Family Romance, LLC (Werner Herzog, 2019)
Indeed the whole effort at replacing the real father by a superior one is only an expression of the child’s longing for the happy, vanished days when his father seemed to him the noblest and strongest of men and his mother the dearest and loveliest of women. (Freud)
Here’s an oddity — a work of fiction in which some of the actors play themselves. Or a documentary in which everything is staged.
My Rembrandt (Oeke Hoogendijk, 2019)
There’s a telling moment early on in this documentary, when Jan Six discusses Rembrandt‘s portraits of his son Titus over the years: I’ll do it for you Dad, but on my own terms.
(I paraphrase.)
An American Pickle (Brandon Tros, 2020)
So, this must be a first in certification terms: 12A because of discrimination.
Although, when you think about it, what might be balance is anti-Semitic. The sexism, on the other hand, is perhaps invisible. Continue reading →
The Whistlers (La Gomera, Corneliu Porumboiu, 2019)
I suppose I thought this was made under the spell of Tarantino, but possibly more Kubrick’s The Killing, but it is a shuffled narrative about a crime. It is beautifully choreographed to music — notably Iggy Pop’s The Passenger — and has some random moments of violence (an American in the wrong place at the wrong time is particularly amusing, a minor supporting character less so).
Summerland (Jessica Swale, 2020)
It must be the end of the world — this is the second first time female directed lesbian themed film I’ve seen this week…
Ginger & Rosa (Sally Potter, 2012)
Potter has produced a couple of masterpieces — Orlando and The Man Who Cried — on minimal budgets and seems to be able to attract Class A character actors. Here we have Timothy Spall and Annette Bening, not to mention Christina Hendricks and Oliver Platt and Alessandro Nivola. Continue reading →
Querelle (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1982)
I think I’ve seen this before.
(There’s a spoiler in the final paragraph.)
Transit (Christian Petzold, 2018)
The estrangement is strong in this one. In Paris, Georg (Franz Rogowski) is persuaded to deliver two letters to a writer, Franz Weidel, but finds that the latter has died, by suicide. Narrowly escaping the police, Georg tries to smuggle his friend, Heinz, to Marseille, but the latter dies en route and Franz narrowly escapes the police. Georg has to break the news of Heinz’s death to his family and of Franz’s death to the Mexican consul – but he is mistaken for Franz, who has a visa that will allow him to escape the Nazi occupiers who will soon be cleansing Marseille… Continue reading →
Portrait de la jeune fille en feu (Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Céline Sciamma, 2019)
Some point after 1725, the artist Marianne (Noémie Merlant) is commissioned by a Milan-born countess (Valeria Golino) to paint the portrait of her daughter Héloïse (Adèle Haenel), whom she intends to marry off to a Milanese nobleman after the death of her elder daughter. Héloïse, formerly a novice at a nunnery, has other ideas and has already worn out a (male) painter. Marianne must pretend to be a companion, and paint in secret. Continue reading →
Subject to Change 