Film Dictionary

August 8, 2007

La Graine et le mulet (2007) ***

Héros (2007) *

French film about an insane man kidnapping a celebrity.

La Naissance des pieuvres (2007) ***

Roman de gare (2007) **

Ingenious French film about ghost-writing and serial killers.

Monsieur Max (2007) ***

French drama set in Nazi-occupied France.

Et toi t'es sur qui ? (2007) **

French drama about teenage girls trying to lose their virginity. Directed by Lola Doillon.

Michou d'Auber (2007) **

Touching film about a little Algerian boy in the 1960's France.

Dialogue avec mon jardiner (2007) ***

Les Chansons d'amour (2007) ***

Jardins en automne (2007) **

A typical Otar Iosseliani's film, about a fired government minister discovering the joys of a simple life.

Ensemble c'est tout (2007) **

Audrey Tautou stars in this French drama adapted from a novel by Anna Gavalda.

July 7, 2007

A Hungarian drama directed by János Szász, "Opium" (also known as "Opium: Diary of a Madwoman") is a very unusual film despite its superficially familiar subject matter. Kirsti Stubø plays a patient in an insane asylum who has a passionate love affair with a resident physician. But there is a twist. The doctor in question is a drug addict, while the woman is actually a very gifted writer. And this isn't the only unusual twist on the familiar "crazy-girl-helped-by-a-kind-doctor" formula of such classic melodramas as "Lilith", "The Three Faces of Eve" or "Suddenly Last Summer". Unlike those earlier films, "Opium" (set in 1913) is unflinching in its realistic portrayal of the realities of a mental-health institution where disturbed women are "cured" by primitive lobotomies that drive metal spikes through their eyeball into the brain. In its display of many strange medical paraphernalia of the period that suspiciously resemble instruments of torture, the film actually looks and feels more like a horror movie than a human drama. But a human drama it is, thanks in large part to Kirsti Stubø's unbelievably intense performance. Whether masturbating with a pencil, writhing uncontrollably under observation, or simply staring blankly into space, she perfectly captures the tragedy of a remarkable woman - intelligent and gifted, but also completely insane.

Ben X (2007) ***

Bakushi (2007) ***

Lust, Caution (2007) ***

We are in Shanghai during World War II. The city in under Japanese occupation. A group of Chinese patriots decide to assassinate a high-ranking Chinese traitor (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai). They send a young student (Tang Wei) to seduce him. While the situation is quite similar to the one presented in "Black Book", no two films could be more dissimilar. In fact - SPOILERS AHEAD - both films could be seen as mirror opposites of each other, united only by intense eroticism. "Black Book" is a story of a sexually liberated woman falling in love with a proverbial "Good German". "Lust Caution" is a story of a sexually inexperienced woman falling in lust with a manipulative monster. He's hardly a tender lover. Their first sexual encounter could only be described as a brutal rape. But it is precisely because he treats her so harshly that this innocent girl (whose own masochistic tendencies she blissfully ignores, but which are quite evident to the viewer) falls head over heels in lust with him. Directed by Ang Lee, "Lust Caution" is a powerful and marvellous erotic film, and a deeply disturbing spy melodrama. It's one thing to watch a young masochist having the time of her life in the clutches of a brutal sadist; it is quite another to watch a idealistic freedom fighter sacrificing, in vain, her life, her cause and her moral integrity. It is a deeply disturbing tragedy about lust and treason.

Beaufort (2007) **

Israeli war drama.

Juju Factory (2007) **

Interesting film about a Congolese writer living in Brussels.

Lezioni di Volo (2007) *

Two young Italians decide to travel to India.

Caramel (2007) **

A mildly feminist Lebanese film set in a beauty salon in Beyrouth.

Quién dice que es facil ? (2007) **

Argentinian comedy about an anal-retentive guy falling in love with a free-sprited woman.

Franz + Polina (2007) *

Russian film set in Belarus during the Nazi occupation.

Bestiar (2007) **

Czech film about a single girl and all the men in her life.

Sakuran (2007) *

A Japanese film about a geisha.

Pusinky (2007) ***

20,13 (2007) *

Portuguese film set in Mozambique in 1969 during colonial wars.

New Tokyo Decadence – The Slave (2007) ***

Sztuczki (2007) **

"The Butterfly Effect", Polish-style.

Beautiful Bitch (2007) **

German film about a young Romanian girl forced to steal.

A Day For An Affair (2007) **

South Korean comedy about two housewives cheating on their husbands.

My Dream (2007) *

Chinese musical performed entirely by handicapped artists. Visually quite interesting, but very uneven.

The Russian Triangle (2007) **

Complex Georgian film about Chechen terrorism and Russian racism. An allegory about the rise of putinism in Russia. Directed by Aleko Tsabadze.

The New Man (2007) **

Swedish film about sterilization.

Summer Rain (2007) *

Antonio Banderas second feature film as a director (and first one in Spain) is very disappointing.

Teeth Of Love (2007) **

Chinese film about love and abortion.

Fata Morgana (2007) **

German film about a young couple who get lost in the Sahara desert.

El Nino de barro (2007) **

Argentinian film about a serial killer.

Noodle (2007) *

Israeli film about a flight attendant who must take care of a abandoned child, whose mother, an illegal immigrant, has just been deported.

VHS Kaloucha (2007) **

A documentary about Moncef Kaloucha, a Tunisian Ed Wood who makes insanely cheap and insanely bad action movies (such as ''Tarzan Of The Arabs") and distributes them himself.