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Showing posts from March, 2022

"Mothering Sunday" featured at Cannes Premiere section 2021

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By Moira Jean Sullivan Eva Husson has presented films twice at the Cannes Film Festival -- Girls of the Sun in the official selection in 2018 and Mothering Sunday included in the Cannes Premiere Section of the 74th Festival de Cannes in May. It is an extraordinarily well-crafted film with a provocative narrative structure, based on the novel by Graham Swift, recipient of the British Hawthorndon literary award. The film begins with shots of three young boys; two are children of the Nivens and who died in World War I . The third child is Paul Sheringham, the only survivor and what remains of the Nivens' and Sheringhams' bond. The slow motion of a galloping horse sets the stage for the milestones in Jane Fairchild’s life that she feels set her on the path of becoming a writer, including being given a Paxton typewriter. The pace of the film provides the opportunity to contemplate the sumptuous imagery. In discontinuous continuity the story telling enfold showing time in

Julie Delpy directs 15th century Hungarian serial murderer 'The Countess'

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By Moira Jean Sullivan One of the parallel sections of the 44th Créteil International Women Film Festival this year (March 11-20) was a history of directors in different genres of cinema made by women. This included short film programs with directors such as Germaine Dulac, Lois Weber, Maya Deren, and Ida Lupino. Also of interest was the horror genre and several exceptional horror films were presented including The Countess from 2009 made by French actress and director Julie Delpy, an historical film about the life of the Hungarian countess Erszebet Bathory. It is not often that a horror film is made with such rich detail as this film about a woman who was afraid of aging and who used the blood of young female virgins to keep herself forever young. She falls in love with the young son of Count György Thurzó (William Hurt) - Istvan, (Daniel Bruhl). The Count prevents him from meeting the Hungarian Comtesse who is to be married to the daughter of a wealthy Danish merchant. Erz