Posted on August 31st, 2008 by Zettel Film Reviewer
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 enhancing musical [...]
Filed under: 4 stars, Alain Resnais, Drama, Europe/World cinema, Fantasy, General, Humorous, Romance | No Comments »
Posted on August 31st, 2008 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Hearts 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 Christian charity
with naked power and careless force
asserts supremacy.
Hearts and minds, [...]
Filed under: Philosophical, Political | No Comments »
Posted on August 30th, 2008 by Zettel Film Reviewer
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 has no [...]
Filed under: 3 star, Drama, General, Hollywood, Oscar Winner, Paul Haggis, Romance | No Comments »
Posted on August 30th, 2008 by Zettel Film Reviewer
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 heart of which [...]
Filed under: 4 stars, Ang Lee, Drama, General, Hollywood, Oscar Winner, Philosophical, Romance | No Comments »
Posted on August 29th, 2008 by Zettel Film Reviewer
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 by the [...]
Filed under: 4 stars, Action, Detective, Drama, General, Hollywood, Oscar Winner, Paul Haggis, Philosophical, War | No Comments »
Posted on August 28th, 2008 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Love (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
Filed under: Loss, Love, Nature | No Comments »
Posted on August 28th, 2008 by Zettel Film Reviewer
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 film – he [...]
Filed under: *BBC Prize Reviews*, 2 star, Drama, General, Joe Wright, Romance, War | No Comments »
Posted on August 28th, 2008 by Zettel Film Reviewer
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.
Deeply cinematic, it draws [...]
Filed under: *BBC Prize Reviews*, 5 stars, Drama, Europe/World cinema, General, Kim Ki-Duk, Philosophical, Romance | 2 Comments »
Posted on August 28th, 2008 by Zettel Film Reviewer
The 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
but on and on
in the cool clean air
he rose in an ecstasy
of unformed unsolaced pain
nature will out
the [...]
Filed under: Emotions, Loss, Love, Nature, Philosophical | No Comments »
Posted on August 27th, 2008 by Zettel Film Reviewer
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 principles he [...]
Filed under: 4 stars, Documentary, Errol Morris, General, Philosophical, Uncategorized | No Comments »
