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The Chorus (Les Choristes) Review

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(More customer reviews)Prisons are filled with people without hope; perhaps especially prisons which house young boys. Devoid of the normal pleasures of life in which boys delight, these ruffians lead desperate, bland, colorless lives of few joys, little change, and little love. Into this drab, dreary, and harsh enviornment arrives our lovable dreamer, Prefect Clement Mathieu.
A frustrated musician/composer, Mathieu has an idea: organize this rag-tag group of troublemakers into a boys choir. Like a wildflower in the field, this group springs into beautiful song and harmonies. It also upsets a few people along the way. No good deed goes unpunished, as Mark Twain said, and this one is no exception.
Mathieu is different than the other prefects and administrator/teachers, he loves the boys and in that lies the difference.
The Chorus is a sweet, gentle, moving film. Everything about it is exceptionaly well done. Remarkable acting, writing, filming, and storytelling make this a film which lingers sweetly in the mind of the viewer, long after the credits have scrolled by.

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An inspirational story in the rich tradition of MUSIC OF THE HEART and MR. HOLLAND'S OPUS, THE CHORUS has moved critics everywhere to declare it one of the year's very best films! When he takes a job teaching music at a school for troubled boys, Clément Mathieu is unprepared for its harsh discipline and depressing atmosphere. But with passion and unconventional teaching methods, he's able to spark his students' interest in music and bring them a newfound joy! It also puts him at odds with the school's overbearing headmaster, however, locking Mathieu in a battle between politics and the determination to change his pupils' lives!

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Indochine (1992) Review

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(More customer reviews)This deeply felt and emotionally rich portrait of a country about to change forever is one of the most beautiful films ever made. It is elegant and opulent in its visual presentation and subtle in its human tale of heartbreak. This film has the majesty of morning sunlight on water we dare not shield our eyes from for fear we will miss one moment of its glory.
Director Reigis Wargnier has created a masterpiece of epic beauty, showing us the country of Vietnam when it existed as the French colony Indochine. He shows how and why the communist uprising was so popular and the way of life it threatened. It does not make judgements but shows the human drama and the heartbreak caused by a way of life that existed and the one that was coming to change it.
Wargnier accomplishes all this in a slow and visually stunning portrait of one family in Indochine. The story is centered around the magnificent performance of Catherine Deneuve as French rubber plantation owner Eliane Deveries, and the equally terrific Linh Dan Phan as her adopted Indochine daughter Camille. The contrasts of Eliane's cool elegance and Camille's young and sensual beauty is like a mirror for the country itself as Wargner shows the difference between the French and those that serve them.
Eliane runs her rubber plantation with the help of her 'coolies' and it appears to be her entire life except for her daughter Camille. But Eliane's cool outward elegance only masks the repressed emotions she hides from others. Her affairs have been casual and she believes indifference is the secret to surviving love. But that indifference changes dramatically as she finally falls hard for young French Naval Officer Vincent Perez (Jean-Baptiste Le Guen). She throws herself at him as he draws away and discovers she is not enough for Vincent.
There is much unrest at the class distinctions of Indochine. Eliane's Indochine is one of elegance and self-indulgence. It is a world of Fitzgerald and Gatsby. The world of the Indochene people is more severe. This film takes its time showing us all that is beautiful about the country and slowly begins to show the darkness underneath that beauty when Camille falls in love with Vincent also. Eliane is stunned beyond words but not actions as she uses her clout to have him transferred to the farthest outpost so Camille can go through with an arranged marriage to Tanh (Eric Nguyen).
But Eliane has underestimated her daughter's love for Vincent and she runs away to find him. Vincent has learned about the slave trade which provides Eliane and others like her with their workers in this remote French outpost and sees firsthand its brutality. When Camille finds him it is during the picking of these workers and a tragedy forces both to flee to a place hidden and supposedly cursed, where their love will bloom and a legend will start. There are some tender and moving moments and some true heartbreak involving a baby.
As the communist revolution grows stronger and Camille is imprisoned, Vincent will meet Eliane once more. It is only when Camille is imprisoned that she is even sure she is alive. Her long time aquaintance Guy (Jean Yanne) has been searching for years as the legend of this young beauty has grown so that everyone in the country knows the story. Once released she will be the one to help change the country forever, but not before a heartbreaking meeting with her mother and a sacrifice of love.
This film may indeed be slow but it is emotionally rich and the visual beauty of the country itself is magnificently captured. Deneuve's cool elegance is perfect for the part and her Oscar nomination was well deserved. Linh Dan Phan is wonderful as Camille as she goes from the innocence of dancing with her mother to a symbol for her entire country. There are no judgements made here. This is a human film and not a political one. This film is what a Renoir painting would be if it could leave the canvas and find our hearts. It is an impression of a country and a time rather than a clear photograph.
Those who watch this film and stay with it will be richly rewarded. Few films can make the claim to be art, but this is one. Its quiet beauty and sorrow you will not soon forget. You must see, and own, this magnificent film.

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A love triangle set in the days just before the communist uprising in Indochina. A plantation owner finds that her adopted daughter has fallen in love with the owner's secret lover.Genre: Foreign Film - FrenchRating: UNRelease Date: 21-MAR-2000Media Type: DVD

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East-West (2000) Review

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(More customer reviews)I saw this movie at a cinema in Southern California, surrounded by elderly Russian immigrants. It had such an emotional impact that at least one lady was overwhelmed and required physical assistance leaving the theatre when it ended. "East-West" is a stunningly open Russian/French-produced film about life in post-war USSR. Although the characters are composites, the story is based on cruel historical events. When Stalin "welcomes back" all expatriated Russians, Alexei is overjoyed to leave his long self-exile in France and sail to his beloved homeland. Aboard ship, he and his fellow passengers celebrate their imagined homecoming to the glorious "Workers' Paradise". None of them has any idea of the brutal changes which have occurred under "Uncle Joe's" regime. Only betrayal awaits them. Upon the instant of their arrival, they are thrust into a nightmare of totalitarianism from which there is seemingly no escape. Many of the returning countrymen are arrested or executed as "traitors of the state". Alexei, as a physician, is considered valuable and spared, although his French wife comes under immediate suspicion and surveillance. How their sudden culture shock, loss of human rights, miserable living conditions, persecution, and bleak future inexoribly erode their marriage is heart-breaking. The film would be overwhelmingly depressing, but love, hope, heroism, and sacrifice can prevail even under the iron hand of Stalin. I highly recommend this video. Although unflinchingly honest about the Soviet system, it treats the long-suffering Russian people with sensitivity and compassion.

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City of God (2002) Review

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(More customer reviews)"City of God" ("Cidade de Deus") is the story of a boy, but also the story of a "favela" (Portuguese word with similar meaning to slum or shantytown) on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. That shantytown is called "Cidade de Deus". Throughout this extraordinary movie both the boy and the favela grow, albeit obviously in very different ways :)
The boy is Rocket (Buscapé in Portuguese, played by Alexandre Rodrigues), who is born in Cidade de Deus and grows up before our eyes living in it. He is quiet and easygoing, just a non-violent person seeking a way to survive in a brutal environment. Rocket ends up doing exactly that through his passion, photography, that ends up making him an intermediary between the local gangs and the press. He is also the narrator of this movie, the voice that accompanies us throughout many of the stories that "City of God" has to offer...
The other main character of "City of God" is the "city" itself, that starts merely as a couple of houses, but that grows immensely as years go by. The activities in which its inhabitants are involved also change, from petty robbery to organized crime that involves drug dealing and arms trafficking. We see Li'l Zé (Zé Pequeno in Portuguese, played by Leandro Frimino), one of the boys that used to play soccer with Rocket, grow up to become a murderer and a drug lord, someone that makes his own laws. The same happened with others, but Li'l Zé probably represents to most dangerous kind of sociopath that the favela can produce. Rocket and Li'l Zé, same circumstances, different persons, different choices. Who says that where you lives determinates how you are and what you do?. This is an excellent example that that is not always the case...
Directors Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund somehow managed to convey in their movie the full strenght of the novel (written by Paulo Lins) on which "City of God" is based. This film is full of colour and energy, carrying the spectator at a dizzying pace through the twenty years it covers, never giving him time to get bored. It is wortwhile to point out that most of the "actors" didn't have any real experience as such, they just happened to live in different slums of Rio de Janeiro (including Cidade de Deus) at the time when the film was being made. I think that is something that shows in the realism of the results...
On the whole, I can say that I loved "City of God", notwithstanding the fact that it is undeniably bloody and has some very violent scenes. In my opinion, they are not gratuitous, because they help the directors to capture what may really happen in a Brazilian shantytown, and show it to us. All in all, this movie is nothing short of an experience worth having and sharing. If you watch "City of God" and love it as much as I do, do your part and recommend it to others :)
Belen Alcat

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Celebrated with worldwide acclaim, this powerful true story of crime and redemption has won numerous prestigious awards around the globe! The streets of the world's most notorious slum, Rio de Janeiro's "City of God," are a place where combat photographers fear to tread, police rarely go, and residents are lucky if they live to the age of 20. In the midst of the oppressive crime and violence, a frail and scared young boy will grow up to discover that he can view the harsh realities of his surroundings with a different eye: the eye of an artist. In the face of impossible odds, his brave ambition to become a professional photographer becomes a window into his world ... and ultimately his way out!

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Malena (2000) Review

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(More customer reviews)The European release of this film was 106 minutes. This version was cut down to 92 minutes for North American audiences, both to make it more acceptable to short attention spans and to eliminate some of the scenes that included nudity. For those of us who are capable of sitting still for 106 minutes and who are not horrified by the nude body employed in the presentation of a film such as this one, this is nothing less than insulting. Serious viewers of film should be able to see films as the director intended them to be seen, and should not settle for this sort of censorship.

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The latest triumph from Giuseppe Tornatore, the writer and director of the Academy Award(R)-winning CINEMA PARADISO, MALENA is an utterly unforgettable story of a boy's journey into manhood amid the chaos and intolerance of World War II. In a sleepy Italian village, the most beautiful woman in town, Malena (Monica Bellucci), becomes the subject of increasingly malicious gossip among the lustful townsmen and their jealous wives. But only her most ardent admirer, young Renato Amoroso (Giuseppe Sulfaro), will learn the untold true story of the mysterious and elusive Malena! In a captivating motion picture nominated for two Academy Awards, the eventual struggles and hardships that Malena must bravely endure serve to inspire Renato to new heights of compassion, courage, and independence!

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The Night of the Shooting Stars Review

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(More customer reviews)Quite simply the best movie produced by Italy in the post-Fellini/Antonioni era. (And never mind *Cinema Paradiso*, the movie of choice for those who drink cappuccinos after lunch.) *The Night of the Shooting Stars*, written and directed by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, is a semi-autobiographical account of World War II shuddering to a close in the Tuscan countryside. The movie begins with the disembodied voice of a young woman, who proceeds to relate her childhood memories of war to her own child. We hear this as the camera stays glued on a static shot of an open window looking out into the dreamy blue evening. A typically fairy-tale-like Italian village is visible. This sets the stage for the impressionistic narrative that follows. Everything seems exaggerated in this movie, which is to be expected when the incidents are viewed primarily (though not exclusively) through the eyes of an impressionable six-year-old girl. The plot is simple: "San Martino (based on the real town of San Miniato between Pisa and Florence) is earmarked for destruction by the Germans. The villagers must decide whether to stay or leave. Rumors abound that the Americans are in the vicinity -- will they reach San Martino first? Or should the villagers hit the dusty roads in the countryside and find the Americans before their town is destroyed? About half stay, and half go: we follow the half that goes. There are dozens of characters who embark on the journey, so not much time can be expended on characterization. But the Tavianis cast actors of such unique physiognomy that we feel we know them at a glance. Quite often, they're presented as heroic archetypes. The camera seems to glow around the young couple freshly married with a child on the way; it closes in on the village priest so that we can see every pore of guilty conscience in his face. Larger-than-life gestures help carry the characterization along. But it's the set-pieces that astonish with their comic and/or dramatic intensity and their hyper-realism. There's a marvelous bit when the girl, watching a small-scale battle that has erupted around her, associates the combatants with the heroes from Homer that her grandfather used to tell tales about. In fact, there are so many marvelous bits that to describe more of them will ruin the movie for you, but I can't end this review without mentioning the brilliant scene involving skirmishes in a wheat field between our villagers and the local contingent of hold-out Fascists. This, more than almost any sequence in cinema, captures the horror, pity, and sadness of war, and what it can do to a community. (The San Martinians and the Fascists mostly know each other, calling out behind the rows of wheat, "I know you -- you're Carlo from Pistoia, Alfredo's cousin!" It's like the Italian version of the American Civil War.) Finally, the movie serves to remind Americans just how much we meant to other peoples on the earth, and how much they loved us. This is bittersweet for us; perhaps educational for today's crop of young Italians who almost uniformly have "PACE" flags hanging out their windows these days. Anyway, *The Night of the Shooting Stars* is a must-own masterwork, without flaw. Highest recommendation.

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From internationally celebrated directors Paolo and Vittorio Taviani (Padre Padrone) comes thisextraordinary film(Los Angeles Times) about a Tuscan village struggling against Nazi persecution during the last moments of WWII. With its 'stirring, beautiful(Newsweek) story, Night of the Shooting Stars isa celebration of humanity(Wall Street Journal) andmajestic entertainment(Time)!Six-year-old Cecilia is fascinated by the world and everything in it. And when her family and neighbors flee their village to escape the Nazis, it's themost exciting moment of her life! But the excitement turns to terror when the enemy begins to closein. Little Cecilia prays for rescue, on this, the Night of the Shooting Starsan evening during which, it is said, all wishes are granted. Can Cecilia's wish be granted or will this be her eternal night?

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The Night of the Shooting Stars (1982) Review

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The Star Maker (1996) Review

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(More customer reviews)It didn't surprise me that few Americans appreciated this film. Unless you know something about Sicily or have traveled there, you might not appreciate the full scope of this film, which is understandable -- but still, it is a fantastic and highly original movie that stands easily on its own merits.
Set in the late 1940s or early 1950s, the story revolves around Morelli, a conman from Rome who steals a truck, camera, and discarded film from the movie company he works for and drives down to Sicily. Posing as "Dr. Morelli", the conman (played by Sergio Castellitto) convinces whole towns of ordinary Sicilians that he is really a talent agent scouting out new genius in the poverty-stricken island of he south. He could have stepped out of the dream world of the circus. Charging 1,500 lire for a chance to pose before his camera and take a stab at making it as an actor, Morelli offers these Sicilians a chance of fame and fortune in the glitzy world of Rome and America that also means an opportunity to escape the impoverishment of their homeland.
In incredible scene after incredible scene (made even better by a phenomenally good screenplay), Morelli gets these Sicilians to open up. Although they aren't actually being filmed (they don't realize that the film Morelli is using is junk), they think this may be their chance to break into acting, so they spill out their inner worries and life stories as though they were talking in front of a psychiatrist. What results is not only a panoramic and extremely original portrayal of the Sicilian people (including the mafia, bandits, an old Spanish Republican, a 112-year-old Garibaldino, a harassed homosexual, and a beautiful but naive teenage girl whom Morelli falls in love with). It is also a blisteringly sharp attack on the causes of backwardness in Sicily (which still exists today), as well as the sneering attitude of many northern Italians toward the South. While he initially took them to be just "idiotic rednecks" ripe to be ripped off, Morelli slowly discovers the Sicilians' humanity without this film being in any way a quaint or "cutesy" portrayal of how a man discovered the natives in "quaint, sun-baked Italian villages".
"The Star Maker" is full of humor as well as tragedy. As the great Sicilian writer Leonardo Sciascia wrote, humor is a staple of life in Sicily as in few other places -- it has to be in order for survival to go on. Moreover, unlike the stereotypical Hollywood portrayals of Sicily in "The Godfather" movies, "The Star Maker" has a very profound social message. As the girl, Beata, says at the end of the film, "I like movies with a happy ending, where lovers kiss in each other's arms". Unfortunately, in Sicily, a happy ending just would not tell the entire story.
I was flabbergasted and sobered by this film. I was even more flabbergasted by its lame critical reception in the United States and by reviewers at Amazon.com. If moviegoers in this country go on thinking that "Legally Blonde" is the supreme height of cinematic achievement, I really think we're going to go totally brain-dead. Five stars.

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This critically acclaimed motion picture from the creator of the Academy Award(R)-Winning favorite CINEMA PARADISO, was heralded as a masterpiece by critics from coast to coast. Joe Morelli is the "star maker" -- a con man who travels from one small town to the next, claiming to be a talent scout for a top movie studio. And wherever Joe goes, people turn out in droves for a chance at being seen and becoming the world's next big-screen sensation! A lively and entertaining story about the magic of movies and the extraordinary dreams of everyday people, THE STAR MAKER earneda 1995 Academy Award nomination as Best Foreign Language Film!

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