NinadeL

Season 3 of Outlander continues to be the most exciting. We follow several storylines in turn, 20 years of Jamie's life after the Battle of Culloden on April 16, 1746, and 20 years of Claire and her daughter Brianna's life up to 1968. They also make room to tell Frank's story. The material is endless, pop culture references follow one after the other, and Diana Gabaldon adds to the number of pages as her saga grows. However, the pace of the plot twists and turns from Scotland to America becomes more and more absurd in its gradation, with Claire and Jamie losing each other, finding each other, dying for each other, and, of course, having very active sex in between. Gone is the magic of the original theme, and with the return of Geillis, they've managed to add horror in a similarly blood-bathing fashion alongside the sci-fi storyline. The next season with the main theme of a family reunion will again be strong stuff.

Unfortunately, Fanney Khan is just another Indian remake, this time of an Oscar-nominated Belgian-Dutch-French co-production, but looking at the subject matter, it's clear that it was the perfect material for Anil Kapoor. As a poor nobody, he dreams of great fame for his daughter (i.e., Fanney Khan is not a personal name but the designation of a naive dreamer, much like Tees Maar Khan is someone who pretends to be tough when he is not). Unfortunately, his daughter may be named Lata after the legendary Lata Mangeshkar, but she would love to sing pop in talent competitions, which doesn't work because she is obese. The very attractive and successful singer Baby Singh (played brilliantly and hilariously by the gorgeous Aishwarya Rai Bachchan) gets involved in this quest for fame, and the road to the reality show India ki Awaaz is suddenly very close. Nevertheless, the sensitive comedy has socially critical themes, the theme of terrorism and the uncovering of the glitter of superficial consumer culture, but it all holds together only thanks to the soulful Kapoor. He so beautifully experiences his daughter's journey to the top and his emotion is so strong that one would like to forgive him for everything. His place in Indian films will not be replaced by anyone else for a long time. Humanity is absolutely palpable in his interpretation and that is a dimension of acting that everyone should cherish.

Karan Johar is very kitsch. Yet his films are perfectly polished and executed, and that also works for him with the broadest of classes. His characters aren't just flat, they're not just heroes and heroines who go from point a to point b exactly as planned. Nowadays, even Karan Johar can make fun of himself and especially of genre Bollywood films. He has the darling Ranbir Kapoor, an absolute idol of the last decade, and the lovely Anushka Sharma as his sidekick, both critics' and audience favorites and regular Filmfare nominees. Finally, in a supporting but not insignificant role, we have the goddess Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, as a divorced poet living in Vienna. Is there anything else you're missing? Yes, the scene of Ranbir and Aish meeting SRK is an absolute highlight. It really only takes one scene for him to win over the crowds, and I can still feel the butterflies in my stomach now. What charisma! The west should learn from this work with a star :) So, yes, in the beginning, there was a flamboyant youth lost in European capitals, after London came Paris and Vienna, and the Tyrol mountains were there as well. It's nice to see the development, by the way, 20 years ago Indian filmmakers didn't care if they were in Italy and pretended to be in Hungary, today they are better at Europe. For seasoned viewers, O Heart, It Is Difficult is an obvious choice, while newcomers have a chance to see a fairly representative star-studded experience. Fans of Aish are of course in seventh heaven and enjoy the video for Bulley's song in particular.

So how is Matt Groening's new series? Different. It's not The Simpsons or Futurama, and it's actually a medieval satire for Netflix. Is a princess who ran away from the altar, her personal demon, and an elf really going to carry the whole series? Although the animation quality is great, the humor is far from being for everyone.

For lovers of chapters from the history of Czech film, this is an absolute joy. Gajer's The Smiling Country is exactly halfway between The Village Revolt and Holiday with Angel. Learning and celebrating from the early years of the United Agricultural Cooperative has never been such a lovely affair before or since. Otomar Korbelář’s wise and friendly chairman in the lead role gives the impression that the old order is long behind us. After all, it is so easy to fill the acting ensemble with just figures of all those village types that our dear chairman can handle so playfully. All of them will eventually understand that only the United Agricultural Cooperative is the right path forward. Even the former gossips will understand this, and only Baldinka remains plays a villain because she would rather gossip and not build. If Czechs have always counted only from 1943, they don't look at work, but only at money... The motif of young love, the collective forgiveness of the widow of a resistance fighter who fell at the radio station, fits in quite naturally. It's simply unforgivable how many films like The Smiling Country are still unavailable to the general public. Because only if all the films are available can there be justice. Critical thinking cannot be learned from brief scripts; films must first be seen.

Is Lisbeth Salander the most interesting European heroine of the last decade? Maybe she is and maybe she isn't. However, watching all the attempts to adapt her stories for so many years is quite an ordeal. Noomi Rapace had the trilogy and the series, while Rooney Mara unfortunately only had the American remake of the first part, and now Claire Foy is here with the fourth (!) part. The fact that Hollywood doesn't have a second and third part is pretty funny. Personally, I'm even more amused by the fact that in Noomi Rapace's time Claire Foy was known only as Dickens' Amy Dorrit, which really doesn't make for any consistent career work. So what's next? Will there be a next time? And will any other actresses who are just now creating classic series on the BBC be starring in the fifth series? It would be magical because I long ago stopped believing in the pluses Millennium could offer anyway. And yet the potential of this material is so great.

I'm very glad that Aishwarya Rai Bachchan's second career is not built only on likable films. After proving that she is back in form with the thriller Passion, she made the drama Sarbjit based on true events and thus received another Filmfare nomination, her eleventh in a row. A drama about the India-Pakistan conflict, it follows the story of the family of Sarabjit Singh, who through a series of unfortunate events is sent from a Punjabi village to a Pakistani jail under the identity of a terrorist. His sister (Aishwarya Rai) and his wife (Richa Chadha) are the protagonists. The film doesn't celebrate an improbable happy ending; instead, it speaks to an unresolved issue after 23 years of hardship and disappointment. Only a small portion of the thousands of detainees being tortured on both sides of the Punjab border have any prospect of being freed. Sarbjit is a film that should not be ignored by anyone who still thinks that the whole of cinematic India is just dancing. In Pakistani cinema, films have dealt with a similar theme: In the Name of God (2007), Ramchand: The Untouchable Pakistani (2008) or Bol (2011). Compared to these films, the message of humanism is just as important, but Sarbjit is also made much more professionally.

Post-apocalyptic AHS? That might not be such a bad idea. We also get to see connections with Murder House, Coven, and Hotel, we are reminded of characters and actors we haven't seen in years (yes, Jessica Lange is back, Emma Roberts is fabulous, as are Taissa Farmiga, Lily Rabe, Frances Conroy)... One of the new guests is the immortal Joan Collins, who manages to surprise all those who thought that actresses belong in a retirement home after their 80th birthday. Yes, I watched the continuation of old plots with interest, but the whole thing was very tiresome. I don't like when sci-fi is mixed with horror. The last three seasons have gotten very out of hand and I really don't appreciate more experimentation. Perhaps a return to Freak Show? But there are no more holes in the story. Or maybe Asylum? God forbid.

Yes, it's light on themes and the premise is somewhere else entirely, but I certainly didn't suffer watching the pilot. Lesley-Ann Brandt is now playing the part she has been longing for since leaving Spartacus. Unfortunately, despite all the pros, we get all the cons that go along with the "case of the week" phenomenon. It's an enjoyable series, but you always have to ignore the +- 20 minutes of necessary crime stories to hold it all together.

I really like the development of Julius Ševčík's loose retro trilogy, Normal the Düsseldorf Ripper, A Prominent Patient, and The Affair. I didn't believe in him at first, but few people perceive the period atmosphere in such a high aesthetic quality. Anyone who is going just to see another Roden film will be disappointed, and anyone who doesn't understand that this is an adaptation of fiction from the pen of Simon Mawer will also be disappointed. But everyone else can have a truly extraordinary sensory experience. The idea of following a lesbian romance against the backdrop of the fate of a functionalist villa is simply beautiful. Hanna Alström and Carice van Houten are literally beautiful in their contrasting roles. I will gladly return to the emotions and images of this film.