Reviews

The sexy Ukrainian Bond-babe (from Quantum of Solace) Olga Kurylenko's first film was L'Annulaire (2005) . Iris (Kurylenko) have an accident and cut off her ring finger. Then she moves to a port town (filmed in Hamburg), and lodging in a hotel by the seafront. She gets a job as an assistant and receptionist for a man who preserve peoples specials items into specimen. The guy and the place is weird, and he comes up with some requirements to her, that makes the job and employer even weirder. It's originally a Japanese novel by Yoko Ogawa, and there is some strange Japanese atmosphere over this story. The movie is packed with the nude Iris, and I guess that alone will please a lot of male viewers. I think the story was going a bit empty after a while, but I'm a male viewer - so I stayed tune with the beautiful Iris until the final.

It's feels so good to see a so strong yet simple movie, about a serious theme. The actors (especially Anamaria Marinca I think) and the glimpse of how life was during the Ceausescu-regime, is so elegant done. Without any of the sentimental clichés and exaggerations you see in most of the Hollywood crap. Tribute the the actors and makers of this Rumanian movie. The characters feel so real. Haven't we met girls like Otilia (the strong and straight forward type) and Gabita (the weaker type who never tell the hole truth about things)). And Bebe, the cynical and creepy guy, who doesn't hesitate of taking advantage of the difficult situation the two young and beautiful girls are into. It's so seldom we see movies from this parts of the world, and I hope we can see more of this stuff in the future. It's so interesting to see how everyday life was in countries like Romania then - and how it is today!

I watched this movie by a coincidence zapping around, and I couldn't stop watching. The movie was made 4 years before I was born, but I like to see old films of this kind. And of course, the French movies of any year, always casting beautiful actresses. The story is simple, and moves very slowly forward. But maybe this is a realistic portrait of young parisiennes in 1960. It's sure gives me some feeling of the nightlife in Paris then. Clotilde Joano is "Jacqueline", who faces a tragic ending in this movie. I have tried to find out some more about this classic and beautiful actor, but the internet contains very little information beside her biography, and that she was Swiss, and died in 1974. If anyone can give me some more information about her, I would appreciate it. If you are going to see an black and white European movie this weekend, I can recommend Les Bonnes Femmes.