Berlinale Journal, Day 7
February 14th, 2008
I’m is happy to report that Madonna’s directorial debut Filth and Wisdom, premiering at the Berlin Film Festival, isn’t bad at all. Eugene Hutz of the gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello stars as a struggling London musician. Also, Antonio Luigi Grimaldi’s moving comedy of grief Quiet Chaos, Robert Guediguian’s misfire Lady Jane, and Naoko Ogigami’s lovely Megune (Glasses).
Berlinale Journal: Day 1
February 7th, 2008
Eleven days, five hundred movies, Madonna, Marty, and the Rolling Stones. Never mind Cloverfield: freshly arrived in Berlin for the 58th International Film Festival, Jürgen figures out that the real monster is the cuddly red bear that serves as its logo.
Frantic
February 21st, 2007
Over the years, Roman Polanski’s culture shock thriller has acquired an additional level of disorientation: Harrison Ford gets lost in Paris, and the movie gets lost in the Eighties. Emmanuelle Seigner plays a greedy drug mule in Madonna duds, and together they’re desperately seeking Betty Buckley. Narrative and film grammar have grown a lot tauter since 1988, so the title doesn’t quite ring true anymore, and the terrorists aren’t nearly menacing enough. Anybody who’s ever suffered the indignities of consulates and embassies will thoroughly enjoy Polanski’s jabs at American bureaucracy. Achtung cinephiles: the region 1 DVD is pan-and-scan.
Frantic. Roman Polanski, 1988. ***
[tags]film, 3 stars, roman polanski, paris, harrison ford, emmanuelle seigner, betty buckley, eighties, pan-and-scan, bureaucracy, america, madonna[/tags]
