Reviews

European cinema is really starting to make great films again.

Anatomy of a Fall does everything right. Good acting, directing, great script, subtle photography. Even the dog acts well!

The film feels very realistic and asks serious questions about truth. In complex personal dramas does objective truth exist, or is it up to us to decide what truth is?

Themes of sex, family, ambition and of cultural and geographical dislocation are explored in a sophisticated way, through the lense of a courtroom drama that reflects the contradictions and difficulties of family life.

Who, anywhere makes films as good as this?

These series always appear to 'forget' that the Spanish had been there for hundreds of years. For example, Geronimo was born a Spanish citizen, was baptised into the Catholic church and spoke Spanish. The original cowboys were 'vaqueros', and spoke Spanish. It's all a rewriting of history.

Other than that, I liked the cast. Ironically, lots of the actors are English. Emily Blunt is wonderful, beautiful and a really great actress.

The atmosphere was great. The story interesting and the dialogue was adult.

I have not seen many series as good as this lately. So, I forgive the amazing historical inaccuracies.

Ava Gardner is in Madrid chasing bullfighting and drinking herself silly. This is all seen through the eyes of the servants. This is a classy series which is well acted, well scripted, original and very funny.

Pointless waste of time and money. The original was more restrained and better acted.

I was very excited when I saw that this series was being aired. The idea of a well written and well acted look at the enemies of Rome, through their own eyes is a very attractive one. Yet. I have only been able to watch the first part of the first program which is about the great general Hannibal Barca. This is a man I know a lot about having read extensively about him. The program is not interested in realism but in selling a story. First they make Hannibal black. There is no mention in any of the extensive Roman histories describing Hannibal as black. Still, I imagine it conforms to a certain type of historical wishful thinking. Underlined by the fact that they have Jesse Jackson commenting on the program. What does Jesse Jackson know about it? So much for experts... They keep calling Hannibal's troops 'Barbarians', why? I doubt even the Romans would have called them barbarians. The Carthaginians were a sophisticated empire that competed with Rome in many ways not just militarily. Hannibal was one of the great, great generals of all time, yet the program skips over many of his greatest battles with barely a mention. I stopped watching.

Some of my favorite films have been made by Quentin Tarantino; but this is certainly not one of them. I get the feeling that he is so successful that people don't dare tell him when he is going wrong. With his new film "The Hateful Eight" he has tried to be too clever. So much parodying B movies has resulted in a bad B movie. Just add some fake blood and gratuitous sadism and voilà! We have Tarantino's latest. The script is awful, the acting pitiful (amazing if you consider the cast) and the story non-existent. Mr. Tarantino, please stop, take a sabbatical, read some good books, watch some classic films, and re-evaluate your career. You have far, far too much talent to be making this dross.