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2 Dec 2008

Viewed recently:
OSS 117 se déchaine	1963	French*	A. Hunebelle	Espionage lark	(nc)	100	:2	bw
Corny and naive entertainment.							5	Dec ’08
Lost in la Mancha	2002	English	Keith Fulton	Documentary	15	89	5:3
Good for a ‘making of...’, but...							6	Nov ’08
Nuit d’été en ville	1990	French*	Michel Deville	Drama	(nc)	85	2:1
Wordy, though with a certain attraction.							5	Nov ’08
La femme en bleu	1972	French*	Michel Deville	Bittersweet romance	(nc)	95	3:2
Like Raphaël, a film which sets music to images; like Raphaël, a story in which... (more... )							8	Nov ’08
Kaos	1984	Italian	P. & V. Taviani	Period drama	(nc)	187	4:3	(i)
Peasant cunning and humour in a harsh environment.							6	Nov ’08
Viewed previously: a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
Adaptation	2002	English	Spike Jonze	Neurotic comedy	15	110	4:3
Entertaining dark humour with elements of pastiche, but not really memorable. (tcm’s view.)							6	June ’07
Adieu Bonaparte	1985	French*	Youssef Chahine	Historical drama	(nc)	105	2:4	Sept ’07
Adieu plancher des vaches	1999	French*	Otar Iosseliani	Wry comedy	(nc)	118	3:4
Intriguing gentle portrayal of life as musical chairs. (tcm’s view.)							8	June ’07
The adventures of Priscilla, queen of the desert	1994	English	Stephan Elliott	Camp comedy	15	98	4:2
The first half hour was hammy and unfunny. (tcm: ‘boring’)							4	Jan ’08
L’affaire du collier de la reine	1946	French*	Marcel l’Herbier	Historical reconstruction	(nc)	118	:2
The exact opposite of auteur cinema – a self-effacingly accurate rendering (more... ).							7	Aug ’07
The African Queen	1951	English	John Huston	Romantic adventure	U	100	5:3	m
Guileless adolescent yarn. (tcm’s view.)							5	July ’07
Les arpenteurs	1972	French*	Michel Soutter	Drama	(nc)	80	:3	Apr ’08
At the height of summer	2000	Viet.	Tran Anh Hung	Drama	PG	108	3:3
Uneventful; attractive in a home-decor or tourist magazine sort of way; horrid music (but... ).							5	Sept ’08
Barry Lyndon	1975	English	Stanley Kubrick	Period drama	PG	117	5:4
Initially too slow, it becomes uncomfortable during Barry’s extended abuse (more... ).							8	Dec ’07
Le beau mariage	1982	French	Eric Rohmer	Comedy drama	PG	95	4:2
I thought this a short story in the guise of a full-length film, but pleasant enough. (tcm’s view.)							6	Feb ’07
Bob le flambeur	1955	French	J.-P. Melville	Crime comedy	PG	97	4:3	bw
Agreeable and atmospheric, but slow to get going. (tcm: ‘stylish and amusing; lovely cars ’.)							6	Feb ’07
Capote	2005	English	Bennett Miller	Biographical drama	15	109	4:3
Creepily gripping: Capote himself (brilliantly portrayed) at first repulsive... (more...).							7	Dec ’07
The cave of the yellow dog	2005	Mongolian	B. Davaa	Location drama	U	93	4
Casts a spell through its innocent beauty, but in some respects unsatisfying. More... .							7	Apr ’07
Céline and Julie go boating	1974	French	Jacques Rivette	Experimental supernatural drama	12	185	5:4	john
Enigmatic, probably meaningless, exuberent entertainment. (tcm’s view.)							7	Apr ’07
La chasse aux papillons	1992	French*	Otar Iosseliani	Drama	(nc)	115	:3
Like Adieu plancher des vaches a kaleidoscope of eccentric personages and attractive images (more... ).							6	July ’07
Chocolat	1988	French	Claire Denis	Drama	PG	99	4:3
Elusive, ambiguous, poetical. More... .							9	Mar ’07
Chungking express	1994	Cantonese	Wong Kar-Wai	Romantic comedy	12	101	4:3
Stylish, hip, and visually gripping. (tcm’s view.)							7	July ’07
Colonel Redl	1984	German	István Szabó	Drama	15	136	4:4
An arresting drama, perhaps a little political.							7	Oct ’08
Danton	1964	French*	Stellio Lorenzi	Historical drama	(nc)	120		bw
Even hammier than Wajda’s film, and with less dramatic intensity.							5	July ’08
Danton	1982	French	Andrzej Wajda	Historical drama	PG	130	4:2
A gripping, sombre portrayal. (tcm’s view.)							8	Apr ’07
Dekalog I, IX, X	1988	Polish	K. Kieslowski	Drama	15	55	:5
Gloomy but grittily compelling, as his self-consciously arty French films fail to be.							7	Jan ’08
Le dîner de cons	1998	French	Francis Veber	Comedy	15	76	4:2
A simple very funny farce.							7	Apr ’08
Le dossier 51	1978	French*	Michel Deville	Espionage drama	(nc)	108	:4
Holds you in its sinister grip (and reminds you of 70s taste).							6	May ’07
The double life of Véronique	1991	Polish / French	Krzysztof Kieslowski	Drama	15	93	4:4
I love Preisner’s music but found the film painterly but impenetrable and pointless. More... .							5	Mar ’07
El	1952	Spanish	Luis Buñuel	Drama	(nc)	82	3:3	bw
Unredeemed unpleasantness (we threw in the towel after an hour). (tcm’s view.)							3	Aug ’07
Les favoris de la lune	1984	French*	Otar Iosseliani	Drama	15	100	3:4
Like his other films, nostalgic, benign and balletic; but resembling them enough to cloy.							6	Dec ’07
Good bye Lenin!	2003	German	W. Becker	Comedy drama	15	116	3:3
Only moderately funny.							6	Sept ’07
Groundhog day	1993	English	Harold Ramis	Comedy fantasy	PG	96	5:3
A clever idea, but it limps along a little.							6	Feb ’08
Heat and dust	1982	English	James Ivory	Drama	15	124	3:2	m
Languid.							6	Jan ’08
L’homme de Rio	1964	French*	Ph. de Broca	Spoof thriller	U	112	4:4	July ’07
Huit femmes	2002	French*	François Ozon	Murder mystery	15	105	4:4
Joyful kitsch.							8	Oct ’08
In a lonely place	1950	English	Nicholas Ray	Drama	PG	89	5:3	bw
Bogart plays a charmless brute allegedly personifying the director himself. (tcm: ‘boring’)							4	Mar ’08
In the mood for love	2000	Cantonese	Wong Kai-Wai	Romantic drama	PG	97	4:4	m
Visually captivating, musically hypnotic, elliptical, reticent, and gentle.							8	Apr ’08
India song	1975	French*	Marguerite Duras	Experimental fantasy drama	(nc)	118	4:4
A tantalising mixture of tangoes, blues, mirrors and voices off; a convincing vision (more... ).							9	Mar ’08
Je tu il elle	1975	French*	C. Akerman	Drama	(nc)	82	4:2	bw
Begins intriguingly and pinteresquely, and heads downhill.							5	Oct ’08
Jeanne Dielman ...	1975	French*	C. Akerman	Drama	(nc)	195	:4
The first 3 hours are mesmerisingly banal; the violent ending perfectly believable. (More... )							7	Oct ’08
Kind hearts and coronets	1949	English	Robert Hamer	Black comedy	PG	98	5:4	bw, m
Moderately funny if you can disregard the upper class mannerisms.							6	Jan ’08
The leopard	1962	Italian	L. Visconti	Period drama	PG	180	5:4
A sumptuous, perhaps rather directionless, evocation. More... .							7	May ’07
Madame Bovary	1991	French	Claude Chabrol	Period romance	PG	136	3:2
Attractive to look at, superbly acted, but too much of a morality tale for my tastes. (tcm’s view.)							7	Mar ’07
Memento	2000	English	C. Nolan	Thriller	15	108	5:4
Intelligent and tantalising: an amusing reversal of the revenge movie. (tcm’s view.)							7	Aug ’07
Molière	1978	French*	A. Mnouchkine	Period drama	(nc)	250	4:3
Beautiful interiors (after Vermeer); unconvincing exteriors; very slow.							5	Oct ’07
The motorcycle diaries	2004	Spanish	Walter Salles	Road biopic	15	120	4:2
An engaging film with a conscience, but muted in its dramatic effect.							6	Mar ’08
Les petites vacances	2006	French*	Olivier Peyon	Drama	12	90		(tim)
I found this uninteresting, but perhaps I just didn’t understand it well enough.							4	Aug ’08
Plein soleil	1960	French*	René Clément	Crime drama	PG	113	5:2	Dec ’07
The portrait of a lady	1996	English	Jane Campion	Period drama	12	138	3:3
A stylish, slightly oppressive, tenebrist tale. (tcm’s view.)							6	Feb ’07
Pyaasa	1957	Hindi	Guru Dutt	Drama	(nc)	146	:4
Begins slowly; thereafter effective as a musical, a love story, and social comment... (more... )							6	Oct ’08
Raja	2003	French*	Jacques Doillon	Drama	(nc)	112	2:4	July ’07
Raphaël ou le débauché	1971	French*	Michel Deville	Drama	(nc)	104	:4
A love sorry whose sadness is veiled by enchanting visuals and music. Superbly acted. (More... )							8	Oct ’08
Les rendez-vous d’Anna	1978	French*	C. Akerman	Drama	(nc)	120	:4
A sequence of filmed dialogues: rather colourless and uncinematographic.							5	Apr ’08
La répétition	2001	French*	C. Corsini	Drama	(nc)	100	2:3
Rather so-so.							5	July ’08
The return	2003	Russian	A. Zvyagintsev	Drama	12	105	4:4	(diana)
Gripping and elusive without any believable purpose. (tcm’s view.)							6	Oct ’07
Rififi (du Rififi...)	1955	French	Jules Dassin	Classic crime caper	12	117	4:4	bw
A dark but pleasing entertainment. (tcm’s view.)							6	May ’07
Russian ark	2002	Russian	A. Sokurov	Experimental	U	95	5:1
A visually beautiful longueur. (tcm: ‘astonishing and dreamlike’.)							4	Feb ’07
Saint Germain ...	2003	French*	Gérard Corbiau	Historical drama	(nc)	90
An attractive unfaithful realisation which adds a heart to a rather arid novel (more... ).							6	Mar ’08
The sheltering sky	1990	English	B. Bertolucci	Drama	15	133	4:2
Visually appealing melodrama about an American couple who make less and less sense.							5	Mar ’08
Les Templiers	1961	French*	Stellio Lorenzi	Historical drama	(nc)	120		bw
A riveting first half hour, with Phillip the Bel a Shakespearian monster... (more... ).							6	Feb ’08
Le temps retrouvé	1999	French	Raúl Ruiz	Drama	18	155	4:3
Stylish but disjointed and meaningless on its own.							5	May ’08
Ten canoes	2006	Aboriginal	Rolf de Heer	Ethnic docudrama	(nc)	92
A vivid picture of traditional Aboriginal life.							6	Feb ’08
36 Quai des Orfèvres	2004	French*	Olivier Marchal	Crime thriller	15	111	4:2	Jan ’08
Water	2006	Hindi	Deepa Mehta	Drama	PG	117	:2
A sad story told with gentleness. (tcm’s view.)							9	Aug ’07
Where angels fear to tread	1991	English	C. Sturridge	Drama	PG	107	3:2	m
Pleasant as social comedy; unconvincing and forgettable as drama. (tcm’s view.)							6	July ’07
The year of living dangerously	1982	English	Peter Weir	Political drama	PG	109	4:2
Atmospheric but rather trite melodrama, unsatisfactorily resolved. (tcm’s view.)							5	July ’07
To view:
Being there	1979	English	Hal Ashby	Satirical comedy	15	123	4:3	(i)
Chaos	1999	Japanese	Hideo Nakata	Crime thriller	15	103	4:
Closely observed trains	1966	Czech	Jiri Menzel	Drama	15	88	4:3	(i)
The colour of pomegranates	1969	Armenian	S. Parajanov	Drama	U	69	5:3
Dekalog II-V	1988	Polish	K. Kieslowski	Drama	15	277	:5
Diva	1981	French	J.-J. Beineix	Cult crime drama	15	112	4:3	(seen)
Djomeh	1989	Farsi*	H. Yektapanah	Romantic drama	(nc)	94	4
Fanny & Alexander	1982	Swedish	Ingmar Bergman	Period drama	15	310	5:4	(i)
The garden of the Finzi-Continis	1971	Italian*	Vittorio de Sica	Second world war drama	(nc)	95	5:3
Historias mínimas	2002	Spanish	Carlos Sorin	Comedy drama	15	87	5:4
Indochine	1991	French*	Régis Wargnier	Period romance	15	151	4:2
Insomnia	2002	English	Christopher Nolan	Psychological crime thriller	15	113	5:4
Ivan’s childhood	1962	Russian	A. Tarkovsky	Drama	PG	90	5:3	(i)
Le libertin	2000	French*	Gabriel Aghion	Period comedy	15	102	3:1
Merci pour le chocolat	2000	French*	Claude Chabrol	Crime thriller	PG	100	3:4
Mulholland Drive	2001	English	David Lynch	Psychological thriller	15	140	5:4
The scent of green papaya	1993	Viet.	Tran Anh Hung	Period drama	U	99	5:3	(seen)
Spirited away	2001	Japanese	Hayao Miyazaki	Animated fantasy	PG	124	4:4
Star Wars	1977	English	George Lucas	Infantile scifi yarn	U	115	5:4
37°2 le matin	1986	French*	J.-J. Beneix	Drama	18	116	5:3
Les rois maudits	1972	French*	Claude Barma (set of 6 DVDs)	Historical drama (made for TV)	(nc)	630
Banco à Bangkok	1964	French*	A. Hunebelle OSS 117 series (set of 5 DVDs)	Espionage larks	(nc)	120	:1
Furia à Bahia	1965	French*				100	:1
À tout coeur à Tokyo	1966	French*				100	:1
Pas de roses pour OSS 117	1968	French*				100	:1
Hotel Monterey	1972	(silent)	C. Akerman (set of 5 DVDs)	Drama	(nc)	60
News from home	1976	French*		Documentary	(nc)	102	:2
La chute des feuilles	1968	Georgian*	Otar Iosseliani (set of 7 DVDs)	Reality drama	(nc)	100	:3	bw
Il était une fois un merle chanteur	1970	Georgian*		Drama	(nc)	82	:4	bw
Pastorale	1976	Georgian*		Drama	(nc)	75	:3	bw
Et la lumière fut	1989	Diola*		Drama	(nc)	102	:2
Brigands (chapitre VII)	1995	Georgian*		Drama	(nc)	120	:3
Lundi matin	2002	French		Drama	PG	126	4:2
La petite bande	1983	French*	Michel Deville (set of 6 DVDs)	Drama	(nc)	91	3:3
La lectrice	1988			Erotic comedy	18	98	4:3
La divine poursuite	1997			Drama	(nc)	102	:1
Freebies:
The battleship Potemkin	1925	silent	S. Eisenstein	Historical drama	PG	65	5:4	m
Belleville rendez-vous	2003	French	Sylvain Chomet	Cartoon	12	77	4:4	(seen)
The criminal life of Archibald de la Cruz	1955	Spanish	Luis Buñuel	Crime black comedy	(nc)	72	3:4	bw
Death of a salesman	1985	English	V. Schlöndorff	Drama	PG	130	3:2	m
La dolce vita	1960	Italian	Federico Fellini	Classic drama	15	170	5:4	bw
Godzilla	1954	Japanese	Inoshiro Honda	Monster horror	PG	92	4:2	bw
Hamlet	1990	English	F. Zeffirelli	Tragedy	PG	128	4:1	(seen)
A handful of dust	1987	English	C. Sturridge	Period drama	PG	114	4:2	m
Kiss of the spider woman	1985	English	Hector Babenco	Drama	15	115	4:2
The last emperor	1987	English	B. Bertolucci	Epic biopic	15	209	4:2	m
Local hero	1983	English	Bill Forsyth	Comedy drama	PG	107	4:3
Metropolis	1926	(silent)	Fritz Lang	Science fantasy	PG	119	5:3	bw, m
Notorious	1946	English	A. Hitchcock	Romantic thriller	U	100	5:5	(m), bw
Le rayon vert	1986	French	Eric Rohmer	Comedy drama	PG	94	4:4	(seen)
Rebecca	1940	English	A. Hitchcock	Romantic thriller	PG	125	5:3	m
The whistle blower	1986	English	Simon Langton	Spy thriller	PG	99	3:2	m

Key

Descriptions are based on those in the Radio Times guide to films (2007). The third column gives the language spoken in the film. An asterisk after an unseen film indicates that no English subtitles are provided (though there may be subtitles in some language less recondite than Georgian); after a seen film, it indicates that it was seen without subtitles.

The number in black is the number of stars assigned by the Radio Times guide; the number in red is one greater than the number of T’s assigned by the Télérama Guide du cinéma chez soi (2004). Where a film is not reviewed in one of my other guides I instead give in blue a rating from the Guide DVD 2008. Unfortunately this awards scores in the range from 1-7 in reverse order, so I convert the scores as follows: {7,6}→1; {5,4}→2; 3→3; 2→4; 1→5.

‘DVDs viewed’ are those we have watched at home (owned or borrowed) since buying a DVD player in Jan 2007. Criticisms (and marks out of 10) on this page are by Colin. There are links to additional comments by both of us. Roughly speaking:

• 1–3   are unpleasant;
• 4 & 5 mean that your time could have been better spent;
• 6 & 7 mean that your time was spent pleasantly; and
• 8–10 are positively rewarding.

I often don’t comment on films in French because of my imperfect understanding of them.

The date in the last column is the month of viewing.

Good films we’ve seen at the cinema include Diva, the Scent of green papaya, the Ian MacKellan Richard III, the Remains of the day, the Lives of others (all 9), and the Kenneth Branagh Love’s labour’s lost (8). Bad films include 8½ (4), Babel (4), and Breaking the waves (3).

‘DVDs to view’ are those we have bought but not yet watched.

‘Freebies’ are DVDs given away with newspapers or as publicity. A couple of them are films we have seen in the past.

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