News & Notes

Pietà by South Korean Kim Ki-duk. A powerful film, well made about an enforcer of loans to small workshops in Seoul. Many twists of the tale, but it really prompts the question, like the Japanese gangster film - how many limbs do you need to see being cut off to get...

Outrage Beyond, Japan, Takeshi Kitano, director & main actor, gangster movie in Tokyo, action packed & at times violent, the Godfather style, the only film so far which Anna & disagree on. Rating: 8/10. Apres Mai, French by Olivier Assayas, set in late...

Fill the Void, Israeli, by Rama Burshtein, simple story based in Hassadic family in Tel Aviv about the marriage of a younger daughter, one of those surprises when you see a good film having had low expectations. Rating: 7/10. To the Wonder, USA by Terrance Malick, the...

È Stato il Figlio, Italian, by Daniele Cipri, "home game", big ovation, story of hard up family in Palermo Sicilly, shades of Tornatore, well made, funny & sad, really liked it. Rating: 8/10. The Master, USA, by Paul Thomas Anderson, one of the biggies, with...

Paradies/Glaube, Austrian, Ulrich Seidl, always controversial filmaker, a middleaged lady who refinds her Christian faith & becomes obsessive, complicated by the reappearance of her wheelchair bound Muslim husband. I fell asleep for a while, it really divided...

Izmena, Betrayal, by Russian Kirill Serebrennikov, a modern day drama of two couples, infidelity. A dramatic Hitchcock style thriller, popular, "on the edge of the seat". Rating: 7/10. Superstar, French by Xavier Giannoli, similar to the part in Woody Allen's To Rome...

Medici con l'Africa, documentary by a Venetian, Carlo Mazzacurati, about doctors via a Catholic organisation in Padova & interviews with the many Italian doctors who have gone there for a month or 30 years. Moving, well balanced & a long standing ovation. Not...