A personal journal of film and documentary reviews, and reviews of anything else that intrigues me.
Herman Axelbank and Max Eastman, “Tsar to Lenin” (1937) Presented by Mehring Books and the Socialist Equality Party, “Tsar to Lenin” is an incredible historical document…
Stanley Kubrick, “Dr. Strangelove or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the Bomb” (1964) Notable as the film that features British actor Peter Sellers…
David Keane, “The True Story of Black Hawk Down” (2003) A very detailed documentary about the events that led to the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993…
Ralph Fiennes, “Coriolanus” (2011) When I was 28 years of age, a mysterious Shakespeare-reading frenzy seized me and before I knew what I was doing, I had…
French and French-language Films
Alain Resnais, “Hiroshima Mon Amour” (1959) This famous film tells a very deceptively simple story: a French actress whom we’ll call She (Emmanuelle Riva) is in…
Mikhail Kalatozov, “The Cranes are Flying / Letyat zhuravli” (1957) A soulful film of hope and optimism amid the cruelties of war, this story of a…
French and French-language Films
Jean Cocteau, “Orpheus / Orphée” (1950) Intriguing re-telling of the famous ancient Greek legend set in post-WW2 Paris, this film combines surrealism, fantasy, situation comedy or…
Sut Jhally and Bathsheba Ratzkoff, “Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land” (2003) This is a highly informative documentary on the role that the US media plays…
Adam Curtis, “The Living Dead (Episode 3: The Attic)” (1995) Having seen the mishmash that was “The Iron Lady”, I figured it was high time I…
Kang Woosuk, “Silmido” (2003) Apparently based on actual incidents, this epic film ought to have been just a straightforward “Dirty Dozen” action film with a sketchy…