A week at the cinema
Apr. 30th, 2008 05:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chaniIn the past 7 days I saw 3 films. Unfortunately none of them was a masterpiece.
On Tursday I saw Lemon Tree an Israeli film about a Palestinian widow, Salma Zidane, who lives at the border between Israel and Cisjordan. She owns an orchad of lemon trees which was her father's and she inherited. The lemon trees have a sentimental value and help her to make a living. One day the new Defence Minister, Isreal Navon, becomes her neighbour. Soon the secret service decides that the orchad is a threat because terrorists might hide in there...The lemon trees must be uprooted! Salma refuses to submit and decides to sue the Minister. Meanwhile Mira Navon, the Defence minister's wife, trapped in her new home and in an unhappy life, is watching the lemon grove and an invisible bond seems to develop between tghe two woemn.
It's a nice movie from the director who had made The Syrian Bride, Eran Riklis. The woman who plays the lead is gorgeous and has a great screen presence; the guy who plays her lawyer is charming; the lemon grove is filmed in a poetic way.
The film doesn't try to make a statement on the Palestinian issue (even though the wall of shame is showed !). At the end of the day it's a beautiful portrait of a Palestinian lady. Definitely worth seeing.
It's a nice movie from the director who had made The Syrian Bride, Eran Riklis. The woman who plays the lead is gorgeous and has a great screen presence; the guy who plays her lawyer is charming; the lemon grove is filmed in a poetic way.
The film doesn't try to make a statement on the Palestinian issue (even though the wall of shame is showed !). At the end of the day it's a beautiful portrait of a Palestinian lady. Definitely worth seeing.
On Saturday I saw Leatherheads which turned out to be entertaining even though it's far from being Clooney's best movie. I guess he had fun making it. It takes place in the 20's, in the world of American football, and it 's mostly a string of gags. Sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's too much heavy. Clooney overplays and simpers even more than Renée Zellweger. Honestly I couldn't have gone without seeing it but I didn't expect much of it so I can't tell I was disappointed.
Yesterday I saw [REC] , a horror/terror film that looks a bit like The Blairwitch Project, since everything is seen through the camera, in a false documentary style. I must say that seeing it wasn't my idea. S. wanted to see Funny Games U.S (because of Naomi Watts) but I told him "no". I used my veto for two reasons:
Firstly I had seen the original Funny Games and I didn't see the point of watching the same movie remade by the same director but this time with famous Hollywood actors. Secondly I don't like Michael Haneke's films. He makes stuff only for shocking value. I disliked The Pianist, starring Isabelle Huppert, for instance.
So having already used my veto for that film, I couldn't use it again for [REC]. Besides I was a bit curious about it.
A young journalist and her cameraman are watching and interviewing firemen for a tv report. It's dull and boring in the fire station until a call comes in to help a strange old lady locked in her apartment...The tv crew follows two firemen into an ordinary building and then the nightmare begins.
I don't want to spoil anyone but at some point I wondered if the director sgot inspired by the Reavers from Serenity.
It was well done but I can't say I was really scared, and many things were predictable (I jumped off my seat once or twice that's all) as if the film pulled all the genre strings and clichés. It was short but I couldn't wait for the movie to end. It wasn't that bad, there was some good stuff here and there, but it was trying. The rushed hysteria, the shaky camera and the screamings...it gave me a headache.
Firstly I had seen the original Funny Games and I didn't see the point of watching the same movie remade by the same director but this time with famous Hollywood actors. Secondly I don't like Michael Haneke's films. He makes stuff only for shocking value. I disliked The Pianist, starring Isabelle Huppert, for instance.
So having already used my veto for that film, I couldn't use it again for [REC]. Besides I was a bit curious about it.
A young journalist and her cameraman are watching and interviewing firemen for a tv report. It's dull and boring in the fire station until a call comes in to help a strange old lady locked in her apartment...The tv crew follows two firemen into an ordinary building and then the nightmare begins.
I don't want to spoil anyone but at some point I wondered if the director sgot inspired by the Reavers from Serenity.
It was well done but I can't say I was really scared, and many things were predictable (I jumped off my seat once or twice that's all) as if the film pulled all the genre strings and clichés. It was short but I couldn't wait for the movie to end. It wasn't that bad, there was some good stuff here and there, but it was trying. The rushed hysteria, the shaky camera and the screamings...it gave me a headache.
