W. E.

Oooh! What pretty clothes! What pretty jewels! And such nice slow motion shots!

Well....the acting is quite good, actually.

Overall, Madonna's vanity project (not my words, but many a critic's) is way too hectic to tell a decent story. It does try to with the current day story of Wally, neglected wife by her doctor husband. She is strangely obsessed with the love story of King Edward and Wallis Simpson, as her mother and grandmother were before her. So much so that she will eventually go to Paris to meet with Mohamed Al-Fayed because he has hundreds of letters written by Wallis Simpson that she simply must! read! The scene of the actual first meeting is somewhat ridiculous. She tells him she wants to know what she gave up for him, as everyone else was so interested in what he gave up for her. Al-Fayed then does the classic, I-never-thought-of-if-that-way line.

*eye-roll*

The story of Edward and Wallis is told so fitfully it does not even tell a comprehensive story. It only shows parties and paparazzi and desperate looking people. To me, this would have been the more interesting  tale because it has the potential of being a tragedy worth telling.

But, oh what pretty clothes!

4/10

Amour (Love)

Michael Haneke's films are never easy to watch. Whether they are about of couple of youngsters senselessly murdering an entire family on their summer vacation, violence committed by a group of children in a small pre-WWI German town or about a couple being stalked, this is not entertainment. There is, however, some morbid fascination in watching them.

His latest, Amour, is about old age. Anne and Georges, a couple of former music teachers, enjoy a relatively active and happy retirement, until Anne has a minor stroke, that leaves her in need of constant help. Georges is trying is best to care of his wife, helping her in and out of her wheel chair or the toilet, cutting her food for her and seeing to her well being as best he can.

Anne's health keeps deteriorating and after suffering a second stroke, more assistance is required. Now she needs to be fed and cleaned and can barely speak anymore. She had already mentioned to Georges that she is not happy with this way of living when she was still somewhat independent and now the only way she can express her total unhappiness with this kind of life is by keeping her mouth tightly shut when her husband is trying to feed her or give her water out of a sippy cup. Eventually, Georges cannot watch her suffer anymore.

Emmanuelle Riva is simply magnificent as the ailing Anne.

A brilliant and devastating film.

9/10

Silver Linings Playbook

Every year, relatively early, the buzz for the sometimes long off award season starts about a small movie (or, small compared to the other contenders). It gets heaps of accolades and everyone agrees that it is so good and deserving of a best picture nomination at every award ceremony, including the Oscars. And then when I watch it, it turns out to be merely ok.

A year ago, that film was The Descendants, the year before it was The Kids Are All Right, before that it was Up in the Air. Ever since the academy descided to throw more films into the best picture circus, as a rule this  film would end up in it. 2012, that film is Silver Linings Playbook.

It is advertised as a comedy/drama/romance. Somehow I totally missed the comedy part. Nothing about it is in any way comedic. Ok, there is some drama and a really weird romance between the bi-polar Bradley Cooper and the widowed Jennifer Lawrence.

Ah yes, Jennifer Lawrence, every critic's new darling. I like her fine, but I have seen her in three films so far, and she has played the same role in every single one of them - hard shelled, mouthy young woman. This worked great in Winter's Bone and it is perfect for The Hunger Games. In Silver Linings Playbook her character is bordering on annoying.

Jackie Weaver is decent in this, Robert DeNiro is his usual great self, Bradley Cooper is surprisingly good (I'm usually not a fan).

This is not as good as they say.

1/10

Nineteen Eighty-Four

I have recently read - and loved - the book Nineteen Eighty-Four. With the book fresh in my mind it is always risky to watch the translation onto the screen. In the past, I have been bitterly disappointed many times, especially when not allowing some time to go by between book and film.

Thankfully, here the adaption of George Orwell's dark vision of the future is very close to the source material and wonderfully acted. The biggest burden of the film is on John Hurt's shoulders and he is nothing short of brilliant. Young Julia is played by one Suzanna Hamilton, who has remained obscure as an actress (before and after). The deceitful and turtoring O'Brien is portrayed by the great Richard Burton in his last film role. The film is dedicated to him.

I have already detailed the story in my book review and therefore will not do it again here, since I already mentioned the film's respect of the original text.

A bleak vision of a future, that has not quite arrived yet.

Brilliant.

10/10



Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

Three weeks until asteroid 'Matilda' annihilates all life on earth. Two people meeting by chance try to help each other in tying up some loose ends.

Any charm this might have had gets sucked out by Keira Knightly.

Weirdly boring.

Nice music, though.

2/10

Tabu

Tabu is a feature film by Miguel Gomes, whom we saw speaking together with Manuel Mozos at the Viennale, right after we watched a sad documentary about Portuguese film. Gomes is one of the very few 'younger' Portuguese directors that are able to actually make films.

In the media, this film has been described as 'magical' and/or 'breathtaking'. It mostly is.

Shot in (cheaper?) black and white and rather heavy on voice overs, which I am usually not a fan of, it is split into two main parts. Actually, the beginning is about a man, who - heartbroken after his wife's death - goes into the African wild and throws himself into a crocodile-infested pond. The connection to the actual film is not quite clear. Who is the man? Details that come up again later are Africa and - more specifically - the crocodile.

The first part takes part in present day Portugal. It centers around three women. Pilar, who lives alone and cares for other people more than herself or her lovelife. An elderly painter makes quiet advances, but to no avail. One of the people she is most worried about is her elderly next door neighbor, Aurora, who lives with her cook/cleaning woman/nurse Santa. Aurora's health and mind deteriorates until she starts talking about one Mr. Ventura. Pilar tries to find this man and bring him to the now hospitalized Aurora. They do not make it in time. After Aurora's burial, Venture starts telling his and Aurora's story.

This leads into the second part of the film, set in Africa a few decades before, where young Aurora is married to a wealthy man when she meets and falls in love with Ventura. They fall in love and have a very passionate affair, that could only end sadly, of course. The crocodile in the story is a pet Aurora received from her husband. The animals frequently escapes and wanders over to Ventura's house, which frequently puts him in Aurora's company. Sort of a match maker.

I absolutely loved the first part and the relationship of the three women. The second part seemed to drag on a bit. Overall the film actually has its magical moments and is well worth watching. I fear, however, that it will remain obscure and widely ignored, a destiny shared by many a small gem.

8/10

Moonrise Kingdom

Hilarious!

The latest offering from director Wes Anderson is a film set in a pathfinder summer camp in the 1960s. The camp division is run by the hapless Scout Master Randy Ward (Edward Norton) who "loses" one of his Khaki Scouts (and eventually all of his scouts). The only police officer on the island the film is set is one Captain Sharp (Bruce Willis), who - together with the at this point remaining scouts - sets out to find the missing Sam Shakusky.

The eventually learn that Sam is on the run with his beloved Suzy Bishop, daughter of the local couple of lawyers (played brilliantly by Bill Murray and Frances McDormand). The journey they take is as awkward as both young kids. And really everything and everyone else in this film. They are first hunted and later aided by the other Khaki Scouts and run off to the HQ camp to get married.

I love the narrator (if you will) played by Bob Balaban. He is placed in different sceneries, sometimes on the very edge of the picture, dressed in a red coat and a greenwool hat, which makes him very much look like a garden gnome. The rest of the cast is wonderful, as well. Short appearences included are by Harvey Keitel (Harvey Fucking Keitel!) as the commander of the scouts, Jason Schwartzmann (normal sight in any Wes Anderson film) and the ever brilliant Tilda Swinton as "Social Services" (her name, apparently).

Aside from The Darjeeling Ltd. possibly my favorite Wes Anderson film.

8/10

Forget Me Not

Will, a musician, is on the verge of killing himself when he sees from his window that Eve, who works in the bar where he just played a gig, has trouble with a drunk guy. He abandons his plan for the time being to come for her rescue.

They eventually spend the entire night and most of the following day walking over London and slowly getting to know each other. Will, however, does not want to become too involved and Eve cannot quite figure out what his deal is.

The pace of the story is similar to that of Before Sunrise - two people that by chance spend the night in each other's company, but with a very different ending from the Ethan Hawke/Julie Delpy trip through nightly Vienna.

I watched this mostly because I think Tobias Menzies is hot and didn't know what to expect from it.

Turns out this is one of the saddest films I have ever seen.

7/10

Los abrazos rotos (Broken Embraces)

I don't claim to be Pedro Almodóvar's biggest fan. Some of his films don't work for me at all (Mujeres al borde du un ataque de nervios springs to mind), some leave me with a Meh! feeling (La mala educácion for one), but then there are a few that I embrace wholeheartedly - and Los abrazos rotos is one of them.

Granted, it is not as good as Todo sobre me madre (my favorite Almodóvar) and not as fascinating (in a shocking way) as La piel que habito, but it is a tragic love story, beautifully acted by Penélope Cruz and Lluís Homar and shot in splendid colors.

Works for me.

7/10