Category Archives: movies

Golda’s war (Golda – Guy Nattiv, 2023)

Golda Meir is one of those political figures who is seen very differently in her country and the rest of the world. In Israel she is considered as one of the most controversial prime ministers in the state’s 75-year history, … Continue reading

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in the shade of Philip Marlowe (film: Manhattan Night – Brian DeCubellis, 2016)

I liked how ‘Manhattan Night‘, the 2016 film by director Brian DeCubellis, begins. We are in a dark, cold and violent New York, and the main character is one of those who bring the public news about the crimes in … Continue reading

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who is this woman? (film: Un balcon sur la mer – Nicole Garcia, 2010)

‘Un balcon sur la mer‘ (released in the English-language market under the strange title ‘A View of Love’), the 2010 film by director and screenwriter Nicole Garcia (herself a prolific actress, but not in this film) combines two different stories: … Continue reading

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testing the limits (film: La dernière femme – Marco Ferreri, 1976)

Before Lars von Trier (the ‘bad’ one – the one who directed ‘Antichrist’ and ‘Nymphomaniac’) there was Marco Ferreri. In 1976, when he made ‘La dernière femme‘, the Italian screenwriter and director had wowed bourgeois audiences (and the members of … Continue reading

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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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