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Frantz
François Ozon, 2016
Drama, History, Romance, War
DVR - BBC Two


From IMDb:
In the aftermath of WWI, a young German who grieves the death of her fiancé in France meets a mysterious Frenchman who visits the fiancé's grave to lay flowers.
Nicely acted (Paula Beer is excellent) and with the vast majority of the cinematography being in crisp, b&w is right up my street in terms of visual appeal. Sadly though the production tries too hard to be enigmatic imo and what starts out as an interesting enough tale becomes a little tiresome by the final act. Part of that may be due to the casting and acting of Pierre Niney, which does give rise to a false perception of where the tale may go, but mostly it is that the narrative feels overly deceptive with regards his character.


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Qiu Ju da guan si - [The Story Of Qiu Ju]
Yimou Zhang, 1992
Comedy, Drama
DVR - Filmbox Arthouse


From IMDb:
A pregnant peasant woman seeks redress from the Chinese bureaucracy after the village chief kicks her husband in the groin in this comedy of justice.
The tale is a rather rudimentary one and what there is of it does feel a little stretched over the near hour and three-quarters runtime but it's more a presentation of life in China and the levels of bureaucracy that rule over it's citizens. It's hard to believe that one individual would go to the lengths that Qiu Ju does on behalf of her husband's 'honour', especially when he himself seems happier to not take the matter beyond a certain point, and equally hard to believe that the bureaucratic machinations would be quite so supportive over such a (to them) trivial matter - but the presentation from small village to large city life in China does make for a somewhat interesting journey.


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Rives - [Day]
Armel Hostiou, 2011
Drama
DVR - Filmbox Arthouse


From IMDb:
Armel Hostiou's haunting study of urban alienation follows three characters-a woman, a man, and a child-over the period of a single day in Paris.
Slice-of-life drama that intercuts between three tales of loneliness and is visually interesting at times but there's nothing on offer to particularly elevate it above the ordinary.





Some recent watches (Cheltenham week so no mumblings):
  • Executive Decision (1996)
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  • Under Capricorn (1949)
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  • O.S.S. (1946)
  • Ba wang bie ji [Farewell My Concubine] (1993)
  • Shûbun [Scandal] (1950)
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  • The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse (1962)
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  • All The Light In The Sky (2012)
  • El ángel exterminador [The Exterminating Angel] (1962)
  • Ai qing wan sui [Vive L'Amour] (1994)
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Mahanagar - [The Big City]
Satyajit Ray, 1963
Drama
DVR - Filmbox Arthouse


From IMDb:
Life at home changes when a house-wife from a middle-class, conservative family in Calcutta gets a job as a saleswoman.
Tale primarily about conflict between traditional and progressive ways in India that is nicely acted by the leads though some of the supporting cast are a little stiff, especially the Anglo-Indian girl who might be important to events but is pretty poorly played. The plot makes for a reasonable watch and ends nicely but does suffer from a little contrivance, while imo a little more subtlety at times wouldn't have gone amiss.





Sivil - [Civilian]
Levent Çetin, 2014
Drama
DVR - Filmbox Arthouse


From IMDb:
In an operation during his military duty, Emrah (21) has killed a guerilla and found a notebook with a letter in it. Back to his home, he starts a search to find the recipient of the letter, while losing himself in his inner world.
Slow moving drama about the effects of PTSD on an individual that doesn't have anything out of the ordinary to offer and whilst the insular central character may be representative of such sufferers sadly neither he nor the rather repetitive nature of the tale are particularly engaging imo.


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Dimmi che destino avrò - [My Destiny]
Peter Marcias, 2012
Drama
DVR - Filmbox Arthouse


From IMDb:
Alina is a girl of Gypsy origins, who lives and works in Paris since years. Once returned in her native village in Sardinia, nearby Cagliari, she establishes a friendly relationship with Giampaolo Esposito, a fifty years old police chief.
The supposed central narrative of this drama is weak and proves to be nothing more than a means by which to bring the two central characters together so the film can act as a mouthpiece for the disadvantaged community and show life from their perspective. Whilst it's quite nice to see that perspective represented and the central characters are both nicely enough acted it is also quite poorly written, being far too focused on pushing it's human-rights message (with no real subtlety) at the expense of building anything worthwhile in terms of drama.





Mahanagar - [The Big City]
Satyajit Ray, 1963
Drama
DVR - Filmbox Arthouse


From IMDb:

Tale primarily about conflict between traditional and progressive ways in India that is nicely acted by the leads though some of the supporting cast are a little stiff, especially the Anglo-Indian girl who might be important to events but is pretty poorly played. The plot makes for a reasonable watch and ends nicely but does suffer from a little contrivance, while imo a little more subtlety at times wouldn't have gone amiss.


That was my first Ray film and it made my 60's list.



That was my first Ray film and it made my 60's list.
Yeah, I'm years behind you and just about everyone else on Ray's output, that was only my second of his. Hoping to get some more of his in before the June deadline though.



La Terra Trema - [The Earth Will Tremble]
Luchino Visconti, 1948
Drama
DVR - Filmbox Arthouse


From IMDb:
In rural Sicily, the fishermen live at the mercy of the greedy wholesalers. One family risks everything to buy their own boat and operate independently.
Downbeat drama told in a semi-documentary style that suffers a little from overtly socialist commentary and occasionally stiff performances, but as the cast are untrained locals rather than professional actors it's quite remarkable how little that even enters the mind let alone impacts on proceedings. That it's a nicely made piece in terms of cinematography and direction obviously helps a great deal but without believable performances it wouldn't be such an immersive experience imo.





Dog Men
Dario Bischofberger & Mirko Bischofberger, 2014
Sci-Fi
DVR - Filmbox Arthouse


From IMDb:
In a not-too-distant future only a few homo sapiens are left. Struggling for survival they are forced to live from hunting the last remaining animals in the peripheral ruins of an advanced human civilization.
Dystopian tale initially delivered in rather disjointed fashion (most scene transitions are via black screen), not a problem in and of itself but it does also feel quite padded (both in terms of scenes and use of archive footage) whilst any effects are decidedly mixed (those managed digitally aren't too bad but when you can't even make a physical turd look realistic why even try?). The score is somewhat eclectic in places but for the most part is appropriate enough, the on-location filming is well suited and whilst dialogue is for the most part kept to a minimum the interactions between the extraterrestrials does irritate the more there is of it. Oddly watchable but far more akin to cheap tv fare than cinematic greatness.


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Délicate gravité - [Delicate Gravity]
Philippe Andre, 2013
Drama, Romance
DVR - Filmbox Arthouse


From IMDb:
Paul receives an emotional message from Claire. He can hear the deep sadness behind her words and believes she might commit suicide.
Short that is perhaps a little drawn out in places but is nicely enough made and acted and although the tale is an extremely simple one I found it a rather pleasant watch that never outstayed it's welcome.


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Kozje usi - [Goat Ears aka Baba]
Marko Kostić, 2017
Comedy, Drama
DVR - Filmbox Arthouse


From IMDb:
An weird but witty old woman is forced to deal with an ambiguous future after her country, family and the entire system of values are ruined.
Slightly offbeat Serbian offering that is mildly amusing at times but if comedy is the primary interest one is better looking elsewhere as this is far more a somewhat enjoyable character piece with social commentary. Gorica Popović is very watchable as the central character and her narrative arc moves along slowly but quite nicely, that of the granddaughter is a bit twee though and the means to incorporate further discourse on modern history is a little weak imo.


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Despre oameni si melci - [Of Snails And Men]
Tudor Giurgiu, 2012
Comedy
DVR - Filmbox Arthouse


From IMDb:
The story of one man who tries to save his car factory
Romanian comedy drama that has its roots in a true event at Campulung during the early 2000s which has both heart and moments that bring smiles. There's nothing out of the ordinary in the presentation and it could have been trimmed a little imo but the cast generally give decent performances and despite being mostly predictable it still provides a modestly entertaining watch.





Arima
Jaione Camborda, 2019
Drama, Fantasy
DVR - Filmbox Arthouse


From IMDb:
It is the story of four women and a girl who- se existence is disrupted by the sudden arrival of two strangers.
Mysterious piece that manages some nice atmosphere in places, is acted nicely enough and remains enigmatic for much of its runtime but sadly, for me, it just doesn't deliver much on that mystery leaving it feeling a little underwhelming.


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Amatsubu no Chiisana Rekishi - [Tale Of A Raindrop]
Ryûtarô Nakagawa & Yoichi Emoto, 2012
Drama, Romance
DVR - Filmbox Arthouse


From IMDb:
This is a story of a young woman and her coming of age in Japan.
Unfortunately it's told in such a manner that I found it rather difficult to follow, with a number of characters entering and departing and at times it was difficult to even tell if it was all supposed to be set in reality or not A shame as at times it felt like there might be a nice enough film trying to get out if it was only let.


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Some recent watches (Cheltenham week so no mumblings):
  • Executive Decision (1996)
    +
Excuse my lack of contributions, but this is the only film I've seen out of all the ones you've shared

...and it's too low!

(j/k, that's about right )
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Check out my podcast: The Movie Loot!



Excuse my lack of contributions, but this is the only film I've seen out of all the ones you've shared

...and it's too low!

(j/k, that's about right )
Perfectly ok, contributions are welcome but never expected. I'm mainly focusing on 'foreign' fare for the upcoming countdown at the moment and, for the most part, of late only recording those a little more off the well beaten tracks in here so I really don't expect a lot of interaction, if any.

Glad I at least got the rating for ED about right .... phew



Soldate Jeannette - [Soldier Jean]
Daniel Hoesl, 2013
Drama
DVR - Filmbox Arthouse


From IMDb:
Fanni has had enough of money and Anna has had enough of pigs. Fanni leaves the city and her pearls behind, while Anna is stuck wearing muddy overalls. When they finally cross paths, they embark on a punk adventure towards Marxist liberty.
Fairly weak offering that seems to mistake eccentric for automatically being interesting when it comes to the central character and spends far too long focused on her and following her journey to where those paths are crossed. There is a dry sense of humour at play but for the most part it doesn't work that well and the moments that do are far too late in proceedings to have that much impact. Perhaps if the central character and journey were a little more believable it might work better but as it is there's precious little entertainment to be had and the supposed "punk adventure towards Marxist liberty" that brings proceedings to a close is very much a damp squib.


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