Letter Never Sent Directed by Mikhail Kalatozov Written by Grigori Koltunov, Valeri Osipov and Viktor Rozov Starring: Innokenti Smoktunovsky, Tatyana Samoilova, Vasili Livanov, Yevgeny Urbansky There's something to be said about Criterion's boutique releases and their in-depth extras and fancy packaging, but it's the curatory nature of the label that allows for the discovery of some great films that might not have otherwise come across your blu ray/DVD player. I went into Mikhail Kalatozov's Letter Never Sent blindly (outside of some knowledge about his films Soy Cuba and The Cranes Are Flying) and was absolutely blown away. As a fan of survival-thrillers, the classic man against nature story had me hooked and the filmmaking on display is absolutely mindblowing. The film opens as four people -- three geologists and a guide -- are left in the Siberian Taiga. It's spring time and they're searching for diamonds. Their mission...
- 4/2/2012
- by Jay C.
- FilmJunk
Letter Never Sent takes the relatively simple premise of four geologists sent into the taiga wilderness of Siberia to search for diamonds and uses it as the perfect stage for a character study in pride, loyalty, love, and loss. Where it differentiates from most character-driven stories is in its stunning depiction of a forest fire and the cinematography that shows the world crashing down in flames around the protagonists. Director Mikhail Kalatozov and his three-time cinematographer collaborator Sergei Urusevsky manage to preserve the inherent fear that the red, orange, and yellow flicker of flame triggers in a human being, and let it function as a catalyst as the scientist’s confidence erodes in the face of falling trees and endless smoke. Kalatozov pushes the visual boundaries of what most people expect from a black and white film, and the result is something truly awe-inspiring.
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- 3/27/2012
- by Lex Walker
- JustPressPlay.net
DVD Playhouse—March 2012
By Allen Gardner
J. Edgar (Warner Bros.) Director Clint Eastwood provides a rock-solid, albeit rather flat portrait of polarizing FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, covering his life from late teens to his death. Leonardo DiCaprio does an impressive turn as Hoover, never crossing the line into caricature, and creating a Hoover that is all too human, making for an all the more unsettling look at absolute power run amuck. Where the film stumbles is the love story at its core: Hoover’s relationship with longtime aide Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer). In the hands of an openly-gay director like Gus Van Sant, this could have been a heartbreaking, tender story of forbidden (unrequited?) love, but Eastwood seems to tiptoe around their romance, with far too much delicacy and deference. The film works well when recreating the famous crimes and investigations which Hoover made his name on (the Lindbergh kidnapping,...
By Allen Gardner
J. Edgar (Warner Bros.) Director Clint Eastwood provides a rock-solid, albeit rather flat portrait of polarizing FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, covering his life from late teens to his death. Leonardo DiCaprio does an impressive turn as Hoover, never crossing the line into caricature, and creating a Hoover that is all too human, making for an all the more unsettling look at absolute power run amuck. Where the film stumbles is the love story at its core: Hoover’s relationship with longtime aide Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer). In the hands of an openly-gay director like Gus Van Sant, this could have been a heartbreaking, tender story of forbidden (unrequited?) love, but Eastwood seems to tiptoe around their romance, with far too much delicacy and deference. The film works well when recreating the famous crimes and investigations which Hoover made his name on (the Lindbergh kidnapping,...
- 3/7/2012
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
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