festival 1973

Won
Palme d'Or
Alan Bridges
Tied with Scarecrow (1973).
Won
Special Award
Sarah Miles

Columbia Pictures
Directed by Alan Bridges
My rating: 3.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Sony Choice Collection)

Sarah Miles is a wealthy British woman who suffers a nervous breakdown after the death of her husband. Released from an institution, she hires Robert Shaw as her chauffeur. His affable personality helps her to recover and they take long drives together. As she gradually resumes her previous social life among the political elite, he falls in love with her. One night he makes a pass at her but is rejected. Furthermore, she becomes engaged to a politician that he loathes. He reacts by going on a drunken rampage. Insightful look at the differences that separate the social classes in Britain, moodily photographed by Michael Reed.

Friendly Persuasion (1956)


Cannes Film Festival 1957

Won
Palme d'Or
William Wyler


Academy Awards, USA 1957

Nominated
Oscar
Best Picture
William Wyler
Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Anthony Perkins
Best Director
William Wyler
Best Writing, Best Screenplay - Adapted
Michael Wilson
Due to being blacklisted Michael Wilson did not receive a screen credit, which under special Academy by-law made him ineligible personally although the writing achievement itself could be eligible. In early 1957 AMPAS instructed Price Waterhouse & Co. not to list any nomination declared ineligible under the by-law and thus this nomination was not included on the final voting ballot. The by-law was laster declared unworkable in January 1959. In December 2002 the Academy reinstated Mr. Wilson's nomination.
Best Sound, Recording
Gordon R. Glennan (Westrex Sound Services)
Gordon Sawyer (Samuel Goldwyn SSD)
Best Music, Original Song
Dimitri Tiomkin (music)
Paul Francis Webster (lyrics)
For the song "Friendly Persuasion (Thee I Love)".


Allied Artists Pictures
Directed by William Wyler
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Bros.)

A Quaker family in rural Indiana tests their faith's call for non-violence when Confederate soldiers threaten their home. Dad Gary Cooper has already made some concessions: such as buying an organ (music is forbidden) and engaging in friendly horse racing with a neighbor. His wife, a preacher, objects but other than sleeping in the barn can't do much about it. His daughter flirts with a Union soldier and, gasp, dances at the fair. His son, Anthony Perkins, faces a more difficult decision: whether or not to pick up a gun and possibly kill another man. The first hour and a half is wasted on the more mundane aspects of their family life, with poor attempts at comedy: Cooper just is not very good at it. By the time the Rebs arrive it's almost an afterthought. More time is spent on the organ than Perkin's struggle with his conscious.

Viridiana (1961)


Cannes Film Festival 1961

Won
Palme d'Or
Luis Buñuel
Tied with The Long Absence (1961).

Kingsley-International Pictures
Directed by  Luis Buñuel
My rating: 3.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Criterion Collection)

Young Viridiana, about to take the vows to become a nun, takes a last minute visit to her uncle. Although she barely knows him, she is grateful for his financial support. However, her uncanny resemblance to his dead wife results in a rejected marriage proposal. Undeterred, he drugs her and plans to rape her, but changes his mind. When she wakes up, he tells her that he did anyway. The guilt causes him to commit suicide. She decides not take her vows and instead opens up the uncle's farmhouse to homeless beggars. Her uncle's illegitimate son and his girlfriend also move in to fix up the place. However, like his father, he lusts after Viridiana, leading to more tragedy. Best described as an "intellectual melodrama" the plot is complex and lurid. Bunuel's scathing attack on the church lurks constantly beneath, and sometimes above, the surface: a burning crown of thorns, the beggar's mocking Last Supper and Viridiana's own disillusionment.