Saturday, January 29, 2011

Film Festival - DVD and PVR Category

Mademoiselle Chambon

I used this movie to practice listening to French, breaking it up into three 40-minute segments and then watching each segment first with English subtitles and then without subtitles.  It doesn't have very much dialogue, just a lot of longing looks and meaningful glances, so it didn't work very well for that purpose.   Like French movies in general, it takes an honest look at people caught up in the situations that people get caught up in.

My rating:  *** (out of 5)

Carlos

Because this movie is six hours long, I had serious reservations about it from the beginning.  It is a fictionalized account, done in documentary style, of the pro-Palestinian revolutionary Carlos the Jackal, who was active in the 1970's.  We get a fairly detailed look at what he does, but don't really get an explanation of why he does it.  Nor do we get an explanation of why men wore such ridiculously long sideburns in the early 1970's.
There's nothing wrong with this movie, but it's not the type of movie I enjoy and that's why I'm giving it a low rating.

My rating:  ** (out of 5)

Winter's Bone

If I were a member of the Academy, Winter's Bone would win my vote for best picture (although I haven't seen The Social Network, Inception, 127 Hours, or Toy Story 3 yet).  It recounts the story of how Ree Dolly, the 17-year old daughter of meth manufacturer Jessup Dolly, goes about keeping her family together after her father, out on bail, disappears.  The music is fantastic and the portrayal of the inter-related families and the "moral" code that ties them together is believable.

My rating: ***** (out of 5)

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