There are a lot movies that I have watched in the past few weeks that I haven’t reviewed yet. Mainly out of time reasons. I do try to write about all the films that I watch at the cinema but I can’t always keep up with my Netflix movies. So here are a few very short reviews.

What a great reason to test out my new rating system:

Love Actually This is a movie I have to watch at least every Christmas. I love pretty much everything about it. British cinema at its best! I don’t think I have to say anything else about it because you have all seen it. If you haven’t then what are you waiting for?

Paper Heart Recommended by David from Hoping for Something to Hope for, I really enjoyed watching this indie mocumentary. The main characters Charlyne Yi and Michael Cera (both playing themselves) make a very cute couple and their fictional love story goes well with the real interviews. It is a very cute film but won’t become one of my favorites.

The History Boys This is a fun film about a British all boys school. A few boys are preparing for their interviews at Oxford University with much help from their teachers. It is a sweet film but there are better films about all boys (or all girls) schools.

The Girl on the Bridge A beautiful and odd French film about a young women trying to commit suicide and being rescued by a man who turns out to be a Knife Thrower. Together they go on a journey to discover themselves and each other. It is a very unusual and wonderfully made movie.

The Way We Were A classic that I have only just watched for the first time. I think it is different to grow up with it but I really liked the story and the characters. I would have wished for a different ending though.

La Moustache This is a truly strange movie about a man who shaves off his mustache and to his surprise no one notices. People around him even deny the fact that he ever had a mustache. Honestly, that is the plot! I really liked it until the man goes off to Hong Kong and completely loses his mind (Or did I lose my mind watching it?).

Hideous Kinky Since Kate Winslet is in this movie, I have seen it a couple of times before. But a long time ago. I love the feel of the movie. I have never been to Morocco but I can almost taste the air when watching this film.

Postcards from the Edge Even though Meryl Streep plays the main character in this, the movie is completely forgettable. It’s not a bad film, it’s just not special in any way and the editing is awful and in my eyes ruins a movie that could otherwise be kinda fun.

My Cousin Vinny This is a surprisingly humorous film about two boys who through some misunderstanding face the death sentence for murder. One of the boys cousins, Vinny, just passed the bar and tries his best to defend them. It is simple but laugh out loud funny.

The Nightmare Before Christmas Tim Burton Rocks!

This is him at his finest.

Eyes of Laura Mars A dark murder mystery about a woman who takes fashion photos of murder scenes that haven’t happened yet. She starts getting visions while the murders happen. It’s well made, well acted and mysterious enough to have kept my attention. It reminded me a lot of Peeping Tom though.

The 60th anniversary poster.

Kid in the Front Row is hosting a blogging collaboration where we all write about a memory we have of a particular cinema visit. I have to tell you, I go to the cinema a lot. In different countries, to different cinemas with different people. So I am having trouble remembering a lot of it. I thought about writing about the time when I was interning at a cinema magazine and got to see a lot of movies before they came out, together with “other” members of the press. Or about going to the cinema while away on holiday (which I always do), or maybe about the amazing Everyman Cinema Club in Hampstead, London but I guess the memory that sticks out the most is of three of my friends and me going to the Cannes Film Festival in 2007 (I know, technically, 2007 isn’t “long ago” but to me it feels like this was in another life time).

Quentin watching an independent documentary.

We had submitted a couple of films to their Short Film Corner for which we got extremely bad accreditations to the festival. But the worst accreditations to the Cannes Film Festival are still like a pot of gold to young impressionable film students (for those of you who don’t know: I studied Film Production at an Arts School in England). There we were, in the place to be if you love film and film people. Cannes is just amazing and I highly recommend going to the festival if you can. It is the kind of festival where you find yourself sitting a row away from Quentin Tarantino and where Martin Scorsese walks past you while you are waiting for a friend.

Gael Garcia Bernal making his way through the crowd.

Cannes is a very traditional Festival and there is a dress code for evening premieres. This meant that whenever we wanted to see an evening premiere we had to drive back to our rented apartment (which was slightly outside the city, due to incredibly high rental prices during the festival), get changed and drive back to the cinema. You can also only attend these evening premieres if you get an invitation. Our accreditations did not include invitations which meant we had to queue just off the red carpet and wait until everyone else was inside to see if there were some seats left. Because all of this takes such an effort, we only did it a couple of times.

Finally going up the stairs.

It is a very strange feeling standing in a sort of cage next to the red carpet while Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and George Clooney walk past you, followed by a herd of extremely well dressed photographers (they are not excluded from the dress code). It certainly shows you where you are in the greater scheme of things… Although there were also a lot of spectators and fans standing on the other side of the street behind barricades and hanging off trees to take pictures of the stars. Another way to get into the premieres without an actual invitation is standing outside the film market with a sign “Need tickets for such and such a film”. An option which a lot of people chose.

Inside the main cinema.

After all the invited guests are inside, the “gates” open and all the people who were queuing hurry inside to get the last remaining seats. It’s great fun! The main cinema in Cannes is really big and since everyone is dressed up it does feel like a very special occasion. My dad (who goes to Cannes every year) said that last year they played Disney’s UP in 3D as the opening film and everyone had to wear these ridiculous looking 3D glasses which must have been quite a sight. They just don’t go with all the beautiful evening gowns (alright, this was probably the girliest sentence I have ever written on this blog)!

I know I was supposed to write about a cinema visit that went right/wrong or funny/tragic but I wanted to share a memory of a cinema visit (or 10 days worth of cinema visits) that impressed and fascinated me. I could probably go on talking about the festival for another 10 paragraphs but I am gonna stop here. Hope you enjoyed it and hope you get to go to the festival at some point .

Lately I have been completely addicted to these kinds of old Hollywood musicals. I am trying to watch as many of them as I can get…

On the Town, directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen (Funny Face, 1957), is a film about three sailors who have 24 hours to explore New York City. One of them (Frank Sinatra) wants to see all the sights, but the other two (Gene Kelly and Jules Munshin) just want to meet the NY women.

Gene Kelly’s character Gabey falls in love with a picture of “Miss Turnstile of the Month” that he sees on the subway and decides that he has to find her. During their search for this girl the other two sailors pick up girls for themselves. At night they all hit the town together and enjoy the short time they have as lovers before the sailors have to leave at 6 am the next morning.

Even thought the movie is quite fun to watch, I was a bit disappointed. The songs are not really engaging (or known, for that matter) and the story line is a bit weak. In a lot of ways it has great similarities to An American in Paris. In the beginning there is a dream sequence where Gabey is imagining what Miss Turnstile looks like and what she does in her free time, and at the end there is another dream sequence in which the story of the film is retold in dancing. The exact same things happen in An American in Paris, although there the end dancing scene is much longer and is more of a dream of the future then a repetition of what has happened. On the Town just seems a bit like a practice run for An American in Paris.

I really hope I haven’t already seen the crème de la crème of the old-fashioned musicals. My favourites so far have been Swing Time and Singin’ in the Rain. Any further suggestions?

After two fairly weak films (Scoop and Cassandra’s Dream) Woody Allen has done it again: Vicky Cristina Barcelona is an entertaining, amusing film with interesting characters and a sexy story.

Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) are two young Americans who want to spend the summer in Barcelona, staying with Vicky’s relatives. The two girls are very good friends although they have completely different personalities and opinions, especially when it comes to love. Vicky is engaged to be married to a man who, in her eyes, is nice enough to be a good husband, whereas Cristina is exploring different types of love and therefore getting hurt a lot.

In Barcelona the two of them meet the Spanish painter Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem) who immediately invites them to join him on a weekend trip. Cristina persuades her friend to go on the trip. Both girls fall for him, which causes all sorts of trouble, especially when Juan Antonio’s crazy ex-wife (Penélope Cruz) enters the picture.

Scarlett Johansson is as irresistible as ever. Her character in this picture seems to be a mixture of her Charlotte in Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation and Nola in Match Point. She has some creative passion but is still trying to find how to express it, and at the same time she is very sure of herself, easily seducing Juan Antonio (not that it takes much effort, since he says he would like to sleep with both girls the first time he talks to them…).

I have to admit that I wasn’t aware of Rebecca Hall’s existence and I am not going to be a big fan, but she was right for the part and did her job well. Javier Bardem is certainly less scary then he was in No Country for Old Men, but somehow comes across a bit unsympathetic in this film. I don’t think I would have followed him anywhere. Penélope Cruz really steals the show. She is wild like a crazy animal and stunningly beautiful at the same time. A great role with the perfect casting.

So I quite enjoyed watching Vicky Cristina Barcelona. The story is not as intriguing as Match Point but the three main girls are great characters and it is a lot of fun to watch a part of their lives. The movie could have gone on forever, telling what happens after it actually ends.

Woody Allen could have been a bit more adventurous. E.g., he has Scarlett Johansson and Penélope Cruz kissing, but only for an unnaturally short time. It feels like he wants to do something sexy but doesn’t have the guts to go through with it. Nevertheless it is a great film.

(picture: flickr/Wolf Gang)

Thank You for Smoking

After watching Juno, I wanted to check out what else director Jason Reitman had done. He has not only directed but also written the screenplay for Thank You for Smoking (adapted from a novel by Christopher Buckley).

The film has a rather odd theme: Nick Naylor, the “hero” of this story is the spokesman of the tobacco industry, and the villain is a Senator who tries to get the world to be a smoke-free zone. Over the course of the film, Nick discovers why he is doing this job and how he feels about promoting cigarettes.

The film is quite funny but not ground-breakingly so. I am not sure what exactly it wants to say, because it is advertising smoking (in a sarcastic sort of way, but still doing so) and the protagonist never really has the epiphany that what he is doing is actually a really bad thing and he should stop. Well, to be fair, he does realize this but he never really gets it. If you happen to come across the DVD it might be interesting to watch the film, because it is quite different, but I wouldn’t advise you to go out of your way to get it…

Little Children

Since Kate Winslet is one of my favourite actresses (well, actually my all-time favourite) I have watched pretty much every film she is in. Here she plays a bored suburban mother who finds herself living in a strange big house, married to the wrong man and spending her time with her daughter whom she doesn’t really care for. She can’t connect to the other mothers at the playground and is fairly miserable until one day the handsome stay-at-home father (Patrick Wilson) shows up and turns her life upside down. There are other characters, such as a pedophile who has exposed himself to minors and is now facing the consequences for it.

Adapted from the book Little Children (Tom Perrotta) by actor/director Todd Field (Eyes Wide Shut) this film is a masterpiece of tragedy. Everyone in the story is leading a depressing life and even though there are some ups, the poor characters don’t get to be happy in the end. Nevertheless it is a very thought-provoking and complex film, using some black humour so as not get over-dramatic. The actors are remarkable. Kate Winslet manages to not make her character seem too desperate, but rather unluckily misplaced. It is really worth watching this film.

Bridget Jones’s Diary

This is an absolutely fabulous British comedy, which has quickly become a classic such as Notting Hill or Four Weddings and a Funeral. Another film which has been adapted from a book (a really great one as such, written by Helen Fielding), which in turn has been adapted and turned into a modern story from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Bridget is a fairly average British woman, slightly overweight, liking her alcohol, single and unhappy about it.

Anyone who hasn’t seen this film (are there still some people left?) should go out tonight and get the DVD. It really is a lot of fun. Poor Bridget (Renée Zellweger) is utterly clueless about life, falling for the wrong guy (Hugh Grant in a brilliant role) until she finally finds her Mister Right (Mark Darcy, played by the gorgeous Colin Firth who was Mr. Darcy in the BBC’s Pride and Prejudice). She is determined to improve her life by starting a diary but of course she can’t really turn herself around. It is a real delight to watch her misfortunes!

Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis (Welcome to the Sticks)

Apparently this film has set new viewing records in France. Directed, produced and acted (in the main role) by Dany Boon this is a comedy about a post office administrator who (after doing something stupid) gets transferred to the North of France. The audience learns quickly that the North is a really bad place: people are only forced to go there as punishment. Boon’s character leaves his depressed wife and child behind in the warm South. Once he gets to the North things turn out to be quite the contrary to his expectations: it is not freezing and the people are actually really nice!

I am sure this is a very funny film in the original, it does not, however, work well in translation. The people up North have a peculiar accent which I am sure is hilarious. In the dubbed version (at least in the German one) the accent is completely made up and sounds utterly ridiculous. It turns the comedy into slapstick, which ruins it. Other than that the characters are sweet and the story is strange but amusing.

Bridget Jones’s Diary and Little Children are being awarded the MovieCat Award for being two outstandingly well-made films (even though mentioned in the same sentence, they are, of course, great for completely different reasons).

Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric) has suffered a massive stroke at the young age of 42 and after waking up from a twenty-two day long coma now has what is called locked-in syndrome. This means he is completely paralyzed, with the exception of his left eye. His only way of communication is via blinking. In this condition he dictates a memoir about his life and the condition he finds himself in. A typist reads out a frequency-ordered alphabet and Bauby blinks when he wants to use a letter. The film is based on the real book by the real Jean-Dominique Bauby.

Julian Schnabel took Bauby’s memoir Le Scaphandre et le Papillon, which was published in France in 1997, and made a beautiful film out of it. It was adapted for the screen by Oscar-winning writer Ronald Harwood (who also wrote the screenplays to films such as The Pianist, Being Julia and Love in the Time of Cholera). Schnabel has only directed three other films: Basquiat, the much acclaimed Before Night Falls and Berlin.

The film starts from Bauby’s point of view. The audience only sees what he can see through his eye, which creates the illusion of having locked-in syndrome. The effect is astounding: it made me want to get out of his head and see his face. This was finally granted after about 15 minutes into the film. What a relief. Slowly the story of Bauby’s life before the stroke gets introduced. He used to be the editor of the French magazine Elle. After leaving his wife and kids he got himself a new girlfriend who now refuses to visit him at the hospital. His ex-wife comes to visit very often and even brings the kids after a while. There are other visitors who deal with the situation in different ways.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is extremely moving and Mathieu Amalric’s acting is extraordinary. The story deliberately unfolds slowly, giving a good impression of the time Bauby spent in the hospital: his struggle to accept his disease and the help his doctors and friends are trying to give him (such as using the alphabet as a way of communication) and the long time it takes until he starts to believe in life again. It is quite late into the film that he begins to dictate his memoir, which takes minutes for every sentence. Watching the film is a very emotional experience. It is made in such a way that the audience is really re-living his horrible ordeal.

Even though this sounds rather negative I strongly recommend this film. I watched it for the first time last year at the Cannes Film Festival (where Schnabel won the Best Director’s award) and just couldn’t wait for the DVD to come out so I could watch it again. Cinematically it is remarkably well done and the story is phenomenally touching.

Originally the film was planned to be made in English with Johnny Depp as Bauby, but after Universal Pictures withdrew it was made in France with a French cast. I feel that this was a good move. I love Johnny Depp, but I don’t think he would have been right for this role at all. Although he is a great actor and I’m sure he could have pulled it off, I think that he has been in too many comedies and adventure films to play such a tragic role. The film wouldn’t have gotten the proper respect it deserves. Instead hordes of teenagers would have gone to watch it, just to see Depp in his latest role. The film is perfect the way it is now.

Le Scaphandre et le Papillon is being awarded the MovieCat Award for its cinematic beauty.

I remember when all Sienna Miller was known for was her relationship with Jude Law. And how annoying it was to see her in magazines and newspapers just for her style. Jealousy runs deep

She had a few small roles in Layer Cake, Alfie (I really don’t wanna go into how gorgeous she looks in this film…) and according to IMDB she appeared in some TV shows and films I have never heard of. Then came Casanova, where she was the female lead alongside Heath Ledger. The film, directed by Lasse Hallström in 2005, was incredibly bad (who would have thought after he directed the beautiful Chocolat?). The story was told in a sort of falling-asleep-boring way and Sienna’s acting was dreadful. The make-up and hair made her look plain (I didn’t think it was possible!) so there is really no reason to watch that film at all.

She really developed in the 2006 Factory Girl. Here she plays Edie Sedgwick to Guy Pearce’s Andy Warhol. The film is debatably bad (although I personally quite enjoyed it), but Sienna is great in it. She is the perfect actress to play the skinny, confused Edie. Here Sienna really gets to show what she can do. Her character is very emotional and irrational, she is taking drugs, crying, laughing and getting the attention of entire rooms full of people. Sienna does it well. She is equally good in Interview, playing the soap actress Katya. This film, directed by Steve Buscemi (who plays the other lead role) is marvellous. Sienna appears to be playing herself (which of course she denies in interviews), being a young actress, living in the most beautiful warehouse apartment in Manhattan (I read that Sienna herself moved into a similar house in London), but is therefore great in the role. In the 2007 film Stardust she has a fairly small and bitchy role, nothing worth writing about. Although the film itself is quite sweet.

What I think is quite interesting is the clothes label twenty8twelve she launched in 2007 together with her sister Savannah (who studied fashion design at Central Saint Martins in London). Sienna has always been known for her unique style (which has been copied a lot). Oddly enough the story is quite similar to Edie Sedgwick, whose style was also iconic and who got the chance to have her own label (but did not have too much interest in it). Sienna also chose her outfit for Interview. Personally I quite like the twenty8twelve style (although, unfortunately, I can’t afford it). Their flagship store is a very small but sweet shop in Westbourne Grove (Notting Hill, London). I think it is a great opportunity for Savannah to use her sister’s fame for her own career.

As for acting, apparently Sienna Miller did a three months’ course at the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York City. This seems to be all the actors’ training she got, so I guess she had enough connections and endurance to get into the business. Although born in NYC, she grew up in London. She has an English accent but does the American accent really well in a few of her films.

She is stunningly beautiful, has great style, strange taste in men (what was the relationship with Rhys Ifans all about?), seems to be a really fun sort of girl and has turned out to be a good actress. I think this deserves a MovieCat Award. (I think I deserve a MovieCat Award for saying such nice things about her while I’m green with envy )

What a genius! Michel Gondry is one of my absolute favourite directors. His creativity overwhelms me. There is just something to the way he approaches filmmaking as an art form. He believes in tricks on set, not made by computers. Filmmaking really is his life and it shows in everything he does.

All right, so Human Nature wasn’t the best start into his film career. The film tries to be too funny and quirky, but unfortunately fails. What with screenwriter Charlie Kaufman’s success with Being John Malcovich and Gondry’s sheer talent it should have worked out. But apparently they needed some time to get a feel for each others’ work. Three years later, in 2004, the Kaufman-Gondry duo brought out the marvellous Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. This film just works. From beginning to end it’s perfect.

I am going to disregard Gondry’s 2005 Dave Chappelle’s Block Party since I have not seen it. (But ordered it on the Netflix of Europe LoveFilm as I am writing this, so look out for my review of it).

In 2006 Michel wrote his first feature screenplay La Science des rêves (The Science of Sleep) with Gael García Bernal and Charlotte Gainsbourg as the leading characters. This is a wonderful film; Gondry put a lot of his own character, thoughts and feelings into it. The 2008 Be Kind Rewind was a step back again. Similar to Human Nature, it is just trying too hard to be funny.

I am going to review all these films sooner or later, but what I really want to talk about today is a wonderful DVD  that every film fanatic should watch: The Work of Director Michel Gondry. This is a collection of Gondry’s short films, art experiments, music videos and commercials. It is absolutely fantastic.

Before Michel Gondry became a feature director, he did a lot of music videos for artists like Björk, The Foo Fighters, Massive Attack and The Rolling Stones. My personal favourites are the videos he did for The White Stripes. There is one which is an animation made of Lego stones. This must have been an incredible amount of work but it looks amazing. In a Kylie Minogue video she walks in a circle along a street and each time she has completed a circle another Kylie steps out of a door. They walk together until there are about four of her. Gondry uses quite simple ideas that need a lot of rehearsal time and have to be carefully planned. The ideas are so simple that they work amazingly well and nobody else seems to have thought of them before. His commercials use a similar technique to his music videos. Quirky ideas that make watching them a lot of fun.

What I really love about these DVDs are Gondry’s short films. This is one of my favourites:

It is such a random assembly of stories. Some are animated, some filmed, some have a narrative, some are just thoughts made into a film. A great one is called Pecan Pie where Jim Carrey is driving a bed along the motor way in his pyjamas.

Another great feature on the The Work of Director Michel Gondry is a rather long documentary about Michel by Michel. It gives a real insight into his mentality, how he thinks and how he does things. And how he comes up with all his creative, surreal ideas. It is really worth watching if you like Michel Gondry or are interested in art and filmmaking.

Michel Gondry receives the MovieCat Award for being one of the most unusual filmmakers with incredibly interesting ideas.

This film is absolutely hilarious. A very young and potent Peter O’Toole is having trouble with the ladies. Every girl he meets wants him. Poor fellow. He goes to see Dr. Fritz Fassbender (Peter Sellers) to help him, for he believes himself to be in love with his neighbour Carole (Romy Schneider).

Carole wants the two of them to get married, but O’Toole’s character Michael James wants to have some more fun before he settles down. He goes out every night to meet women (such as Bond girl Ursula Andress and the gorgeous Capucine), which is making Carole rather angry. She turns to Michael’s friend Victor (Woody Allen) because she knows that he loves her.

What’s New Pussycat is crazy and confusing, but a lot of fun. The characters are wildly overdrawn (for example, Peter Sellers speaks with a sort of Austrian accent and is wearing what is obviously a wig) and the dialogues are mad (Michael: “Pussycat from the sky. I can’t resist you!” Girl: “Don’t resist. Capitulate!”). It is Woody Allen’s feature film début (writing and acting in it) – a really impressive start to his long career!

The film inspired me to draw this little cartoon.

This is a sweet little comedy about two lovers in Paris. It is quite different from the normal love stories. Very straightforward, a lot of dialogue and two main characters who are absolutely believable. Not too cheesy or overly romantic. Genuine people in a real setting.The American Jack (Adam Goldberg) and the originally Parisian Marion (Julie Delpy) have been together for two years. After a lovely trip to Venice they stay at her parents’ house in Paris for two days. Sounds romantic?! Well, Marion has a lot of ex-lovers, and to Jack’s annoyance, they all seem to be in Paris.

The dialogue is absolutely hilarious. Marion is constantly talking, while Jack is moaning non-stop. Although very annoying, Adam Goldberg is truly wonderful and awkwardly funny.

Written, directed, produced and acted by Julie Delpy. What an accomplishment! It is definitely a film worth watching. It is so refreshing to see a film about a couple who are already going out together. I am so tired of falling-in-love stories.

2 Days in Paris has received the MovieCat Award for the most realistic romantic film.