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While Hollywood has been churning out toothless remakes of shocker classics like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween, or lukewarm PG-13 remakes of successful Asian thrillers like The Grudge and The Eye, a generation of filmmakers re-invigorating the horror genre has cropped up in a most unlikely place: France. In a country known more for its frank portrayals of sex and meditations on philosophical ennui, an aesthetic of violence has emerged that, ironically, accomplishes what American filmmakers have failed to do - recapture the grit, power, and above all, the danger of American horror in its 1970's heyday. Essentially, what the French have done is up the ante in terms of bloodletting, bringing fresh kineticism and a sense of obscenity to the usual acts of brutality, while still maintaining at least a modicum of existential weight and emotion (as with Irreversable, above). More from Simon Augustine in a terrific new list of the best, or most disturbing, of New French Horror >> . |
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In This Dispatch:
- What's New: Be Kind Rewind, Caramel, and a lot more.
- What We're Watching: Control, Judi Dench and The Cottage.
- Explore: Under the Same Moon/Patricia Riggen.
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A sort of a Lebanese Sex in the City/Beauty Shop, but better than that sounds. "Beauty-parlor romantic comedy has been done to death and beyond, but what Caramel lacks in originality is redeemed by its exuberant sensuality and astute commentary on the way Lebanese women sit uncomfortably in the crosshairs of their country's clash between patriarchal tradition and Westernized modernity," writes Ella Taylor in the Voice. Adds AO Scott in the NY Times: "In the best melodramatic tradition, their toughness, good humor and loyalty see them through. Those qualities, and Ms Labaki's evident affection for the battered panache of her native city, make Caramel hard to resist." |
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More Michel Gondry whimsy that once again divided critics, but quite a few were game for its freewheeling fantasy about two video store clerks with a grand plan. "In a larger sense Be Kind Rewind declares that the riches of cinema history touch each of us personally," wrote Time's Richard Corliss. "Films become so deep a part of us that we own them that our memories of them, whether faithful or fanciful, become their meanings. As a movie critic and, above that, a movie lover, how can I disagree with that?" Adds Sean Axmaker: "It's as if Gondry lets his performers settle into their parts and feel their way through their stories. It gives the film an ambling pace and a unique chemistry that bubbles with strange and unexpected flavors." |
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Michael Winterbottom's 24 Hour Party People (2002) touched briefly on the brilliant tragic career of Ian Curtis and his band Joy Division, but it was always a powerful subject deserving of its own film. Now acclaimed music video director Anton Corbijn (Nirvana's "Heart Shaped Box," U2's "One," etc.) makes his feature debut with the two-hour biopic Control, and though he can't keep the film away from the usual biopic formula, Corbijn's stark, black-and-white widescreen visual scheme captures some of the story's unique power. Sam Riley makes a commanding Curtis, a brooding.. Read review here >>
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The BBC has lately bestowed upon us several collections of work by England's current grand dames of entertainment: Maggie Smith, Helen Mirren and-ัthe Dame under consideration here-- Judi Dench. This nicely boxed set, featuring many of her early appearances, includes--count 'em!--eight discs, each one packed with several hours of the actress' work, much of it prime and dating back to her Cherry Orchard of 1962... read review >> |
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The Cottage begins rather quietly, as two characters who seem to be related in some fashion arrive in the hinterlands and have evidently committed a crime. Banter and arguing ensue; one tells the other to go out to the car and bring in the milk, and--boom--the film takes off and never really stops until it's over. Small surprise follows small surprise, and you find yourself chuckling at the quite naughty goings-on that grow worse and worse until you are laughing at utterly unconscionable stuff, including gore that normally might send you to the fast-forward button. Instead, you grin, guffaw and grimace--not always in that order... read review >>
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