Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Jessica Yu
Michael says: “I’ve been looking forward to seeing PROTAGONIST since I read about it a couple of months before it played at the Independent Film Festival of Boston last April. Unfortunately I missed it at the IFFB, but I got
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Alain Resnais
Starring: André Dussollier | Isabelle Carré | Lambert Wilson | Laura Morante | Pierre Arditi | Sabine Azéma
Bruce says: “Alain Resnais is eighty four and by now must have had plenty experience feeling lonely. PRIVATE FEARS IN PUBLIC PLACES is all about loneliness and appears the work of a subject matter expert. Theirry (André Dussollier) is a
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Davide Ferrario
Bruce says: “In January, Primo Levi was released from Auchowitz where he had been incarcerated since February 1944. His journey home to Turin, Italy, took him almost a year. He and other freed Italian prisoners travelled through Poland, the Ukaraine,
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Bill Haney
Jason says: “Everything we eat and use, it seems, has some sort of despicable behavior involved at some point in the supply chain. Why should sugar be any different? At least in documenting this, THE PRICE OF SUGAR is also able
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: César Charlone | Enrique Fernández
Starring: César Troncoso | Mario Silva | Virginia Méndez | Virginia Ruiz
Bruce says: “**SPOILERS** “On May 8, 1988 the Pope is scheduled to visit Melo, Uruguay. Melo is in northeastern Uruguay and many Brazilians are expected to come over the border in tour buses. Weeks before the event the media creates
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 1 cat
Director: Damian Lee
Starring: Daryl Hannah | Jonathan Scarfe | Nina Dobrev | Zachary Bennett
Jay says: “You’re not supposed to laugh at movies like THE POET. It’s serious business, after all: Polish Jews running from the advancing German army! A good young man caught between his own loving, artistic heart and the brutality of
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Pen-Ek Ratanaruang
Starring: Ananda Everingham | Apinya Sakuljaroensuk | Lalita Panyopas | Phorntip Papanai | Pornwut Sarasin
Chris says: “PLOY, the latest from Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, initially seems worlds away from LAST LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE: it follows a couple checking into Bangkok hotel and is all rendered in washed out earth tones and barely audible ambient music
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Chris Metzler | Jeff Springer
Michael says: “Sometimes documentary filmmakers will stumble across a subject that’s just so flat out weird, or fascinating that half the battle of making an interesting film is won right there. Filmmakers Chris Metzler and Jeff Springer have done just
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Alexander Voulgaris
Starring: Alexander Voulgaris | Argiris Thanasoulas | Christina Mathea | Romanna Lobats
Bruce says: “There are many things to like about PINK. PINK is a meditation on personal history, love, loss and creativity. It unconventionally wanders between fantasy and reality. Using a clay model of Athens to tell his story director Voulgaris
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2 cats
Director: Duncan Roy
Michael says: “British director Duncan Roy got a little attention several years ago with AKA, a film about a young working class man who impersonates an aristocrat. For his latest film, Roy creates a modern adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s well-known
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Marjane Satrapi | Vincent Paronnaud
Starring: Catherine Deneuve | Chiara Mastroianni | Danielle Darrieux | Gabrielle Lopes | Simon Abkarian
Jason says: “In recent years, Persepolis has been sliding into the spot that Maus used to occupy: The socially-relevant graphic novel that makes inroads into the mainstream and is used as an example of how the medium is good for
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Glenn Standring
Starring: Dougray Scott | Leo Gregory | Saffron Burrows | Scott Willis
Jason says: “For PERFECT CREATURE, the question of ‘what if vampires were real’ isn’t quite good enough; it asks what if vampires were real, but instead of being feared, they were objects of worship? It’s kind of a dodgy idea,
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Hector Babenco
Starring: Ana Celentano | Analía Couceyro | Gael García Bernal | Marta Lubos | Mimí Ardú | Moro Anghileri
Bruce says: “Based on a novel by Alan Pauls, THE PAST is a story with many themes: separation, jealousy, tragedy, and loss of love. At a party, Frida (Marta Lubos) toasts Rimini (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Sofia (Analía Couceyro) who
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Alexander Payne | Alfonso Cuarón | Christopher Doyle | Ethan Coen | Gus Van Sant | Isabel Coixet | Joel Coen | Olivier Assayas | Tom Tykwer | Walter Salles | Wes Craven
Starring: Fanny Ardant | Gerard Depardieu | Julie Bataille | Juliette Binoche | Leïla Bekhti | Maggie Gyllenhaal | Margo Martindale | Melchior Derouet | Seydou Boro | Steve Buscemi | Willem Dafoe
Bruce says: “Twenty two directors join together for twenty short stories about love, each set in a different arrondissmont in Paris. The directors approach love from different angles. Some are dead serious, some bittersweet and others, quite amusing. By the
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.3 cats
Director: Satoshi Kon
Starring: Kôichi Yamadera | Megumi Hayashibara | Tôru Furuya
Jason says: “That star rating generally indicates that PAPRIKA is a nearly perfect film, which I’ll admit isn’t the case. Here’s the thing, though – there is just so much good stuff crammed into it that I’m willing to overlook that.
Read the review...The Orphanage (Spain/Mexico; 105 min.) directed by: Juan Antonio Bayonastarring: Belén Rueda; Fernando Cayo; Roger Princep; Mabel Rivera; Montserrat Carulla; Andrés Gertrúdix Julie says: “I’m not much one for ghost stories, but this incredibly well made Spanish film was excellent.
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Goran Paskaljevic
Starring: Bojana Novakovic | Dragan Jovanovic | Lazar Ristovski | Mira Banjac | Nebojsa Glogovac | Nebojsa Milovanovic | Slavko Stimac
Bruce says: “THE OPTIMISTS is a series of five vignettes about those who more or less take advantage of the situation rather than rise to the occasion. The first is about a hypnotist who visits a peasant village. The hapless
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Geoffrey Enthoven
Starring: Marijke Pinoy | Nand Buyl | Viviane De Muynck
Bruce says: “This film is a rarity because it features a central character that is not particularly likeable yet his story is funny and illustrative of a major problem facing communities worldwide – what to do with the aged. “Lucien
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Geun-shik Jo
Starring: Byung-hun Lee | Hae-eun Lee | Se-eun Lee | Su-Ae
Jason says: “The late 1960s were a tumultuous time in Korea’s history (but what part of the 20th Century wasn’t?). That’s a non factor through much of ONCE IN A SUMMER, which is a likable if kind of lightweight romance…
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: John Carney
Starring: Danuse Ktrestova | Glen Hansard | Markéta Irglová
Bruce says: “Curious how such a film could become a critic’s darling. Using two non-professional actors John Carney tells a story about songwriters who meet on the streets of Dublin and connect in more ways than one. Or do they?
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