Review: The Salt Of Life***
The protagonist in writer/director and star Gianni Di Gregorio’s poignant new Italian drama, The Salt of Life (Gianni e le donne), may well be in his autumn years and settling down to retirement, but the message is the same for all who catch this touching tale: embrace life and all its opportunities. Gianni (played Di Gregorio himself) is a middle-aged family man who has recently retired. His wife and grown-up daughter seem too busy with their own lives, his mother (Valeria De Franciscis Bendoni) has him at her beck and call, and his randy old lawyer friend, Alfonso (Alfonso Santagata),…
Review: The Big Picture****
Rugged French actor Romain Duris came to international attention as charismatic professional relationship hacker Alex Lippi in Heartbreaker, opposite Vanessa Paradis last year. The unconventionally handsome actor has found a cheeky charmer niche it seems as lawyer Paul Exben in Eric Lartigau’s adaptation of Douglas Kennedy’s novel The Big Picture, a drama rather than a comedy this time that allows him to tap into a more serious acting side. Paul Exben (Duris) is a success story – partner in one of Paris’s most exclusive law firms with respected Anna (Catherine Deneuve), big salary, big house, glamorous wife and two sons….
Review: Cell 211****
Prison dramas are abundant, as are TV series depicting life behind bars that continue to fascinate audiences as they depict a pressure-cooker microcosm of life. So making a drama that stands out internationally is a tall order. But something quite unique about writer/director Daniel Monzón’s adaptation of Cell 211 (Celda 211)is the marriage of sheer viciousness that is never glorified with a very real and touching bromance that blurs our perceptions of good and bad, automatically and subconsciously draw at the start. Cell 211 is the story of a two men on different sides of prison life, a newbie guard…
Review: A Separation****
Iranian writer-director Asghar Farhadi’s Nader and Simin, A Separation (Jodaeiye Nader az Simin), or A Separation for short, is an illuminating and moving drama from the heart of one of the Middle East’s most guarded nations, Iran. Farhadi gives a truly fascinating and contemporary picture of the tensions brewing at the heart of its society, through a seemingly average occurrence and a genuine mistake. Winner of the 2011 Sydney Film Prize and the Golden Bear at the 2011 Berlin Film Festival, including Silver Bears for both Best Actor and Best Actress, A Separation tells the story of a couple, Nader…
Review: Potiche****
The reluctance that some non-French mainstream markets have in promoting a foreign-language film is thankfully subsiding year on year, considering the abundance of talent these films bring – take Point Blank/ À bout portant most recently, and the international crossover of their stars and themes. In fact, a film like François Ozon’s Potiche should translate in whatever language it’s shown in, purely for its universal, off-the-wall theatrics delivered by a superb cast of internationally renowned greats, Catherine Deneuve, Gérard Depardieu and Fabrice Luchini. An adaptation of a 1970s eponymous hit comic play, Potiche is set in a provincial French town…
Review: Point Blank****
Methodical in technique, Fred Cavayé‘s astoundingly astute eye for action-thriller writing/directing makes Point Blank one of the most lean, well-paced and credible international films of the genre in recent years. French film-makers have a born flair for this category, mixing heightened emotion with electrifying suspense, and Point Blank is no exception. But it’s far from formulaic, and is packed with twists and variations on the expected and realistic character responses to keep you totally engaged – forgiving the odd incredulous episode. Imagine Neeson’s Taken, without the added attraction of a big-named star. The story follows happily married male nurse Samuel…
Review: Julia’s Eyes****
Writer/director director Guillem Morales has a great talent for horror that fantasy-horror maestro and co-producer of this film, Guillermo del Toro has recognised. Morales is certainly welcomed into the del Toro fold, here, as he comes on board to direct del Toro’s The Orphanage leading lady, the mesmerising Belén Rueda, in this richly layered, beautifully-shot, and terrifyingly effective psychological thriller. One of the many films that premiered at 2010’s Toronto International Film Festival, Julia’s Eyes tells the story of a woman, Julia (Rueda), with a degenerative optical illness who believes her dead twin sister – who suffered from the same…
LFF: West Is West
East Is East (1999) was a breath of British comedy fresh air, a playful and broad-minded but poignantly comical look at the issues of integrating Pakistani culture in 1970s’ Britain, as portrayed through the lives of one Anglo-Pakistani family based in Salford, Greater Manchester. It had tears, laughter and frustrations, triggered through a series of everyday clashes and compromises, as experienced by the different generations of the Khan family. Over 10 years on, the same talented writer, Ayub Khan-Din, gives us the sequel, West Is West, that begins a heartfelt ‘coming-of-age’ journey in Salford, ending in the homelands of an…
LFF: Biutiful
Javier Bardem receiving a Best Actor Oscar nod for Alejandro González Iñárritu’s haunting Biutiful, after his Cannes Film Festival Best Actor triumph was hardly a great revelation to most. The haunting film in true woeful Iñárritu style, and one set for the first time in his native Spain, is a definite awards contender by any stretch of the imagination, featuring a career-defining moment for Bardem to play to his strengths. Incredibly moving and all consuming, Biutful is a bold and courageous take on the shadier side of Barcelona living, minus all the glamorous prestige that the European city usually gets….
LFF: Rare Exports
It’s silly season again, and the thought of yet another Santa movie thrills some and has others gnawing the furniture in despair. But writer/director Jalmari Helander’s alternative Christmas tale, Rare Exports, is one you’ll not forget in a hurry, based on two short films. It’s designed to challenge the schmaltzy, commercialised holiday season head on, with a Santa who has nasty bite. It’s a unique version based on the more sinister side of Norse (Scandinavian) mythology about Santa’s darker duties to punish children – and worse. Helander’s film starts out like any other thriller set in idyllic, snowy isolation, with this…
Get Social with Superstar Magazine