Er shi si cheng ji - Change and a city in China. In Chengdu, factory 420 is being pulled down to make way for multi-story buildings with luxury flats. Scenes of factory operations, of the workforce, and of buildings stripped bare and then razed, are inter-cut with workers who were born in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s telling their stories - about the factory, which manufactured military aircraft, and about their work and their lives. A middle-aged man visits his mentor, now elderly; a woman talks of being a 19-year-old beauty there and ending up alone. The film concludes with two young people talking, each the child of workers, each relaying a story of one visit to a factory. Times change.
Linha de Passe - In the periphery of So Paulo, the pregnant single mother Cleuza works as maid in the apartment of a middle-class family. Each of her sons has a different unknown father: the oldest, Dnis, has a baby son that lives with his mother and he works as motorcycle courier; Dinho is a converted Christian and works as attendant in a gas station; Dario is an aspirant soccer player that is getting older without the expected chance in a team; and the youngest, Reginaldo, is obsessed about finding his father who works as a bus driver, and spends most of his spare time traveling by bus. Along the months, each brother experiences new deceptions and expectations while the family fights to survive.
My Magic - There's plenty of buzz overseas surrounding Eric Khoo's latest movie My Magic, which has recently been selected as Singapore's official entry to the 2009 Oscars in the foreign language film category, hence the rush to have it screened this month to qualify. While his previous effort Be With Me was disqualified on a technicality in the same category (they really timed the amount of English or lack thereof in the film!), this time round Eric has crafted a movie in Tamil as the story tells of the love-hate relationship between an Indian father and son. I don't recall any recent Tamil feature films being made in Singapore, save perhaps for the segment in Wee Li Lin's Gone Shopping, and in the upcoming Salawati, so this marks a first that race and language didn't become barriers, but celebrated that a filmmaker can transcend these issues or capitalize on what is uniquely Singapore given that universal themes apply anywhere. For a father-son story, the last which I enjoyed was Patrick Tam's After This Our Exile, but of course this is a different story and setting altogether.
La frontire de l'aube - I won't make it too long to deliver my vision of this movie. In a delicate, dreamy, precise, sensitive way, Philippe Garrel has been giving new "lettres de noblesse" to the genre "fantastique". The cast is worth it. Laura Smet shows that maturing can be a blessing for a young woman born in the show business. Her performance is simply outstanding. And director Philippe Garrel gave his best role to Louis, his talented son, often lost in over-written parts under Christophe Honor's guidance
Che: Part One - I always find director Steven Soderbergh's experiments interesting because they challenge the spectator and they go beyond the common.The Argentine also falls on that category.This a fascinating movie and it clearly is one of the best I have seen this year.Soderbergh made a wonderful work as a director because of the excellent performances he got from the cast and for his extreme attention to the details.Benicio del Toro brings a monumental performance as Che Guevara.He completely becomes on him and he never seems to be acting.Demin Bichir also brings a magnificent performance as Fidel Castro.This movie kept me very entertained and it brings a very valid and important message.The only fail I found on this movie was that it was a little bit long on a specific moment.But that's a minor fail.The Argentine is a fascinating experiment I liked very much.This is one of that movies which challenge the spectator and have something to say and I really admire that.I totally recommend this film.
Delta - I recently saw this at the 2009 Palm Springs International Film Festival. Mihail (Felix Lajko) has saved his money in the city to return to the village where his mother (Lili Monori) lives with her boyfriend (Sandor Gaspar) and his half sister Fauna (Orsolya Toth). Mihail sets out to build a house on the river delta on land his father owned. Fauna helps Mihail with the construction and lives in a hut with him while the construction his under way. The villagers consider Mihail an outsider and are opposed to the idea of a half brother and sister living alone together. Writer/director Kornel Mandruczo in a script co-written by Yvette Biro offers this rural tale of a developing incestuous relationship in a film beautifully shot by cinematographer Matyas Erdely and superbly edited by David Jancso. The film looks so good that every scene is a virtual painting but the storyline is a little weak with underdeveloped characters, weak dialog and a plodding pace. This perhaps may have worked better as a 20 minute short film but stretched out into a feature with little background on the characters and village life weakens it. I would give this a 6.5 out of 10. - 40732
Linha de Passe - In the periphery of So Paulo, the pregnant single mother Cleuza works as maid in the apartment of a middle-class family. Each of her sons has a different unknown father: the oldest, Dnis, has a baby son that lives with his mother and he works as motorcycle courier; Dinho is a converted Christian and works as attendant in a gas station; Dario is an aspirant soccer player that is getting older without the expected chance in a team; and the youngest, Reginaldo, is obsessed about finding his father who works as a bus driver, and spends most of his spare time traveling by bus. Along the months, each brother experiences new deceptions and expectations while the family fights to survive.
My Magic - There's plenty of buzz overseas surrounding Eric Khoo's latest movie My Magic, which has recently been selected as Singapore's official entry to the 2009 Oscars in the foreign language film category, hence the rush to have it screened this month to qualify. While his previous effort Be With Me was disqualified on a technicality in the same category (they really timed the amount of English or lack thereof in the film!), this time round Eric has crafted a movie in Tamil as the story tells of the love-hate relationship between an Indian father and son. I don't recall any recent Tamil feature films being made in Singapore, save perhaps for the segment in Wee Li Lin's Gone Shopping, and in the upcoming Salawati, so this marks a first that race and language didn't become barriers, but celebrated that a filmmaker can transcend these issues or capitalize on what is uniquely Singapore given that universal themes apply anywhere. For a father-son story, the last which I enjoyed was Patrick Tam's After This Our Exile, but of course this is a different story and setting altogether.
La frontire de l'aube - I won't make it too long to deliver my vision of this movie. In a delicate, dreamy, precise, sensitive way, Philippe Garrel has been giving new "lettres de noblesse" to the genre "fantastique". The cast is worth it. Laura Smet shows that maturing can be a blessing for a young woman born in the show business. Her performance is simply outstanding. And director Philippe Garrel gave his best role to Louis, his talented son, often lost in over-written parts under Christophe Honor's guidance
Che: Part One - I always find director Steven Soderbergh's experiments interesting because they challenge the spectator and they go beyond the common.The Argentine also falls on that category.This a fascinating movie and it clearly is one of the best I have seen this year.Soderbergh made a wonderful work as a director because of the excellent performances he got from the cast and for his extreme attention to the details.Benicio del Toro brings a monumental performance as Che Guevara.He completely becomes on him and he never seems to be acting.Demin Bichir also brings a magnificent performance as Fidel Castro.This movie kept me very entertained and it brings a very valid and important message.The only fail I found on this movie was that it was a little bit long on a specific moment.But that's a minor fail.The Argentine is a fascinating experiment I liked very much.This is one of that movies which challenge the spectator and have something to say and I really admire that.I totally recommend this film.
Delta - I recently saw this at the 2009 Palm Springs International Film Festival. Mihail (Felix Lajko) has saved his money in the city to return to the village where his mother (Lili Monori) lives with her boyfriend (Sandor Gaspar) and his half sister Fauna (Orsolya Toth). Mihail sets out to build a house on the river delta on land his father owned. Fauna helps Mihail with the construction and lives in a hut with him while the construction his under way. The villagers consider Mihail an outsider and are opposed to the idea of a half brother and sister living alone together. Writer/director Kornel Mandruczo in a script co-written by Yvette Biro offers this rural tale of a developing incestuous relationship in a film beautifully shot by cinematographer Matyas Erdely and superbly edited by David Jancso. The film looks so good that every scene is a virtual painting but the storyline is a little weak with underdeveloped characters, weak dialog and a plodding pace. This perhaps may have worked better as a 20 minute short film but stretched out into a feature with little background on the characters and village life weakens it. I would give this a 6.5 out of 10. - 40732
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Maddox Penner is an absolute movie nut and invites you to Download Movies For Free at the Movie Pan. You'll find all the latest hits as well as the great oldies.
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