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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
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The reviews for this have already been written, but I'll throw in mine for good measure. A couple live together - The woman, a successful writer, German. The man, an unsuccessful writer and professor, French. They have a child.
One day the husband has an accident - a fall from the upper window of their house. Is it an accident, though, or something more sinister? Suicide? Homicide?
And so the movie takes us on the dissection of their relationship as seen through the eyes of the courts. The relationship, complex, wounded, in parts, unsavory and uncomfortable, but - then, what relationships aren't. The performances are compelling - the Wife, (lead character), you know her by type, intellectual, distant, not overly sympathetic. And so it goes with the rest of the characters, some more sympathetic than others, but adhering to the new movie formula of having no one you can 100% root for.
For a French film they did a brilliant thing, which was ensure over half of the film is conducted in English - the German wife speaks no French, the French husband no German, and so their relationship - dialogue, transpires in English.
This ensures a wider international audience.
Now, I've been sick and it's getting on time to find a comedy that runs under 3 hours, these foreign films, a treat for the intellect but once in a while I'd just like to laugh...
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 644
This was an interesting, 3 hour watch by the Soviet director Andre Tarkovsky it's a semi-biographic film on the life of Andrei Rublev, famous Russian Icon Painter of the early 15th Century.
Slowly shot, black and white (1966), a minimal of dialogue, - the background dialogue, when it's happening, isn't translated, but strangely moving.
A note, it's 3 hours long, and - in being filmed and set in a different era, Tarkovsky set a cow on fire, clubbed a dog to death and shoved a horse off a stairwell then stabbed it - not a film the SPCA would endorse, and in parts difficult to watch. Reminding me of "The Holy Mountain", where Jodorowsky killed hundreds of rabbits and blew up hundreds of toads. Unnecessarily cruel, and for people that seem to have a fair bit of Spiritual - ?? - well, it's a hard reconcile.
Then, given the time it was set in - early 1400's, when entire villages were razed by Tartars, raped and pillaged, where the King or Prince might as well decide to do the same, when the Plague was passing through Europe and killing 1/2, 2/3 people, comparing the age where death was of no consequence and seldom grieved, of no account, compared to now, where every war - Gaza - Israel, Rawanda, Ukraine, every plague - by comparison - is inconsequential and every life is held of immense value (unless you're killed by the cops). A - to the Western Mind - almost inconceivable point of view.
This is not to excuse the current state of affairs, but we've never had it so good, and it will be a long, long time before ever we have it so again.
Anyways, read up on it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Rublev_(film)
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 425
Which was a quiet, understated film, about a group of students "held over" at their boarding school. A charming, melancholy, Character-driven film.
Good. Not, as reviewed, "Great", but better than a few others I've seen.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 408
This I've noticed as of late - the Film School of US VS THEM, films and series populated with non-sympathetic characters, like "reality" TV we're provided insights into despicable people, or people that we can recognize as others - but with whom there can be no sympathy. It's voyeuristic, divisive, think "Triangle of Sadness" or "Infinity Pool", there's nothing approaching a protagonist, no one to root for, the abstractions of class, plot, are not enough.
Anyways, just something I'd noted in the last few movies I've watched. Film - and narrative - is better served when you've somebody to root for.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 506
I'd forgotten why I downloaded this, Coen Brothers was probably reason enough, but then, at the beginning, the dibbuk again, so clearly I was on some mission prompted by Wiki Word Golf.
This was unusual for them, they're typical style but confined to a Jewish Professor who's life is falling apart in every conceivable way.
Well done, but always, interesting characters, scenarios, but - really, as if I weren't thoughtful enough over the holidays I didn't need this.
Anyways, what's next? There are movies to be seen for sure. Only which ones. Although, given the last few I've watched I'm thinking I should go back to books for a bit...