FRENCH CUISINE HAS a filmographic lure all of its own. It’s about copper-based skillets and the bouquet of finely aged wines, the pairing of unusual flavours and the digging in wet earth for just the right flavoured truffle that will be sensitively grated into a dish to create […]
SHE MINCES INTO the world with her highlights and her backless lace frock, all the bits and bobs of feminine je-ne-sais-quoi perfectly in place. She’s totally unaware of how crazily anomalous she is to her peers. She’s been made into a monster, but she’s too young to understand […]
CHILDREN LEARN WHAT they live is an iconic poem written by Dorothy Law Nolte in the 1950s. With catching rhythms of repetition, it presents the different values that can shape a child. But one not taken into consideration is that of utter emotional abandonment. In the Irish film, […]
IF YOU TAKE a slice out of the formalities of matchmaking and weddings from Fiddler on the Roof, and slot it in alongside some of the more potent scenes involving the beautiful widow in Nikos Kazantzakis’s Zorba the Greek, sprinkle the concoction rather heavily with romanticised farmgirl wholesomeness, […]
WHEN ALL THE silly bureaucracy, political correctness, humdrum and basic monotony of being in a job has ended, what happens next? Do you quietly lie down and wait for the end? Or do you let your hair down and party like there’s no tomorrow? Barbara Kulcsar’s film Golden […]
TOSS TOGETHER THE notion of undisguised good and evil, with a bit of lumpen docility in between; the forces of nature with those of easily corruptible and gullible humanity, blend it with hard-boiled yet utterly gorgeous computer-generated animation and a traditional Ukrainian and Slavic legend and you have […]
OUR LIVES ARE replete with things that happen for reasons we don’t know. Things force our plans to change. Sudden news changes what constitutes our identity. We don’t really know what causes what, and why. Even though, in our hubris, we think we do. The Romanian film Mikado, […]
VIOLENT POLITICAL CONFLICT is always the ideal setting for very complex emotional tales of love and trauma. Mohamed Kordorfani’s first foray into film direction offers a clear and convoluted path of friendship between two women. It’s called Goodbye Julia and is the opening film for this year’s European […]
WE LIVE IN a world that can be so majestic to behold, it is like a religious experience all by itself, overwhelming and oft terrifying in its mix of wisdom, beauty and danger. Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeesch have created a masterpiece which blends exquisite cinematography and […]
PICTURE THE SCENARIO: You’re on the cusp of adulthood, the eldest of many children. Contrary to your father’s wishes, you have decided to be educated. It’s the late 19th century and your mother supports this great wish of yours to make a life for yourself. And it’s all […]
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