the nun ( 2013 film )
completed a trio of nun films with agnes of god and almodóvar’s dark habits. i will need a break from further nun films for awhile .
james wan’s original 2013 film, which grossed $ 257 million worldwide on a budget of $ 6. 5 million, spawned the 2014 spinoff “annabelle” as well as the 2016 sequel “the conjuring 2. ”
sorrentino, p. “la mutazione italiana in pellicola”, la repubblica delle idee – 3, gruppo editoriale l’espresso, 2013, p. 13
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demian bichir will star in the upcoming “conjuring” spinoff “the nun, ” an individual with knowledge of the project told thewrap .
dog and wolf is an independent, online film review magazine bringing you the latest in world cinema and the best of the film festival .
last june, new line announced it would release “the nun, ” the latest spinoff from the supernatural horror series that began with “the conjuring. ”
huppert tempted me before it was too late! i didn’t know this was an adaptation of the same source material as rivette’s the nun. oh well .
founded in 1999, senses of cinema is one of the first online film journals of its kind and has set the standard for professional, high quality film - related content on the internet .
david denby has been a staff writer and film critic at the new yorker since 1998 .
upon watching la grande bellezza (the great beauty, 2013) by paolo sorrentino, the first two surfacing feelings are: what a stunning piece of work, and what a desperate country italy has become. the film is feast for the senses, a synaesthetic experience of visual images, words, and music that cannot shade, but rather highlights, the desolation of the world represented .
gardening with soul follows four seasons in the life of irresistible gardening nun sister loyola galvin. director jess feast (cowboys and communists) unearths sage gems from the nonagenarian on everything from compost to catholic church sex abuse scandals. the cycles of wellington’s weather are charted via its influence on loyola’s island bay garden, from the 2011 snow to flax - drunk tui. feast worked with editor annie collins to piece together a paean to a life lived with zest and compassion. soul won the best documentary at the 2013 moa (nz film) awards .
“the hallow” director corin hardy will direct the movie, written by gary dauberman and james wan. “the nun” will be produced by wan through his atomic monster label and peter safran .
in 18th century france, when a teenage girl is forced by her parents to become a nun, she rebels to try and regain her freedom .
the film is superbly shot. i loved pauline as suzanne and the period’s costumes. maybe a little too long .
but guillaume gallienne' s comedy les garcons et guillaume, a table! (me, myself and mum) bested both with 10 nominations. the family comedy from the first - time filmmaker gave a much - needed homegrown boost to the french box office late in 2013, which was mostly dominated by hollywood blockbusters .
measured and sensible, ‘the nun’ lacks the full - on claustrophobic horror of a film like ‘the magdalene sisters’ and moves through events at a matter - of - fact distance. but it’s shocking nonetheless, and there’s a pleasing no - frills tone to the whole enterprise as well as a convincing grasp of the rituals and beliefs of the age .
while plot details are being kept under wraps, bichir is set to play a priest named father burke who is dispatched by rome to investigate a mysterious death of a nun .
the first half was great, and i really felt for suzanne, but the second half dragged. the reason i wanted to see the film was isabelle huppert, but her half of the film was what ruined it as a whole. i haven' t read the novel, or seen the film from 1966, but maybe the editor really loves isabelle, so just lengthened her screen time considerably? the cinematography looked great, and the score by max richter was well done, just wish the film had lived up to the promise of its first half .
some criticize what they consider the film’s exaggerated sense of decline. riffing acerbically on the film’s reception, the critic mariarosa mancuso wrote in the pro - berlusconi newspaper il foglio: “it’s a kierkegaardian film. it’s a célinian film. it’s a faithful portrait of the eternal city. it’s a faithful portrait of italy today. ” she added: “federico fellini in ‘la dolce vita’ leaned on the balustrade to look down. today, there isn’t even a balustrade anymore; it’s collapsed, too. ”
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans. it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
released in 1991, daughters of the dust was the first feature film by an african - american woman to be distributed theatrically in the united states. in 2004, the library of congress selected it for preservation in the united states national film registry. it won awards for cinematography at the sundance film festival in 1991 and at the cascade festival of african films in 2005. ms. dash’s other works include: four women (1975), the diary of an african nun (1977), illusions (1982), incognito (1999), funny valentines (1999), love song (2000) and the rosa parks story (2002) .
a group of teenage girls are terrorized by sister ursula, a nun that believes she must rid the world of all sin. after sister ursula mysteriously disappears, the catholic school is shut... see full summary »
75 / 100 la religieuse (the nun) is a moving portrait of the cloistered life nuns lead at convents and the horrors they house by forcing regressive religious practices onto people who have no interest in them. based on denis diderot’s posthumously published novel of the same name, this adaptation by guillaume nicloux includes a few welcome changes that help to make the 1700s tale very relatable even in the 21st century. the nun beautifully captures the sense of entrapment felt by the nuns, many of whom enter service not out of willingness but out of desperate situations .
a young woman forced into becoming a nun by her family, and then the problems faced not only towards her by the congregation but her battle to get out of the place, not going as far as i would like it to go, certainly the last third could have been explored as a film itself. but its a decent enough effort and does do its job at a lot of points .
twenty - five years after its release, the movie adaptation of margaret atwood’s dystopian novel has been largely disremembered. is the book still too radical for film ?
carlotta fonzi kliemann is professor of film studies, dept. of humanities, social sciences & business, syracuse university in florence .
but for all the sturm und drang and whirling bits of plot and machinery, the sum of the film' s many moving parts does not add up to a greater whole .
the best film nominees include abdellatif kechiche' s blue is the warmest color, polanski' s venus in fur and asghar farhadi' s the past. the three filmmakers are also nominated in the best director category .
the ballad of narayama
is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice, telling a story of startling cruelty. what a space it opens…
crew: camera (color, hd), yves cape; editor, guy lecorne; music, max richter; production designer, olivier radot; set decorator, christophe offret; sound (dolby srd), olivier do huu, julie brenta, christian monheim; associate producer, gilles sitbon; assistant director, guy - william adoh; casting, brigitte moidon. reviewed at berlin film festival (competing), jan. 10, 2013. (in rendez - vous with french cinema, new york .) running time: 111 min .
in eighteenth - century france a girl (suzanne simonin) is forced against her will to take vows as a nun. three mothers superior (madame de moni, sister sainte - christine, and madame de... see full summary »
the film was an undeniable failure, grossing less than $ 5 million against a $ 13 million budget. its status as a catastrophe seems to have prevented any other producers from tackling new film or tv adaptations, even while the book continues to endure both as a model of speculative fiction and across a variety of artistic mediums. “the general characteristics of schlondorff’s adaptation could partly be put down to the necessity of a hollywood film, made to capture the interest of multitudes rather than that of film (or literature connoisseurs), ” writes nischik. but the 1990 film pleased neither atwood’s fans nor moviegoers, opting for a sensationalist, stylized rendition of religious fascism at work. since then, a number of atwood’s imaginings (themselves ripped from american history) have manifested in reality, prompting the question of what insight might be gained from a new, more faithful handmaid’s tale. still, it’s equally possible that, even 25 years later, neither audiences nor the film industry is ready yet .
debuted earlier this year at lincoln center and now on a national tour, the 21 - film series
masterpieces of polish cinema
bears stunning testament to the brilliance of not only one especially fecund national cinema but an entire era of moviemaking—call it the golden age of the art film. as martin scorsese, who curated the series and whose film foundation provided its pristine digital restorations, has remarked, the period it covers (roughly the ‘50s through the ‘70s) was one of extraordinary accomplishments in many parts of the cinematic world, a high - water mark that grows ever more dazzling in retrospect .
the film has been the talk of rome all summer. beyond debates about its merits, and its portrayal of the complicity of the left - wing elite in the country’s decline, responses have often reflected italy’s polarization over mr. berlusconi .
the same literary quality can be found in the film’s screenplay. sorrentino has stated, in a number of interviews, that “working with words” is much more complex than shooting a film. his fascination with literature has produced two novels: hanno tutti ragione (2010) and tony pagada e i suoi amici (2012) .
the real pleasure of germany’s sole competition entry gold, thomas arslans ’ otherwise underwhelming western, is watching the unbending determination of nina hoss as a german housemaid who throws herself into the adventure of the klondike gold rush. on the youth front, emerging belgian actress pauline etienne got strong notices as a rebellious abbess in guillaume nicloux ’s classy remake of diderot’s the nun .
the mfa brings together all your favorite french stars in this showcase of contemporary french cinema. discover
many sublime pleasures
( the boston globe) in
one of the finest french film festiva ...
reluctant young nun (pauline etienne) gets trapped in the faith in guillaume nicloux' s adaptation of the 18th - century novel by denis diderot. holy guidance comes from two mother superiors – one a master of
hiding all the thorns of religious life
, the other (played with a tight - lipped archness by isabelle huppert) eager to take her charge for a romp in the roses. diderot' s novel was intended as a practical joke – a compilation of letters he sent to a devout friend in the guise of a desperate nun looking to leave the sisterhood. huppert' s advances are nicloux giving the prank his blessing. this is dark but comedic, with plenty of frills beneath the habit .
it’s “get thee to a nunnery” for the protagonist of “the nun, ” guillaume nicloux’s plodding adaptation of diderot’s anti - clerical novel. if it weren’t for the luminous face of belgian actress pauline etienne (“restless”), who plays suzanne, the girl locked up in an 18th - century convent against her explicit will, the pic would be a snoozefest of [ … ]
it’s “get thee to a nunnery” for the protagonist of “the nun, ” guillaume nicloux’s plodding adaptation of diderot’s anti - clerical novel. if it weren’t for the luminous face of belgian actress pauline etienne (“restless”), who plays suzanne, the girl locked up in an 18th - century convent against her explicit will, the pic would be a snoozefest of epic proportions. isabelle huppert, as a lesbian mother superior, and martina gedeck, as suzanne’s not - so - superior actual mother, will no doubt be showcased in marketing materials in gaul and co - producing germany, but neither actress is actually in the movie much. “nun” bows locally march 20 .
best foreign film nominees include woody allen' s blue jasmine, quentin tarantino' s django unchained, alfonso cuaron' s gravity and paolo sorrentino' s the great beauty .
technically, “the nun” is slickly assembled, with nicloux (“the stone council”) using all the mise - en - scene tricks in the book in a very academic manner, including countless painting - like frontal tableaux and low - horizon shots with abundant light to make the malicious superiors tower over suzanne. costumes and production design look neat, while max richter’s diegetic score hits all the right notes .
paris - - the final countdown to the cesars, france' s biggest film awards, kicked off friday morning with a breakfast press conference at the famously glitzy le fouquet' s restaurant on the champs - elysees as the french academy of cinema technical arts and sciences unveiled the nominees for the 39 th annual honors .
beauty is youth, when you see beauty everywhere, the sense of wonder of the best years: in nature, in sensations, in the sharing of them. this is for me the meaning of the film, particularly at the end. today everything is made opaque by the lack of collective memory, by bad teachers who have obscured the past and live in the present without direction. there is no time left for contemplation. if the film can help us understand the world around us, we must hasten to take care of an ailing body. (8 )
“the great beauty” did not appear at the venice film festival, a telling sign about its declining importance as a place to sell films but also of mr. sorrentino’s uneasy relationship with italy ’s politicized cultural establishment .
among the high - profile nominees for the french equivalent of the oscars were lea seydoux, for her role in cannes film festival winner blue is the warmest color; berenice bejo, for her role in the past, which earned her the best actress honor at cannes; roman polanski; and mads mikkelsen .
that retrospective, and somewhat impressionistic, viewpoint mirrors the film’s own. though set in the' 60s, the era of communist rule and modernization, the story scripted by pawlikowski and rebecca lenkiewicz looks backward in time. given that it starts out in a convent that seems like it hasn’t changed since the middle ages, you might say that the film’s perspective suggests a vast expanse of polish history. but its main focus is closer to hand: the country’s occupation by the nazis (a historical passage that is resonantly evoked but never seen or directly referred to) .
updated: cannes winner
blue is the warmest color
gets eight nominations, catherine deneuve one, while woody allen' s
blue jasmine
and alfonso cuaron' s
gravity
are part of the best foreign film race .
“the great beauty” appeared in europe this summer and is scheduled for release by janus films in new york and los angeles in november. it made its debut at cannes in may and will play at the toronto international film festival this week .
what is most notable about this rather uncomfortably pitched film is the cinematography and music. secular scenes are warmly lit in sensuous browns and reds, composed like oil paintings. in contrast, light in the convent light is cold, white and the atmosphere is ascetic. nuns grouped together in their sail - like blue and white habits form almost abstract compositions against the stone walls of the convent or in its garden, where they gather like prisoners in an exercise yard. if only the whole film had maintained this pared - down dramatic aesthetic .
when she rebels, she experiences extreme cruelty at the hands of a wantonly sadistic mother superior (louise bourgoin) and becomes an object of erotic fascination for another (isabelle huppert). the film never slips into prurience or sensationalism – and that' s the problem .
the film mines rich horror out of the fact that the book’s primary villains, even in a state - mandated patriarchy, are female. victoria tennant plays lydia, one of the fussy and sadistic “aunts” who control and train the handmaids before they’re assigned to houses. “why do you think god made you a woman? ” she shouts at a nun who insists she won’t violate her vows of celibacy. another aunt drags a screaming girl to the dinner table after torturing her bloodied feet, while aunt lydia chastises the girl for
defiling
herself. with the women doing the dirty work, the men can afford to be generous. compared to the chilly serena, robert duvall’s commander is half benevolence, half menace, alternately inviting kate to his study for strawberries and scrabble, and then violently kissing her as she writhes in protest .
besides this historical acuity, the film gives us a fascinating pair of matched archetypes in its main characters, which are realized in two exquisite performances. as the aspiring nun who’s suddenly tossed into the ugliness of the world, newcomer agata trzebokowska proves a poised icon of luminous quietude and awakened curiosity, discovering herself as she painfully uncovers her past. and as the embittered, nihilistic “red wanda, ” a woman driven both by the horrors inflicted on her and those she’s inflicted on others, veteran polish actress agneta kulesza creates the astonishing impression that some of history’s most wrenching conflicts are being played out in a single human soul. like much about
ida ,
these actresses’ work not only pays homage to masterpieces of the past but revivifies current cinema in doing so .
diderot’s novel la religieuse started life as a series of joke letters to a friend, purporting to be from a nun wishing to leave her convent. nicloux’s classily conceived film, too, is hard to take seriously at times. the opening scene is ushered in by atmospheric organ music. in a softly candlelit bed a young woman lies sleeping, surrounded by sumptuous red drapery, while an old man watches her and slowly lifts a hand to stroke her hair and outside we hear a carriage approaching. out of context, it could almost be the start of a hammer horror. in fact, it’s the framing device the director uses to introduce the manuscript containing suzanne’s memoir of her suffering, which tells the story that follows .
“il divo” won the jury prize at cannes, a vindication for mr. sorrentino and his producers, who had met significant resistance in finding financing for the film in italy because of its critical take on mr. andreotti. (he died in may. )
once suzanne escapes the clutches of christine, she’s transferred to another convent headed up by a much friendlier mother superior (isabelle huppert). but if this seems like summer camp compared to before, things are not so simple, and the new mother has some funny ways of having her girls prove their devotion. compared to the rest of the movie, these late scenes are played more for laughs, which bring some pep to the proceedings but also throw the movie off balance. in the least, huppert can now add the role of “horny lesbo nun” to her long and illustrious resume .
probably unaware of these sterile polemical reactions to the movie, foreign critics, with a few exceptions, have been from the start much more favuorable, if not outright enthusiastic, as in michael atkinson’s praise for the movie: “ the great beauty is one of the greatest films about modern social dissolution”. curiously, though, many cinéphiles and ordinary viewers – perhaps intimidated by the exuberance of the film and by the complexity of its signifiers – have eluded the puzzling question of the title’s meaning. carlo verdone has recently advanced that
the key change – modernisation? nicloux has made to the anti - clerical original is that suzanne is no longer the passive victim of the 18th century novel. she really does have faith, and is deeply and conformingly religious, but her rebellion is to preserve her own individuality and freedom in the face of the authoritarianism of the catholic church and her enforced cloistered life. if the film was not so overblown, you could perhaps have accepted one girl’s story as an allegory of the oppression of women in religion or even state repression. pauline etienne is perfect as an innocent who surprises us with unexpected depths of determination and gradually learns to take some control of her life, yet somehow without ever losing that innocence. unfortunately, the film descends from the potential drama of her initial incarceration in the first convent into the sub - porno absurdities of her lascivious victimisation in the second and the obsessive sexual pursuit and hysteria in the third .
marlow - mann a. , “character engagement and alienation in the cinema of paolo sorrentino”, 161 - 174, in hope, w. (ed .), italian film directors in the new millennium, newcastle upon tyne, uk, cambridge scholars publishing, 2010, p. 163 .
the camera pans slowly along the horizon as jep, played by toni servillo, surveys the ship, a larger - than - life metaphor for a career — and a country — run aground. more than any other film to emerge from italy in recent years, “the great beauty” (“la grande bellezza”) explores one of the most difficult questions in italy today: what happened here ?
rome — there is a striking scene in “the great beauty, ” paolo sorrentino ’s luscious new film, in which jep gambardella, a perpetually amused, impeccably tailored blocked novelist, looks down on the hulking body of the costa concordia cruise ship, which has been lodged off the tuscan coast since its captain all but sank it there nearly two years ago .
suzanne simonin describes her life of suffering in letters. as a young woman she is sent to a convent against her will. since her parents cannot afford the dowry required for a marriage befitting her rank they decide she must instead become a nun. although a kind and understanding mother superior helps her to learn the convent’s daily routine, suzanne’s desire for freedom remains unabated. when the mother superior dies, suzanne finds herself faced with reprisals, humiliation and harassment at the hands of the new abbess and the other sisters. for many years, suzanne is subjected to bigotry and religious fanaticism. (berlinale. de )
the most subtle moment in the film comes in the opening scenes, as kate exits the driver’s seat and lets her husband take the wheel as the two approach the border. it’s a quiet nod at gilead’s oppressive regime that’s soon forgotten as the movie enters the realm of melodrama, lighting scenes in vivid shades of blue and green, and incorporating a moody synthesized score better suited to a 1980s horror film. the moment where offred dispassionately describes taking part in a “ceremony” with the commander and his wife—in which he has sex with her while she lies in his wife’s lap—becomes a violent rape scene where kate sobs while shrouded in a red veil. afterwards, kate runs to her room, pulls off her nightgown, and presses her breasts against the window while gasping for air—as witnessed by the household chauffeur, who motions her quickly away, since it’s a deranged move she’d almost certainly be executed for if caught .
few recent films can claim a visual approach as striking as that which cinematographers lukasz zal and ryszard lenczewski give
ida .
filmed in the unusual, boxy aspect ratio of 1. 37: 1, and most often deployed in static long shots, the film’s images sometimes suggest vermeer lighting with the color taken away, and the compositions manage to seem at once classical and off - handed, with the subjects often located in the screen’s two bottom quadrants. as in bresson, the effect is to draw the viewer’s eye into the beauty of the image while simultaneously maintaining a contemplative distance from the drama .
nevertheless, the film was panned. “the movie seems equally angry that women have to have children at all, and that it is hard for them to have children now that men have mucked up the planet with their greedy schemes, ” wrote roger ebert. rolling stone ’s peter travers described the
ceremony
as “about as erotic as a gynecological exam, ” and complained that the movie had “narrowed the focus to [ male chauvinist pigs ] who like to put women in their place. ” the film’s vision of the future, entertainment weekly ’s owen glieberman wrote, “is so poisonous and mechanical that you have to wonder: is this really what our society is threatening to turn into, or is atwood just exorcising her own fear and loathing? ”
although this is nicloux’s tenth theatrical feature, he’s yet to achieve auteur status in europe, and is known more as a capable director of thrillers (the key, cette - femme la). while nothing in the nun feels inspiring or truly groundbreaking, it’s certainly a well - handled package, and the strong performances are abetted by superb technical contributions, including crisp color photography by bruno dumont regular yves cape and, most notably, a series of gorgeous period costumes by anais romand (holy motors). the habits may not make the monk, but they definitely make these nuns look fabulous .
“the great beauty” is not a political film per se, but while other contemporary italian directors have looked to the past or produced more prosaic dramas, mr. sorrentino is one of the few to engage fully with the culture of excess that has come to characterize the italy of mr. berlusconi, prime minister, most recently, until 2011. (two notable examples are nanni moretti’s 2006 “il caimano, ” about a director unable to make a film about an unnamed media mogul, and matteo garrone’s 2012 “reality, ” about obsession with reality tv .) mr. sorrentino’s fresh, timely response is rare even beyond italy, as artists have largely not yet addressed the economic crisis and social shifts that have swept across europe over the past several years .
pawlikoski and lenkiewicz’s scripting proves similarly lapidarian. besides its look ,
ida
most recalls the manner of bygone art films in the modernist spareness and thoroughgoing obliqueness of its writing. very little is stated directly; instead, we glean things from casual remarks and subtle suggestions. somehow, this technique of inference makes the film’s eventual revelations feel both more integral and more powerful .
on a warm late august afternoon, mr. sorrentino, who at 43 has already become one of italy’s most important directors, sat in his high - ceiling study in rome and reflected on what compelled him to make the film. what he wanted to convey, he said, was a general atmosphere .
these early sequences, where suzanne’s spirit is caught between true faith and the hypocritical nature of the church, are among the film’s strongest, and nicloux finds some clever visual metaphors to express his character’s submission, most notably in a botched vow - taking ceremony that has her literally buried beneath the cloth. when she eventually does agree to accept the order, she only learns about it after waking up in a haze two days later, as if the whole conversion was some sort of bad trip .
the russian film a long and happy life, directed by boris khlebnikov, based on the gary cooper classic high noon, was too bleak in its story of russian farmers in an age of austerity to be an award contender. similarly, an episode in the life of an iron picker marked a low - budget interlude for bosnian director danis tanovic, admirable as a stark docudrama, but probably outside the prize - giving .
mr. sorrentino’s film, which has been described as a technicolor “la dolce vita” for the berlusconi era, doesn’t confront the question directly. instead, it follows jep on a kaleidoscopic orphic journey on which his fellow travelers include an aging stripper, a struggling playwright, cash - poor aristocrats, a vacuous cardinal and a would - be saint — set against the photogenic backdrop of rome .
complexly motivated, intriguing female performers helped raise the profile of the films they appeared in and the front - runner at festival midpoint is, by critical consensus, pauline garcia, who is strongly tipped to win best actress kudos for the chilean film gloria. but another contender might be romanian actress luminita gheorghiu as the domineering mother in child’s pose - - not to mention an extremely strong juliette binoche, captured in close - up in bruno dumont ’s disturbing camille claudel 1915 .
mr. sorrentino welcomes the debate. “the film makes you face questions that might be irritating, ” he said. “there’s a tendency among italians to say: ‘we’re not part of that, ’ ‘i’m not part of that. ’ many people went out of their way to say that they weren’t a part of it, and they were the ones who were most a part of it. ”
an image in a government briefing book helped a state department official see “the forest for the trees” in the west bank—and then was shared with the president .
“obviously, it’s not only like that, ” he continued. “there are lots of people who work and do wonderful and commendable things, but there’s still a sense that the nerve centers of the country had fallen asleep on their couches at home. and so i tried to turn that into a film — that everything had become a bit of a salon. ”
this french historical drama is a mournful, modern - feeling adaptation of a late eighteenth - century denis diderot novel about a strong - willed teenage aristocrat, suzanne (pauline etienne), forced to become a nun when her family decide to make her someone else’s responsibility. a welcoming mother superior soon becomes a distant memory when the sadistic christine (louise bourgoin) takes charge of the convent and institutes a campaign of physical and mental torture against her wilful charge. when suzanne is moved to another institution run by the lusty and maybe even demented saint - eutrope (isabelle huppert), she’s faced with different problems. all the while, she tries to free herself by writing letters to the outside world .
“the conjuring 2, ” in which patrick wilson and vera farmiga play husband - and - wife paranormal investigators, debuted to $ 40. 4 million domestically last june on a $ 40 million budget. worldwide, its total has come to $ 320. 3 million. the first “conjuring” film had a production budget of $ 20 million and earned $ 318 million worldwide .
if the film remains compelling up to this point, it’s perhaps less for the slick and straightforward storytelling than for etienne’s engrossing performance. the belgian actress has excelled in some minor roles to date, including in joachim lafosse ’s private lessons, but this is the first time she’s been given the chance to really display her chops, and she movingly portrays suzanne’s combination of dignified virtue and subtle beauty, not to mention her defiant, bordering - on - hostile attitude and sly sense of humor .
moreover, the same split of high or standard speech and vernacular reflects the multiple dichotomies informing the film: the music (church music and techno or pop music), the characters (cultured and ignorant, young and old, upper - class and lower - class), interior design (the décor of the aristocratic palaces and the contemporary furniture of the rich and trendy), art (renaissance paintings and roman statues vs. performance art and action - painting), camerawork (the sweeping tracking and panning shots interspersed with jittery montage sequences). one is tempted to read the juxtaposition of these contrasting images and sounds as a technique that emphasizes – not so subtly – the beauty of all that is “old”, and casts a negative light, or even ridicule, on all that is “new”, seemingly purporting a conservative authorial discourse (one of the recurring critiques directed at sorrentino’s cinema in italy). in fact, the contiguity of opposites, with its implicit openness, its moral and aesthetic challenges, is what makes the film a powerful, emotionally and intellectually stimulating cinematic experience. it does not want to provide definite answers or role models, and cannot be labelled “political” in the revived tradition of a specific socially - committed genre, but it strikes at the heart of a culture that needs to look at itself in the mirror as the necessary premise for change .
the feature film debut of director leigh janiak didn' t make a ton of money, but it' s secretly a strong, spooky horror movie about the people you think you know best. a recently married couple head out to a cabin in a small town for their honeymoon. then the evil stuff starts happening, as husband paul discovers wife bea wandering and disoriented in the woods. things go from bad to worse as bea becomes more distant and weirder .
observe. there is not a sad character who moves us to compassion. for everyone, everything is going fine, even if it is going terribly. everyone is full of energy in managing to survive, even if burdened by death and insensitivity. i have never seen a film in which all the characters are so full of the joy of being. even the sorrowful events, the tragedies, take shape as phenomena charged with vitality, like spectacles. (4 )
in many ways, the movie adaptation was ill - fated from the start, even with the wide acclaim the book had received. in 1986, atwood sold the rights to the producer daniel wilson, partly because wilson had tapped pinter and the director karel reisz to lead the project. the playwright had previously worked with reisz on the french lieutenant’s woman, which starred meryl streep as a strong - willed woman condemned as promiscuous by a repressive society, and was nominated for five academy awards. but despite the talent attached and the success of pinter and reisz’s previous collaboration, no studio wanted to touch it. “during the next two and a half years, wilson would take the pinter script to every studio in hollywood, encountering a wall of ignorance, hostility, and indifference, ” writes the canadian journalist sheldon teitelbaum. movie executives declined to back the project, stating “that a film for and about women … would be lucky if it made it to video. ”
i love matt damon. i love sci - fi. not sure i like them together, however. didn' t hate this, but i sure wouldn' t recommend it. not all his fault, though. there were a couple people in this that really brought down the film with their sad acting... jodie foster, included .
the film opens at the janiculum, a terraced - square overlooking the city, where a japanese tourist is taking a picture, gets suddenly overwhelmed by the spectacular sight, and dies from a heart attack. is the filmmaker making fun of the compulsive recording of visual memories, of the stendhal syndrome that plunges sensitive tourists into a delusional, though temporary state, or is his a tragically funny way to set the tone of the movie? this perplexing opening shot smoothly transitions to one inside the fountain of acqua paola nearby, where a female choir is singing heavenly church music. then a cut abruptly terminates the quiet and beautiful symmetry of the scene, as we are now in the midst of a very loud, very smashed, very drunk party. as the director explains, “i wanted to emphasize the sense of emptiness to which we are irremediably attracted. parties are the epitome of this void, they’re beautiful but senseless” (1). the pulsating techno music is deafening, almost a cruel opposite to the inspiring music of the female singers. jep is finally introduced, apparently enjoying himself, but with a funny smirk on his face (“i didn’t just want to take part in the parties, i wanted to have the power to ruin them”, he will shortly tell the audience). some of his closest friends are also revealed through quick, lugubrious brushes, as the tilts and whirling shots are chopped by the frantic editing that the music’s beat dictates .
should you find yourself wanting your faith in humanity buoyed up a little, may i direct you to gardening with soul, a lovely, gentle study of a year in the life of sister loyola, the 90 - year - old chief gardener of wellington' s home of compassion. you will not encounter a more energetic person on film this year: a generational icon of pragmatic, cheerful, can - do kiwi virtues .
in a majestic convent, an orphaned young woman—a novice named anna (agata trzebuchowska) —is ordered by her mother superior to visit her aunt in lodz before she takes orders. a beautiful eighteen - year - old with a broad slavic face, a composed, devotional manner, and a tantalizing dimple, the girl has never left the convent before and knows nothing of her family. in lodz, wearing her habit, anna enters the apartment of a forty - five - ish woman, who is puffing on a cigarette and waiting for the guy she picked up the night before to leave. a minor state judge and communist party member, wanda gruz (agata kulesza) tells her niece that her real name is ida lebenstein, and that she’s jewish—a “jewish nun, ” she says. abrupt and dismissive, wanda enjoys attacking the girl’s ignorance. but wanda has mysteries of her own and scores to settle: ida’s mother was her beloved sister. the two agree to go to the village in which the parents were hidden by christians and then betrayed—the village where wanda grew up .
between 1939 and 1945, poland lost a fifth of its population, including three million jews. in the two years after the war, communists took over the government under the eyes of the red army and the soviet secret police, the n. k. v. d. many poles who were prominent in resisting the nazis were accused of preposterous crimes; the independent - minded were shot or hanged. in the movie, none of this is stated, but all of it is built, so to speak, into the atmosphere: the country feels dead, the population sparse, the mood of ordinary conversations constrained by the sure knowledge that many who survived have committed acts of betrayal or indulged willful ignorance .
the adaptation and the remake: from john m. stahl’s when tomorrow comes to douglas sirk’s interlude
this revelation triggers a journey in which aunt and niece drive back to the village of anna’s parents in an effort to discover how they died and where they were buried. although this quest is central to the narrative ,
ida
is anything but plot - driven. it’s a film of moments, observations and moods, with a lyrical unfolding that recalls such atmospheric monochrome road movies as wim wenders ’
kings of the road .
and when the two voyagers pick up a hitchhiking tenor saxophonist (dawid ogrodnik) and end up watching his gigs, the music of john coltrane and similar artists adds an engrossing aural dimension to the odyssey .
and what about the main characters? their social masks are forever glued to their real faces, the cult of the image deforming features, botox and cocaine its faithful allies (in the sequence with the plastic surgeon, his patients from all social classes behave like religious followers). the rich and beautiful are oblivious to the rest of their fellowmen and to the state of the country, enclosed in a vicious circle of narcissistic pastimes .
basically the story of a man forced to finally see the injustice around him. riley’s movie is designed to do the same thing to you. …
you' ll be hard - pressed to find a horror film as thoughtful and intelligent as this one .
the babadook
is a parable about how grief and loss can consume those who suffer through it, and despite all the coaxing and cajoling you' ll get from friends, you' ll never be able to
just let go .
the babadook
shows the process of coming to terms with loss and preparing to spend the rest of your life living with that pain, even when it' s scarred over. this is proof that horror can move you as well as scare you .
in the final credits of “the great beauty, ” the camera glides in a boat down the green - brown tiber. there is no music, only the cawing of birds. time stops, and everything is beautiful, as only italy can be .
how can you capture a nation’s spirit by telling a singular story? by making every shot as definitive as an icon. “i’m not emotionally excited by the power of cinema’s tricks anymore, ” pawlikowski has said. the director and his fledgling cinematographer, lukasz zal, shot the movie in hard - focus black and white; they have produced images so distinct and powerful that they sharpen our senses. “ida” might be called static were it not for the currents of emotion from shot to shot, which electrify the women’s relation to each other throughout. clearing away clutter, pawlikowski almost never moves the camera; many of the scenes are just long - lasting shots, fed by a single light source that often puts the faces in partial shadow (what we understand of these two women will always be limited). sometimes the figures are positioned at the bottom of the frame, with enormous gray polish skies above them, as if the entire burden of a cursed country weighed on its people. both beautiful and oppressive, the bleakness of the landscape in winter suggests something uncanny in the air, as if we were watching a horror film without ghouls .
where reisz was dedicated to realism, schlondorff was a pioneer of the new german cinema movement who was eager to break into hollywood. the handmaid’s tale as he interpreted it was a thriller—a sexually charged and vivid drama without the nuance or emotional depth of the source material. without her interior monologue (richardson later complained that pinter “has something specific against voiceovers”), offred becomes considerably more enigmatic and less human, even though the movie, unlike the book, identifies her birth name as kate. although the book is told entirely from offred’s perspective, the film barely gives her more lines than other characters. initially, after her husband is shot at the border and her daughter is taken as the family tries to flee from the repressive republic of gilead, kate seems oddly blank, staring vaguely out a window as she watches infertile women get loaded into a truck labeled “livestock. ” there’s little sense, as is made explicit in the book, that she’s being drugged so that she doesn’t erupt in grief and rage at the loss of her child .
the
saw
movies are best known for being about people getting murdered gruesomely. while there is a fair amount dismemberment, the better part of the series is how each of the movies continually expands the lore and each one captures the powerful dread of being caught in a deadly trap with no way out .
in 1988, the actress sigourney weaver—a huge star following the release of alien and ghostbusters —committed to the project, and although reisz was no longer available, the film finally found a studio (cinecom) and a new director, the german auteur volker schlondorff. but weaver had to drop out when she became pregnant, and schlondorff and wilson found it increasingly difficult to find a star willing to play offred, the book’s narrator (named literally “of fred, ” for the commander she belongs to). although offred is an astonishing character with a rich interior monologue incorporating fierce intelligence, compassion, and violent fantasies of revenge against her oppressors, many actresses feared the stigma of being associated with such an explicitly feminist work. “schlondorff is reported to have approached almost every american actress to take over the part of offred … yet every one of them declined, ” writes the academic reingard m. nishick. eventually, the british actress natasha richardson accepted the part. richardson, a daughter of the actress and socialist vanessa redgrave, had activism in her blood, but even she was reportedly wary about taking on the role .
france, in the 1760s. born to a bourgeois family, suzanne (pauline etienne) is a beautiful young girl with a natural talent for music. despite her faith, she is dismayed when her parents send her off to a convent, expecting her to become a nun. suzanne first resists the rules of the convent, but soon finds out that she is an illegitimate child, leaving her no other option than to pronounce her vows and suffer the consequences of her mother' s sin. she soon wants to escape the religious path and is trying to revoke her vows when the mother superior, who had brought her comfort and solace, dies. her successor, sister christine (louise bourgoin), turns out to be a sadistic and cruel mother superior, inflicting the worst forms of humiliation upon suzanne, such as depriving her of food and clothing. suzanne is finally transferred to another convent, where she discovers another kind of mother superior (isabelle huppert), who develops an inappropriate affectionate bond with her... adapted...
the nun ( french : la religieuse ) is a 2013 french drama film directed by guillaume nicloux . it is based on the 18th-century novel la religieuse by french writer denis diderot . the film premiered in competition at the 63rd berlin international film festival . it received two nominations at the 4th magritte awards , winning best actress for pauline étienne , and a nomination at the 39th césar awards . 
the nun (french: la religieuse) is a 2013 french drama film directed by guillaume nicloux. it is based on the 18th-century novel la religieuse by french writer denis diderot. the film premiered in competition at the 63rd berlin international film festival. it received two nominations at the 4th magritte awards, winning best actress for pauline étienne, and a nomination at the 39th césar awards.
the nun (french: la religieuse) is a 2013 french drama film directed by guillaume nicloux. it is based on the 18th-century novel la religieuse by french writer denis diderot. the film premiered in competition at the 63rd berlin international film festival. it received two nominations at the 4th magritte awards, winning best actress for pauline étienne, and a nomination at the 39th césar awards.