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Reviews
Romance & Cigarettes (2005)
Refreshing musical
Good music, well-choreographed dancing, quirky sense of humor, a little dark. A bunch of good actors are giving a solid performance. They appear to have enjoyed themselves. Susan Sarandon is great, Kate Winslet deliciously foul-mouthed. The photography is mostly very aesthetic, although of course not as perfect as that of the Coen brothers, who produced the movie. The movie fits well into the universe of the Coen brothers' work while having its own special character. Good job, John Turturro, a very enjoyable movie! I wasn't aware of Turturro as a director. IMDb shows he has made two earlier movies, in 1992 and 1998 (both as a director and a writer, just as with this present movie). Those movies had low scores. After Romance & Cigarettes I will be keeping my eyes open for this new director. As the title suggests, there is a lot of smoking in this movie, but it can hardly be seen as positive advertising for the tobacco industry, fortunately. Conservative Christians had better avoid this movie, it would only upset them. An 8 out of 10.
American Masters: No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (2005)
Just a song and dance man
I felt thoroughly happy while watching No Direction Home on BBC 2 over the past two evenings - lots of video and audio footing I had never heard or seen before and precious insights into the workings of Dylan's poetic mind.
I have been following Dylan for over 40 years now and have always been a fan, except during his Christian period. I found it illuminating to learn that, when Joan Baez had just delivered to him a deep-going analysis of one of his songs, Dylan said he was curious to see what other reviewers would make of it. Himself he didn't know what the hell it all meant. He just wrote beautiful texts without worrying too much if all the combined lines would make coherent sense.
Dylan uses words like an impressionist painter uses paint. Those paintings can confer a sense of beauty without necessarily offering a clear idea of what is actually presented. Dylan's songs are collections of beautiful phrases and words. Don't ask him to explain the meaning of existence to us. Just enjoy his unique songs and magical voice. In his own words, he is "just a song and dance man". And a sublime one at that!
Profound thanks to Scorsese for making this picture. A 10 out of 10. (And thanks to Philconcannon for his excellent review.)
Der Untergang (2004)
Amazing realism
Der Untergang makes you live the horrors and craziness of war. Bruno Ganz's interpretation of Adolf Hitler is worthy of an Oscar. He is completely believable. Also the rest of the cast performs admirably. You feel transported to Berlin as it was bombarded by the Russians. You get a very clear insight (or an impression?) in how the military decisions were taken during those final days of the war. The movie balances well between large-scale effects of bombs exploding in ruined streets and depictions of different persons going though the experience from Hitler and his staff in the well-protected bunkers to the principal military commanders torn between reason and loyalty and German civilians trapped in an inferno. The movie is neither pro-Nazi nor does it depict all Nazis as mindless monsters. It gives an impression of utter realism. Go see it in a good cinema your seat will tremble as the bombs explode. A nine out of ten.
Matchstick Men (2003)
well-crafted en very amusing
Another fine piece of craftsmanship from the hand of Ridley Scott, who already gave us Alien, Blade Runner, Thelma & Louise, Gladiator, Hannibal and Black Hawk Down. Matchstick Men is his first comedy. All aspects of this movie are excellent: script, acting, directing, photography, editing, music and production. I mention the script first, as this is riveting and surprising - truly excellent. The acting is very good, not only from the main actors Cage, Rockwell and a remarkable Lohman) but also from the supporting actors - I mention here just Altman, McGill and Kelley, but there are just no miscasts in this movie.
I recommend taking your time to watch the DVD, whose Extra Features are very interesting - the elaborate 'Making of' and the commentary by director and script writers.
8,5 out of 10.
The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
no more, please!
The Matrix is a great movie, Reloaded is OK but not great. Revolutions is quasi philosophical, messy, stupid and uninteresting. Its technical qualities lifted my score to a 5 out of 10. Contents and philosophical qualities get a 2 out of 10. And that may be overly generous.
Please Andy and Larry Wachowski, no more Matrix movies! If only out of respect for the first movie of the trilogy! Had you not added any sequels to The Matrix, the enormous reputation and respect it earned for you would have remained intact. By adding these two movies, especially Revolutions, you have tarnished that reputation and lowered the respect. It's a shame.
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
another masterpiece by Quentin Tarantino
What a brilliant movie! The visuals, acting, editing, music and story are just great. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and did not see any weak spots. One might think that a succession of fight scenes might get boring, but they just get better and better throughout the movie. It is visual poetry combined with humor. With his previous movies (Reservoir dogs, Pulp fiction and Jackie Brown) Quentin Tarantino has put the bar very high for himself, but he cleared it seemingly effortlessly. A 9 out of 10. Maybe it should have been a 10, but I don't give that easily for this genre.
Dr. T & the Women (2000)
errare humanum est
Robert Altman is one of my favorite film directors. I gladly forgive him this failed movie. I could not see the point of the movie, the reason for making it. It is neither funny nor dramatic. Nobody to identify with, nobody to take an interest in. For me the interest was to see how a movie from this director managed to remain uninteresting for over one hour. I stopped watching after 80 or 90 minutes. Technically it is well-made, that is a redeeming factor. A 5 out of 10.
Crime Spree (2003)
USA gets hilariously frogged
If you are familiar with both American and French culture, this movie is hilarious. If you are not familiar with the frog culture, you won't get all the jokes, but there should be enough jokes left to enjoy yourself seriously. This is one very well-made crime-comedy. The movie does not suffer from overacting and the jokes are not laid on heavily. The actors are superb and seem to have had a great time making this movie. The script is intelligent and funny.
Let me explain one joke for those who are not familiar with French culture: during the bar scene in Paris, the Johnny Halliday and Renaud characters (they are popular singers in real life) repeatedly switch off the other guy's music to play their own recording. And I was impressed by the way they played tough criminals. Good acting !
On a personal note, this movie was a very nice surprise for me, who have lived in France for many years and speak French fluently. I had picked up the DVD in the video store only because I saw Harvey Keitel's name on the cover. The title did not mean anything to me and I did not bother to read anything else on the cover. Harvey Keitel was enough assurance the movie would at least be OK. Then the movie starts in total darkness, with some people whispering. At first I did not understand what was said, as I was expecting to hear English, but no, they spoke French. And for the next 10 to 15 minutes, it was a French movie set in Paris. I was sure they had put the wrong DVD in the box, but I did not mind so much as I found the movie entertaining. Then of course the action moved to the USA...
Solaris (2002)
A movie like a Mahler adagio
What? 6.5/10 (5,037 votes)? Did the wrong people go see this movie? True, if a movie should look like a video clip, this movie is absolute trash! This is more like an adagio by Gustav Mahler.
Usually I don't bother to vote and even less write a comment, but here I feel I need to defend the movie. The theme (what is reality; to what extent are we real; how is love affected by our perception of reality) should be of fundamental interest to everybody, but of course isn't.
The casting and acting are more than excellent; the directing is vintage Soderbergh, i.e. original and very good. Name your aspect (sound?), and it is simply very well done. The visuals are stunningly beautiful.
Probably why people so far have rated it so low (6.5, ridiculous!) is that it is not always clear how scenes should be interpreted. This is way beyond good guy meets good girl encounters bad guy kills bad guy and good guy and good girl live happily ever after. Since the film personae don't wear white hats and black hats, one doesn't always know from the first moment what to think of them. If that bothers you, please avoid this movie. Or as Steven Soderbergh says in his commentary on the DVD - if you don't like the first ten or fifteen minutes, stop watching, for it doesn't get any better.
So far I have seen it twice, the second time with the commentary by Steven Soderbergh and James Cameron (how could you get a bad movie when these two join forces?) and I am looking forward to seeing it many times to come.
Steven, I am amazed how different your movies can look from one to the next, while maintaining such a level of excellence. Please keep up the good work for many years to come.
9 out of 10.
Gangs of New York (2002)
Leonardo DiCaprio ruins the movie
The good directing and visuals kept me from stopping the movie before the end. What a pity Leonardo DiCaprio was cast for this role ! He ruins the whole movie. Bad acting, silly facial expression, mouth hanging open most of the time. What a waste of an otherwise good movie. Cameron Diaz should stick to comedies, her acting is under par too, but not as seriously flawed as Leo's. Five out of ten. With better actors it would have been a 7 or an 8.
Moulin Rouge! (2001)
mixed feelings
What I liked: visually the movie is gorgeous. The sets are great, so are the costumes. The colors are beautiful. I also liked much of the music. I appreciated the joke of using late 20th century popular tunes in a movie set in 1900. The two principal actors (Nicole and Ewan) sing amazingly well.
What I did not like: First of all the story. Was this the one-millionth love story? Will he get her, will she get him? Who cares? This type of story has been told so often in books and movies. Then the over-acting: the Duke and the Moulin Rouge's director over-acted heavily, making their scenes unrealistic. The other actors over-acted a bit too. Maybe the over-acting was intentional - it fits the type of acting that was practiced around 1900. Still I don't like it.
Overall a 6.5 out of 10.
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Kubrick scores another hit
After reading the rather bad reviews, I was pleasantly surprised by the movie. Photography, editing and direction are top. The subject matter - adultery - is relevant to most people. Two things I found strange: the overwhelming majority of people present at the "orgy" were just standing silently and watching. Why not participate if you are at an orgy, after all? The other thing I found weird was the end: Tom Cruise asking Nicole: "What do we do now?", as if god knows what had happened. In fact neither he nor his wife had done anything, just fantisized a bit. Nothing to be dramatic about. But apart from that, it's a great movie. A shame to have lost that director.