Roma is a beautifully poignant movie. From the opening scene of the sky’s reflection on the water below to the closing scene of the open sky itself, the movie fills everything in between. Admittedly, I had to look up 1970s Mexico to have a better understanding of the premise of what was happening in history…
Chaos. From the opening scenes as masses of people in the dark night are hurried into a building and a room to disrobe, a man with a hat, averting his eyes from anyone in charge, a large red X painted across his back, helps to lead those masses into the building, helps them leave their…
A French film (with subtitles), but not nominated as Best Foreign film, Two Days, One Night came on my radar through its fantastic performance by its lead actress, Marion Cotillard. Cotillard has the nomination for Best Actress (some say taking the spot otherwise that would have gone to Jennifer Aniston for Cake), and Cotillard, as…
Go see the Oscar-nominated live action short films! What a delightful two hours, watching five separate films, varying in length between about 14 and 45 minutes. Jacksonvillians, they’re playing at SunRay for the next week, and given that you can get yummy food and beer and wine there all while supporting local small business, what…
Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film, The Great Beauty (La Grande Bellezza from Italy) is, well, different. As my movie companion and I left the theater, we shared our perplexity over what, exactly, the movie was about. I’ve sat with it for several days now, but still, I’ve not much more than questions and…
The second foreign film of last weekend was Bethlehem—the offering from the Israeli director on the subject of Palestinian informants. I wonder had I switched the order in which I saw the films whether I would have liked this one more. Or less. On reflection, I suspect it wouldn’t have mattered that much. While Bethlehem…
I’m sandwiching my weekend with two foreign films; other than having seen both previews, this is all else I knew going in, from NPR: “Audiences are being offered an intriguing exercise in double vision over the next couple of weeks: two movies about Palestinian informants and their complicated relationships with Israel’s secret service, one directed…
The Broken Circle Breakdown is a Belgian film highlighting bluegrass music and frustrations with traditional religion and evangelical influences in politics and medicine as told through the relationship, love, and despair of two artists. I did not get to see the other foreign films up for an Oscar this year, and I’m not sure this…
It took me a while, but I finally watched this movie on DVD. And I’m so glad I did: Rust and Bone is beautiful. It delivers a quiet, deep story about humans and our need for connection. In French with English subtitles, this movie shows characters here that weave through issues of relationships between father…