Reviews

In Eldorado, the Swiss filmmaker Markus Imhoof uses his own memories of an Italian refugee girl that stayed with his family during WWII to frame and intersperse his scenes of today's refugees being picked up in the Mediterranean Sea and taken to Italy, to camps, or worse. This framework not only adds a deeply personal note to the movie, but it also provides welcome relief in between the often harrowing scenes of the modern refugee's ordeals. Through showing many different perspectives -- those of the rescuers who can't provide real help, those of the officials who are "just following orders," and by adding commentary on the political context, the film gives a broad picture of the situation while calling out those profiting from and exploiting the refugees. And though we only briefly meet some of the individual people, we are given enough of their stories to feel touched by their plight. A deeply human work by (IMHO) Switzerland's finest filmmaker.

Okay, so I am a huge fan of Nicola Walker, but that's not the only reason I love this show. The writing is quite brilliant, with dialogue that is both witty and real, meaning it makes sense and creates believable characters. The personal relationships ring true; no black-and-whites here, these people feel real, warts and all.

I will admit that the mystery/drama part leans more towards the cozy than the high-speed thrilling. If that's not your cup of tea and you need your adrenaline raised, then this show may not be for you.

Reading all the raves about this series makes me feel like I dropped into the Twilight Zone. My husband and I watched a couple of episodes, an early one and then, just for the benefit of doubt, a later one. Both episodes felt like a high school production, only less creative. There were some occasionally witty lines in in the otherwise amateurish dialogue, but the actors inevitably drop the few funny bits like so much litter. The lead actor has moments here and there where one senses he could actually be a character, but there is zero chemistry between him and the woman "investigative journalist", who has no credibility from her very first line. But I blame the director who seems to have a negative sense of comedic timing. As for the plots, "laughable" doesn't apply, because they are just not funny. It's not that the style is crude -- crude, taken far enough, would have been more interesting! So why do apparently so many people -- Brits! -- think this series is the best thing since Starbucks Eggnog Latte? Am I blind to the Zeitgeist? Am I taking the wrong drugs? Am I stuck too far in the past? Or did I indeed stumble into the Twilight Zone?

We just saw Vitus at the San Francisco International Film Festival, with an audience that packed in the theatre and gave the director a round of applause at the end. In the context of Fredi Murer's career, this film address themes that he explored in earlier works such as Alpine Fire and Full Moon, but here with a lighter, less moralistic tone. Murer clearly has a great rapport with children and brings out a credible performance from the nonprofessional actor (but real-life musical virtuoso) Teo Gheorghiu -- especially considering that so much of the film rests on this young pianist's shoulders. Bruno Ganz, whom English-speaking audiences rarely get to hear performing in his own Zurich dialect, unsentimentally embodies the traditional Swiss values that are disappearing under a wave of American-style materialism and yuppie anxiety.

Parents, take your young geniuses to see this film, and take its humane message of love, self-recognition and forgiveness to heart.

The plot may not be particularly clever, but watching Huppert's brilliant, tense, technically outstanding acting in the role of a woman in search of a nervous breakdown against Dutronc's nonchalant, understated, simmering portrayal of a seedy pillhead, seemingly oblivious to what's going on around him, is worth the price of admission and then some! Supporting characters are all excellent, though the young girl is a bit too wide-eyed for her own good. The movie is also fun to watch just for its use of color, clothing, and art as symbols, including allusions to earlier Huppert classics like "La Dentelliere". While this might not be Chabrol's masterpiece, it would be a good example for any young director to study how a veteran uses the elements of his craft most economically to greatest effect. As for actors: watch Isabelle Huppert's face in the close-up during the long, final shot -- there's a whole acting lesson right there. Not a perfect movie, but enjoyable to watch if you have a mind for such details.

It is one thing to take a classic and rather clever Agatha Christie mystery and completely gut it, leaving really just the name of the characters intact. That could be an interesting experience in deconstruction for, let's say, a film student thesis.

But, even assuming there is some merit to doing this and forgetting for a moment that this is supposed to be an adaptation (?) but instead just judging it on its own, this production is simply god-awful. Is it supposed to be a farce? It's not funny. The plot makes no sense whatsoever, the camera work is based on the conceit that each scene should be shot at a diagonal angle, which gets old after about 3 minutes. And what a terrible waste of several fine veteran English actors, all of which seem to be visibly cringing to be in this mess of a flick.

Beautifully shot, directed and acted, this is an understated but poignant exploration of grief and compassion. This quietly powerful story with its subtle, deep portraits of people's inner lives, their suffering and healing, is moving exactly because it avoids the traps of pushing the easy buttons and exploiting emotions in a simplistic way. And while the movie is slow and achingly sad at the beginning, it is by no means a "difficult" or "abstract" film to watch. The people, though they are clearly superb actors in a drama and not documentary subjects, are as earthy as they come, and they are real to the viewer in the way that great actors in a classic play are real (the main character brings to mind the great Bruno Ganz). The picture was shot in Switzerland, in a region I am myself familiar with, and the stark and beautiful landscape provides a wonderful metaphor for the foreground drama. However, this is not a particularly "Swiss" movie; rather, the characters are archetypes, and their drama is a universal drama, that is unfolding in many places and ways as we speak.

This movie struck me as the perfect cure for the jet-lag it portrays. It put me to sleep within about 45 minutes, with no bad side effects. Let's see: Was it the slow-as-molasses tempo? The unfunny comedy sketches? The utter lack of the littlest spark of attraction or even understandable dialogue between Bill Murray and the cute-but-vapid Scarlett woman?

Even making fun of the Japanese language (ohmygad, they can't say "r", that's, like, so, hilarious!) didn't get me aroused enough to stay awake. Okay, so Tokyo is a really lousy place to stay, even if you have a ton of money, because if you are a famous actor and/or philosophy graduate turned dumb-blonde, you just can't find ANYTHING interesting to do there. Except maybe to go to a party where you get shot at with laser guns.

At which point, I tuned out and started to snore.

But I give the movie a "3" for that cute shot of someone's behind - probably the stand-in, no, make that "lay-in" model - at the beginning. What a tease.

We were discussing the other day which classic movie scenes would inevitably bring tears to our eyes, even after numerous viewings. The film that immediately came to my mind was A Foreign Field. There is a moment towards the end where the late, great Guinness makes a small gesture and puts so much meaning and soul into it, it's impossible not to be moved -- if you have a heart, that is, and a memory of WWII, or at least some imagination of what it meant to those who survived it.

That said, there are also some really funny parts, and Geraldine Chaplin and Jeanne Moreau in particular are wickedly funny. A lovely movie.

The haunting images of this film take the viewer on a journey from the Swiss mountains to China, with a lonely man who cannot speak about his pain, until the very end. How you feel about this story and about its main character will probably depend on where you come from. While some of the background and people are uniquely Swiss, the stoicism of the hero is known in many other parts of the world, mountains as well as prairies; any place where men (and women)live alone, in rural isolation, proud of their independence yet suffering from a deep loneliness that they can't even articulate to themselves.

I would like to add that this is neither a depressing film nor a slow one -- the journey moves swiftly, there are many humorous and poignant moments, and at 85 minutes, you find yourself getting to China almost too soon. And if the end is more allegorical than realistic, it has a poetic quality that I found touching and memorable.

Interesting how different viewers can have a completely different take on the same show. My friends and I watched this in the early 90's, when it was broadcast in California. It was our first introduction to Emma Thompson, Kenneth Branagh, Imelda Staunton, and the rest of the gang, and we thought it was hilarious! There's one skit I remember very clearly that had us rolling on the floor with laughter. We've been waiting for years for the tapes to become available here, alas, no luck so far. The show was written by Emma Thompson herself, who, as we all know, is not just brilliant, but very funny. She's not a bad tap-dancer either, as she proves in the titles. Absolutely recommend it to all Emma-Fans.

I love Jeremy Irons. I adore Juliette Binoche. I can't think of a more delicious fantasy than an upper-class Brit falling for the forbidden fruit of his son's girlfriend. So why did I groan rather than moan? Because for this movie to work, we have to believe that Irons and Binoche INSTANTLY, at first sight of each other, utterly lose their minds and fall for each other and into bed. And that's too much to ask for, even from those two fine actors, especially since the chemistry between them is all wrong. I so wanted to believe that those two were attracted to each other but I just couldn't see it. Louis Malle tries to make Binoche look like some stylish femme fatale -- and she is very pretty indeed in black leather -- but she just doesn't have the type of vamp appeal that a repressed Brit would lose his marbles for. The movie might have actually worked better with a lesser but sluttier actress. As it is, I found it basically unwatchable.

The images from this movie lingered in my mind for a long time. Both Deneuve and Auteuil deliver magnificent performances for those who prefer their films subtle and their acting nuanced. Those with 5-second attention spans shouldn't bother.

A witty and, for its time, unusually mature treatment of marriage, affairs, and the choices we make. Both Deborah Kerr and Cary Grant deliver wonderful performances, and Jean Simmons is a scream. I've seen this movie several times and enjoyed it more each time.

This is a marvelously acted movie version of the Noel Coward story. Judy Parfitt and Nigel Havers are particularly good as the older woman/younger man who fall for each other during the course of a fancy cruise.

My friends and I have been waiting for years for this one to be issued on video, alas, for some reason it seems to have fallen between the cracks.

I would love to see this show become available on video. This is Emma Thompson before she became a big movie star: an incredibly funny, quirky comedienne, a great dancer (yep!), a totally engaging presence, bursting with creativity and supported by a great cast including then-husband Kenneth, and her friends from her Cambridge days. A sheer delight!