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Coeurs (Private fears in Public Places) – warmth in the winter of love

Tweet Coeurs – Private Fears In Public Places – Alan Resnais A truly wise film. In every sense. Director Resnais almost 50 years on from Hiroshima Mon Amour assembles with masterly assurance all the cinematic arts to serve his narrative and emotional purpose: from award-winning Eric Gauthier’s evocative cinematography; through precise, unobtrusive editing; a subtle […]

Hearts and Minds – you can’t bomb an idea

TweetHearts and Minds Hearts and minds, hearts and minds if we can break their grieving hearts and make them lose their anguished minds and set dismembered bodies free in pious hope we think they will salute our victory. Hearts and minds, hearts and minds a nation born in genocide with self-regarding destiny in breach of […]

Crash – racism as product

Tweet Crash – Director Paul Haggis Art and Architecture have one key thing in common: both need foundations. The bigger the building, the deeper and stronger the foundations it needs. Crash is like a complex set of card houses: eight overlapping linked structures are fashioned with great skill into a neatly integrated whole. But it […]

Brokeback Mountain – breaking the back of prejudice

Tweet Brokeback Mountain – Director Ang Lee (January 2006) The most American film of the year should be an Oscar first. A shared best actor award for Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger It is hard to see how the leading role, supporting role distinction can be sustained in this absorbing, multi-layered film at the emotional […]

The Valley of Elah – the art of depicting war

Tweet The Valley of Elah – Paul Haggis This quiet dignified film is blessed with an Oscar-worthy performance which displays precisely the same rare qualities by the mesmeric Tommy Lee Jones. It is by far the best film so far to evoke the contradictory emotions personal, political and moral, that are and should be aroused […]

Love (1) – Poem: love as a gift not a possession

TweetLove (1) The little girl with sun-rapt smile skipped with joy among the wild flowers Entranced she grasped lovingly the tender stems clutching beauty to her innocent heart then she cried bitter guiltless tears when she found the loveliness she held so dear before its time had died killed by love

Atonement – mangled McEwan movie makes money

Tweet Atonement – Joe Wright (BBC Prize Review) Andre Previn to Eric Morecombe, “you’re playing all the wrong notes.” Eric Morecombe, lifting the Maestro up onto his toes by his DJ lapels, “no, I’m playing all the right notes……but not necessarily in the right order.” Joe Wright has gone one better in this extraordinarily bad […]

3 – Iron: a series of visual haikus threaded into a perfect circle

Tweet 3-Iron – Director KIM Ki-Duk (BBC Prize-winning review) Of all the words a film critic needs least, ‘exquisite’ must be near the top of the list. Yet this is precisely the word for this hauntingly beautiful film which celebrates with a rare delicacy and sensitivity – love, life and our freedom just to be. […]

The Eagle’s Last Flight – Poem: eagles mate for life

TweetThe Eagle’s Last Flight His mate gone the eagle soared into the high places grief-driven wings beat the air in angry futile desperation higher and higher faster and faster his passion drove him towards the baleful sun the watchers waited bate-breathed for the weariness the exhaustion of flight to bring the eagle down to earth […]

The Fog Of War – MacNamara’s mist

Tweet The Fog of War – Director Errol Morris In Fog Of War ex-US Secretary of State Robert MacNamara, is given enough rope by Director Morris to almost hang himself. Once one of the most hated men in America for his central political role in the Vietnam War, MacNamara graces us with 11 ‘lessons’ or […]