the LAST FILM YOU'VE SEEN thread

[In New York]

King Kong (the new one by Peter Jackson).

Not my kind of thing, to begin with, but surely being overrated when people say it's one of the ten best. It's never too late to resist size and expense. The reviewer was right (the only one I haveread) who said the sequences are drawn out too long. Especially the monsters, large and small, and their tangles with each other in the vines. Unbelievable that a great director like Jackson would turn out such an under-edited piece of work. It's not slow, just d r a w n o u t. The New York Times today says

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Peter Jackson's remake of "King Kong" is, almost by definition, too much — too long, too big, too stuffed with characers and fx-driven set pieces — but it is also remarkably nimble and sweet.

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That's having it both ways, as we all like to do, but if something is too too too, I quesiton whether it can really still be "remarkably nimble and sweet." That too too too outweighs and cancels out the nimble sweetness.

Margaret Brown: Be Here to Love Me: A Film About Townes van Zandt.

Interesting, classic lonely handsome creative depressed addictive artist type who wrote great songs, "a songwriter's songwriter," Kris Kristoferson says, but not an exceptional documentary. Contrast with Tarnation, which I didn't like, but unquestionably has a stylistic originality. This makes me question whether when you have free access to old home footage, you really have to use all of it. A better movie would have been made using the music, some selected interviews, and a few images of the man.

Debra Granik's Down to the Bone 2004, currently at Quad Cinema, New York.

A drama about a woman struggling to recover from drug addiiction starring Vera Farmiga and Hugh Dillon. This won directing and acting awards at Sundance for Granik and Farmiga last year. Downbeat and short on some aspects of the recovery process, but unmistakably authentic and unflashy.

Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady: The Boys of Baraka (2005) Currently premiered at Film Forum.

Documentary about Baltimore ghetto youths sent to a special two-year school in Kenya to give them a scholastic future. Charming and saddening, this includes some dedicated and meticulous followup techniques, but still has certain gaps in what we'd like to know.l

The titular protagonist of Días de Santiago ("Days of Santiago"), an intense and gripping debut feature from Peruvian filmmaker Josue Mendez, is a world-weary war veteran at the age of 23. He belongs to what has been described as Peru’s "lost generation," referencing youths who were recruited to strengthen the military during the 90’s under President Alberto Fujimori. Santiago (Pietro Sibille), like many others, became a man and much more while fighting drug lords, guerrillas (the "Shining Path" movement), or the Ecuadorian army from the north. But the power granted to them ultimately took its toll, and now Santiago and his fellow surviving comrades aren’t quite able to comprehend the atrocities that were committed. Yet, they miss the discipline, the order, the mission. Early on, Mendez expertly employs both grainy b&w and color stock to distinguish his protagonist’s psychological terrain as he tries to adjust to the life back home in the economically challenged Peruvian capital of Lima. Along with battling his own demons, Santiago now also has to endure a distanced wife and a mostly indifferent family, not to mention the realities of having no educational background. He eventually starts a cab service, which not only helps him to go to school, but also enables him to associate with others, especially young woman who often pursue a protector in his mature demeanor, not realizing that he may not even be capable of saving himself (it’s obvious that Mendez is well familiar with Scorsese’s 1976 classic). Días de Santiago is important but explosive stuff -- so the 28-year-old filmmaker deserves much credit for handling it with care for the most part. It is disappointing, however, that his aforementioned methods to depict Santiago’s struggles ultimately resort to nothing more than stylistic tics. But the authenticity of the milieu and Sibille’s performance are among the reasons why the film, which happens to be Peru’s nominee in the foreign-language category for 2005 Academy Awards, "leaves a singularly raw impression of having spent time inside someone’s sweaty, ill-fitting skin." (Village Voice)

Grade: B+
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*DÍAS DE SANTIAGO was released theatrically in NYC earlier this month by Cinema Tropical, a distributor of Latin American films. The film is also available on DVD from Lions Gate films.

I did not realize that I have actually watched it in Cinequest Film Festival in March 2005 until your post. I didn't even realize it was Peru's submission to Oscar this year.
;)

* guilty grin *

Following arsaib4's comments, .Spare Parts comment.

Spare Parts - Rezervni deli 2003

Directed by Damjan Kozole

Starring Peter Musevski, Aljosa Kovacic

A film that when you strip away all the periphery is in essence a buddy movie, old hand (Ludvik- Peter Musevski) takes on greenhorn (Rudi - Aljosa Kovacic), several minor adventures ensue, greenhorn makes big mistake which nearly ends but then strengthens the partnership. In the end (and very predictably) the greenhorn has become the old hand and is himself teaching the ropes to a newbie.

What makes this different and worth seeing? Well the subject of the film is human traffiking, which is one mega-sized problem at present; the process is treated very matter of factly with no real judgement as to the rights and wrongs of it. To the guys who do it, it’s a job, a nice little earner; to the people using this method it’s a measure of sheer desperation. There are moments that make you despair for humanity such as when a young Macedonian woman is pressured into selling herself or when a family group is smuggled in a car boot only to be found dead from suffocation then unceremoniously dumped.

Along the way you find out more about the protagonists, they are not evil men but appear to have very little in the way of a conscience. Ludvik is a widower, his wife had cancer. As far as the traffiking is concerned he deals with it as if he was a regular delivery guy, load em up, ship em out, what happens then is none of his business. Rudi on the other hand is naïve to the business and the consequences, he has a pang of conscience but can he survive this type of work with it?

The process certainly appears to be honest in the way people are dealt with (certainly in regards to recent news articles). It makes you wonder how desperate must someone be to take this route? You lay your life and the lives of those you love on the line dealing with these petty crooks. What little you have in the way of possessions, dignity and money is literally stripped from you and even then, there is no guarantee that you will get where you want or arrive in one piece!

The title refers to the fact that quite a few of these illegal immigrants end up selling or having organs stolen once they escape, kidneys, liver, lungs, heart there is a market for all of these and more, who cares where or who they came from?

A lot of the younger women, girls end up being sold into prostitution, again this is brought up very matter of factly in general conversation. I’ve added a relevent note below of a very recent news item from Cardiff



JAIL FOR SEX SLAVE PAIR

By Richard Smith

TWO men were jailed yesterday for bringing a 21-year-old sex slave into Britain.
The Lithuanian woman, who was bought for £5,000, was expected to have sex with up to nine men a day and hand over her £1,225 weekly earnings to the Albanian gang bosses.
She was threatened with being cut into pieces and having her eight-year-old sister kidnapped if she tried to escape, Cardiff crown court heard.
Akil Likcami, 20, was jailed for six years after admitting trafficking and controlling a prostitute for gain. Gjerji Mungiovi-Cuka, 19, from Caldicot, Gwent, was given four years for trafficking.
Ethnic Albanian Likcami, of Cathays, Cardiff, will be deported at the end of his sentence. His friend has a UK passport and can stay in Britain.
Passing sentence, Judge Phillip Richards branded their trade "evil". The third member of the trio, known only as "Benny", is still at large.


I can understand anyone who dsliked the film with its lack of guilt or recrimination but it does give a different perspective on a growing problem. Not essential viewing but certainly worth seeing.

Cheers Trev.

BBFC rated 15

Ugly, relevant stuff, and right in your own backyard from the sound of the article. I haven't seen this movie but it appears to relate to Frear's Dirty Pretty Things and Moodysson's Lilja 4-Ever.

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they are not evil men but appear to have very little in the way of a conscience.

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But they become evil because they lack a strong conscience.

Not a pleasant subject but if it brings any awareness to the situation then it's for the good. What happened in Cardiff is only a tiny microbe of what's going on throughout the World, I'm damn sure that if we're getting this here then the problems in London and some of the major cities must be far worse.

You're right with your correction Chris, you can only be judged by what you do and taking advantage of people in the direst of circumstances is evil.

Cheers Trev.

Thanks for the excellent review, Trev. Yes, it is the subject matter which makes it stand out. And like you said, this isn't just going on in your backyard, the problem exists everywhere. I'm glad you agreed that Kozole handled it well.

I did not realize that I have actually watched it in Cinequest Film Festival in March 2005 until your post. I didn't even realize it was Peru's submission to Oscar this year.

Good. What did you think?

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I'm damn sure that if we're getting this here then the problems in London and some of the major cities must be far worse.

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That's scary and true.

It's when we're really tested that we know what we're made of. But frrom the drug/addiction analogy, it makes sense to stay away from temptation as much as you can.

J'accuse.

I must accuse myself of plagiarism, although I didn't re-read arsaib4's comments on Spare Parts till I posted my own, it's very obvious that a certain phrase he used stuck in my mind and is not a phrase I commonly use.

Arsaib4:

especially in the case of a young Macedonian girl, is presented rather matter-of-factly

my post:

human traffiking, which is one mega-sized problem at present; the process is treated very matter of factly

and

girls end up being sold into prostitution, again this is brought up very matter of factly

So, my apologies to arsaib4 but the phrase was perfect as a descriptive for the film.

Cheers Trev.

I truly appreciate your post, Trevor. I don't write as well or as proficiently as someone like yourself or Chris, so it's not easy for me to churn out long reviews for every second film I see. But my short takes still contain enough that they can easily be utilized as a base or a starting point by others for their reviews, and this is obviously something which will not be tolerated. Needless to say, I don't have a problem with your reviews, but I just wanted to make that clear.

The emerging popularity of German Cinema, at least in the international markets, could perhaps more easily be linked with an actor, rather than a bevy of talented young filmmakers. Daniel Brühl, the star of the breakthrough hit Goodbye Lenin! (2003), has become a much sought after commodity (not unlike Mexican actor Gael García Bernal), and many of his subsequent films, including The Edukators (2004) and Joyeux Noël (2005), have received the sort of attention that they probably wouldn’t have otherwise. Brühl's presence in the breathtakingly beautiful Love in Thoughts (Was nützt die Liebe in Gedanken), arguably his best so far, has most likely helped it to reach our shores, though without much attention. Directed by Achim von Borries, the film starts off as a whodunit as we watch a young man (Brühl) being interrogated by the police about his involvement in a suicide case. But then it slowly materializes as something quite unique: a sexually charged, yet unabashedly poetic story about requited love and its tragic implications. Paul, the aforementioned detainee who happens to be a gifted poet, narrates the proceedings which, set in 1927, mostly unfold over a weekend at the summer cottage belonging to the bourgeois parents of his best friend Günther (August Diehl) and his beautiful, bohemian sister Hilde (Anna Maria Mühe). As these "dreamers" succumb to their beauteous surroundings, so does Borries’ camera with Malick-esque naturalism, requiring every streak of light and sound to exude sensuality amid threatening to unbalance the emotional equilibrium. The trio are eventually joined by their friends from Berlin, setting up the stage for a party sequence which should draw comparisons with one from Assayas’ L’Eau froide (1994). The constantly shifting dynamics, as someone else enters the picture claiming loyalties from both Günther and Hilde, are beautifully played out in an environment which turns out to be at once both vast and claustrophobic. Love in Thoughts is based on a true story (reportedly a notorious one), which is bound to heighten one’s attention to certain details, so perhaps it would’ve been better off as being timeless, much like love.


Grade: B+
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*LOVE IN THOUGHTS premiered at the 2004 Sundance film festival before playing at the Berlin fest. The film didn't receive theatrical distribution in the U.S., but it's now available on DVD from Wolfe Video.

Love in Thoughts---sounds great; I like Brühl, look forward to seeing it. Where did you see it?

Movies seen since The Boys of Baraka:

Transamerica
The Chronicles of Narnia
The White Countess

I watched Love in Thoughts on DVD.

Transamerica sounds interesting; not so sure about Narnia.

If you see Narnia, it must be in a nice big auditorium like a cineplex. It's good but not as good as LOTR>

The Big House (1930)

Damn interesting prison film, much more violent than you would expect from classic Hollywood because it pre-dates the code. Also worth seeing how young Robert Montgomery looked. Arguably Wallace Beery's best performance ever as machine gun Butch. The film was nominated for several Oscars during the third award ceremony, including Best Picture and one for Beery. Beery would win two years later for the much inferior The Champ.

Grade A-

The Wicker Man (1974)

Well cult films are a plentiful, and this one screams "product of it's time" like few others. A modern look at paganism, this film makes Christianity seem so boring. A part comic horror film with a dash of strange musical numbers and random insanity. It is a film to watch while on drugs, and plenty were passed around while this was playing. I have heard news of it being remade with Nicholas Cage as the inspector and Christ I hope they burn the negative before it ever gets released. The Wicker Man has a notorious production history, and like nearly all cult films was drastically shortened. The version now available claims to be the full cut, and although the film might not be a cult masterpiece like some may claim, it is well worth checking out.

Grade B

Hearts and Minds (1974)

One of the best documentaries ever made, this takes a look at the then still fresh topic of Vietnam from nearly every aspect. The images are extremely graphic, and the interview style is something entirely new in documentaries. Peter Davis captures people in the strangest situations, interviewing soldiers while with prostitues, paralyzed veterans, and military minds. Davis also has plenty of humor to go around, although of a certainly dark and black nature.

Grade A+

Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950)

After the success of Laura (1944), Dana Andrews, Gene Tierney, and Otto Preminger teamed up to make this brilliantly crafted noir gem. The film resonates hard with me, as its focal point is not so much a murder, or an investigation, but the hate one man has for crime, and the ultimate fear that he'll wind up just like his hoodlum father. Much more depth than one might expect, but well with in the means of noir, thanks to a brilliant script by Ben Hecht, this film manages to make turns without going to ridiculous suspense heights. It was made before Preminger became the defiant antagonist to the Hollywood censors so the content pretty much plays it straight, but there are a few more punches thrown than the average film.

Grade A-

And I saw the White Countess, but that has it's own thread here.

Claire Denis: L'Intrus/The Intruder (2004)

Terrence Malick: The New World (2005)

Lasse Hallström: Casanova (2005)

Among the new wide-releases, I've seen Munich and King Kong. I will review the former so I haven't fully read what has been written about it here. Will add a few notes on the latter.

I went a little overboard with my King Kong review. Some movies just get me going and I can't seem to shut up about them. Gonna make an attempt to see the rather poorly reviewed Memoirs of a Geisha tonight, so I'll report back with my verdict.

I thought there was a thread for this, but oh well.

Memoirs of a Geisha (2005)

Holy snore fest Batman. This much hyped monstrosity is painfully long and drastically slow paced. The cast is a bunch of Chinese actors, speaking English, playing Japanese women. Hollywood trickery at it's finest, but hey us Westerners can't tell the difference anyways right?

Hard to imagine the man responsible for the extremely fast paced Chicago was supervising this debaucle. He did keep an eye for color, and slightly for choreography, but all else is lost. The imagination of Chicago (which I still found to be a flawed and overrated film) is gone. In it's place is a dreadfull pace that doesn't remind one of the joys of that musical, but rather how much superior so many authentic stories of geishas were from Japan.

Grade C -

Maybe there should be a Geisha thread, since it seems to be under discussion as one of the end-of-year heavies, with some awards and nominations:

Golden Globes, USA
Nominated:
--Best Original Score - Motion Picture
John Williams
-Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama
Ziyi Zhang


National Board of Review, USA
Won :
--Best Supporting Actress
Li Gong


Satellite Awards
Won:
--Outstanding Screenplay, Adapted
Robin Swicord

Nominated:Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama
Ziyi Zhang

Outstanding Actress in a Supporting Role, Drama
Li Gong-

--Outstanding Art Direction & Production Design
John Myhre

--Outstanding Cinematography
Robert Elswit

--Outstanding Costume Design
Colleen Atwood

--Outstanding Director
Rob Marshall
--Outstanding Motion Picture, Drama

Outstanding Original Score
John Williams

That's what it says. I'm not questioning what you say, I would tend to think you're right from what I've heard.

Ponette (1996) - Jacqued Dillon

A moving story about a young girl (Ponette) and her coping with the death of her mother. Along the way she meets some sympathetic people, and some rather cruel children all on the way to recovering. A beautiful movie, with a rather remarkable performance from it's young lead.

Ponette may not be Doillon's best, but it's certainly his most widely seen film. The performance from the young girl is indeed remarkable.

Raja and Petits frères are the only other Doillon films available here. (Do watch the former if you get a chance.)

Have long avoided this because a French-speaking friend characterized it as weepy and sentiimental. Maybe i ought to see it. Too bad more Doillon films aren't avail. here--maybe another one to look for abroad.

House on 92nd Street (1945) - Henry Hathaway

Well nothing in this film really qualifies as noir, but it got lumped into that undefined category with so many other early post war films. The picture plays much like Hathaway's follow up, 13 Rue Madeline. It is much more of a behind the scenes WWII film. Hathaway didn't seem to be the go to guy for combat pictures, but this type of picture worked for him.

The plot is simple enough. The US has atomic secrets being stolen, and they need to find out who done it before the Germans get the information, so with a few spies set up and a lot of FBI praise, they plant a man and hatch a plot to make everything work in their favor. There is moderate suspense, but Hathaway can't seem to hold anyone in that mood. I've always thought of the man as a rather poor director, a guy to go to when much more skilled auteur's were unavailable. His second rate skills may seem ideal for this picture dripping with B movie mentality, but instead it's just weak filmmaking. I have two more Hathaway films in my pile ready to watch, hopefully some of them are actually noir like their titles suggest.

The House of the title is a five story place in Manhattan where the Germans are running their little spy ring. They are all kept under a tight watch and they all answer to a mysterious man who no one meets named Christopher. The FBI's counteragent arouses suspicion when his credentials get altered by the FBI. He is out to find this Christopher, but it isn't that easy. In the process comes a lot of treachery, and of course US prevails.

It is somewhat joyous to see the good old USA triumph, much as it probably was at the time. House was actually a fairly popular film in its day, despite having C-Level actors as leads. Fox was either trying to make a new group of stars, or just wanted to keep the costs down. The subject of this was certainly timely, considering the film was released only months after the first atomic bomb dropped. The picture starts by saying that the film wouldn't have been able to have been made until the bomb was dropped, a fact that isn't much of a fact but used to make viewers find the film a little more important than it really is. The introduction is very similar to Fred Zinnemann's post war film The Search. Beginning with narration and a ton of stock footage. Hathaway uses new footage shot amongst this to give the impression that his actors and stars actually are/were part of the FBI. The documentary nature is virtually abandoned afterwards, but of course helps to tidy things up at the end.

The film is niether noir, suspenseful, or really captivating. It is decent, and there is a general desire to root for the good guys here, but it's second rate filmmaking at best. Coming off of some rather surprise masterpieces like Somewhere in the Night and Where the Sidewalk Ends, this film is clearly second rate, despite being much better known and generally much better respected.

Grade C+

Hell in the Pacific (1968) - John Boorman

This film today seems like a gimmick, and something tells me it did in 1968. The Vietnam War was raging, and of course someone had to humanize war. So why not cast two top notch action stars and no one else? I admired how Boorman made Mifune's dialogue unsubtitled. This gives us the perspective of Lee Marvin's marooned soldier and ads a degree of realism. We never know more than any individual character.

This came right after Boorman's remarkably brilliant Point Blank, and this doesn't really measure up. There is only one brief moment where the temporal fun of Point Blank is brought here, when both men envision killing the other, or rather being killed. Aside from that the tale is rather straight forward, to a boring extent. There doesn't seem to be anything different here, and the early tension between the two evaporates quickly and we're left with a formulaic and kind of drab film.

Grade B

Boorman has a tendency to do what you just described: "pseudo-political" films like Beyond Rangoon and Country of My Skull are even worse than Pacific for many of the same reasons. But he can still come up with the likes of The General or the underrated Where the Heart is, so he can't totally be ignored.

It's not a great film but I plan to watch it again if only because it was lensed by Conrad Hall, which always meant great cinematography. Hall was nominated for Oscar ten times and won three. I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "of course someone had to humanize the war".

There just seemed like a tendancy to make a humanistic war film especially during the Vietnam War as a social commentary and some sort of hippy crap like we're all god's children.

Obviously Boorman did a lot of different kinds of movies an he is uneven. Doesn't anybody love The Emerald Forest? I do. But I haven't seen it for a while.

Whirlpool (1949) - Otto Preminger

Another in a string of Fox Film Noirs, this one features fantastic performances from Jose Ferrer and Gene Tierney but lacks a little overall.

Signs of Life (1968) - Werner Herzog

Early film from the German master, this is amateur filmmaking with inspired moments of greatness.

RIchard Shepard: The Matador

The Ringer (2005)

Bad, just plain bad. After several dates where I picked the movie, I conceded this one, hoping that I'd at least get a laugh, and I did. Exactly one laugh amidst this god awful nonsense. The crowd was rather young, the night before they all had to return to high school. I heard some people laugh, and a few people comment "fucking retards". They may try to make us laugh with them, but this film is relying on the basic assumption that the mentally retarded are funny just because of that, and it's even funnier when they try and act like "normal people". Fuck this movie.

arsaib-Ballets Russes--Saw it. It's very interesting. Though I had gone to performances as a child, I didn't know that there were two "Ballets Russes" or what the split was about etc., and this clarified that. The aging dancers are indeed charming. It's not a film celebrating dance -- I mean, you don't get a lot of extended dance footage, or detailed information about dance styles, choreography, etc., -- but a history of the (two) Ballets Russes, but that's an important topic and the history is presented in detail..

wpqx-The Ringer. Please, wpqx, try to keep your comments on a more respectful, decent level, respectful of us, and yourself. You don't give the topic or the filmmaker, so your comment is pretty much useless, frankly. Even if the movie is tasteless, you don't have to descend to its level.

There's nothing respectful to say about the Ringer, just god awful predictable nonsense.

I did manage to see Good Men, Good Women (1995) from Hou Hsaio-Hsien. I'm not going to bother comparing, but this was certainly a refreshing film, continuing the theme of the modern history of Taiwan. Although this film jumps back and forth with the present, and makes for a rather remarkable viewing. Hou makes a case for being the best filmmaker of the 90s, and this film is certainly evidence to help support that claim.

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Originally posted by Chris Knipp
arsaib-Ballets Russes--Saw it. It's very interesting. Though I had gone to performances as a child, I didn't know that there were two "Ballets Russes" or what the split was about etc., and this clarified that. The aging dancers are indeed charming. It's not a film celebrating dance -- I mean, you don't get a lot of extended dance footage, or detailed information about dance styles, choreography, etc., -- but a history of the (two) Ballets Russes, but that's an important topic and the history is presented in detail..

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I was hoping that you had seen this. I knew about the troupes but certainly wasn't aware of their history and all the accomplishments in detail. Was also surprised to learn the influence they had on other art forms. Yeah, it was more about the people, many of whom probably haven't had a chance in quite some time to talk about their past. They seemed healthy and energized. Do you remember any specific details from the performances you saw?

The Dark Corner (1946) - Henry Hathaway

Well finally a Hathaway film that actually is a film noir. This story has all the right formulas, a somewhat shady private detective, an even shadier past, a murder, a cover up, and even a dame or two. This seems to follow in a general trend of Fox film noir of not having the female be an antagonist. Lucille Ball plays the secretary here, and is an anchor, support, and companion for our hero, not the reason for his misery. She seems to fall right in line with the "female as crutch" roles given out in many of this studios film noirs, most typically Where the Sidewalk Ends, but Gene Tierney was slightly more motivating in that.

The film is shrouded in darkness, and that is of course the biggest characteristic of noir. Joe MacDonald (a Fox regular for years) did the cinematography, and in many scenes, particularly in Brad's (Mark Stevens) office the look is absolutely perfect. MacDonald wound up with a trio of best cinematography nominations, but won none.

Mark Stevens may not be a name in the noir genre, but he does a damn good job here. His character recalls a little of the reckless violent screenwriter of Nicholas Ray's In a Lonely Place. Mark doesn't seem to be able to function without at least a little drink. Not sure how intentional his drinking is, but later in the film when he's asked for a drink he says "Never touch the stuff", we know that there was a dependency. In that scene Mark has finally figured things out, put two and two together, and can now make his move without being loaded on sauce.

Lucille Ball got the top billing, even though she is more of a support for Stevens, but well she was the "Queen of the B's" at this point. One of her few non-comedic roles, she still manages to get most of the few laughs, and there's a slight chuckle to be had watching her bat. She's charming here and is never too far behind her man, and as Stevens' Brad gives up at nearly every corner, Ball's Kathleen is quick with an idea, even if it's a bad one.

Aside from a few brilliantly constructed night time shots, there is hardly anything here of overwhelming value. This was film noir by the books, and it touches all plot points necessary. The plot works, although not in an overly compelling way. Clifton Webb plays a bit of a villian again, and his character is so obsessively smart that it makes him a downright awesome noir villian. You should have suspected it, after seeing his rather young wife (Cathi Downs). Hollywood's way of saying dating an older man is fine, just be careful. Ironic when Mari (Downs) blows off thinking that the man she's having an affair with is too young to be intimate with the old Constance Collier, an actress as old proportionately to her on screen husband.

The Dark Corner remains a damn good film noir. Not among the all time best, but certainly a text book case. And from what I've seen the pick of the litter regarding the somewhat lackluster filmography of Henry Hathaway.

Grade B+

Match Point (see thread)

Winner of the Camera d’Or ("Best First Film") and the Critics’ Week prize at 2004 Cannes film festival, Israeli filmmaker Keren Yedaya's Or (My Treasure) (Mon trésor) paints a gritty and uncompromising portrait of a mother-daughter relationship through which it ultimately points toward pertinent issues facing the society at large. Set in an unsavory part of Tel Aviv, the film concerns a hard-working 17-year-old Or (Dana Ivgi, from Broken Wings [2002]) and her immature prostitute mother Ruthie (Ronit Elkabetz, from Late Marriage [2001]) who is recovering from her latest bout with drug addiction. Or is desperate to find another line of work for her mother, also addicted to her profession but less for monetary reasons than to fulfill her desire for affection. But the teenager doesn’t quite realize that her own nightly heavy-petting sessions with neighborhood boys serve the same purpose for her. Yedaya’s long, stationary shots are at once intimate and distant to this grim reality, forcing the viewers to interpret the complexity of her protagonists and their decisions. Her images often dismember the characters, not only stressing their fractured lives, but in Ruthie’s case also accentuating the scars of her rapidly decaying flesh (the filmmaker then contrasts this aesthetical choice with a bold, seemingly never-ending shot of Or’s nubile body in a shower). While Or (My Treasure) doesn’t hesitate to capture the banality of life in all of its glory, the film’s specificity with moments strong enough to unravel it is quite unique and powerful. From Or internally questioning her self-worth after the decision of her lover’s mother to ultimately staring at Ruthie and finding someone quite different, Yedaya measures her descent to be perceptible enough to ultimately unleash an accusatory gaze, one which is perhaps also filled with shame.

Grade: A-
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*After premiering at Cannes, OR (MY TREASURE) went onto play at festivals such as Vancouver, New York, and London. The film was released theatrically in the U.S. by Kino International and it is now available on DVD.

Have not seen it; is it newly out on dvd? Reviewing this film in October 2004 at the time of its NYFF showing Manohla Dargis called it "well-meaning but irritatingly naïve" and a "feel-bad drama" that did well because "grim is always big at film festivals." She says " Ms. Yedaya's take on prostitution would be tolerable if her characters, especially Ruthie, weren't such ideological constructs." Your comments?