Change Your Image
Mathias-4
Reviews
Je t'aime John Wayne (2000)
A little cracker of a spoof
I saw this as a short accompanying another film, and it turned out to be a real treat. Maybe part of the charm was the surprise element (I hadn't realised there was a short), but this shows real promise. It's a stylish, 5 minute homage. A romp through the cliches of French cinema, as seen through the eyes of a cocksure London chancer. He's so convinced he's Jean-Paul Belmondo in Godard's 1960 classic, A bout de Souffle, that even his mum can't get any sense out of him any more. Suffice to say he charms, he poses, and he eventually gets the girl - a dead ringer for Jean Seberg. Nicely written and played, with some real laughs. But it won't make much sense unless you've seen Godard's film.
Budbringeren (1997)
A dark little Goldilocks parable
I can't agree with the wholly negative comments posted by some - I thought this was a nicely dark little film, with enough strange characters to keep you interested. It's no masterpiece, granted, but it does have enough moments of humour and pathos to carry it off. It doesn't attempt anything too ambitious, and at 78 mins, is short and sweet.
La haine (1995)
Stunning, visceral, seminal, brilliant.
This is a must-see film of the 90's. Although the themes of alienated youth, urban depression and violence have been tackled before, rarely has it been done with such style and assurance. As a directors first film it defies belief. From the opening, metaphysical parable, to the final, shocking gut-wrenching scene, this film oozes class. The performances are flawless, the sound-track superb and the set-piece scenes just blow you away (the fly-by shot though the estate with NWAs Fuck tha Police mixing with Je Ne Regrette Rien, or the break-dancers in the burnt-out warehouse). Funny, touching, and gripping by turns, the grainy black and white just adds to the mood. Films like this don't come around too often.
Dersu Uzala (1975)
Another masterful offering from Kurosawa
Based on the journals of Tsarist officer Vladimir Arseniev who set out at the end of the 19th Century to explore and map some of the wildest and most hostile areas of Russian territory - the Sino-Soviet border regions of the Siberian Taiga. The story unfolds when he meets the wise and enigmatic Dersu, a nomadic hunter, who quickly becomes his guide and friend. They remain companions through several expeditions and Arseniev owes his life to Dersu, whose understanding of nature and the elements saves them both on more than one occasion.
Kurosawa plays the familiar theme of the struggle of man against the implacability of nature beautifully. The narrative may sometimes meander, but Dersu is brilliantly played by Maksim Munzuk, who portrays the lonely and fiercely independent hunter as tender and humorous, and Kurosawa misses no opportunity to indulge in long, sweeping takes of the breathtaking scenery. A poignant gem.
NB George Lucas apparently based the character of Yoda on Dersu.
C'est arrivé près de chez vous (1992)
A brief comment on the content of an extraordinary and disturbing film
An extraordinary film, with very clever use of the "film within a film" mise-en-scene. Disturbing, confrontational and yet shot through with vivid, blackly comic moments. Profoundly more disturbing and visceral than a film such as Reservoir Dogs, to which it was (irritatingly) compared on release, it offers no easy answers, and leaves the viewer with deep feelings of ambiguity and unease (both about the film's characters and ones own reaction), reminiscent of George Sluizer's The Vanishing in mood.