A personal journal of film and documentary reviews, and reviews of anything else that intrigues me.
Takashi Koizumi, “A Samurai Chronicle” (2014) I’m afraid that these days the Japanese just don’t make samurai dramas the way they used to, with devil-may-care flair…
Kon Ichikawa, “Conflagration / Enjo” (1958) Based on the novel “The Temple of the Golden Pavilion” (itself based on an actual incident) by notorious Japanese writer…
German and German-language Films, North American Films
Wim Wenders, “Paris, Texas” (1984) One of American cinema’s finest yet under-appreciated treasures must surely be the unassuming actor Harry Dean Stanton whose acting career reached…
British Films, North American Films
Kenneth Branagh, “Cinderella” (2015) Being a Disney production, this live-action version of the tale as Disney tells it can only go so far in its reinterpretation…
Hiroshi Inagaki, “Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple” (1955) Its predecessor in the Musashi Miyamoto trilogy might have won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film…
Ingmar Bergman, “Fanny and Alexander” (1982) In part an autobiographical film based on his own childhood experiences of growing up with a severe Lutheran pastor father,…
British Films, West African Films
Biyi Bandele, “Half of a Yellow Sun” (2013) Adapted from the eponymous novel, written by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, by playwright / director Biyi Bandele, this film…
Australian and New Zealand Films, Southeast Asian Films
Bety Reis and Luigi Acquisto, “A Guerra da Beatriz / Beatriz’s War” (2013) A major first in the post-independence culture of Timor-Leste, “Beatriz’s War” is a…
Yasujiro Ozu, “Floating Weeds” (1959) In the hands of a lesser director, the soap opera plot of this film would have become sensationalist drama, soon to…
Shohei Imamura, “The Eel / Unagi” (1997) Japan’s boys in blue have an enviable record in obtaining a near 100% rate of criminal convictions and never…