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Notes: At first glance, it seemed to be about the rise of Fascism in Italy and its impact on the rich Jews living in a small city but De Sica obviously went beyond that but, to be honest, I'm not sure I fully understood what he was getting at. Eventually, what were we supposed to feel about the Finzi Contini? Were we suppose to feel sorry for them because even their incredible wealth couldn't save them from the Fascist madness? Also, what was the deal with Alberto who was sick throughout the whole movie? At least, it was intriguing that most of these Jews were attractive with blond hair and blue eyes which made them look like some perfect Nazis which shows that Fascism is not only an ignorant ideology but, apparently, it is also blind. Anyway, even if I didn't care much about the characters, they were still complex and interesting. 
“I wasn't really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Orlando Bloom and Forest Whitaker, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, eventually, it turned out to be actually better than I expected, except for a rather disappointing 3rd act. Indeed, you don't see so m” read more
Notes: Well, Barbara Loden did deliver a strange movie here. By the way, who was Barbara Loden actually? Apparently, she did show up in only a couple of movies and she was mostly famous for being married with Elia Kazan until her untimely death. Anyway, coming back on her directorial debut and only film she directed, it turned out to be some kind of combination of ‘Bonny and Clyde’, ‘Badlands’ and another movie which I can’t remember right now. Eventually, what should we think about Wanda, the main character? Sure, she was attractive but Loden definitely didn’t sugarcoat this portrayal as her character was the most aimless woman I have ever seen. Basically, she is a woman who doesn’t know why she exists (in fact, most of us pretty much pretend we do but that's another story, I guess) but it didn’t seem to concern her that much. Well, it sure did give me some panic attacks when I was around my 20’s. Still, she was definitely not cheerful though, that’s for sure, her life, even herself, was basically completely empty and the whole thing was therefore seriously gloomy. At some point, she did get involved with a guy called Mr. Dennis and the whole thing became even weirder than it already was. By the way, for some reason, I thought that Norman Dennis was some kind of unhinged version of Walter White and I really wonder if this movie was an inspiration for Bryan Cranston when he created his iconic character because there were so many similarities.
Notes: I haven't seen this one yet...
“I wasn't really sure what to expect from this movie but since it did win the Golden Calf for the best Dutch movie of the year, I was quite eager to check it out. To be honest, I have to admit that I had actually no idea what the damned thing was about and it was pretty tough to watch again another m” read more
Notes: Even though I have watched many times the Spaghetti Westerns starring Clint Eastwood when I was a kid with my dad, I discovered his Dirty Harry flicks much later on in my life. Eventually, even though I still prefer his Westerns, I still enjoyed his famous cop features as well. The interesting thing with this franchise is that the sequels were actually pretty decent but, obviously, this first installment was the only one which became a real classic. Indeed, Harry Calahan must be one of the most notorious police characters ever created, very often copied but never matched. At the time, Clint Eastwood was pretty much in control of his career. He picked up 4 different drafts of the script (one written by no one else than Terrence Malick). made sure that Don Siegel was hired to direct this movie and he was also responsible for hiring Andy Robinson to play Scorpio. When it was released, it was a critical and commercial success but there was also some controversy as it displayed and almost glorified police brutality. Basically, the Scorpio killer was pretty messed up and, eventually, Harry Calahan was not much better, he just happened to be on the right side of the law. 
“I wasn't really sure what to expect from this movie but since I have a weak spot for Rachel Weisz, I thought I might as well check it out. First of all, I can't remember the last time I saw this actress playing the lead, she's just too good to play only supporting parts and, in this movie, she deliv” read more
October 2017 Horrorfest
“I already saw this movie but since it was a while back and since I had it on DVD, I thought I might as well check it out again. Well, even though it is pretty much a classic from the 80’s that managed at the time to win 5 Academy Awards including the Best Picture Academy Award, to be honest, I don” read more
“Since this movie had a really impressive reputation, I was really eager to watch the damned thing. Eventually, even though it didn't turn out to be one of the best movies I have seen, it was still really strong. What I loved the most was how it started as a really realistic look on how a TV network ” read more
“I wasn't really sure what to expect from this movie but since I have a weak spot for Emmanuelle Béart, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, even though it could have been an epic romantic drama, it didn't really work, I'm afraid. Even though I expected it to be an adaptation from a book, it was” read more
Notes: I'm pretty sure it was the first movie directed by Stanley Kubirck that I saw and I can remember when I saw it for the first time. I was about 15 years old at the time and I was jut completely blown away by the whole thing. I mean, I had seen some good movies before but nothing like this. The thing that most impressed me, back then, is that even though it was made almost 25 years before, it felt actually really modern. This flick had basically everything : the visuals, the directing, the acting, the music, the thoughtfulness,.... Obviously, the whole thing was bleak and grim and it is rather understandable that many viewers wouldn't like it (Roger Ebert, for example, really despised it). Furthermore, he main character was really despicable and I think it is an aquired taste but you can't deny that the directing was just flawless. Later on, I have read the book and it is interesting that the book has actually one more chapter with a happy ending. Even though the book was pretty awesome, I enjoyed the movie even more because it is was darker, more pessimistic and just more compelling in my opinion. 
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Notes: While watching this, I realized that Altman is actually a rather difficult director. I mean, it is not that his movies are really cryptic or difficult to follow like David Lynch or Kim Ki-Duk for example, but he definitely has a very oblic approach concerning his directing which might explain why I have sometimes a hard time with his movies. Basically, he usually puts his camera in the middle of the scene and leave the characters do the talking but there is no real editing and, sometimes, you have 5 characters speaking to each other, sometimes improvising their dialogues which have nothing to do with the plot. It is like when someone gets into a room, normally, he would be presented to the audience somehow but, since the characters already know this person, they just skip this. As a result, you get something really realistic and this directing style definitely was Robert Altman’s trademark but, honestly, I think it was rather alienating. I mean, there is something pretty mesmerizing about this directing style but I think it is also creates a gap between the audience and the characters. Still, even though this movie didn’t really blow me away, it looked quite terrific, the songs provided by Leonard Cohen were a perfect fit and it must be one of the gloomiest Western I have ever seen. 
“Since this movie was rather well received, I was quite eager to check it out. To be honest, at first, I was worried that Julie Delpy would go a for a weaker copy of the 'Before ...' trilogy and the rather poor introduction only increased this feeling. However, as soon as they sat at the dinner table” read more