gudaulin

A war epic with a generous budget featuring beautiful exteriors, crowd scenes, and set in the unexplored cinematic landscape of a war conflict in the Far East. However, it suffers from several drawbacks, such as sentimentality, nationalism, and insufficient distance from the subject. The war, as portrayed by the director, is about heroism and dying in traditional samurai style, rather than about the brutality and tragedies that inevitably come with it. Overall impression: 50%.

This was my first encounter with Norwegian cinema and what an amazing film it was. A black comedy filled with imperfect anti-heroes, lots of troubles and mistakes, all set in an equally imperfect, not very functional environment. A typical European black comedy with a crime subplot. A film that doesn't provoke uproarious laughter, but one that a film enthusiast will remember many times. Very good cast, it's just a pity that one rarely comes across these actors. Overall impression: 85%.

When reviewing El Mariachi, it is necessary to take into account the fact that it is an ultra-cheap debut shot for literally a few thousand dollars. It is an independent film that is not influenced by studio interference or any creative compromises. In his later films, Robert Rodriguez developed motifs that he hinted at in his first work, and even though they were supported by a decent budget and the presence of movie stars, it was a calculated affair that lacked the energy of Rodriguez's first film. I'm not a fan of the genre, but when it comes to evaluating Rodriguez's style, I prefer El Mariachi over his later works. He works well with genre clichés, and his parodic style suits me more than his later action thrillers. Overall impression: 60%.

If Shortbus had been made twenty years ago, I would have said that it is a bad film, but also that it attempts to push boundaries and break taboos. But it is the 21st century, and in cinema, we have become accustomed to practically anything, so I can focus on the content of the film, which is unfortunately desperately shallow. It is neither a generational statement (at least I think and hope not) nor a drama nor a comedy, and although Shortbus features all kinds of sexual acts and accumulates erotic aids to the point where they could fall off the screen or television, surprisingly, it does not come across as erotic. It may serve as a certain sexual instruction for the ignorant or those who know too little about human biology, but the erotic atmosphere is simply missing. Films like Quiet Days in Clichy did not pretend to be great art, but they depicted the bohemian society of their time in a quite spicy way. Shortbus is completely sterile in this regard. I did not find a single character to root for, to fear for, or to despise. And the characters are not unbelievable characters and situations either. The only thing that makes the characters interesting is a huge dose of immaturity, not only in their intimate lives. However, even this fact is unintentionally conveyed by the film and I do not believe it was the director's goal. I do not believe in the numerous sexual superstitions suffered by the characters of the film or its creators. Shortbus is a film either for sexual beginners or for those who try to find a message in everything and, with enough effort, succeed in doing so. Just like someone manages to find a black cat in a dark room even though it is not there at all. Overall impression: 25%. The film desperately lacks any conflict and catharsis, resulting in dysfunctional soft porn. If you don§t have a solid script, exhibitionism tends to be pointless...

If I had grown up in France and absorbed all the French hits and chansons that appear in the movie, my rating would probably be higher, but this way I mainly perceived a quite average script that plays with a banal love storyline. A decent cast, the pleasant atmosphere of Paris, and interesting characters with a lot of emotions and moods. Overall impression: 60%. Not particularly significant, but still a slightly above average French film.

From a formal point of view, it is a crystallized work, where Andrzej Wajda deals with the dark side of Polish history and describes the industrial production of strikers and heroes of socialist work. Content-wise, it is, of course, a film that reflects the time of its creation, namely the second half of the 70s, wherein Wajda evaluates recent history from the perspective of a reformist communist, so some motifs could have been even darker. The hero of the story, whom the viewer gets to know through archival materials, is a selfless idealist who takes excessively impractical positions, so even after the change in social climate, he does not want to benefit from his recent persecution and instead of accepting the offered position, he withdraws and is forgotten. Besides the well-constructed screenplay, one of the film's strengths is Krystyna Janda, the femme fatale of Polish cinema, who has appeared in several excellent Polish films. In Man of Marble, she creates a character that is a combination of Isabelle Huppert and Leni Riefenstahl. Overall impression: 80%. Unfortunately, the film is somewhat harmed by its drab ending, which somewhat diminishes the impact of its message.

The traditional theme of Claude Lelouch's films is the relationship between a man and a woman. Usually, it is a romantic relationship, but this time the director played out a game of emotions between a father and a daughter. It is a drama that sometimes balances on the edge of the comedy genre. A smuggler of stolen goods sends his daughter to a safe foreign asylum and has her raised in a strict boarding school for children from a better society. When the man returns from serving his sentence, he meets a completely unknown girl who is now part of the safe bourgeois environment, and the intertwining of their worlds naturally causes a lot of emotional problems and tragicomic situations. The film may not be one of the best that Lelouch has directed, but he can precisely balance sentiment, the crime genre, and comedic exaggeration, creating an exciting and visually pleasing film. I even swallowed the seemingly unbelievable prison escape without any protests. Overall impression: 80%. There may not be many catchphrases in it, but they are such that you will remember them for a long time to come.

There have been many films made about filmmaking and I can't remember all of them that I've ever seen. Therefore, I can't say whether Living in Oblivion is the best in its category, but I can confirm that it is one of the best. It has a good point, is well-acted and directed, and is a homage to the creators of the American independent film scene. With a series of pleasant and clever gags, the film maintains a light parodic exaggeration throughout and practically has no dull moments. The alternation of black and white and color sequences makes the film more interesting and keeps the one's attention. Among the actors, the traditionally excellent Steve Buscemi and the distinctive Catherine Keener stand out. Her terrifying portrayal of a premature ending to her career, as she tries to find a job as an unsuccessful actress at McDonald's, is one of the most enchanting scenes. A delightful film. Its biggest shortcoming is that it's too short. Overall impression: 95%.

Jaroslav Hašek's typically sarcastic and cutting humor is unfortunately diluted in the nonsensically stretched runtime of what is essentially a full-length TV movie. If it were a 40-minute production honoring the art of brevity, I would easily give it 4 stars. Hašek parodies both guaranteed recipes for anything and, above all, the small-town idyll of a happy life. Overall impression: 50%. Worth mentioning is one of the last (albeit unremarkable) roles of the legend of Czech cinema, Nataša Gollová.

731: Two Versions of Hell is a type of documentary where the impact of the message is based solely on commentary, delivered by a neutral voice, which is in sharp contrast to the emotionally charged content of the film. The visual part could be completely absent, as similar information could be conveyed by a slightly modified radio program. The chosen dual perspective is interesting, saying that with a sufficient degree of cynicism and demagogy, anything can be relativized and justified, including gas chambers and torture devices. The visual component is only complementary, where the lively Chinese city of the present forms a counterbalance to the ruins of a concentration camp and a factory for the production of biological weapons. My overall impression, considering the weak visual aspect, amounts to 60%. However, the chosen unconventional form and provocative interpretation of the same event from the perspective of two warring sides make this a film that should not go unnoticed.