Monthly Archives: August 2024

a ‘feel-good’ of the Coens (film: Raising Arizona – Coen brothers, 1987)

The 1987 ‘Raising Arizona‘ is the second feature film written and directed by the Coen brothers. The first film, ‘Blood Simple’ had impressed but also disturbed many of the viewers with the combination of strange or banal characters doing extreme … Continue reading

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frozen passions (film: Smilla’s Sense of Snow – Bille August, 1997)

Director Bille August‘s ‘Smilla’s Sense of Snow‘ (1997) should have had every reason to be a standout film. The script brings a successful novel by Peter Høeg to the big screen. The story belongs to a cinematographic genre – techno-thriller … Continue reading

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Generațiile migrațiilor (carte: Aleksandar Hemon – Proiectul Lazarus)

Am descoperit o editură. Se numește Black Button Books și se prezintă pe pagina ei de Web ca fiind ‘prima editură fondată și condusă de femei din România’, ceea ce pentru mine poate fi doar încă o garanție de calitate … Continue reading

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the lost generations (film: All Quiet on the Western Front – Lewis Milestone, 1930)

Lewis Milestone (born Leib Milstein in Chișinău in 1895) is one of those immigrant filmmakers who laid the foundations of the American film industry and whose biographies await screenwriters to turn them into memorable films. ‘All Quiet on the Western … Continue reading

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for a piece of metal (film: Cross of Iron – Sam Peckinpah, 1977)

Any good war movie can only be an anti-war movie. This axiom is also confirmed by ‘Cross of Iron‘, the 1977 film by Sam Peckinpah, the only war film by the American director who was a master of western films … Continue reading

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the improbable heroes (film: La vie de château – Jean-Paul Rappeneau, 1966)

8 feature films in 50 years. This is the entire filmography of Jean-Paul Rappeneau between 1966 and 2015. And yet, the French director and screenwriter managed with these 8 films to make a name for himself and occupy a visible … Continue reading

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love and crime in a small French town (film: La chambre bleue – Mathieu Amalric, 2014)

Mathieu Amalric is one of my favorite actors and his presence on the credits of a movie is reason enough to want to see him. From time to time he is also behind the camera as a film director. This … Continue reading

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Imperiul fricii (carte: Ismail Kadare – Concert la sfârșit de iarnă)

Cel mai bun omagiu pe care-l putem aduce scriitorilor plecați dintre noi este să le citim cărțile, să le discutăm, să scriem despre ele. Astfel îi păstrăm și pe ei și operele lor vii și actuali printre noi. ‘Concert la … Continue reading

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too dark to be true? (film: Civil War – Alex Garland, 2024)

Dystopias on screens seem to impress less lately, and this is probably also due to the fact that our lives and the events around us contain more and more elements of dystopia. ‘Civil War‘, the film written and directed by … Continue reading

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‘The Master’ of our times (film: Master i Margarita / The Master and Margarita – Michael Lockshin, 2023)

Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel ‘The Master and Margarita’ was written between 1928 and 1940, but the writer never saw it published. The first – censored – version of the book appeared in the USSR in 1966. I guess this is the … Continue reading

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