Category Archives: Film

CANNES FILM REVIEW: Michel Franco’s ‘Daniel and Anna’

Posted on May 23, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett CANNES – Michel Franco’s prurient and off-putting little film “Daniel & Ana”, which screened in Directors’ Fortnight, is about a teenage brother and slightly older sister in Mexico City, who are kidnapped and forced to have sex … Continue reading →

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CANNES FILM REVIEW: ‘The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus’

Posted on May 22, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett CANNES – The first big question about Terry Gilliam’s “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” involves how the filmmaker managed to complete the film when his star Heath Ledger (below) died in the middle of shooting. The answer … Continue reading →

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CANNES FILM REVIEW BRIEF: Juraj Lehotsky’s ‘Blind Loves’

Posted on May 21, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett CANNES – Love is blind, the poets say, and the blind also love but it’s not so easy to clink glasses of celebratory champagne when you and your partner cannot see. Slovakian director Juraj Lehotsky observes this … Continue reading →

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CANNES FILM REVIEW: Ken Loach’s ‘Looking for Eric’

Posted on May 19, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett CANNES – The term “crowd-pleaser” is not often attached to the work of Ken Loach, the British Palme d’Or-winning director of films of social realism, but his latest Festival de Cannes Competition entry, “Looking for Eric,” is … Continue reading →

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CANNES FILM REVIEW: Olivier Cohen’s ‘Invisible Eyes’

Posted on May 19, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett CANNES – Olivier Cohen’s intelligent mystery “Invisible Eyes” has all the conventions of a thriller about a woman alone in a house but confounds expectations by moving pleasingly into “Twilight Zone” territory. The offbeat story, which stars … Continue reading →

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CANNES FILM REVIEW: Kamen Kalev’s ‘Eastern Plays’

Posted on May 18, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett CANNES – Uneven but gripping, Kamen Kalev’s “Eastern Plays,” which screened in Directors’ Fortnight, is a portrait of a young drug addict artist caught up in the violent racial strife of present-day Bulgaria. There’s a sudden crime … Continue reading →

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CANNES FILM REVIEW: Caroline Strubbe’s ‘Lost Persons Area’

Posted on May 18, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett CANNES – The setting of Caroline Strubbe’s “Lost Persons Area”, which screened in Critics Week, is a wide flat plain populated by vast pylons bearing power cables that dwarf the human beings below. The symbolism is the … Continue reading →

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CANNES FILM REVIEW: Mathias Gokalp’s ‘Nothing Personal’

Posted on May 18, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett CANNES – It’s been said of some Hollywood studios that executive competition was so bad that colleagues stabbed you in the front. That’s pretty much what happens with the suits at a pharmaceutical company in Mathias Gokalp’s … Continue reading →

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CANNES FILM REVIEW: Keren Yedaya’s Jaffa

Posted on May 16, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett CANNES – “Jaffa,” directed by Keren Yedaya, whose 2004 film “Or” won five awards at the Festival de Cannes including the Critics Week Grand Prix and Camera d’Or, is an absorbing and touching family drama set in … Continue reading →

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CANNES FILM REVIEW: Jane Campion’s ‘Bright Star’

Posted on May 16, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett CANNES – A treat for romantics and those who take their poetry seriously, Australian director Jane Campion’s gorgeously filmed Festival de Cannes Competition entry “Bright Star” might not be a joy forever but it will do until … Continue reading →

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