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“To be honest, it has been ages since I have seen this movie and I should definitely re-watch it at some point. I have noticed that this movie didn’t get much love when it was released but I always had a weak spot for the damned thing. Basically, Wayne Wang and Paul Auster already worked together t” read more
Notes: Honestly, I'm not really knowledgeable about Zhang Yimou. I mean, I have seen half of his movies but I'm still missing his best movies which he made in the 90's. Anyway, I was definitely eager to check his directing debut, also starring Gong Li in her acting debut as well. First of all, it is a really gorgeous movie to look at. Only for this, it is worth a look. Furthermore, the acting was pretty impressive as well. I mean, Gong Li was only 22 years but she still manage to give a very good performance. It is too bad I only managed to see her recent work because she is a rather fascinating actress. On the downside, I have to admit that the whole thing was rather slow and the story was interesting but nothing mind-blowing. Like many Asian features, there are many cultural and historical references and symbolism that I miss and contrary to Western movies, they don't stop every 5 minutes to explain everything that is going in front of your screen which is actually a good thing but as a result you don't get the whole thing. Still, it remains a gorgeous picture.
chosen by Henk
Notes: When I heard that we would watch a movie dealing with the current immigrants crisis, I have to admit that I was a little bit apprehensive. The tricky thing with a movie like this one is that, since it is a documentary, there is no plot to hang on to and, since there was no commentary whatsoever, you are basically left on your own to try to figure out what the director actually tried to achieve. Eventually, I was rather surprised about the little time they actually spent with those immigrants. On the other hand, it was just as well because, each time the movie was focusing on them, it was almost unbearable to watch. Instead, the focus was set on the people living and working on this island, especially a hilarious little boy. By the way, why did they spend so much time with him? I mean, he was entertaining, that's for sure, but his connection with the topic was really thin and, at some point, it felt almost like watching a documentary about the last great Italian comedian. My guess is that the makers wanted to show that, even during such horrific events, children must remain children. They have to remain innocent and oblivious about the horror around them, they have to keep playing, they have to keep pretending that they kill the whole world during their games, even if, almost every day, just a few kilometers from them, 100s of people are actually dying at sea.
(Oct. 2016)
“Basically, it is one of those rather obscure French features that almost no one has seen on Listal. I actually saw the damned thing in the movie theatre when it was released and there was in France , in fact, a pretty good buzz about this movie before it came out. Indeed, after 8 long years, Jean-Pa” read more
Notes: When it was released, it has a huge hit. Nowadays, it would seem impossible that a thriller like this one would ever again become the biggest movie of the year with all these huge blockbusters but, back in 1987, this movie managed to be the highest-grossing film worldwide. Anyway, in the erotic thriller genre, it is definitely a classic. In my opinion, what made this movie really worked was the perfect cast. Indeed, Michael Douglas was basically born to play such guys (see also ’Basic Instinct’) and he was just pitch-perfect. Even more impressive was Glenn Close who was absolutely a rather odd choice and no one at the time or even nowadays would think of her to play a sexual psychopath but she really nailed it. Unfortunately, as pointed out by Glenn Close herself, the movie completely ignored the fact that her character was probably mentally ill and this aspect was never developed in this movie which was too bad. Instead, the character played by Douglas was set a victim, when in fact, the guy was a cheater and it would have been interesting if it would have been more balanced. Anyway, in spite of its flaws, it is still a decent thriller.
“Since I already saw ‘Unknown’ and ‘Run All Night’, I thought I might as well check this 3rd movie directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and starring Liam Neeson. Well, even though it was nothing really amazing, I thought it turned out to be the best of the bunch after all. Indeed, I always had a ” read more
“To be honest, it has been a while since I have seen this movie but I’m pretty sure I actually saw the damned thing in the movie theater when it was released. Back then, I was a huge fan of Ken Loach who was definitely one of the best directors in the world but I have to admit that it has been a wh” read more
“Nowadays, we don’t hear much from Tom DiCillo but the guy had a pretty good run in the 90’s. Concerning this movie, after his directing debut ‘Johnny Suede’ was fairly well received (I have still not seen the damned thing by the way), he quickly got the green-light to make this movie which w” read more
Notes: I haven't seen this one yet...
“Since I really loved ‘Man on Wire’, of course, I was really eager to check this new dramatic version, even if I had some doubts. Indeed, the first issue with this movie was that ‘Man on Wire’ was such a flawless feature, it was quite an impossible task to provide something even better and ev” read more
