Film Reviews Blog

This page only shows films that have a review. By default in date order of reading with newest at top

Friday 22nd October 2021

France 2019

Running time: 117 mins

Only the Animals

Director : Dominik Moll

Film Summary :
Interlocking perspectives
Film Category
Film Tags

Reviewed by rogerco, Streamed proj @ home on 22 Oct 2021

Review Summary :
A story unwoven into different points of view

No idea why the title - but its a good'un.

At first we meet Alice (Laure Calamy) a rural insurance agent who is having an affair with the taciturn loner Joseph a farmer, one of her clients. Alice's husband Michel, another failing farmer, seems to suspect something.  We are deep in La France Profunde, a bleak barren landscape in winter with echos of scandinavia. Meanwhile a woman has gone missing - the wife of an incomer living in a renovated old farmhouse. The woman, Evelyne, has been having a lesbian affair with Marion, a young waitress who she met in Sete on the coast. Far away in the Ivory Coast a young man is part of a gang extorting money from gullible westerners on the internet by posing as girls and developing a relationship. He buys a package deal of photos and videos with which to hook a victim. The guy he hooks is Alice's husband, who is not doing the accounts in the farm office but conducting an internet affair and sending his girl money to get her out of trouble. At the end of the summer Marion determines to leave Sete and track down Evelyne, with whom she is obsessed. However Evelyne has to turn her out as the husband is returning.




Saturday 9th October 2021

Turkey 2020

Running time: 72 mins

Strays

Stray

Director : Elizabeth Lo

Film Summary :
Following a stray dog (Zeytin) and his mates on the streets of Istanbul
Film Category
Film Tags

Reviewed by rogerco, DVD proj @ home on 09 Oct 2021

Review Summary :
Closeups of a doggy world in Instanbul

Doggy life

A strange film staying very close to the dogs and observing the world slightly from their point of view. A slight story is imposed but it is pretty random.




Thursday 7th October 2021

France 1968

Running time: 30 mins

Black Panthers

Director : Agnes Varda

Film Summary :
Filmed at BP rallies and demos to call for the release of Huey P Newton in Oakland California 1968
Film Category
Film Tags

Reviewed by rogerco, Streamed proj @ home on 07 Oct 2021

Review Summary :
Historical interest with some useful revolutionary theory

Review of "Black Panthers"

A little bit thin on context this is a fragment of life documentary centred on a single event - a rally and demo. A couple of the interviews raised some interesting ideas about how to start a revolution.




Thursday 7th October 2021

France 1963

Running time: 30 mins

Salut les Cubains

Director : Agnes Varda

Film Summary :
Photomontage film essay about Cuba 1963
Film Category
Film Tags

Reviewed by rogerco, Streamed proj @ home on 07 Oct 2021

Review Summary :
Cuba 1963 cpatured in B&W photomontage

Review of "Salut les Cubains"

Another (early) tour-de-force by Varda. With voiceover by Agnes and Michel Piccoli providing context for what we see. A montage of still, B&W, photos arranged into chapters with different themes.

Some excellent music/dance scenes using photos which must have been shot with a motor drive to create a near stop-frame effect in time with the music. One of these was a bit overlong as she had to repeat the same sequence of photos several times - but a very interesting technique.

Fascinating as a snapshot of Cuba emerging as a country from the revolution.




Saturday 2nd October 2021

France 1936

Running time: 80 mins

Le Crime de Monsieur Lange

Director : Jean Renoir

Film Summary :
He shot a man
Film Category

Reviewed by rogerco, on 02 Oct 2021

Review Summary :
Scenes of totally bizarre Parisian life in 1936

Well it WAS a Crime

I found the milieu of the building where the publisher and laundry were, and the lives and loves of the young women completely strange. 

Aside from that the story was clear enough