Category Archives: Film

VENICE FILM REVIEW: Oliver Stone doc ‘South of the Border’

Posted on September 6, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett VENICE – Good humored, illuminating and without cant, Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone’s documentary “South of the Border” is a rebuttal of what he views as the fulminations and lies of right-wing media at home and abroad regarding … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Reviews, Venice International Film Festival | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on VENICE FILM REVIEW: Oliver Stone doc ‘South of the Border’

VENICE FILM REVIEW: Patrice Chereau’s ‘Persecution’

Posted on September 6, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett VENICE – Everybody persecutes everybody else and they all feel persecuted in Patrice Chereau’s talkative roundelay “Persecution”, which stars Romain Duris and Charlotte Gainsbourg as a Parisian couple who spend more time talking about their relationship than … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Reviews, Venice International Film Festival | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on VENICE FILM REVIEW: Patrice Chereau’s ‘Persecution’

VENICE FILM REVIEW: Yonfan’s ‘Prince of Tears’

Posted on September 6, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett VENICE – Very pretty people seen against beautiful landscapes provide most of the enjoyment in Chinese director Yonfan’s glossy melodrama set in Taiwan in the 1950s when the hunt for communists on the island led to the … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Reviews, Venice International Film Festival | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on VENICE FILM REVIEW: Yonfan’s ‘Prince of Tears’

VENICE FILM REVIEW: ‘Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans’

Posted on September 4, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett VENICE – Filled with unexpected turns and subversive humor, Werner Herzog’s “The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans” is a jazzy and very entertaining riff on the theme of a cop who spends too much time … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Reviews, Venice International Film Festival | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on VENICE FILM REVIEW: ‘Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans’

FILM REVIEW: Penelope Cruz in Almodovar’s ‘Broken Embraces’

Posted on August 27, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – Aside from the fact that one is a genuine film artist while the other is an annoying twerp, the difference between the sublime Pedro Almodovar and the ridiculous Quentin Tarantino can be seen in their … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on FILM REVIEW: Penelope Cruz in Almodovar’s ‘Broken Embraces’

LOCARNO FILM REVIEW: ‘Under Bauern: Saviors of the Night’

Posted on August 26, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett LOCARNO, Switzerland – German cinema’s growing number of films willing to address topics relating to World War II has a fine addition in Ludi Boeken’s “Under Bauern: Saviors of the Night”, which tells of farmers — unter … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Locarno International Film Festival, Reviews | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on LOCARNO FILM REVIEW: ‘Under Bauern: Saviors of the Night’

LOCARNO FILM REVIEW: Frederic Mermoud’s ‘Partners’

Posted on August 25, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett LOCARNO, Switzerland – Swiss director Frederic Mermoud’s “Partners” is a police procedural with sex that deals with two sets of couples on both sides of the law involved in the murder of a male prostitute. The provocative … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Locarno International Film Festival, Reviews | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on LOCARNO FILM REVIEW: Frederic Mermoud’s ‘Partners’

LOCARNO FILM REVIEW: Urszula Antoniak’s ‘Nothing Personal’

Posted on August 24, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett LOCARNO, Switzerland – Holland-based Polish director Urszula Antoniak’s “Nothing Personal” is an intensely personal and engrossing tale of a ferociously independent young woman’s involvement with a kind widower in a remote part of Ireland. Lotte Verbeek (pictured) … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Locarno International Film Festival, Reviews | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on LOCARNO FILM REVIEW: Urszula Antoniak’s ‘Nothing Personal’

LOCARNO FILM REVIEW: Sarah Leonor’s ‘A Real Life’

Posted on August 22, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett LOCARNO, Switzerland – Sarah Leonor’s “Au Voleur” (A Real Life), starring the late Guillaume Depardieu, is an odd little picture that runs along like a somewhat dull tale of petty criminals but in the last third becomes … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Locarno International Film Festival, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on LOCARNO FILM REVIEW: Sarah Leonor’s ‘A Real Life’

LOCARNO FILM REVIEW: Filippos Tsitos’s ‘Plato’s Academy’

Posted on August 22, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett LOCARNO, Switzerland – Intelligent, warm and very funny, Filippos Tsitos’s “Akadimia Platonos” (Plato’s Academy) is a small tale of a proudly nationalistic Greek man who discovers that he might actually be Albanian, a situation that causes trouble … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Locarno International Film Festival, Reviews | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on LOCARNO FILM REVIEW: Filippos Tsitos’s ‘Plato’s Academy’