This lavish CinemaScope epic is a fitting testament to the enormity of Ophuls’ vision even though it was a commercial and critical disaster that was unceremoniously butchered by its producers to try to recoup theirContinue reading
Category: International Coproduction
Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders, 1984)
In collaborating with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Sam Shepard and blues musician Ry Cooder, whose soulful, improvised steel guitar licks so perfectly reflect the images on screen, Wenders is able to seamlessly transplant the deep introspectionContinue reading
Che (Steven Soderbergh, 2008)
Soderbergh’s ambitious bifurcated chronicle of the two major military campaigns of the iconic guerilla leader is the most ambitious (and divisive) historical epic since Oliver Stone’s JFK. Anchored by Benicio Del Toro’s subtle but powerfulContinue reading
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (Terry Gilliam 2009)
Although it will probably forever be remembered as the movie Heath Ledger was shooting when he unexpectedly died early last year, this is first and foremost a Terry Gilliam movie, with all the good and theContinue reading
The Lovely Bones (Peter Jackson, 2009)
Set partially in the ordinary Pennsylvania suburbs of the mid-1970s and partially in a swirling Day-Glo afterlife, Jackson’s adaptation of Alice Sebold’s best-selling 2002 novel is a film caught desperately between competing intentions, and whileContinue reading
Lorna’s Silence (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2008)
One might accuse the Dardennes of treading the same ground over and over if they weren’t so impressive in their craft and genuine in their humanity. And impressive the film is; although filled with bleakContinue reading
Sherlock Holmes (Guy Ritchie, 2009)
While it is tempting to see Robert Downey Jr.’s portrayal and Ritchie’s amped-up aesthetic approach as revisionism for an attention-addled generation, in many ways it is closer in spirit and tone to Sir Arthur ConanContinue reading
Wings of Desire (Wim Wenders, 1987)
Wenders’ magnificent metaphysical romance and philosophical/historical meditation is dedicated to “all the old angels, especially Yasujiro [Ozu], François [Truffaut], and Andrei [Tarkovsky]â€â€”cinematic masters who left an indelible impression on Wenders’ work. In Wings of Desire,Continue reading
Pandorum (Christian Alvart, 2009)
When Alvart sticks to his story’s central mystery, the film is an eerily effective mixture of ecological science fiction and horror. Unfortunately, it is constantly undercut by the perfunctory deployment of cannibalistic humanoids and inaneContinue reading
Orphan (Jaume Collet-Serra, 2009)
It is easy to dismiss this thriller as yet another generic retread of that particularly uneasy domain of horror populated by evil children, especially the way Collet-Serra orchestrates so many jolts and faux jolts withinContinue reading