Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Week 4-6 in film

Skipped 2 weeks because of a holiday and only watching a few films. I made up for it this week :-).

25th Hour (Spike Lee, 2002)
The saddest news: Philip Seymour Hoffman died. Perhaps the best of his generation, he was my favorite for a couple of years already, so I had to (re)watch a good role (basically each of his films would do). 25th Hour is great, not only Hoffman, but Norton, the whole pace and direction of the film are great. The mirror scene is mind-blowing. Hoffman is a decent part of the whole, as he was so often, just as often as he lifted a mediocre film to a higher level. 8.5/10



Otto e Mezzo (Federico Fellini, 1963)
I love Fellini but not this film that much. Hailed as his masterpiece by many. I find it too fragmented and it fails to grab my attention except for some of the beautiful cinematography. I understand the story but I just don't think it is interesting enough to make it a masterpiece, it exhausted me eventually.  7/10

Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990)
After watching The Wolf of Wall Street and American Hustle I couldn't resist to go back to watching the Scorsese classic. Yes, this one is better. I saw it about 5 years ago and I could remember a couple of strong scenes and not so much the overall story or mood which is exactly describing the strong and weaker points of this film. 8/10

Two Mothers (Anne Fontaine, 2012)
Two mothers falling in love with each others sons. Really? Unfortunately the romantic constructions in this film are not very plausible. Love the scenery, however.  5/10

Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn, 1967)
Entertaining, sure, and a hell of a closing scene, but not a masterpiece. Therefore it feels too much like 'The Dukes of Hazzard'.  7/10



X-Men: First Class (Matthew Vaughn, 2011)
Its great cast made me watch this and I don't regret it. In the big pool of comic-action-hero films one of the better ones. Especially the first hour had quite a good built up of tension and story. Lawrence is good, as ever, Fassbender is too much 'himself', I couldn't help seeing his Shame-character instead of Magneto. Nevertheless worthwhile.  7/10

The Lonely Voice of Man (Aleksandr Sokurov, 1987)
I love Russian cinema, but not this one. Perhaps I am missing the point, but still, how slow and boring can film become. Beauty can't save this one. 4.5/10

Oh Boy (Jan Ole Gerster, 2012)
Germany's Frances Ha? Is Niko,the protagonist weird or crazy? Or is everyone around him? I like this notion, and I somehow symphatize strongly with our Niko. Charming film and well shot. And how hard is it to get a cup of coffee? :-)  8/10

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