My Cinema Reviews
An endearing romance classic about a doomed love affair. “Brief Encounter” is filmmaker David Lean’s film adaptation of Noel Coward’s play “Still Life” and their final collaboration together. Featuring great performances by Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard, “Brief Encounter” is indeed the highlight of the Read More …
Today’s cinema selection goes to…. no, it’s not Oliver Stone’s “JFK” but to filmmakers who have created JFK documentaries that air on television during this time to commemorate the death of President John F. Kennedy. First, let me say that I enjoyed Oliver Stone’s “JFK” Read More …
“The Secret in Their Eyes” won the Academy Award for “Best Foreign Language” film, before I watched the film, I was stunned. Could there be anything better than Michael Haneke’s “The White Ribbon”, Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani’s “Ajami” or even the film which I Read More …
The word “REVANCHE” in German means “revenge” but also has the meaning of “second chance”. Götz Spielmann manages to craft his masterpiece through utilizing these five characters in whose lives are intertwined after tragedy but not going through the cliched route of banality or a Read More …
David Kennard has worked on television as director and producer for documentaries such as “2001: HAL’s Legacy”, “Surviving September 11th: The Story of One New York Family”, “Journey to the Universe”, the TV series “Cosmos” and “Keeping Score” to name a few. And back in Read More …
A powerful film about the human spirit. Moving, well-written, well-acted and just magnificent. In 1983, Independent filmmaker George Nava and his co-writer Anna Thomas were responsible for a film that touched everyone’s soul and a rare film that show us a perspective of how tough Read More …
Nagisa Oshima, one of Japan’s most controversial filmmakers and one of the founders of the Japanese New Wave, Oshima was known for taking on Japanese taboos and creating films against the status quo, the filmmaker has been doing his style of films since 1959 and Read More …
Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall” would always be known as a classic romantic comedy. In fact, many would say that his 1977 film would be his shining moment within his long list of films in his oeuvre. For Woody Allen, “Annie Hall” was a film in Read More …
When it comes to cinema, one of the more popular American director’s that have inspired many directors abroad is Samuel Fuller. From his first film “I Shot Jesse James” (1949) or as writer beginning with “It Happened in Hollywood” (1937), Fuller is a true auteur Read More …
It was 1939 and World War II and the Nazi Germans were coming. What does director Jean Renoir (“The Grand Illusion”, “The River”) do? He creates a film titled “La Regle du jeu” (The Rules of the Game) that is part of an adaptation of Read More …
Every director has their beginning but for Jean-Luc Godard, his 1960 film “À bout de souffle” a.k.a. “Breathless” was the beginning of a cinema revolution and bringing the world closer to nouvelle vague, the French New Wave. Godard is a unique director who attracted attention Read More …
“Shoah”, the biblical world translates to “calamity” and in Hebrew, it is the term to describe the Holocaust, the genocide of six million Jews during World War II by Nazi Germany. The word is also the title of French filmmaker Claude Lanzmann’s 1985 nine and Read More …
For many years, silent film fans have hoped to watch Paul Fejos’s “Lonesome”. Most have heard comparisons of Fejos’s film to F.W. Murnau’s “Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans” and Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis”, but the fact was that for many years, “Lonesome” was a rare Read More …
Before Clark Gable and Carole Lombard would become Hollywood’s super couple in real life, both worked on one film together back in 1932 titled “No Man of Her Own”. Directed by Wesley Ruggles (“Too Many Husbands”, “Arizona”, “I’m No Angel”, “True Confessions”), the pre-code Hollywood Read More …
May 1968, France’s economy was shut down. The largest general strike in an advanced industrial country, 11 million workers were on strike for two weeks and student protests ran rampant. It was a blow to President Charles de Gaulle’s government and groups revolted against modern Read More …
In the 1930’s, both Leo McCarey and Frank Capra are held to the highest regard. Legendary American film critic Andrew Sarris wrote of McCarey, “McCarey represents a principle of improvisation in the history of the American film. Noted less for his rigorous direction than for Read More …
In 1927, German film director F.W. Murnau (known for his role in German Expressionism) was invited by William Fox to make an Expressionist film for Hollywood and in return, Murnau created a film that would simply become a true classic and a true masterpiece with Read More …
Considered as one of the best film adaptations of William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”, Akira Kurosawa’s “Throne of Blood” is mesmerizing and unlike many of the films he has created in his notable oeuvre during that time. While creating a film adaptation of “Macbeth” has always been Read More …
“Le Samourai”, considered as one of Jean-Pierre Melville’s top films and a stylish and minimalistic take on film noir. The film that inspired many including John Woo who has said his masterpiece “The Killer” was a tribute to “Melville” and have used certain scenes in Read More …