Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Wong Kar Wai
Starring: Bai Li | Carina Lau | Jacky Cheung | Lesley Cheung | Maggie Cheung
Jason says: “I saw and reviewed ASHES OF TIME three and a half years ago, when it played as part of a series of director Wong Kar-wai’s films at the Brattle Theatre. I was not particularly impressed at the time,
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Yousry Nasrallah
Starring: Ahmed Al Feshawy | Amr Waked | Hend Sabry | Menha Batraoui | Samah Anwar
Bruce says: “Occasionally I recognize that I am out of step with a filmmaker who clearly loves his or her characters while I sit there finding them deplorable or pathetic. THE AQUARIUM is a strange film. Watching it, I was
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Esteban Sapir
Starring: Alejandro Urdapilleta | Julieta Cardinali | Rafael Ferro | Valeria Bertuccelli
Jason says: “LA ANTENA opens with hands superimposed on a typewriter keyboard while a piano plays, and introduces us to its City Without a Voice by displaying it as the pages of a pop-up book. That’s a fanciful start to
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Ian McCrudden | Robbie Cavolina
Bruce says: “Anita O’Day was somewhat of a national treasure in her time. What a shame that today so few people are familiar with her music. O’Day’s remarkable career began in 1936 while still a teenager and continued to her
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Nanette Burstein
Michael says: “I was intrigued to see this documentary focusing on the lives of teens today that has been the subject of much praise and controversy on the festival circuit. Burstein spent a year immersed in an Indiana community, seeking
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Rating: 4.75 cats
Director: Aleksandr Sokurov
Starring: Galina Vishnevskaya | Raisa Gichaeva | Vasily Shevtsov
Bruce says: “Operatic diva Galina Vishnevskaya plays against type as Alexandra Nikolaevna, an aged Russian grandmother who travels to the front lines in Chechnya to see her grandson whom she loves dearly. As the film begins we see the back
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Jean-Pierre Lledo
Bruce says: “Every country has its horror stories. Algeria has more than its share. Most recently, civil war tore Algeria asunder from 1990-1998. In his film ALGERIA, UNSPOKEN STORIES Jean Pierre Lledo focuses on an earlier period. In July 1962
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Rating: 1 cat
Director: Ari Gold
Starring: Adrian Grenier | Ari Gold | Jane Lynch | Michael McKean | Shoshannah Stern | Steven Williams
Bruce says: “Two hours before the screening of the comedy ADVENTURES OF POWER at the Provincetown International Film Festival I attended the Awards Ceremony where Jane Lynch was one of the honorees. Ms. Lynch was entertaining and informative as she
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Cristian Mungiu
Starring: Alexandru Potocean | Anamaria Marinca | Laura Vasiliu | Vlad Ivanov
Bruce says: “4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS, AND 2 DAYS paints a vivid picture of what life in Romania was like in 1987. Covering a period of about twenty four hours, the bleakness of Ceausescu’s Romania is craftily conveyed by superb
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Takayuki Yakamura
Bruce says: “A number of years ago the New York Times printed a feature on New York’s most famous homeless persons. I was surprised at how many I recognized as fixtures on well traveled New York streets. YOKOHAMA MARY is
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