Entre les murs - Teacher Franois Marin and his colleagues are preparing for another school year teaching at a racially mixed inner city high school in Paris. The teachers talk to each other about their prospective students, both the good and the bad. The teachers collectively want to inspire their students, but each teacher is an individual who will do things in his or her own way to achieve the results they desire. They also have differing viewpoints on the students themselves, and how best to praise and discipline them. The administration of the school tries to be as fair as possible, which includes having student representatives sit on the student evaluation committee. Marin's class this year of fourteen and fifteen year olds is no different than previous years, although the names and faces have changed. Marin tries to get through to his students, sometimes with success and sometimes resulting in utter failure. Even Marin has his breaking point, which may result in him doing things he would probably admit to himself are wrong. But after all is said and done, there is next year and another group of students.
Linha de Passe - In the periphery of So Paulo, the pregnant single mother Cleuza works as maid in the apartment of a middle-class family. Each of her sons has a different unknown father: the oldest, Dnis, has a baby son that lives with his mother and he works as motorcycle courier; Dinho is a converted Christian and works as attendant in a gas station; Dario is an aspirant soccer player that is getting older without the expected chance in a team; and the youngest, Reginaldo, is obsessed about finding his father who works as a bus driver, and spends most of his spare time traveling by bus. Along the months, each brother experiences new deceptions and expectations while the family fights to survive.
Il divo - Although the unabridged subtitle of the Italian version reads "The extraordinary life of Giulio Andreotti", it doesn't chronicle all of the famed politician's life. Instead, it focuses on the most important period concerning his career: from 1978 to the early '90s. 1978 is, of course, when Aldo Moro, a member of the right-wing party Democrazia Cristiana just like Andreotti (Toni Servillo), was kidnapped and later executed by the Red Brigades. Andreotti shows no sign of emotion when he learns of the event, as usual: he has always been a quiet, secretive man. All that matters to him is the significant amount of power he gains over the years. As he points out when asked why he doesn't talk to God when he goes to church, "priests vote, God doesn't". Nevertheless, he certainly enjoys a little help from above when he is accused of various illegal activities, working with the Mafia and ordering assassinations being the most serious ones (let's not forget some conspiracy theorists believe he contributed to Moro's death, a conjecture that is dealt with in the film).
La frontire de l'aube - I won't make it too long to deliver my vision of this movie. In a delicate, dreamy, precise, sensitive way, Philippe Garrel has been giving new "lettres de noblesse" to the genre "fantastique". The cast is worth it. Laura Smet shows that maturing can be a blessing for a young woman born in the show business. Her performance is simply outstanding. And director Philippe Garrel gave his best role to Louis, his talented son, often lost in over-written parts under Christophe Honor's guidance
La mujer sin cabeza - The Headless Woman of the title may be Ver(nica), the protagonist, or may be some more nebulous term for an Argentinian social group-in- denial. I see it as a dark play on the fact that the bulk of the film is in mid-close shot, with only enough frame to accommodate parts of the figures swarming around Ver. 'Headless' here is in the same sense as 'faceless', anonymity in the midst of the crowd. Yet here the roles are reversed and we follow the traumatised Ver (the focused and rather beautiful Mara Onetto), adrift either in shock or preoccupied with guilt after hitting a dog in the road with her car. Yet this fact is open to question. With considerable resolve she tries to talk of the possibility that she might have hit a person. It's at this point that the social currents around her begin to take on an imperceptible tidal motion, a nebulous - out of frame, always out of frame - blanket of obfuscation and diversion. Cover-up is too strong a term.
Delta - I recently saw this at the 2009 Palm Springs International Film Festival. Mihail (Felix Lajko) has saved his money in the city to return to the village where his mother (Lili Monori) lives with her boyfriend (Sandor Gaspar) and his half sister Fauna (Orsolya Toth). Mihail sets out to build a house on the river delta on land his father owned. Fauna helps Mihail with the construction and lives in a hut with him while the construction his under way. The villagers consider Mihail an outsider and are opposed to the idea of a half brother and sister living alone together. Writer/director Kornel Mandruczo in a script co-written by Yvette Biro offers this rural tale of a developing incestuous relationship in a film beautifully shot by cinematographer Matyas Erdely and superbly edited by David Jancso. The film looks so good that every scene is a virtual painting but the storyline is a little weak with underdeveloped characters, weak dialog and a plodding pace. This perhaps may have worked better as a 20 minute short film but stretched out into a feature with little background on the characters and village life weakens it. I would give this a 6.5 out of 10. - 40724
Linha de Passe - In the periphery of So Paulo, the pregnant single mother Cleuza works as maid in the apartment of a middle-class family. Each of her sons has a different unknown father: the oldest, Dnis, has a baby son that lives with his mother and he works as motorcycle courier; Dinho is a converted Christian and works as attendant in a gas station; Dario is an aspirant soccer player that is getting older without the expected chance in a team; and the youngest, Reginaldo, is obsessed about finding his father who works as a bus driver, and spends most of his spare time traveling by bus. Along the months, each brother experiences new deceptions and expectations while the family fights to survive.
Il divo - Although the unabridged subtitle of the Italian version reads "The extraordinary life of Giulio Andreotti", it doesn't chronicle all of the famed politician's life. Instead, it focuses on the most important period concerning his career: from 1978 to the early '90s. 1978 is, of course, when Aldo Moro, a member of the right-wing party Democrazia Cristiana just like Andreotti (Toni Servillo), was kidnapped and later executed by the Red Brigades. Andreotti shows no sign of emotion when he learns of the event, as usual: he has always been a quiet, secretive man. All that matters to him is the significant amount of power he gains over the years. As he points out when asked why he doesn't talk to God when he goes to church, "priests vote, God doesn't". Nevertheless, he certainly enjoys a little help from above when he is accused of various illegal activities, working with the Mafia and ordering assassinations being the most serious ones (let's not forget some conspiracy theorists believe he contributed to Moro's death, a conjecture that is dealt with in the film).
La frontire de l'aube - I won't make it too long to deliver my vision of this movie. In a delicate, dreamy, precise, sensitive way, Philippe Garrel has been giving new "lettres de noblesse" to the genre "fantastique". The cast is worth it. Laura Smet shows that maturing can be a blessing for a young woman born in the show business. Her performance is simply outstanding. And director Philippe Garrel gave his best role to Louis, his talented son, often lost in over-written parts under Christophe Honor's guidance
La mujer sin cabeza - The Headless Woman of the title may be Ver(nica), the protagonist, or may be some more nebulous term for an Argentinian social group-in- denial. I see it as a dark play on the fact that the bulk of the film is in mid-close shot, with only enough frame to accommodate parts of the figures swarming around Ver. 'Headless' here is in the same sense as 'faceless', anonymity in the midst of the crowd. Yet here the roles are reversed and we follow the traumatised Ver (the focused and rather beautiful Mara Onetto), adrift either in shock or preoccupied with guilt after hitting a dog in the road with her car. Yet this fact is open to question. With considerable resolve she tries to talk of the possibility that she might have hit a person. It's at this point that the social currents around her begin to take on an imperceptible tidal motion, a nebulous - out of frame, always out of frame - blanket of obfuscation and diversion. Cover-up is too strong a term.
Delta - I recently saw this at the 2009 Palm Springs International Film Festival. Mihail (Felix Lajko) has saved his money in the city to return to the village where his mother (Lili Monori) lives with her boyfriend (Sandor Gaspar) and his half sister Fauna (Orsolya Toth). Mihail sets out to build a house on the river delta on land his father owned. Fauna helps Mihail with the construction and lives in a hut with him while the construction his under way. The villagers consider Mihail an outsider and are opposed to the idea of a half brother and sister living alone together. Writer/director Kornel Mandruczo in a script co-written by Yvette Biro offers this rural tale of a developing incestuous relationship in a film beautifully shot by cinematographer Matyas Erdely and superbly edited by David Jancso. The film looks so good that every scene is a virtual painting but the storyline is a little weak with underdeveloped characters, weak dialog and a plodding pace. This perhaps may have worked better as a 20 minute short film but stretched out into a feature with little background on the characters and village life weakens it. I would give this a 6.5 out of 10. - 40724
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Maddox Penner is serious movie lover and invites you to Download Movies For Free at the Movie Pan website. There, You will find all the latest hits and great oldies.
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