Monthly Archives: February 2007

THEATRE REVIEW: Daniel Radcliffe in ‘Equus’

By Ray Bennett LONDON – A nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse, so they say, and since there are six sightless steeds in the West End revival of Peter Shaffer’s overwrought 1973 drama “Equus”, you … Continue reading

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Whistle stop at the Palace of Westminster

By Ray Bennett I can’t recall the last time someone holding a semi-automatic rifle smiled at me and said, “How’s it going?” It happened this morning at the Palace of Westminster, where I was covering my first parliamentary committee hearing … Continue reading

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One winner among the Oscar awards montages

By Ray Bennett No surprise that the best film montage in last night’s Oscar show was Giuseppe Tornatore’s impressionistic assembly of clips from the Academy’s best foreign-language film winners. The director of “Cinema Paradiso” (pictured) put together a rapid-fire sequence … Continue reading

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Candid Clint Eastwood on being a conservative

Venerable British film critic Philip French has a fine interview with Clint Eastwood in today’s The Observer. With the two-time Oscar winning director once more in the Academy Awards spotlight, he speaks about filmmaking, great directors and being a conservative. … Continue reading

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BERLIN FILM REVIEW: ‘I Served the King of England’

By Ray Bennett BERLIN – Forty years after their “Closely Watched Trains” won the Oscar for best foreign-language film, director Jiri Menzel has adapted another novel by the late Bohumil Hrabal, and history could well repeat itself when Academy members … Continue reading

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BERLIN FILM REVIEW: Yu Li’s ‘Lost in Beijing’

By Ray Bennett BERLIN – “Lost in Beijing” might have the Chinese censors trying to wield their scissors, but Yu Li’s muddled sex drama is unlikely to cause an uproar, or make much of a stir, anywhere else. Film Distribution, … Continue reading

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FILM REVIEW: Simon Pegg in ‘Hot Fuzz’

By Ray Bennett LONDON – It’s fast and furious; it’s loud and there’s lots of gunplay but screenwriters Edgar Wright (who directs) and Simon Pegg (who stars) fail to deliver the comic goods or thrills in their cop show lark … Continue reading

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BERLIN FILM REVIEW: Marianne Faithfull in ‘Irina Palm’

By Ray Bennett BERLIN – Marianne Faithfull (pictured) is unforgettable as a middle-class, middle-aged frump who takes a job at a sex club in order to raise enough money for her grandson’s life-saving operation in Sam Garbarski’s crowd-pleasing comedy-drama “Irina … Continue reading

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BERLIN FILM REVIEW: ‘The Life and Legacy of Simon Wiesenthal’

By Ray Bennett BERLIN – Concentration camp survivor Simon Wiesenthal, who lost 89 relatives to the Nazis, was for many the conscience of the Holocaust. An extraordinary man who died at 96, outliving almost all of his enemies, Wiesenthal celebrated … Continue reading

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BERLIN FILM REVIEW: ‘When a Man Falls in the Forest’

By Ray Bennett BERLIN – One of the characters in Ryan Eslinger’s joyless drama of wasted lives, “When a Man Falls in the Forest,” listens to a self-help tape called “An Exploratory Guide to Lucid Dreaming.” It’s too bad the … Continue reading

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