Scandinavian thrillers are massive at the moment, be it in book form, on television or in cinemas. The phenomenon seemed to begin with Steig Larsson's Millennium trilogy, and was followed up by Henning Mankell's Inspector Wallander novels, which were adapted into TV dramas in both their native Swedish and an English version starring Kenneth Branagh. Norwegian crime novelist Jo … [Read more...]
Review: 5 Centimetres Per Second (2007)
5 Centimetres Per Second is an hour long. Normally, films that are that length are direct to DVD horror/action flicks that didn't have the budget to make it longer, but this film is different. The story is told through three segments, each presenting a different snapshot of a life. There are three characters that 5 Centimetres Per Second focuses on, with two being the main … [Read more...]
Review: Festen (1998, Denmark)
In 1995, two friends and filmmakers Thomas Vinterberg and Lars Von Trier created the Dogme 95 manifesto and associated ˜vow of chastity'. They felt that movies had become far too much about special effects and technology and so, in an attempt to get away from this, gave themselves a set of rules and restrictions to abide by. By doing so they hoped to put the story, acting and … [Read more...]
Review: The Kid with a Bike (2012, Belgium)
The Kid With a Bike is Cyril, a young boy in care home in Seraing, a town in the Wallonian region of Belgium. Actually, at the start of the film he is in fact without a bike and unable to locate it, or of greater concern, his father. The Kid With a Bike opens by leaping straight into the middle of a story “ Cyril is on the phone from the care home, trying to reach his dad, … [Read more...]
Review: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest (2009, Swedish)
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest is the finale to the Millennium trilogy, based on Steig Larsson's phenomenally popular novels. As regular readers of these reviews will know, I was less than impressed by the first two instalments. This third film, however, begins confidently, launching straight in from where The Girl Who played With Fire left off. Director Daniel Alfredson … [Read more...]
Review: Persepolis (2007, France)
Persepolis is an animated movie based on a graphic novel of the same name by Marjane Satrapi. Based on her own experiences, Satrapi herself co-wrote and co-directed the movie alongside Vincent Paronnaud, bringing her style of illustration to the big screen. The movie tells Satrapi's own story, that of a young girl growing up in Tehran, the capital of Iran. The film begins with … [Read more...]
Review: Run Lola Run (1998, Germany)
Run Lola Run is a film based on a very simple premise: Lola's boyfriend Manni, has lost 100,000 of some Very Bad Men's Deutschmarks, and they're going to meet him in twenty minutes' time. So Lola (Franka Potente) has twenty minutes to somehow find/borrow/steal 100,000 DM and get to Manni. So she'd better start running. And run she does. To a soundtrack of pulsing techno music … [Read more...]
Review: The Woman in the Fifth (2012)
The Woman in the Fifth is very much a multinational movie. Directed by a Pole, Pawel Pawlikowski (My Summer of Love), it's leads are an American, Ethan Hawke and a Brit, Kristin Scott Thomas. And the whole thing is set in Paris (the fifth of the title, refers to the fifth arrondissement, an area of Paris, where Scott Thomas's eponymous character lives). … [Read more...]
Review: Tsotsi (2005, South Africa)
Tsotsi is a teenager gangster in the slums of Johannesburg. He's a bad guy “ this much is clear, or at least that's what he wants everyone to think. His façade at least is all tough guy “ maybe that's how he's survived, a creation of his environment. Take the opening sequence in which he and his gang murder a man on the train for his cash. When one of their number, Boston, … [Read more...]
Review: The Counterfeiters (2007, Austria)
The Counterfeiters was the winner of the Best Foreign Language Film at the 80th Academy Awards. It's an extraordinary story, based on real events, although some have been fictionalised to slightly to fit the narrative. The protagonist is Salomon ˜Sally' Sorrowitz, based on the real Salomon Smolianoff. A Russian Jew living in Germany just prior to the outbreak of World War 2, … [Read more...]