WORTH YOUR WHILE***

 L’Art d’aimer *** (French)   Juxtaposed stories of love and amusing relationships in their many forms, delightfully French.

The Mill and the Cross (Bruegel – le moulin et la croix) ***   A magnificent analysis and literal coming-to-life of Pieter Bruegels’s famous painting, The Way to Calvary, intermingled with the politics of the era and the agony of Christ’s crucifixion. A master work.

The Woman in the Fifth (La Femme du Vème) *** (English, French)  Kristine Scott-Thomas and Ethan Hawke are entwined in a hypnotic, surrealistic tale of loneliness and longing in a Paris where elegance and low-life mingles.

Juan *** (German)   From Denmark comes this powerful modern-day version of Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni, starring a rugged Christopher Maltman as Juan. Mesmerizing.

Contagion ***  This disaster film about a world-wide pandemic is top-notch due to a realistic, gripping script and pacing, fine acting by an amazing cast of stars and its director, Steven Soderbergh. You won’t want to shake hands with anyone afterwards.

Happy Feet 2  ***  Even better than the original, there are adorable fuzzy kiddy penguins, snappy music, Robin Williams back as the love-crazy Latino penguin, and a lovable pair of philosophical shrimps (yes, shrimps!). For the child in all of us.

Puss in Boots ***  He’s been a bad kitty and he now has his own film! Voiced once more by Antonio Banderas, Puss is everything from lover to Zorro-like meow trying to redeem himself, between dances and swashbuckling heroics. Great fun for all kids from 5 to 95.

Monsieur Lazhar ***  This Canadian film which won the Audience Prize at Locarno is the gentle story of a refugee who becomes a fine school teacher but gets into trouble when it’s discovered he is not legal…..universal.

Carnage **1/2  Yasmina Reza’s play about two couples spilling their guts has been brought to the screen by Roman Polanski with great actors such as Jody Foster, Christoph Waltz, Kate Winslet and John C. Reilly. Unnerving and at times over-done.

Dangerous Method **1/2  Michael Fassbender portrays Carl Jung; Keira Knightly is his famous patient and lover, Sabina Spielrein, who went on to become a psychiatrist herself; and Freud (a too handsome Viggo Mortensen) is a consultant to Jung’s therapy and his intimate affair. Fascinating, but the Freud part does not feel convincing.

J. Edgar  **1/2  As always, Leonardo DeCaprio is brilliant, here as the FBI’s infamous Hoover, becoming him from the inside-out, as the physical resemblance is disputable. As is the badly-done makeup work. Clint Eastwood knows how to make artsy crowd-pleasers, but treats Hoover with kid gloves and leaves us hungry for more info than he’s willing to convey.

La Délicatesse **1/2  (French)   A sweet, gentle film about a great love lost and how the lonely girl (Audrey Tautou) can fall for a seemingly mediocre guy because of his goodness and simplicity. Endearing.

La Vérité si je mens 3  **1/2  (French)  This is the third in the amusing, wonderfully clichéd and politically-incorrect adventures of a close-knit band of young Jewish business guys (dealing mainly in the garment trade), one more wild and woolly than the next, always rooting for their families, trying to top each other and get the best of their adversaries. With colorful French character actors such as Richard Anconina, José Garcia, Gilbert Melki and Vincent Elbaz, you can’t lose. This is comedy from the heart, without vulgarity.

Neptune Ravar Ingwersen

Bonnie Au Cinema Cantagion, Carnage, Christopher Maltman, Clint Eastwood, Dangerous Method, Don Giovanni, Ethan Hawke, Happy Feet 2, J. Edgar, Jody Foster, Juan, Kristine Scott-Tbomas, L'Art d'aimer, La Délicatesse, La Vérité si je mens 3, Leonardo DeCaprio, Monsieur Lazhar, Neptune Ravar Ingwersen, Pieter Bruegel, Puss in Boots, Robin Williams, Roman Polanski, Steven Soderbergh, The Mill and the Cross, The Way to Calvary, The Woman in the Fifth

AU CINEMA February 2011

Good **

Largo Winch 2 **1/2  (vo French and English)    The James Bond franchise should wish to be as smooth, cool and smart as the Largo Winch films. There are super chases, financial intrigues and political treachery, a serious love affair, a sweet kid and gorgeous locations, especially in the Far East.  Jérôme Salle (who wrote and directed the French film, Anthony Zimmer, which inspired The Tourist) directs it all with respect for our intelligence, and Tomer Sisley (a stand-up comedian from TV with an Israeli/German/French background) is perfect as Winch, the reluctant billionaire. The violence of the fight scenes could be toned down.

Hereafter (Au-delà) **  Matt Damon can hear and see spirits, but does not want to. Cécile de France comes back from death after a tsunami accident, and a shy English boy loses his closest soul mate. In this Clint Eastwood yarn, all these people converge somehow and there is a connection and a raison d’être. Ok, he knows his audience well, but it nevertheless feels concocted, like an overly-intricate puzzle.

Narnia 3 – Voyage of the Dawn Treader **1/2  This is a great one for the kids – inspiring, adventurous and especially fun due to a really nasty cousin paired with a talking monkey on the high seas.  Good to have clean thrills for our kids and some moral lessons in this hazardous world.

The Next 3 Days (Les trois prochains jours) **   A happy couple is torn apart when the wife is accused of murder and jailed for life. When her desperate husband finds no legal recourse, he decides to get her out any way he can. Russell Crowe is intense as usual, but the convoluted scenario and Elizabeth Banks as the wife are too weak to be as convincing as the French original, Pour Elle, despite the fine director Paul Haggis, of the award-winning Crash and In the Valley of Elah.

Tron – the Legacy **  For adolescents and the testosterone crowd, this is a clever futuristic and back-to-the-future action blockbuster that is fun to watch, especially a young Jeff Bridges created by computer graphics, vying against the real Bridges of today. This is quality popcorn stuff.

Burlesque **  GREAT musical numbers, like going to a Broadway show, but the script and acting are so banal that it’s embarrassing, especially for dear old Cher, who is looking mummified. Christina Aguilera sure can move and belt out those numbers, especially the blues!

The Tourist *1/2   It’s like a party – you can have all the right ingredients – best food, guests, locale, but it still falls flat. Same here: there’s top director Florian Henkel von Donnersmarck, from the German Oscar-winning The Life of Others, and Johnny Depp plus Angelina Jolie as protagonists in an international heist film – but it’s boring and lacks chemistry. And it’s so obviously trying to be ultra cool, but doesn’t make the mark. Too bad.  Depp is smooth and above-it-all, though Angelina should put some meat on her bones and lay off the heavy make-up and that lip thing…it’s distracting.

Somewhere *1/2   Here’s another dud. And so empty, though that’s what it’s about – the empty life of a movie star in a cult hotel in Hollywood. The usually brilliant director Sofia Coppola is too minimalist here, but the star’s teenage daughter, played by a radiant Elle Fanning, gives the film its moments of grace.

Neptune Ravar Ingwersen, film critic

Bonnie Au Cinema Angelina Jolie, Au-delà, Burlesque, Cher, Clint Eastwood, Elizabeth Banks, Hereafter, Jeff Bridges, Johnny Depp, Largo Winch 2, Matt Damon, Narnia 3 - Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Neptune Ravar Ingwersen, Russell Crowe, The Next 3 Days, The Tourist, Tron - The Legacy

It’s easy to distinguish that the rugby player on the right is Matt Damon, but who is he shaking hands with?  Is that Nelson Mandela or Morgan Freeman?

Don’t  miss the film Invictus, directed by Clint Eastwood.  Morgan Freeman is exceptional in the role of Nelson Mandela.  Freeman had known for a long time that he would some day play the role of Mandela.   When Nelson Mandela’s autobiography was published in 1995, Mandela was asked who he thought could play him on screen.  He cited the name of Morgan Freeman.

In a recent interview in Switzerland published in Migros Magazine, his interviewer said, “Mandela is a wise man; he’s 91 years old.  You are also getting older and therefore also becoming wise?”   Freeman’s response was, “Careful.  I am getting older, but I am not becoming old.”

Age is an attitude.  Nelson Mandela, Morgan Freeman and Clint Eastwood share the fact that they are getting older – as are we!  They also share age-esteem with a positive attitude toward age that will keep them from ever becoming “old”.

Bonnie Fatio, AgeEsteem

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Clint Eastwood

Isn’t it refreshing to see that this month’s top films include veteran actresses and actors? – And that they are starring in roles featuring their mature ages?

In these “Must See Films” we find Meryll Streep (60), Morgan Freeman (73),  Alec Baldwin (52), Steve Martin (65), with Colin Firth (50), and George Clooney who at 49 is bringing maturity to his charm.   Will he manage to cultivate the same charm that Clint Eastwood oozes at 80?

It takes AgeEsteem on the part of these icons of cinema to “act their age” on the screen, and to become real role models for us.  Thank you!

Bonnie AgeEsteemers, Au Cinema, Entertainment & Fun AgeEsteem, Alex Baldwin, Clint Eastwood, Colin Firth, films, George Clooney, Meryll Streep, Morgan Freeman, role models, Steve Martin

Movies – Films

Superb  ****     Very Good  ***      Good **     Mediocre  *     Forget It   -

UNMISSABLES

Up In The Air ****     Suave, gliding through airports as though they were his home with his myriad privileged credit cards, George Clooney’s character flies around the country firing people for firms which don’t want to deal with the mess. He’s great at his job  and loves his unattached lifestyle.  Seamlessly directed by Jason Reitman (Thank You for Smoking and Juno), this deceptively subtle film is a metaphor for today’s modern, empty world – from a charged beginning to an uncertain end. Clooney is excellent, once again proving he’s not just a gorgeous guy. This is Oscar material all the way…

Brothers ****     Brodre, the gripping 2004 Danish film by Suzanne Bier has been transformed here into an American work and quite fittingly, as it concerns family tensions and the war in Afghanistan. With a strong cast including Natalie Portman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Tobey Maguire and Sam Shepard, directed by the Irish/American Jim Sheridan (of Oscar winners such as My Left Foot and In the Name of the Father), this has proven one fine import. The “good” brother goes off to war, while the bad-boy brother stays home and becomes close to the former’s wife and children. It’s austerely modern; it’s Greek tragedy and also Shakespearean. Won’t tell you more, just go see it. And rent the Danish film too.

A Single Man ***1/2     We’re terribly lucky this season – deluged with one fine film after the other. Here’s another one, amazingly polished by first-time director, Tom Ford, who is the highly successful men’s fashion designer. Being gay and stunning-looking himself, he has made a film about a teacher mourning the loss of his lover, set in the early 60s when homosexuality was still under wraps. The mood and look of the era are impeccably captured and Colin Firth, who has perfected the art of being contained and reserved, has never been so moving. And he’s never been so trim and well attired either, all due to Ford, of course. This is quite an aesthetic work of art by a newcomer to the field. But then the painter Julian Schnabel also traversed careers brilliantly, directing Basquiat, Before Night Falls and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Once an artist, always an artist.

Invictus ***1/2     “I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul”. This quotation exemplifies the grandeur of Nelson Mandela’s life and his legacy for Africa (and in a smaller sense, the trajectory of director Clint Eastwood’s career). The film dwells mainly on Mandela’s efforts to unite his country behind its rugby team during the World Cup in 1994 and his strength and wisdom in going against the current. Morgan Freeman becomes Mandela and Eastwood does them both honor. From White Hunter, Black Heart and Bird to Bridges of Madison County and Letters from Iwo Jima, and now this tribute, Eastwood keeps proving his mastery of many genres, his understanding of diverse worlds and the control of his audience.

2 Brothers ***1/2  (vo Hebrew and English)  I’ve written this up before, but now it is finally being released in our area after garnering quite a few prizes in various festivals. It’s about two opposing brothers, this time in Israel. One is a peace activist living there and the other is a fanatic Orthodox Jew, who has moved back from New York. Their differences and struggles highlight the grave threat posed by the Orthodox community to peace in that region. Powerful and important, it is directed by Geneva-based Igaal Nidam.

It’s Complicated ***     Ah, to have a bit of fun in this sad and serious world! So here’s a film not to miss. First because it’s a love story about mature adults, second because it’s got such super actors as Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin and third, because a good romantic comedy is a rare thing. But director Nancy Meyers is an expert at the entertaining ones – such as What Women Want and Something’s Gotta’ Give. It’s a delight for the eyes and for many a belly laugh and it all makes giddy sense until the ending, which I personally did not like. But that’s only me – you and others may well think it should end in such a modern, egalitarian way….

Neptune Ingwersen

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