Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Macky Alston
Bruce says: “LOVE FREE OR DIE begins with scenes at the 2008 Lambeth Conference, a once-a-decade get together for Anglican Bishops, a by-invitation-only event engineered by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. One of the Bishops noticeably uninvited is Gene
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.25
Director: Xu Zheng
Starring: Huang Bo | Tao Hong | Wang Baoqiang | Xu Zheng
Jason says: “Comedies are tough imports; wordplay gets lost in translation and different cultures find different things odd enough to be considered funny. So, it’s the big, unmistakable gags that cross borders best, but they’re not usually in the best
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Cate Shortland
Starring: André Frid | Hans-Jochen Wagner | Mika Seidel | Nele Trebs | Saskia Rosendahl | Ursina Lardi
Jason says: “Set LORE in almost any other time and place, and it’s an impressive adventure story of a certain type, with fine young actors playing kids who must make an impossible-seeming journey against incredible odds. But it’s not set
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Dheeraj Akolkar
Bruce says: “A love affair that evolved into a friendship spanning five decades is the best way to describe the relationship between Swedish director Ingmar Bergman and Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann. They met during the filming of Bergman’s PERSONA on
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Bille August
Starring: August Diehl | Bruno Ganz | Jack Huston | Jeremy Irons | Lena Olin | Martina Gedeck | Mélanie Laurent | Tom Courtenay
Jason says: “Sometimes, there are things that the written word can do that a film can’t. In NIGHT TRAIN TO LISBON, Raimund Gregorius (Jeremy Irons) tells how certain sentences in the book at the film’s center had a profound effect
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Abbas Kiarostami
Starring: Denden | Rin Takanashi | Ryo Kase | Ryota Nakanishi | Tadashi Okuno
Bruce says: “Kiarostami’s films have been on serious filmgoers’ lists for a long time now. Interest in his work began when he was strictly an Iranian director documenting the Iranian cultural landscape through his narrative works such as A TASTE
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Shinsuke Sato
Starring: Chiaki Kuriyama | Jun Hashimoto | Junichi Okada | Koji Ishaizaka | Nana Eikura | Soto Fukushi
Jason says: “Not having read any of the books in Hiro Arikawa’s Toshokan Sensô series, I readily admit that this film adaptation of the first may give its fans exactly what they want (the manga adaptation looks as ‘shojo’ as
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2 cats
Director: Liz W. Garcia
Starring: Amy Madigan | David Lambert | Joshua Harto | Kristen Bell | Mamie Gummer | Martin Starr
Jason says: “It is, almost undoubtedly, a sign of encroaching middle age that the first thing that annoyed me about THE LIFEGUARD was the way that the characters not even a full generation younger than me acted. But I figured,
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Mikael Buch
Starring: Amira Casar | Carmen Maura | Clément Sibony | Jarkko Niemi | Jean-François Stévenin | Nicolas Maury
Thom says: “This is director Buch’s 1st film and there’s a lot of oomph to the production that mostly works. Ruben is a young, gay. French Jew living in Finland with his Finnish partner, Teemu. He works as a postman
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Robert Morin
Starring: Allocha Schneider | Antoine Bertrand | Antoine LӃcuyer | Camille Mongeau | Christian de la Cortina
Jason says: “I gather writer/director Robert Morin is kind of a big deal in French-Canadian film, which doesn’t surprise me from watching LES 4 SOLDATS; it’s a very confident, assured independent film, impressive for how it can take relatively minimal
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