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The Umbrellas of Cherbourg - (1964)
This film took me to some painful places, but oh man it did it in a colourful and musical way. In a daring move, Jacques Demy has his characters sing every line, and brings it off to near-perfection. There are two young lovers, Genevičve (Catherine Deneuve) and Guy (Nino Castelnuovo) - when Guy has to leave for his military service in Algiers, Genevičve is left with her mother and another suitor, Roland (Marc Michel) comes into her life. Something about the music really weaves those emotions straight into your heart, and at the same time pastel and other varied colours are everywhere making the whole world look like a vibrant flower bed. It's easy to fall in love with this film, behind it's simplicity is a real artist with an appreciation for sight, sound and meaning. Another rich addition from the Foreign Language Countdown - one that touched me deeply. One I'll watch multiple times.
9/10
Foreign Language Countdown films seen : 52/100
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Splinter - (2008)
Pretty run of the mill horror here. A new lifeform which animates dead tissue, and very aggressive and hungry, traps three people in a gas station, and they have to really nut out a way to escape as other potential rescuers are killed by the spiky zombie-like entities. During horrific scenes the camera is shaken to such an extent that you really can't make out what's going on, and by the end I really felt like I'd seen all of this before hundreds of times already. Adds nothing new.
5/10
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Into the Storm - (2009)
Takes a look at Churchill both at the start of his time as prime minister and end. Even if you only have a passing knowledge of the material, this film won't give you much. It's pretty uninspired and perfunctory. This has the misfortune to appear to me at a time when many much more significant and enjoyable films about Churchill are available. Average - but Brendan Gleeson does do a good Churchill, and most other performances are rather good.
6/10