Category: Films

Hi all. Theatre gone quiet – holiday mode before the Sydney Festival onslaught. So, here are some movies that I have seen accompanied with a ‘trifling’ comment. 1. CALL ME BY YOUR NAME. This is the much talked about ‘art film’ of this awards season. It is Directed by Luca Guadagino, and completes what he regards as the Desire Trilogy. The other two films being I AM LOVE (2009) and A BIGGER SPLASH (2015) – both with Tilda Swinton. It is adapted from a novel by Andre Aciman, by the famous James Ivory (of the Merchant/Ivory film team.) It tells…

20th CENTURY WOMEN 20th CENTURY WOMEN is a film written and Directed by Mike Mills. It isa kind of autobiographical revelation of Mr Mills’ mother. BEGINNERS(2010), his prior work, starring Ewan McGregor and ChristopherPlummer, was an autobiographical revelation of his relationship withhis father. Both films, says Mr Mills, have an autobiographical originbut, of course, are in result, works of poetic licence necessitated bythe act of the need to tell a story – cinematizing! 20th CENTURY WOMEN, is set in 1979, in Santa Barbara, California, in aseminal year of cultural gear-shifting and in a place of the ignitionof a counter-culture revolution.…

1. BONNIE AND CLYDE BONNIE AND CLYDE, is a film released in 1967. I have a passion to watch the classic films of my eras on the Big Screen if possible. The Ritz Cinema in Randwick (a heritage Art Deco cinema) have a program of Classic screenings. There is nothing like watching the films on the big screen rather than the TV or computer or iPhone sized thingos. I remember having seen this film in its original release at one of the Hurstville cinemas in Sydney, getting into a taxi to get me home and having to ask the driver…

Things To Come THINGS TO COME is a French/German film Directed by Mia Hansen-Love. Nathalie (Isabelle Huppert) in the latter two-thirds of her life, is comfortably ensconced in a professional and personal life, that of a philosophy teacher, published academic author, mother of two grown children, and wife to Heinz (Andre Marcon), also a philosopher. The routine of that life has given Nathalie a strength of identity, that she almost, lethargically, takes for granted. In the film we watch the routine of this family living ordinary but occupied lives. Lives of everyday activities that you and I have, too, but…

Here are two French films worth catching. What is it that the French have? Their work is so good, or, is it that we only get to see the best of the best? 1. PERSONAL SHOPPER PERSONAL SHOPPER is the second film that Director/Writer, Olivier Assayas and actor, Kristen Stewart have made together. The last was CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA, starring Juliette Binoche. Ms Stewart was the supporting artist of that film. In this new film she is definitely front and centre – the star, the camera hardly has her out of sight. I had never seen Ms Stewart in…

Here we go some filums I’ve seen recently. 1. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST A Disney and Mandeville co-production, of a live action and CGI animation version of the 1991 BEAUTY AND THE BEAST animation film, which has so far made $1.222 billion. There is, obviously, no accounting for taste. Except to note that BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is the most expensive musical movie ever made when one includes the hefty Marketing budget. Marketing the product (art?) is very important, indeed. The film is a safe remake of the Musical created by Alan Menken, Howard Ashman and Tim Rice. It features…