Film Reviews by CH

Generally I’m not happy unless squinting at subtitled World cinema category.( see previous reviews). But this film is a rare exception to my rule, as it is Anglophone and is an excellent film. If you want to know what it is about you can read other reviewers, as they will tell you the storyline. But I will sum up, there is an element of equine horror (which may well be a metaphor for the the finanancial horror of 1980’s) that seems to symbolise the watershed of the story.

These days Denmark keeps a quiet profile. Apart from a few grisly TV cop series and Mads Mikkelson we hear very little about the machinations of those Scandi flat lands. So this film fills in a few gaps between Macbeth and The Bridge. Like any Bluebloods there will be weak indifferent Kings, with madness thrown in for good measure. And the men that guide or befriend those Kings will find themselves in the rising deep waters of political tides.

I watched this beautiful film many years ago on Paradiso and have it back on my list. All the dark themes of ancient fairy stories are here, of being cast out and lost, being unloved and lonely, being deceived, and betrayed. And yet there, in a dark corner is that small glittering light. It is hope. If hope can keep a feeble flame burning maybe things will work out. Maybe, and we can all live happily ever after. Maybe.

Having had a wretched relationship with my own mother who was plagued with religious demons, leaving home at 18 (and never returning home) was the best thing I ever did. This film reawakened those on screen emotional exorcisms we witness (and the fact that Ingrid Bergman looked like my own mother made uncanny viewing for me.) This review therefore cannot be a dispassionate critique of Autumn sonata nor a truly valid star rating. And as an post script I will also add that I am a professional classical musician with two adult daughters. Plus ca change etc.

A heartbreaker of a Turkish film, and one of the very best I have watched within the last six months. The feisty youngest sister of four older girls, rebels against a conservative rural upbringing she sees being inflicted upon her and her sisters (who have recently moved from a city suburb to an isolated uncles house after the death of a parent.) There are very dark undertones and implications to the film but they are dealt with sensitively and with enough humour to give this gem of modern Turkish cinema a 5 star rating. Recommend it highly

This film deceives the viewer with a bland opening, a rural Italian idyll for 2 recently orphaned German speaking sisters. They are soon running wild with the local children, climbing trees, swimming in rivers, and discovering the facts of life from a household servant’s amorous trysts with a local soldier. Storm clouds are gathering over Europe and a visiting Catholic priest warns the family that they will need to leave and go into hiding as the Germans are coming across the border and will requisition their house for troops. As this is based upon a true story it is almost impossible to judge the film critically and give it a rating. So let’s say it has to be 5stars because ultimately the film is the true and tragic fate of just one family in WW2 buried somewhere outside Florence.

‘The mind has mountains, sheer cliffs of fall.’ We live our lives, seemingly rewarded by the smiling will of unknown gods. But equally these gewgaw trinkets of status and success can be snatched away and the demons and dark forces of nightmares move in to torment, mock and haunt us on that descent into the the abyss. 

You won''t need any persuading that this is the greatest screen adaptation of War and Peace. The Russian government threw vast sums of money at the 1960's production of this Tolstoy epic in a move to eclipse the 1950's American version. The troubled relations between feudal Czarist Russia, divisive European Emperors and the upstart adventurer Napolean Bonaparte form the backdrop of War and Peace. If you don't have time to read Tolstoy's great book then watch this poignant masterpiece instead.

An early, fast paced film from Jean Renoir......a homage to American cinema? Whilst undoubtedly a French language film, the style is early Hollywood featuring a bottle blonde who kicks ass when it needs to be kicked, runs a laundry and even breaks into a high warbling song worthy of Edith Piaf. As a previous reviewer has bluntly stated, the charms of this film would be lost on younger audiences.... Monsieur Lange has it's devotees, but they are more likely to be found amongst french film afficionados who are able to place it within the historic and political context of the 1930's.

An early, fast paced film from Jean Renoir......a homage to American cinema? Whilst undoubtedly a French language film, the style is early Hollywood featuring a bottle blonde who kicks ass when it needs to be kicked, runs a laundry and even breaks into a high warbling song worthy of Edith Piaf. As a previous reviewer has bluntly stated, the charms of this film would be lost on younger audiences.... Monsieur Lange has it's devotees, but they are more likely to be found amongst french film afficionados who are able to place it within the historic and political context of the 1930's.

There is a rift between those who claim this film to be the sublime pinnacle of Iranian Abbas Kiarostami's film making and those who wait in vain for the slow burn plot to weave meaningful threads or at least hint at cathartic redemption. Mr Badii cruises the streets of Tehran like a punter in search of young unemployed men. He interrogates them with a confident yet unsettling intensity and is initially vague about the nature of his proposed employment opportunity for these young men. One boy unnerved by his persistence threatens violence and a doe eyed young soldier takes fright at the bizzare requests, as they drive across a wasteland on the periphery of the city he jumps out and flees. Badiis quest for death becomes almost banal as one after the other finds a reason not to assist him in his search for an accomplice.

Maybe I'm not the best person to review Secret in their eyes. It's the second time I have rented it, but I wanted to give it that second chance and knew this was a film my partner would enjoy. I was right.....he did.....all the nuances and twists and turns that I had missed ( both times) he praised highly. All I could think is, who would spot, from a previously seen photo, the murder suspect in a football stadium of thousands of roaring, scarf waving fans? I had just watched Nine Queens, another Argentinian film which is a sparky clever masterpiece of entertainment. No comparison at all to the rather dark, existentially morose (and occasionally slushy) Secret. I accept that thousands won't agree....so don't let me put you off renting it.

A devastating Russian film that I have borrowed twice already from Paradiso and I recommend it to anyone new to Russian films. It is a masterpiece, a tense, dark tale about two young brothers trying to make sense of the sudden reappearance of a man claiming to be their father. They must learn to accommodate him, but he is an awkward piece in this family's jigsaw. Is the expedition he has planned for the boys, for them or for himself?

Absolutely top class 1970's series......throughout this Covid Lockdown debacle we have rationed ourselves to one episode per night....ravishing film making (with actors well known to anyone old enough to remember the 1970's.) We all know about Darwin and the Galapagos islands but this BBC series delves deep into Darwin's diaries and accounts of the 3 years aboard the ship Beagle. Apparently this big budget series nearly crippled the BBC. Highly recommended.

Louis Roi de Soleil, once flamboyant King retreats to his Royal death bed after a long glorious reign. He is now surrounded by erstwhile doctors, surgeons, homeopaths, flunkeys, lawyers with papers to be signed, military strategists with ships to commission, engineers with bridges to build, bishops, cardinals, courtiers, wives, mistresses, Louis unwinds his halting mortal coil (once demanding chicken broth before sinking back to the business of passing onto the next life)