Movie Magazine International Blog

By Monica Sullivan It was the last Saturday night in November, 1933, exactly one month before Christmas.  The body of one of the best and brightest young men in San Jose had just been found and his two confessed killers were in jail, awaiting trial.  Only there was no trial.  The town's angry citizens tried and executed the defendants that night and California governor Sunny Jim Rolph praised their actions as he justified his own decision not to send in additional protection for the prisoners.  This may sound like the plot for more than one movie, and it has, in fact, been filmed at least twice before.  (German emigre director Fritz Lang first chose the story for his 1936 American film debut, "Fury")  The San Jose lynching of 1933 was never interpreted better than by the soon-to-be-blacklisted director Cy Endfield in 1950.   "Try and Get Me" is a little-known film noir classic, focusing on Frank Lovejoy as an ordinary man with no money and no p...

By Monica Sullivan If you enjoyed Jeremy Irons' performance in Barbet Schroeder's vastly overrated "Rcversal of Fortune", or even if you didn't, you might enjoy seeing him in "A Chorus of Disapproval", directed by Michael Winner.  Michael Winner began his career in 1957 by directing "This Is Belgium".  Strapped for funds, he shot much of the travelogue in the British suburban town of East Grinstead.  He achieved fame and fortune with the American-made "Death Wish" movies, but his early work on films like "The Jokers" and "I'll Never Forget What's 'is Name" reveal a remarkable feeling for sharp satire that he seldom exploits.   Winner was a good choice to direct Sir Alan Ayckbourn's "A Chorus of Disapproval", a charming satire about the antics of an amateur suburban theatrical troupe.  Like many other Ayckbourn works, including "The Norman Conquests", the satire is in-hous...

Monica Sullivan Imagine that you started grade school with some really cute kids almost half a century ago.  Over the years, at regular intervals, the kids kept you up to date on their lives: they stopped being cute in their teens, they got married, they had kids, they got divorced, they got back together again or they fell for someone else.  Their parents got sick and/or died, they changed professions, they lost their confidence, they cheated on their spouses and everyone including the kids and grandkids were furious about it.  All these details, unredeemed by insight or literary shadings, are the foundations of gossip. I loved "28 Up" when it came out.  It was directed by Michael Apted when he was 42 and his impressions of the kids were very different.  He’s 71 now and rightfully proud of the series despite the inevitable law of diminishing returns.  A 56 year old pensioner is just not as gripping as kids and young adults with their entire futures ahe...

By Purple The Rabbi's Cat which opens this Friday at Landmark's Embarcadero cinema in San Francisco,  offers an eye-pleasing cinematic escape to enjoy as we embark into the new year.  The Rabbi's Cat is a French film, with English subtitles, and is based on a graphic novel created by the writer and co-director Joann Sfar who blends mediums to deliver the Rabbi's Cat to the screen. The printed material translates well, and the leap from panels on pages into its animated counterpart is remarkable. The Rabbi's Cat stays true to its origins as the hand drawn look and feel occasionally layered onto 3D models adds a nice sophistication and depth to the scenes. The film is set in Algiers in the 1930's and is told from the perspective of an unnamed feline, who develops the ability to talk with humans after a house pet parrot suspiciously goes missing under the cats watchful eye.  As someone with cat-brain myself, I can verify that The Rabbi's Cat does an excel...

By Moira Sullivan Rachel Mwanza (center) ,  best actress at Berlin Film Festival It’s Oscar deliberation time and the 10th Annual "For Your Consideration: a Selection of Oscar Submissions from around the World" will be featured in an exclusive San Francisco Bay Area series of 14 films from 14 countries for the 2012 Best Foreign Language Film.  Of 71 films sent to the Academy as the best film of each country, this special event has selected some of the best of the competition. The event will be held Jan 11 - 17, 2013 at the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael, CA. I have seen three of the contenders, two of which have made the short list: The first is ‘War Witch’ (Rebelle) by Kim Nguyen from Canada It is the story of a 12-year-old girl who is abducted by a rebel army. Two years later she is with child from the commander who believes she has special powers and knows when the enemy is near. For this she is called a witch. Rachel Mwanza won the...

By Moira Sullivan Fernando Rey and Catherine Deneuve in 'Tristana' Luis Buñuel's   Tristana is a classic film made in 1970 that helped make Catherine Deneuve one of the best paid and most mythologized actresses in the world. But for her character she has to endure being molested by her guardian, her mother’s husband, Don Lope Garrido ( Fernando Rey ) who is 25 years older than her. She  later becomes his common law wife. The film is beautifully made with magnificent art direction and a provocative script but it is hard to tune out the message of the film of the sexual bondage of this young woman. This is not the first time Deneuve played sexually twisted characters such as the film that made her famous,  also directed by  Luis Buñuel, about  the daytime prostitute called   Belle du Jour  in the film by the same name (1967); and a woman who is so disgusted by men that she winds up killing one who has fallen in love with her in Roman Po...

By Moira Sullivan In 1989 a white woman was brutally assaulted and raped while jogging in Central Park.  Five teenage African American were arrested and charged with the crime.  They were picked up for being among a street gang of about 25 young black and brown men that had assaulted joggers and pedestrians in the park that night in a violent male ritual called “wilding”.  The five teens appear in the documentary –Antron McCray (who chose to only use his voice to protect his anonymity), Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Korey Wise and Yusef Salaam.  The crime received tremendous media attention, and the investigation seized the teens and tried to piece the story together and make it fit with the presence of the young men in the park. The accused were racially profiled and upon conviction spent time in prison from 6 to 13 years despite conflicting testimony and lack of DNA evidence. In testimony the teenagers admitted to the crime but later sai...

By Moira Sullivan We seldom hear about heroic women in film who are superheroes , even though there are countless examples, such as Lucy Lawless as Xena Warrior Princess, Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2, Milla Jovovich as Alice in Resident Evil and what comes to mind most often --- Wonder Woman.   Kristy Guevara-Flanagan looks at this phenomena in WONDERWOMEN! The Untold Story of American Superheroines and wonders why there are not more. To answer this question she traces the origin of the comic book in the late 30’s and the great depression when people needed heroes. Feminist Gloria Steinem, who is interviewed in the documentary, declares that Wonder Woman was the only game in town. And she is the first , and has survived 70 years. In 1941 William Moulton Marston created an Amazon princess goddess for a comic book company and Wonder Woman became an overnight success. In fact she became so natural that it was not unusual to envision that within a 100 years, a matriarch...

By Moira Sullivan Holy Motors was presented in the official selection at  Cannes in May, and was probably the most innovative film in the competition. It caused a lot of discussion and was loved by those who appreciate art cinema and made those expecting a film that follows the conventions of classical narratives uncomfortable.  However the unusual film that focuses on identity is a cinematic rarity. Leos Carax' dystopia is set in Paris and is about a man whose everyday job involves acting out the various identities of a variety of people. In the initial scene morning, Monsieur Oscar ( Denis Lavant) , is a middle-aged businessman, picked up in a white stretch limo. He lives in a beautiful mansion and is chauffeured by Céline ( Eva Scob ) all day. On his seat is a notebook with his second job. In a traditional narrative since the setting is established we would be pulled into the identity of the characters and lifestyle of our lead. The businessman turn...

By Moira Sullivan The Bad Bond Girl - Sévérine -  Bérénice-Lim Marlone Judi Dench called James Bond  a “misogynist dinosaur” and “relic of the Cold war” – in her debut opposite Pierce Brosnan ’s Bond in GoldenEye . In Skyfall this antagonism continues. According to "M", “orphaned children make the best agents”, and in this film she winds up becoming more of a maternal symbol than ever. Not exactly what you expected but this is Judi Dench ’s last Bond film. Sam Mende s is the mastermind behind Skyfall who has crafted a brilliantly entertaining film. In the opening scene James Bond is in hot pursuit of a French rogue named Patrice ( Ola Rapace ). The  M16 agent Eve played by Naomi Harris is ordered by M to take aim at Patrice even while he struggles with Bond on the top of a moving train. The rogue gets away and Bond takes a bullet. Later we learn that Patrice works for a master hacker who sets off bombs triggered by remote programming. M is tar...