Tag Archives: Venice International Film Festival

FILM REVIEW: ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’

Posted on September 5, 2011 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – The pleasures of a John le Carré novel on top of the sublime writing come less from plot than from atmosphere and character and that is why his best spy novels make splendid miniseries, not … Continue reading →

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VENICE FILM REVIEW: Michele Placido’s ‘The Great Dream’

Posted on September 13, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett VENICE – A kind of Italian “The Way We Were” although without that film’s epic ambition, Michele Placido’s “Il Grande Sogno” (The Great Dream) tells of a love triangle set against the political turmoil and student protests … Continue reading →

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VENICE FILM REVIEW: George A. Romero’s ‘Survival of the Dead’

Posted on September 12, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett VENICE – George A. Romero’s latest zombie fest, “Survival of the Dead,” is a polished, fast-moving and entertaining picture whose mainstream success will depend on the mass audience tolerance of its tendency to become an abattoir of … Continue reading →

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VENICE FILM REVIEW: ‘Around a Small Mountain’

Posted on September 11, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett VENICE – Jacques Rivette’s “Around a Small Mountain” (36 vues du Pic Saint Loup) is a fable about chance encounters and lost love set against a small traveling circus in France but it feels more like the … Continue reading →

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VENICE FILM REVIEW: ‘Between Two Worlds’

Posted on September 11, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett VENICE – Striking images and the suggestion that life is a series of random events that might be repeated make “Between Two World”, Vimukthi Jayasundara’s tale of life in Sri Lanka, intriguing. With no narrative arc, the … Continue reading →

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VENICE FILM REVIEW: Fatih Akim’s ‘Soul Kitchen’

Posted on September 10, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett VENICE – Filled with boisterous good spirits, Fatih Akim’s “Soul Kitchen” tells of a young Greek-German man’s attempts to make a success of a funky restaurant despite a series of mishaps. The film won the Special Jury … Continue reading →

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VENICE FILM REVIEW: Shinya Tsukamoto ‘s ‘Tetsuo’

Posted on September 8, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett VENICE – Japanese filmmaker Shinya Tsukamoto shows what a “Transformers” movie would be like on a shoestring budget with “Tetsuo the Bullet Man”, which features a man whose mother was an android and whose half-human half-machine body … Continue reading →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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