Worth Seeing
[See discussion under “My Diary” for July 12, 2012]
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
A lovely and heart-felt film from the Chinese director, Chen Kaige, reminds us of what Hollywood used to do so well but does no more
Beaumarchais: The Scoundrel, directed by Edouard Molinaro from an unpublished play by Sacha Guitry has a Cyrano-like panache to it and is mostly quite enjoyable—though it is still worth remembering what Fabrice Luchini, in the title role, says to Manuel Blanc, the star-struck young Gudin who complains that the actors are pronouncing his words too…
“Beauty, artistry, and the very best in human innovation” — where are they to be found if not in a fashion magazine? — From American Greatness
A poor evocation of the Cold War, this movie redeems itself with a portrayal of men doing their best to cope with a colossal military screw-up.
A Friend of the Deceased (Un Ami du Défunt), a Franco-Ukrainian film directed by Vyacheslav Krishtofovich and written—in Russian—by Andrei Kourkov, has a very attractive premiss. Tolia (Alexandre Lazarev), a translator living in Kiev and living a hand-to-mouth, hustling sort of existence not untypical of life in the former Soviet Union, finds that his rather…
