Le Havre (Finland-Fr-Ger-Nor, 2011)

The best way of understanding (sort of) writer-producer-director Aki Kaurismaki’s universe might be through the answer he gave to a question, in May’s Sight & Sound, about whether he was his dogs’ agent: ‘No, my wife is. So it’s tough negotiation. When I start to write the screenplay, always on the third day my wife [...]

A Dangerous Method (UK-Ger-Can-Switz, 2011)

It would be churlish to complain that a film about the parents of psychoanalysis was too talky, so I won’t. The film’s built around the possible, as I understand it, sexual relationship between Carl Jung and one of his patients, Sabine Spielrein, superbly played by Keira Knightley. Jung’s infidelity was prompted by Otto Gross, a [...]

Carnage (Fr-Ger-Pol-Sp, 2011)

What’s the point in filming a play? Shakespeare’s robust enough to take virtually anything but a one-set, four-hander…? Well, you get to cast Jodie Foster and Kate Winslet; not to mention John C Reilly. And they are a treat; particularly Winslet: an arched eyebrow is enough to convey her annoyance at her husband’s use of [...]

Melancholia (Denmark-Sweden-France-Germany-Italy, 2011)

Lars von Trier’s need to provoke ended badly for him at Cannes this year when he professed sympathy for Hitler. He isn’t a Nazi, as he said, and it’s best to let his films do his talking. The fracas was a distraction from Melancholia and Kirsten Dunst, winner of the best actress award. Melancholia is [...]

The Ghost (France-Germany-UK, 2010)

It was fitting that there was a trailer for Double Take (2009) before I saw this throwback of a relatively slow paced thriller that Hitchcock would have enjoyed directing. Polanski brings real panache to the material, aided by cinematographer Pawel Edelman; I loved the climactic shot of a note being passed through a crowd. It’s [...]

JCVD (Belguim, Luxembourg, France, 2008)

It’s very difficult for action heroes to get thespian credibility; Sylvester Stallone got some for Copland (1997) but I can’t imagine Keanu Reeves ever receiving a nice sounding gong. Jean-Claude van Damme lives, as a movie star, in straight-to-video land mostly. He surfaced most prominently in John Woo’s first Hollywood film Hard Target (1993) but [...]

The Edge of Heaven (Auf der anderen Seite, Germany-Turkey-Italy, 2007)

A film that uses interweaving narratives (which one blogger calls ‘implausible coincidences’ and so misses the point of melodrama) to suggest how ‘globalisation’ – in the sense of increased migration – has made the world a  smaller place. Focusing on the relationship between Germany and Turkey, and so the EC and an ‘eastern’ nation trying [...]

The Silence of Lorna (Le Silence de Lorna, 2008, Belgium, France, Italy, Germany,)

There have been a number of films this century that have dealt with migration: the best include the thriller of Dirty Pretty Things (UK, 2002), the abstruse Code: Unknown (2000) and the realist Ghosts (UK, 2006). The Silence of Lorna is also realist with its handheld camera and focus on life in the margins. The [...]