Fernando Gonzalez Saiffe's Movie Review Page

Allegro

February went to Match Point In what will surely be judged as one of his finest movies, Allen � filming in London for the first time � has practically re-invented himself with a superbly directed, well written and beautifully acted thriller that slowly tightens the screws as it progresses before reaching a gripping, unforgettable boiling point.
"To describe �Match Point� as a thriller doesn�t really do it justice. Though it�s clearly being marketed as a �Fatal Attraction�-like guilty pleasure, the film is quite different and plays out more like one of the melodramatic operas that its characters know so well. This is where Allen�s presence can truly be felt, as his integral use of vintage music for the soundtrack � in this case, operatic selections from �Rigoletto,� �Salvatore Rosa� and �Macbeth� � underscores the passionate, tragic themes of the story and allows them to work on a number of levels. (Scott Mantz).

December was for Separate Lies Director Julian Fellowes writes about the movie "What interested me about the novel on which Separate Lies is based are its themes of choice and doubt. In the last analysis, we must try to make films we want to see and I am always uncomfortable with an absolute white-hat/black-hat morality. I don�t like being told by filmmakers who is the hero and whom I am �rooting for.� I prefer characters who are neither good nor bad, who transgress but regret, who ask too much and adapt too little. I suppose my goal, in more or less everything I write, is to make the audience change their minds as the story progresses".

September is for

August goes to
When an American woman (Joan Allen) leaves her politician husband (Sam Neill) and embarks on a passionate love affair with a Middle-Eastern man (Simon Abkarian), their journey from London and Belfast to Beirut and Havana sees them confront some of the greatest conflicts of our generation-religious, political and sexual.
Yes is a post-9/11 love story, set chiefly in London, about an affair between an Irish-American scientist (Joan Allen), who's unhappily married to an English politician, and a somewhat younger Lebanese cook (Simon Abkarian), who's unmarried and used to work as a surgeon in Beirut.
Yes firmly, if offhandedly, undermines several received notions: That movies are a visual medium, so images matter more than sounds in general and words in particular. That movies shouldn't try to address the state of the contemporary world. That using individual characters to represent nations, cultures, genders leads to facile generalizations.
Potter has noted that "it is such a vindication for me and for all of those who worked on the film with such dedication that the very things that so many financiers found scary and to be avoided at all costs -- the verse and the politics -- are precisely the aspects of the film that people seem to find the most exciting. Audiences, it would seem, are ahead of the game, eager and bold." Directed by Sally Potter (The Tango Lesson, Orlando). Written and directed by Sally Potter (The Tango Lesson, Orlando).

February went to
With the Tang Dynasty in decline and unrest raging throughout the land, China's corrupt government is locked in battle with the House of Flying Daggers, a rebel army. When two local captains, Leo (Andy Lau) and Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro) are ordered to capture the rebels' new leader, Jin pretends to "rescue" the blind revolutionary Mei (Zhang Ziyi, Hero, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) from prison, earning her trust so he can escort her to the secret headquarters of the House. An epic martial arts from director Zhang Yimou (Hero). Academy Award Nominee for Best Cinematography.

January went to "A Touch of Spice" (El sabor de la vida).

This is the story of the 30,000 Greeks who were in effect deported from Istanbul in 1964. Director Tassos Boulmetis, whose family was uprooted from the city that was its home for countless generations, decided to tell their story after making a painful return to his childhood home.
Made partly in Turkey, the film is also being seen as a part of the slow and uneasy rapprochement between the two enemies who have spent most of the last 80 years perched on the precipice of war. Boulmetis, whose family was thrown out of the city Greeks still call Constantinople when he was seven, claimed: "We left Turkey as Greeks and we were greeted here as Turks. We were caught in the middle, confused and ill at ease in a homeland that wasn't really our home."

On the surface, A Touch of Spice is very much a Greek story, a tale of exile and loss and of coming to terms with failed dreams. But it's also defiantly romantic, celebrating and rejoicing in the simple joys of human existence: companionship, falling in love, the tastes and aromas of food and also the pleasures of a rich inner life. It's a quiet, essentially gentle film, a fact that makes its spectacular success in Greece all the more notable � and a strong indication that it has something special to offer to all of us.

Septiembre fue para Mi vida sin mi (Life without me). Una pelicula espa�ola-canadiense que trata sobre Anna, una mujer de 23 a�os, que se gana la vida como limpiadora en la universidad. Vive en un suburbio, con dos ni�as y un marido. De pronto, descubre que le quedan unos meses de vida, pero opta por no compartir con nadie ese secreto, para evitar que otros empiecen a hablarle de su inevitable destino. Anna escribe una lista de las cosas que no quiere dejar de hacer antes de morir. Una pel�cula que en a�n siendo simple, invita a la reflexi�n.


June went to Goodbye Lenin. Inspired October 1989 was a bad time to fall into a coma if you lived in East Germany - and this is precisely what happens to Alex's mother, an activist for social progress and the improvement of everyday life in socialist East Germany. Alex has a big problem on his hands when she suddenly awakens eight months later. Her heart is so weak that any shock might kill her. And what could be more shocking than the fall of the Berlin Wall and the triumph of capitalism in her beloved country? To save his mother, Alex transforms the family apartment into an island of the past, a kind of socialist museum where his mother is lovingly duped into believing that nothing has changed. What begins as a little white lie gets more and more out of hand as Alex's mother, who feels better every day, wants to go out and see the world. The underlying poignancy in this comedy is perhaps psychological more than political:
How many of us lie to our parents, pretending a world still exists that they believe in but we have long since moved away from?

Abril fue para OSAMA. Inspired by a true story, Osama follows a 12-year-old Afghan girl and her mother, who both lose their jobs after the Taliban closes the hospital where they work and restricts women's travel rights. With her daughter's father dead, the mother disguises her as a boy so she can leave the house and find a way to make a living.

Marzo fue para "Dogville". Pel�cula de producci�n Dinamarca-Suiza-Francia-Noruega-Pa�ses Bajos-Finlandia-Alemania-Italia-Jap�n-Estados Unidos y Gran Breta�a. Dirigida por Lars Von Trier, 2003.

How to describe this movie? Dogville is not a cry of rage against America � it's a cry of rage against all mankind. The movie is entirely symbolic, and the symbolism is not sorted out until a key conversation in the very last scene.

Filmed on a black-painted soundstage with house outlines marked off in white like the chalk outline around a corpse (the dog even has an outlined doghouse), it feels both theater-like and set apart from the world. Nicole Kidman at its best. Just a warning. The film is almost three hours long, so don�t go at night.

Enero es para R�o M�stico . Excelente gui�n, direcci�n y actuaciones a cargo de Sean Pean y Tim Robbins.

DICIEMBRE fue para Tierra de Sue�os . Pel�cula semi autobiogr�fica de Jim Sheridan (En Nombre del Padre, Mi Pie Izquierdo), presenta una percepci�n de Estados Unidos a trav�s de la mirada de una ni�a pequ�a. La protagonista recuerda la historia de sus padres, una pareja irlandesa llegando a Manhattan. Una pel�cula sensible, en una perspectiva de Manhattan vista como una isla que ayuda a una familia a redescubrir sus lazos mutuos en situaciones dif�ciles.

Noviembre. "Unas dulces mentiras" (Depuis qu'Otar est parti), Francia-B�lgica, Julie Bertuccelli, 2003.

Septiembre. "La peque�a costurera" (Balzac et la petite tailleuse chinoise), Francia-China, Sijie Dai, 2002.

Agosto. . "Spider", Francia-Canad�-Gran Breta�a, David Cronenberg, 2002.

Foreign & Independent films schedule and festivals.

El Festival de Cannes es quiza el m�s influyente del mundo. Este a�o ser� del 12 al 23 de mayo. Consulta aqu� las pel�culas nominadas e informaci�n de inter�s general.

Y este mes el Sundance Film Festival con m�s de cien nuevas pel�culas extranjeras y alternativas en distintas categorias.

Latest info and movie schedule on independent & foreign language films.

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