Tag Archives: Festival de Cannes

CANNES FILM REVIEW: Angelina Jolie in ‘A Mighty Heart’

By Ray Bennett CANNES – Michael Winterbottom’s expertly fashioned documentary-style drama “A Mighty Heart” relates the intense manhunt launched in Pakistan when jihadists kidnapped Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002. Angelina Jolie delivers a well-measured and moving performance … Continue reading

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The happy accident of Cannes delight, ‘The Band’s Visit’

By Ray Bennett The best film so far at this year’s Festival de Cannes, by a country mile, is Eran Kolirin’s little gem, “The Band’s Visit”, and I’m so glad I stumbled upon it by accident. A mix-up led me … Continue reading

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CANNES FILM REVIEW: Li Yang’s ‘Blind Mountain’

CANNES – Like Hollywood studios under the Hays Code from 1934 to 1967, London playwrights under the Lord Chamberlain for eons until 1968, filmmakers in China today must please the authorities before their movies are released to the world. The Hollywood … Continue reading

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CANNES FILM REVIEW: Coen Bros.’ ‘No Country For Old Men’

By Ray Bennett CANNES – Joel and Ethan Coen’s In Competition film is titled “No Country for Old Men” but it is set in an unforgiving 1980s West Texas landscape that appears to be populated with nothing but old men. Lawmen, … Continue reading

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CANNES FILM REVIEW: Anton Corbijn’s ‘Control’

By Ray Bennett CANNES — Anton Corbijn’s “Control,” which relates the short sad life of ’70s rocker Ian Curtis, is a dour affair but it boasts some terrific music not only from his band Joy Division but many other artists … Continue reading

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CANNES FILM REVIEW: ‘4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days’

By Ray Bennett CANNES – Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu’s In Competition entry “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” is a harrowing tale of the grim lengths to which two young women will go to end an unwelcome pregnancy in … Continue reading

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No British films in competition at Festival de Cannes

By Ray Bennett The U.K. Film Council has put on a brave face in reaction to the news that not one British movie will be shown In Competition or in the Un Certain Regard sidebar at the Festival de Cannes … Continue reading

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FILM REVIEW: Rowan Atkinson’s ‘Mr. Bean’s Holiday’

By Ray Bennett LONDON — Calling his new film “Mr. Bean’s Holiday” sets the bar awfully high for the latest adventures of Rowan Atkinson’s bumbling comic creation. It inevitably invites comparison with Jacques Tati’s priceless 1953 farce “Mr. Hulot’s Holiday.” … Continue reading

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Loach’s ‘Wind That Shakes the Barley’ takes New York

By Ray Bennett Fancy that, Ken Loach’s Palme d’Or-winning “The Wind That Shakes the Barley,” a drama about the Irish troubles set in the 1920s, opens in New York just in time for St. Patrick’s Day. The New York Times … Continue reading

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CANNES FILM REVIEW: Francisco Vargas’s ‘El Violin’

By Ray Bennett CANNES — Brutal military repression looks the same everywhere and Francisco Vargas’ striking and poetic film “The Violin” in Un Certain Regard offers a plaintive cry on behalf of the oppressed.

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