Foreign

VIVRE SA VIE — THE CRITERION COLLECTION

Capsules Blog, Criterion Collection, FIVE STARS, Foreign, French Cinema, French New Wave, Podcast, sex, Women's Cinema

February 15, 2018

In 1962 Jean Luc-Godard shifted stylistic filmic gears as lucidly as Miles Davis revolutionized music. For his fourth feature Godard…

KLOWN

Capsules Blog, Comedy, FIVE STARS, Foreign, Video Essay, Women's Cinema

June 20, 2012

Easily the most ribald and politically incorrect comedy to come out of the 21st century’s second decade so far, Mikkel…

THE KID WITH A BIKE — CANNES 2011

Belgic Cinema, Cannes Film Festival, Capsules Blog, Criterion Collection, Foreign, THREE STARS, Women's Cinema

March 13, 2012

The Dardenne brothers tweak their polished neorealist formula of personalized socially conscious cinema. Once again, we are exposed to their…

BULLHEAD

Belgic Cinema, Capsules Blog, Crime Drama, Crime Thriller, Foreign, FOUR STARS, True Crime

February 16, 2012

“Bullhead” is an unconventional mafia story told through the eyes of a damaged-goods protagonist you can’t help but feel for.…

HAPPY, HAPPY

Capsules Blog, Foreign, THREE STARS, Women Filmmakers, Women's Cinema

September 15, 2011

Norwegian filmmaker Anne Sewitsky makes a thought-provoking and sexy debut with a romantic comedy/drama neatly offset by acapella musical interludes.…

THE DOUBLE HOUR

Capsules Blog, Foreign, Italian Cinema, THREE STARS, Thriller, Women's Cinema

April 20, 2011

Although not as witty in plot design as debut director Giuseppe Capotondi imagines, “The Double Hour” is an atmospheric suspense…

THE HOUSEMAID

Capsules Blog, Foreign, Korean Cinema, Satire, THREE STARS

January 20, 2011

“The Housemaid” brings its scathing brand of satire to a simmer and keeps it there. You’ll be weighing its characters’…

THE SEVENTH SEAL — THE CRITERION COLLECTION

Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Criterion Collection, FIVE STARS, Foreign, Swedish Cinema

October 27, 2010

Although it has been relentlessly parodied as a pejorative example of an “art film,” “The Seventh Seal” is a rowdy…

THE MISFORTUNATES

Belgic Cinema, Capsules Blog, Foreign, Literary Adaptation, ONE STAR

April 11, 2010

It’s perfectly plausible that you might never want to visit Belgium after seeing Felix van Groeningen’s offensive ’80s tale of…

PIXOTE — CLASSIC FILM PICK

Brazilian Cinema, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, FIVE STARS, Foreign, Neo-Realism, Transgressive Cinema

July 2, 2009

Long before Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund made “City of God” in 2002, about Rio de Janeiro’s youth-centric atmosphere of…

THREE MONKEYS — CANNES 2008

Cannes Film Festival, Capsules Blog, Drama, FIVE STARS, Foreign, Turkish Cinema

April 25, 2009

On first blush, a strong contender for the Palme d’Or, Turkish director/co-writer Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s drama is about a father,…

BLACK ORPHEUS — THE CRITERION COLLECTION

Capsules Blog, Criterion Collection, FIVE STARS, Foreign

March 1, 2009

Marcel Camus’s filmic reinterpretation of the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice reaches epic dramatic heights and dark emotional depths…

LA TERRA TREMA — CLASSIC FILM PICK

Black and White, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, FIVE STARS, Foreign, Italian Cinema, Neo-Realism

March 1, 2009

Luchino Visconti’s third film is set in Aci Trezza, a poor Sicilian fishing port village being exploited by wholesale merchants.…

Glue

DVD Reviews Blog, Foreign

November 15, 2007

Writer/director Alexis Dos Santos sets his distinctive coming-of-age comedy/drama in the small town of Patagonia, Argentina where 15-year-old Lucas (Nahuel…