Category Archives: movies

a clash of two worlds (TV movie: Honecker und der Pastor – Jan Josef Liefers, 2022)

The fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany opened the door to the making of films that look back at the years of the communist dictatorship and the complex process of change that this country went through. … Continue reading

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a fine bilingual and multicultural romantic drama (film: Past Lives – Celine Song, 2023)

The Chinese zodiac (and the Korean one that is derived from it) has a 12-year cycle, with each year under the sign of one of the animals that successfully passed the legendary test of crossing the river challenged by the … Continue reading

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this is neither a biopic, nor a jazz movie (film: Miles Ahead – Don Cheadle, 2015)

‘Miles Ahead‘ is the title of an album by the legendary jazz trumpeter Miles Davis, released in 1957. Don Cheadle took the title of this album for the 2015 Miles Davis movie starring him. I have to be cautious in … Continue reading

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the world is more than one room (film: Room – Lenny Abrahamson, 2015)

‘Room‘, the 2015 film made by Lenny Abrahamson based on a script written by Lenny Abrahamson, who adapted her own novel for the screen can be considered as a sequence of two different films, each about an hour long, with … Continue reading

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the first masterpiece by Fellini (film: La strada – Frederico Fellini, 1954)

‘La strada‘, made in 1954, is considered Fellini‘s first masterpiece. There are actually many ‘firsts’ collected by this film. It won the first Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. It is the first high-quality ‘road movie’ in European cinema. … Continue reading

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night in the city (film: Un témoin dans la ville – Édouard Molinaro, 1959)

‘Un témoin dans la ville‘, the third feature film made in 1959 by Édouard Molinaro, begins with a scene of a murder on a train that seems taken from an Alfred Hitchcock film and ends with an anthological and original … Continue reading

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please, not a 3rd one! unless you have a really great new idea (film: Now You See Me 2 – John M. Chu, 2016)

‘Now You See Me 2‘, released in 2016, provides some of the arguments for why series that try to squeeze as much of the success of a more successful original film as possible are often not a good idea. Two … Continue reading

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a milestone in the history of the western genre (film: The Wild Bunch – Sam Peckinpah, 1969)

The scene that opens Sam Peckinpah‘s 1969 ‘The Wild Bunch‘ immediately reminds fans of the western genre of John Sturges’ ‘The Magnificent Seven’ made in 1960. A group of riders enter a small town in the Wild West (rather the … Continue reading

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a feminine interpretation of a feminine legend told many times

Film lovers and connoisseurs looking for a significant example of an auteur film from the first decade of the 3rd millennium can choose ‘The Countess‘ without hesitation. Made in 2009 as a Franco-German co-production with international distribution, the film is … Continue reading

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a serial killer story in the time of Dreyfuss (film: Le juge et l’assassin – Bertrand Tavernier, 1976)

Director Bertrand Tavernier and actor Philippe Noiret collaborated in 9 films. The 1976 ‘Le juge et l’assassin’ is the third film they made together and is a remarkable film in many ways. The story takes place in the last decade … Continue reading

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