Caught the MoMA Film Society screening of this, followed by a 15 minute video interview with Pintilie. Pretty amazing insights into the film delivered by him following a stunning ending, which he put in the context of Kundera's theory of the novel. Can't wait to find more Pintilie.

My second Claire Denis (Beau Travail was the first) and she continues to impress and amaze.

A great antidote to the maudlin treacle of Goodbye Mr. Chips. Redgrave at his understated best.

Finally watched "Z." finest political thriller I've ever seen.

Seriously strange Greek film. Like a weird child psych experiment gone very wrong.

Melville is the man and the Signoret is the woman.

One of the most carefully composed pieces of painting rendered through film I have seen. Favorite shots: mother lying below the tree. Wind in the wheat. The final scene and the sound of the barking dog. Gorgeous stuff.

This may go down as the Coen's weirdest -- surpassing Barton Fink.

Agnes Moorehead is amazing as the spinster aunt, but as with any Orson Welles film, Orson Welles is the star here, lighting and setting interiors like no other, establishing shot set ups using mirrors, profiles, and sharp shadowed angles. As a period piece, and taken with the flashbacks of Citizen Kane, it reveals Welles' sentimentality for a pre-auto America. A great one based on the Booth Tarkington Novel.

Brutal but transcendent story of art among the philistines, grace and landscape, lust and love. Dumont owns northern France and strands his characters in landscapes made bleak by violence, lust, and materialism.

The sound work on this short is astonishing -- best wind susurration captured on film, the strange creaking collapsing sound -- and the shot of the three panels and the jungle beyond. I immediate watched Phantoms of Nabua again to remind me: http://apl.myzen.co.uk/films/by_date/2009/phantoms?hd=true

Disliked this. Morgsn Freeman seemed uncomfortable, the blsck/white security detail drama felt contrived, every underdog-sports-cliche was brought to bear, cloying soundtrack .... felt like a pile of politically correct poo adapted from the fscts. High point -- New Zealand All-Blacks performed the "hakaa" -- but you can see better ones on YouTube.

Three Monkeys, Nuri Bilge Ceylan's most recent film, is also his best written and dramatic -- foregoing the photographic magnificent of Climates and Distant for a taut, noirish script that paid homage to the prison tale of Dry Summer. Not to say there was not amazing cinematography, no one films a cloud-laden sky like Bilge, but the acting more than compensated. especially Hatice Aslan in the lead role of Hacer.

No Pather Panchali? The Apu Triliogy begins there .....

Freaked me out.

It's all about the faces and the landscapes. The faces disassociated from the action (the drummers on Armistice Day), the figures of the young men dwarfed in the distance by the plains of Flanders. The Life of Jesus captures the ennui of Flanders and the borderlands of northern France in the same pastel solitude mined by the Dardennes.

Klaus Kinski remains one of the best madmen in modern cinema. My Best Fiend says it all. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Best_Fiend

I have a crush on Ebru Ceylan ... and Turkey as a result of this film.

Whet my appetite for more Turkish film -- heading to Istanbul soon on business -- the antagonist Osman was deliciously nasty. Great restoration, glad this wasn't lost.

bit of a one-trick pony, but nevertheless the acting is fine and the premise is sound.

Banned in Massachusetts (where I live) I have finally seen this amazing documentary about Bridgewater State Hospital, a film banned in Massachusetts since its release in the late sixties. The photography and pacing prefigures the pacing and madness of Bela Tarr. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titicut_Follies

I liked it, went right to itunes and downloaded the essential Joy Division -- all in all a credible and very well done bio pic without any of the usual cliches because the story is indeed the ultimate rock n' roll cliche.

Another great Tarantino Table scene -- reminiscent of the Like a Virgin discussion in Reservoir Dogs -- but in France, with Nazis, playing a weird game of charades with pistols pointed at each other testicles ......

Okay, not a massive fan of Japanese horror, but this one transcend slasher/gore and went right for the internet thing. I dozed off a couple times -- so personal continuity was an issue.

The film work is very interesting, with one scene in particular of the two brothers sitting in the boat looking hand-tinted. The key scene on the island tower is a great piece of misdirection. Fine acting, gorgeous cinematography, a great example of modern Russian film. Anyone know where it was shot?.

Some high humor -- dancehall scene with soldier hiding his wedding ring; parents and son in bed together. But ultimately a sad tale for Andula.

Felt like a series of television commercials to me.

This one freaked me out. Utterly freaked me out. When Arno Frisch reaches for the remote and rewinds the movie .... Best horror flick in a long time -- total genre bender.

Wow. The marching mob scene, all done in one shot, as they invade the hospital and beat the patients, ending with the sight of a shriveled naked old man standing in a tub .... unbelievable in all its power. I am trying to wrap my head around the whale and not getting anywhere -- except maybe it represents the Austro-Hungarian empire, dead and stuffed with a prince lurking around the corner.

The bell-casting scene at the conclusion is the most powerful celebration of art I have seen on film. A stunning film from end to end.