Truly magical and emotional exploration of life in post war Italy. wonderfully filmed and great story. The extras are worth a look as they have a bit on revisiting the scene many years later. Classic and well worth seeing.
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This is a sweet, funny film that should be more readily available. The American remake did not do it any justice - somehow it is extremely amusing in French but just doesn't cut it in English.
GD is as always very funny, very restrained, hysterical facial expressions... it's sweet how he tries his best to back up his daughter's outrageous stories.
After all is said and done it's about the relationship between father and daughter more than her and the guy she falls for, and all the better for it. Watch it!
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Whilst most war films highlight the violence, destruction and senseless brutality of conflict Prisoner of the mountains chooses to focus on the relationships between the characters thrown together by Russias conflict with Chechnya. Protagonist Vanya is a conscript who has no time to find his feet before he is captured by the enemy along with hardened veteran Sasha. Vanyas naievity and innocence contrasts with Sashas toughness and as a result leads him to form a friendship with the daughter of his captor Abdul whose intention is to use the captives as a bargaining chip to secure the release of his own son held by the Russians in a nearby town, garrisoned by an apathetic conscript force and led by an equally jaded commander.If you are excpecting an action packed ... Read More:
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On a sunny day in Naples, a rich young man comes to the market to buy horses. He is tricked by a woman into believing he is her brother and he ends in the tank of the toilet, robbed and soiled. But escaping that trap he finds himself in the street and the scene turns fantastic. The women from their windows tell him to disappear and the men in the street tell him just the same. So there he runs away dressed in his underwear soaked in and perfumed with human feces. His descent to hell in a way. He hides from some nocturnal men in a barrel in some underground cellar but not for long. The men are thieves and they hire him on a mission and there the real film really starts. You will have to go and see it if you want to get the details. Who will die and who will survive, that is ... Read More:
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If you are looking for an action-packed, thrill-a-minute sort of film then you should probably look elsewhere. If that first sentence hasn't put you off buying Le Boucher then you'll know it's right for you. The film contains some superb acting, but the real star of the show for me was the French countryside. The 1960s in rural France are wonderfully evoked and gave me a sense of longing to step into that now disappeared world.
For me the psychological thrill element worked perfectly. It's not clear whether or not the seemingly nice butcher (who, incidentally, looks quite like Harry H Corbett from Steptoe and Son) from from the village is a sadistic killer or simply what he purports to be. Is the schoolmistress safe with him in her house? The film builds to a tension-filled ... Read More:
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The name Ken Loach is synonymous with films which have a realism unparalleled by any other major director.
This film is set in Scotland (council estates obviously, this IS a Ken Loach film!) and tells the story of a recovering alcoholic, Joe.
I'd love to discuss some of the plot but I think I might give things away. This is a very personal journey and it would be unfair of me to spoil it.
All I'll say is that Joe has had a dodgy past but finally finds his life in a stable condition. He is a sober, moral man who becomes involved in a situation which compromises his ethics - but feels he has no choice.
This is perfectly acted, and feels so real that I was desperate to know the fate of the characters. Once the film finishes, those characters ... Read More:
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The music (Mozart's 21st piano concerto) is perfect, the scenery and photography is beautiful and the story exhilarating, poignant and tragic. It is an exquisite experience to see it.
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Ewan McGregor, playing an English translator in Hong Kong, has a love affair with a Japanese woman with a very curious fetish: writing in fine Japanese calligraphy the body of her lovers. Sex and literature can be a good combination, but not if the chef is Peter Greenaway (The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover). The movie is very silly, but is sort of watchable (the obvious beauty of Vivian Wu, who plays the Japanese lover and appears naked several times - as does McGregor - certainly helps). This was the last film of Greenaway to have some sort of commercial impact. After that, he made the awful 8 1/2 Women and then retreated to the art world (where he probably feels more comfortable).
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