Gloria scores 3.4 at Screen. It seems to be one of those rare films that both the mainstream and the auteurish critics love.
Gloria scores 3.4 at Screen. It seems to be one of those rare films that both the mainstream and the auteurish critics love.
I get your point...but it's also right to consider THE HAND very near to IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE/2046...in the same way that FALLEN ANGELS is near to CHUNGKING EXPRESS...and actually DAYS OF BEING WILD is near to IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE/2046/THE HAND...you can say that REPETITION is part of WKW work. THE GRANDMASTERS is something different but I won't be bothered if he will return again to his previous thematics (I read somewhere that he was considering an Eileen Chiang's adaptation starring Brigitte Lin...and to me the repetition already started with "The Hand".)
Oooh, WKW directing an Eileen Chang adaptation with Brigitte Lin would be bliss. It'd be nice if he could rouse Maggie Cheung out of retirement too.
Some pretty dire Twitter reactions to the South African competition entry, Layla Fourie. The Romanian film, Child's Pose, is faring better, with good notices for Gheorghiu. But Gloria and Paulina Garcia remain the film and actress to beat so far. As predicted, it's been a strong year for female performances (in addition to the above mentioned two, the leads from Paradise: Hope and The Nun have gotten good reviews as well -- and the Deneuve and Binoche films have yet to screen).
Screen poll, day 5:
3.4 = Gloria
2.1 = Paradise: Hope
2.0 = Vic+Flo Saw a Bear
1.9 = In the Name of
1.8 = Gold
1.8 = A Long and Happy Life
1.8 = Promised Land
1.6 = The Nun
0.8 = The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman
Dumont and Panahi tomorrow!
really nice, even if it seems Cheung retirement will go on (even if she made something a couple of years ago..)...I would like WKW or Ang Lee will come with something written expecially for herIt'd be nice if he could rouse Maggie Cheung out of retirement too.
So, I saw Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Don Jon's Addiction (playing in the Panorama section) yesterday, and I really liked it. It's very funny, and very bold -- there is a LOT of porn in it, and, as Gordon-Levitt confirmed at the Berlin press conference on Friday, it will be re-cut for Relativity's theatrical summer distribution. The movie is not perfect -- it gets kind of redundant in the middle, with all the porn stuff and Jon's characteristics being shown over and over again, which is, I guess, kind of the point of the movie (the obsessiveness and addiction of things without ever questioning them or looking behind the surface), but it still doesn't work at some points. The change and development of the main character comes too late in the storyline.
However, Gordon-Levitt manages to get a nasty, funny look at nowadays (media) addiction of all sorts -- porns, romantic comedies, TV (Tony Danza as the football-fanatic father), phones -- that objectify people and set impossible standards that real life human beings are never going to meet. This "message" becomes clear pretty late in the movie, but in a third act that is astonishing and moving. There is one of the best movie love / sex scenes of the last years. And Jon's family members may be caricatures, but, unfortunately, they are not too far away from reality, and the dialogues Gordon-Levitt gives them are hilarious.
Gordon-Levitt is hilarious in the lead, like I've never seen him before. Scarlett Johansson is funnier than in any of her Woody Allen (or other) comedies, and hot as hell. And Julianne Moore is wonderful: her role is not that big (she's mostly just in the third act), but very important, and she gives her funniest performance since The Big Lebowski, better than in The Kids Are All Right (where I felt she was comically forced), but also really heartbreaking at the same time: A beautifully natural performance.
Dumont's Camille Claudel 1915 already had a press screening. Some promising early reactions:
erickohn @erickohn
Bruno Dumont's latest brooding crisis of faith drama is potent stuff. Binoche owns it, to nobody's surprise. #berlinaleJonathan Romney @JonathanRomney
Bruno Dumont's CAMILLE CLAUDEL 1915 - very serious, very substantial, very different. Il ne rigole pas, ce Bruno. #BerlinaleRita Di Santo @ritadisanto
#Berlinale Dumont's CAMILLE CLAUDEL is surreal mad mediation on love- Binoche magnificent as a vivid Rodin's sculpture.
Ermahgerd!
If you went to Berlin, tell me how Arslan's latest is. I'll see it regardless, as I also quite liked In The Shadow (loved how controlled it was) and love Nina Hoss.Originally Posted by oliksa
Ermahgerd!
The Dumont would be the high point of the festival for me if I were there.
I couldn't get any tickets for it. But the critical reception of it was pretty bad.If you went to Berlin, tell me how Arslan's latest is. I'll see it regardless, as I also quite liked In The Shadow (loved how controlled it was) and love Nina Hoss.
Especially from the German critics. The English ones were more kind to it.
ARE YOU READY, JESSICA?
what did you see so far? I've been pretty busy this year and didn't got to see any competition films yet, out of the two I saw one was decent though. Don't hear too many enthusiastic notices from others, its seems that Gloria is indeed the one to beat so far but the line-up itself is quite weak
There's something wrong with this signature.
Can you find that ONE mistake?
I couldn't get any tickets for my favorite films, so I decided to skip the Berlinale this year.what did you see so far? I've been pretty busy this year and didn't got to see any competition films yet, out of the two I saw one was decent though. Don't hear too many enthusiastic notices from others, its seems that Gloria is indeed the one to beat so far but the line-up itself is quite weak
Seems to be the right choice of what I heard right now. As I said before, Kosslick really has no taste.
Themes are always more important for him then the actual quality of the movie.
ARE YOU READY, JESSICA?
http://www.indiewire.com/article/ber...e-claudel-1915
http://www.indiewire.com/article/ber...closed-curtain
Very positive reviews from Indiewire for both 'Camille Claudel 1915' and 'Closed Curtain'.
Côté's film has received great accolades from the most auteurish critics, and the Rumanian one has been liked across the board, although nobody seems to be really in love with it.
Diego Lerer (the guy who puts together the Apichatpoll) says Dumont's film is a masterpiece, but mainstream critcs have found it deeply boring.
The Dumont has done pretty well with the trades so far. THR and Screen gave it good reviews, plus Indiewire. Binoche's notices have been very strong too. I do think Paulina Garcia is still the Best Actress favorite, if only because Binoche has already won a Bear (for The English Patient).
Vic+Flo, Child's Pose and Gold have all gotten pretty high marks on that critic.de poll (with the Panahi starting off strong too). All in all, this actually seems like a relatively good year for the Berlinale? I want to see at least half a dozen of the competition films so far, and quite a few sidebar entries sound interesting too. My impression is that the line-up is already better than last year's.
Guy Lodge is not a fan of the new Billie August "Night Train to Lisbon"
I'd love to say the abysmal NIGHT TRAIN TO LISBON is the Europudding to end all Europuddings, but while there's life left in Bille August...Suffice to say it's the kind of film that believes Jeremy Irons and Martina Gedeck will really spark together on screen.
That's priceless, LMAO.
Why does Billie August continuously get his movies funded?
I will marshall all the forces of darkness to hound you to an assisted suicide - Peter Capaldi, In The Loop
No, it was divisive: One of Germany's most important newspapers (Sueddeutsche) raved about Gold.
I am really intrigued by the two competition movies about locked up artists in different areas -- Jafar Panahi's Pardé (Closed Curtain) and Bruno Domont's Camille Claudel 1915. The German government had petitioned the Iranian to allow Panahi to attend the premiere, but of course, he wasn't allowed to come. There were demonstrations in front of the Iranian embassy in Berlin yesterday.
Both movies received positive reviews in the German and international press and are candidates for the Golden Bear.
And Binoche receives ecstatic notices for her performance as Claudel (she could get the best actress award) :
"An unsettling portrait of the artist as a mad woman, anchored by a riveting lead performance." (Hollywood Reporter)
"A measured, moving account of a brief period in the later life of the troubled sculptress... Binoche's mesmerizing lead turn... Binoche responds with the same balance of fury and fragility she brought a few years ago to Abbas Kiarostami's "Certified Copy," a similarly expansive but unforgiving showcase for her gifts. ... Binoche is particularly heartbreaking to watch as her demeanor switches from girlish excitement at the reunion -- the wildflowers woven into her hair are a poignant detail -- to panic and finally despair..." (Variety)
"Juliette Binoche Delivers Commanding Performance In Bruno Dumont's Powerful Crisis of Faith Drama -- A-" (indiewire)
"Boasting a mesmerisingly intense yet controlled lead by Juliette Binoche... Dumont has made not so much a departure from his previous work, more an amplification and indeed a deepening of it." (Screen Daily)
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