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Capsule Reviews from recent Communiqué Newsletters
by John Koch, Owner
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Postwar Kurosawa (Box Set) (1946-1955)
(Directed by Akira Kurosawa)
Akira Kurosawa came into his own as a filmmaker directly following World War II, delving into the state of his devastated nation with a series of pensive, topical dramas. Amid Japan’s economic collapse and U.S. occupation, Kurosawa managed to find humor and redemption existing alongside despair and anxiety. In these five early films Kurosawa revealed the artistic range and social acuity that would mark his career and make him the most popular Japanese director in the world. Films include: Scandal, The Idiot, No Regrets for Our Youth, I Live in Fear, and One Wonderful Sunday. |
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Atonement (2007)
(Directed by Joe Wright)
From the award-winning director of Pride and Prejudice comes a stunning, critically acclaimed epic story of love. When a young girl catches her sister in a passionate embrace with a childhood friend, her jealousy drives her to tell a lie that will irrevocably change the course of all their lives. The repercussions of her unfounded claim threaten to affect all three for decades to come. |
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The Darjeeling Limited (2007)
(Directed by Wes Anderson)
Wes Anderson returns to his trademark theme of upper- class family strife as three brothers embark on a train trip across India, in the hopes that a spiritual sojourn may strengthen their fraternal bond. The deeper they go into their journey, secrets are revealed, old wounds are opened, and the brothers are forced to deal with more fundamental challenges along the way. Incorporating his typical deadpan comedic style and slow- motion musical sequences, The Darjeeling Limited will not disappoint fans of Mr. Anderson, one of America’s most popular indie directors. |
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Into the Wild (2007)
(Directed by Sean Penn)
The film recounts the real life adventures of Christopher McCandless, who disappeared from his friends and family shortly after graduating from Emory University in 1990. Donating his entire $24,000 savings to charity and abandoning all his possessions, McCandless hits the road in search of meaning in his life and elusive spiritual truth he believes is obscured by material concerns. He dreams of Alaska, to head “into the wild” and blissful solitude, but not long after arrival his naïvete and lack of preparedness cause great hardship as he faces a battle for his life. |
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Vagabond (1985)
(Directed by Agnès Varda)
Agnès Varda’s film opens with the recently discovered corpse of a young female drifter in a cold ditch in the south of France. What follows is a series of flashbacks, showing the effect this feisty young woman had on the many people she came across in her recent past. With a knockout performance by Sandrine Bonnaire, and incorporating techniques of documentary while experimenting with the structure of narrative and flashback, Vagabond is a powerful film like no other. |
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Iraq in Fragments (2006)
(Directed by James Longley)
A moving, hypnotic portrait of Iraq in three parts, this is arguably the best film yet produced about the Iraq war. A small boy in Baghdad suffers the effects of war while living under the hand of an oppressive boss, a microcosm of the oppression of Saddam against his people. In Sadr’s South, two Shiite cities are engulfed in chaotic rallies for regional elections while Islamic law is violently enforced. In Kurdish Spring, a family of farmers welcomes the freedoms brought after suffering decades of tyranny. Shot and edited in a poetic style, the film evokes comparisons to Werner Herzog’s seminal film about the Gulf War, “Lessons of Darkness”. |
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Once (2006)
(Directed by John Carney)
A refreshingly straightforward take on the movie musical, “Once” is a look into the lives of two young Dublin musicians who meet on the street, both stagnating and hoping for transition in their lives. As the characters transform each other through sharing their joy of creating and performing music, “Once” delivers an emotional punch while delivering wonderfully expressive and adeptly performed songs. |
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Climates (2006)
(Directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
The follow-up to his Cannes Grand Jury prize- winning film “Distant”, Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan plunges ever deeper into emotional depths with this beautifully crafted film about the slow deterioration of a relationship. Filmed by and starring Ceylan himself and his real-life spouse Ebru Ceylan, “Climates” is perhaps as intimate a portrait of a marriage possible onscreen, at the same time reminiscent of the inner turmoil in the works of Bergman and Antonioni. |
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Old Joy (2006)
(Directed by Kelly Reichardt)
Old friends Mark and Kurt reunite for an overnight trip to a legendary hot springs in the Cascade mountains. Superbly showing the dynamics of how friendships change over time, Mark and Kurt struggle to connect in the way they did in the past. The journey to the hot springs becomes a journey within themselves and the bond they have, or perhaps once had, between them as they both face the loss of their youth. Poetically showing nature as a third character, "Old Joy" evokes comparisons to the contemplative feel of a Terrence Malick film. |
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Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
(Directed by Monte Hellman)
Monte Hellman takes what could have easily been a script for a b-movie romp and turns it into a moving statement of youthful malaise and rebellion in 1970's America. Hellman brilliantly recontextualizes pop icons James Taylor and Dennis Wilson into gearheads who are men of few words, who along with a young female stowaway are silently traversing the American landscape in a misguided cross-country road race. With a strong supporting performance by Warren Oates as their deranged middle-aged adversary in a yellow GTO, the film exhibits a surprisingly artful duel of masculine pride gone awry. |
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Belle de Jour (1967)
(Directed by Luis Buñuel)
The film features Catherine Deneuve in the role of Severine, an innocent young woman with a budding sexual curiosity and vivid fantasy life (quite similar to her role in Polanski's "Repulsion"). Sexually repressed and feeling alienated from her too-perfect new husband, Severine longs for some form of liberation. Hearing from her husband's repulsive friend Henri (Michel Piccoli) about a girlfriend who disappeared into the brothels, Severine's curiosity takes over, and her life takes an exciting but dangerous turn. |
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