My Top 25 Favorite Foreign Language Films
this week...

1. Cinema Paradiso (89) Giuseppe Tornatore

2. Mephisto (81) István Szabó

3. The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser or Every Man for Himself and God Against All (74) Werner Herzog

4. Les Quatre cents coups/The 400 Blows (59) François Truffaut

5. Christ Stopped at Eboli (79) Francesco Rosi

6. The Girl On the Bridge (99) Patrice Leconte



7. Ashes and Diamonds (58) Andrzej Wajda

8. Fanny and Alexander (82) Ingmar Bergman

9. Seven Samurai (54) Akira Kurosawa

10. Subway (85) Luc Besson

11. M (31) Fritz Lang

12. The Wages of Fear (53) Henri-Georges Clouzot


13. Nights of Cabiria (57) Federico Fellini

14. Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (78) Bertrand Blier

15. Burnt by the Sun (94) Nikita Mikhalkov

16. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (20) Robert Wiene

17. Seven Beauties (75) Lina Wertmüller

18. El Topo (70) Alejandro Jodorowsky

19. La Belle noiseuse (91) Jacques Rivette


20. The Eighth Day (96) Jaco van Dormael

21. The Man on the Train (02) Patrice Leconte

22. The City of Lost Children (95) Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro


23. In the Mood for Love (00) Wong Kar-Wai

24. Le Samouraï (67) Jean-Pierre Melville

25. Chihwaseon/Painted Fire (02) Im Kwon-taek



special mention

Life and Nothing But (89) Bertrand Tavernier



The Son (02) Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne



Cronos (93) Guillermo del Toro

some kind of shit sandwich

There are so many simple pleasures to be discovered watching Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky's documentary, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (04) - that I cannot begin to list them all here. But, here are just a few: singer/guitartist James Hetfield riding down the highway in a custom-built hot rod that looks like a convertible chrome go-cart with painted flames down the side, as he complains about always being "recognized" when he goes out in public; drummer Lars Ulrich going for a curious hike with his father Torben Ulrich (who looks more like a tiny Danish Gandalf the Grey) and then being asked questions about his relationship with the elder by one of the documentarians - after about a 15 second silence, he states (in his always passive agressive tongue) "Well, it's a little hard to talk about him when he's standing right next to me" - not to mention the fact that Lar's Father isn't even quite "standing" next to him, he's sort of bent-over at the waist in some type of yoga pose or suspended mid-fall; guitarist Kirk Hammett saying or doing anything (this guy is so much like Harry Shearer's Derek Smalls character from This Is Spinal Tap 84, that it's beyond scary); former band-member Dave Mustaine (of Megadeth fame) in an almost tearful confession to some of his old band members about how his life has basically been reduced to shit following his dismissal from the band, and then coupled with the knowledge that he later tried to file a retraction against the film-makers for making him look pathetic on film - sorry Dave, no dice - you didn't need any help from anyone else to do that.

Between Hetfield's temper tantrums and child-like demands, Ulrich's passive angst over just about everything (except when one of the Basquiat paintings from his personal art collection sells for around $5 million), Hammett's ditzy blonde persona (despite him being the only original band member with long black hair), producer Bob Rock (who fills in for the absence of a bass player - following Jason Newsted's dismissal and sounds uncannily like Spinal Tap actor Michael McKean) and his not-so-subtle insistance on being accepted as one of the band, former bass player Jason Newsted who acts like a Cancer survivor concerning his freedom from the pain and sorrow known to him as the band: Metallica, the $40,000 a month therapist who also pretends to be just one of the band and follows them throughout nearly all of the film leaving little post-it notes around the studio saying things like: "Zone it!", and finally new band member (and bass player) Robert Trujillo, who can't possibly be capable of consuming all the drugs it's going to take to tune out these three enormously rich and utter flakes. In alot of ways, this film is better than Spinal Tap. Then again, you may not find yourself laughing for the right reasons while watching Some Kind of Monster. There are some truly sad and reflective moments for some of these characters (no one ever really recovered from the death of their original and musically brilliant bass player, Cliff Burton) - and even though this is "real life" they are simply that: characters of their own design. Somewhere in the course of the film, the band manages to write some songs, break up, get back togther, record an album, break up again, lament over how to fire their therapist, hold auditions for a new bass player and eventually go on a world tour. If something like this existed for a group like, say: The Beatles - it would have to be put in the Smithsonian. For Metallica fans, this may be too personal. For everyone else: it's simply a joy ride.

"My lifestyle determines my deathstyle" - lyrics from Frantic

4 out of 5 stars

stick it back in your shirt

Bryan Singer's Superman Returns (06) is shaping up to be a real shit sandwich. Aside from Brandon Routh as the Man of Steel, Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane, Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor (gag), Eva Marie Saint as Martha Kent, Sam Huntington as Jimmy Olsen, Hugh Laurie as Perry White and James Marsden as Richard White, here's the scoop on the most recent casting rumors (from AICN):

Famke Janssen as Lora, Superman's birth mother

Daniel Day-Lewis as Jor-El, Superman's birth father

Jude Law as General Zod

Kevin Bacon as John Corbin

Barry Pepper as reporter/Clarke's rival at the Daily Planet

Kal Penn as Luthor's right-hand man


I actually don't mind Jude Law as Zod. It kinda works. Daniel Day-Lewis is too good for this thing. Barry Pepper? Why don't they just give Michael Caine (can anyone say "Pa Kent"?) and Morgan Freeman a couple of cameos and call it a day...

back to the beach

I love Dune. The film that is. The David Lynch film that is. And while I do not consider myself an "expert" on the topic (that honor would have to go to the Missus - who's read everything there is, was and ever shall be on the subject) I do stand by the original film - and Lynch's vision. Having said that, the mini-series and it's growing spin-offs suck ass. So, I was more than delighted to find out recently that Universal will be releasing a long over-due "Extended Edition" of the classic eigthies sci/fi epic directed by Mr. Lynch. Perhaps "delighted" understates my true feelings about it: I AM FUCKING ECSTATIC!!! I'm sure by now, most of you have seen the 1984 Frank Herbert film translation, directed by Lynch and produced by the original (fuck Joel Silver) mega-producer, Dino De Laurentiis. For a brief history, you can click here, but here's my rather quick take on the whole debacle - that one writer and critic (Sight and Sound) once described as the 'riddle of the sands'...

1972
Arthur P. Jacobs (producer of the original Planet of the Apes) purchases an option on the book. He recruits Herbert as a technical advisor.

1973
Jacobs dies. The rights are picked up by French financier, Michael Seydaux, who was a huge fan of Chilean director, Alejandro Jodorowsky's dune-filled western allegory, El Topo (71). Jodorowsky gets on board and spends $2 million on artists and designers, including: the great comic-book illustrator, Jean "Moebius" Giraud, special effects designer, Dan O'Bannon (Dark Star), and surrealist painter H.R. Giger. According to Giger, Salvador Dali was to be cast as the depraved, Baron Harkonnen (other sources claimed he would have played the role of Emperor) at a salary of $100,000 an hour. The massive script was estimated to cover at least four features, and culminated in the death of Paul Atreides and the transformation of Arrakis into a sentient planet sharing an intergalactic awareness.

1976
Seydaux wisely sells the rights to Dino De Laurentiis and recovers his investment. De Laurentiis commissions a new screenplay from Herbert himself. Herbert fails to truncate his work adequately enough for a feature film version.

1977
Star Wars is released world-wide. With George Lucas' sand-scapes, quasi-mystical theme and a teenager with exceptional powers, science fiction would never be the same again. De Laurentiis, recognizing the similarities between Star Wars and Dune, hires director, Ridley Scott (Alien, 79) to redesign a "fresh" take on the story at Pinewood studios. Scott employs ecclectic author Rudolph Wurlitzer and once-great maverick film director, Sam Peckinpah to write the screenplay. Giger is kept on as the primary art director. His spectacular sandworm and gothic furniture for the film are designed.

Eight Months Later/Early 80's
Everything had changed. Scott's version (budgeted at $50 million) was considered too expensive. The script was veering too deeply into the realm of "incest". Scott quits and begins work on a new sci/fi film titled: Blade Runner. Around this time, De Laurentiis discovers a new film called, The Elephant Man, whose young director is in the running to helm the third installment of Lucas' Star Wars trilogy (Return of the Jedi). His name is, David Lynch. It does not take much to hook Lynch on the idea of directing, Dune. Lynch consults with Herbert, cinematographer Freddie Francis (The Elephant Man) and designer Anthony Masters (Lawrence of Arabia, 2001: A Space Odyssey). He comes up with no less than 7 script drafts. He sets his aspirations high. Lynch: "Some people say about Herbert that he wrote the greatest unread best-seller in the business; one thing I did want to do was to make the greatest unseen epic in the film business."

1984
December. Dune is released theatrically. Audiences and critics are baffled. What happened? Most people were simply not familiar with the language, characters and histories of the book. Lynch refused to dumb down the material. During filming, Lynch showed an uncanny knack for controlling the massive production (and a crew of more than 1,700). The first rough-cut lasted nearly 4 hours. De Laurnetiis was adamant that the running-time should be no more than a curiously arbitrary 2 hours 17 minutes. Editing the film was a different story for the enthusiastic Lynch. It depressed him so much that at one point, he abandoned film-making entirely. Plans for 2 sequels were quickly cancelled.

1986
Lynch directs the film, Blue Velvet. It is hailed as a macbre and twisted masterpiece. He is nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director. The film is produced by Dino De Laurentiis.

Late 80's and beyond
As the film found it's way onto TV and into the realm of home video, Lynch took his name off as the film was expanded (without his approval) once more from it's butchered theatrical version. The film floats into obscurity.

2000
September. A 177 minute version appears on DVD without Lynch's name, known as the "Alan Smithee" version, it features a brochure that opens up to a facsimilie of the original poster where the Lynch name remains writ large, served to demonstrate both what Lynch's preferred cut would have been, and why, in disgust, he disowned the whole thing. The "Smithee" version starts with a Prologue, it's anonymous speaker exuding all the excitement of a heavy smoker propped up on a bar stool. With faint, unintelligible echoes in the background of Princess Irulan's original opening speech, the voice whisks us back (or rather, forward) to the year 6041, before the reign of the Padishah Emperors, when the Universe is ruled by robots and the human race has deteriorated into apathy. Jaroslav Gebr's lurid and cartoonish accompanying paintings illustrate the proceedings. The "Smithee" Dune explains with great care the links and rivalries between the Bene Gesserit, the Guild, the CHOAM Company, the Mentats, the Navigators, the Landsraad and the Emperor of the Known Universe, all of which, under pressure, Lynch had to leave in something of a tangle.

2005
Very little is known at this time about the particulars of the new "Extended Edition" being released by Universal in May (obviously to coincide with the release of Star Wars: Episode III in theaters) and if Lynch will be involved. My guess is that the longer cut will be the "Smithee" version which was originally broadcast on television and released on numerous over-seas DVD editions - and there will be "chapter stops" on the DVD, signaling a non-Lynch approved version. The fabled (and lost) 4 hour director's cut is like the Ark of the Covenant. I will buy this DVD regardless and look forward to seeing an enhanced picture and sound quality. I am actually fond of the theatrical version more than any other. I have no problem keeping up with the dense story and strange characters. Then again, I live with the world's biggest fan of the books. She also gives the Lynch film (sans the "Smithee" version) her seal of approval and neither of us could watch the Lynch-rip off sci/fi channel mini-series without laughing every 5 minutes. Lynch knew what to take out (even if he regretted it) and the ultimate testiment to the greatness of his vision - is the new version's insistance on consistantly stealing from it visually (although I will never understand why the new version's Fremen were mostly all pudgy). Lynch is a "visual" director after-all - and Herbert is a very visual writer. It seems that their artistic marraige may have been a match made in heaven...even if nobody showed up to catch the flowers.

David Lynch: "Reading the first 60 pages was embarassing, but then I became addicted, I just couldn`t get enough of it. And I realized that it might become a great film. I chose to do it the other way around. I tried to reduce the core of the story to a few pages, to add details to this basis. So I didn't take from the novel, but added to its core."

more Dune here

5 stars

By the last quarter of the high school football drama, Friday Night Lights (04), I was suddenly hit with the realization that, Texas football, should go fuck itself. Now, I would probably be drawn and quartered for saying something like that in certain circles, but after having watched the physical, spiritual and emotional effects that this game has had on the characters in the film, I simply wanted nothing but pain to be inflicted upon the community responsible. There is a scene where a prospective college recruitment agent is sitting in one of the kid's bedrooms - coming off more like a federal agent than a football coach - and asking the barely 18 year old if he has "fun" playing the game. The bruised and battered kid of course just stares at him subconsciously as if to say: "are you kidding me?" To make a long story short: football is more than life to this town. It is life, death, the after-life and the goddman ressurection.

The story (which is all true by the way) focuses on 7 main characters: Coach Gary Gaines (Billy Bob Thornton) - the somewhat shady, somewhat fatherly figure to the boys on the team who will do whatever he must to win (for himself and his own family); Mike Winchell (Lucas Black, who was seriously Oscar worthy here) - the struggling captain of the team and main leader of the town resident's hopes; Don Billingsley (Garrett Hedlund) - the running back who can't seem to get out of his father's shadow; Boobie Miles (Derek Luke - also Oscar worthy) - the undisputed star of the team and the true meaning of the word: inspiring; Brian Chavez (Jay Hernandez) - understated but essential to the mechanics of the story; Ivory "Preacher" Christian (Lee Jackson) - beyond "understated", his lack of words or emotion might label him a mute; Charles Billingsley (Tim McGraw - who should have not only been nominated for an Oscar, but should have won) - as a truly scary and pathetic man and also the guy probably voted "least likely to raise a normal kid" his senior year of high school. Director, Peter Berg does such a good job of telling each of their stories (in relation to the game) that one wonders why he was not considered for an Academy Award nomination himself.

The film is beyond good. I'm not going to compare it to any other sports movie, but I am going to call it simply one of the best films about the spirit of the game that I have ever seen. I've heard it referred to as "the Hoosier's of football" but it should not be labeled as anything other than what it is: a great film. David Aaron Cohen's screenplay (working from Buzz Bissinger's book) is unbelievably tight. The story is simple: Odessa, Texas, the late 1980's. The small town has obsessed about the game of football for so many generations - nearly every (respectable) male in the town wears a state championship ring. Everything seems to depend on this event. Shops close early whenever the school is playing a game. If you're on the team, it can mean only one thing (according to head coach Gaines): being "perfect". As if just being an 18 year old wasn't hard enough already. The team almost seems destined to fail from the beginning. Disaster is almost eminant, even in the way the clouds seem to form overhead during practice. I hit upon something quite early in the film, that I wasn't sure was going to develop - but to my surprise and to my delight - it did. Near the beginning, a few of the team members are eating hamburgers at a drive-in restaurant. It's a Friday night. Half the town seems to be in and out of the little dive. A scrungy man with long hair comes up to two of the boys with a baby in his arms. He shows them the ring on his finger and essentially tells them the same thing everybody else in the town who wears a championship ring says: just get it done. Winning is all that matters.

I was very taken by this image of the man with the baby and thought to myself that after these kids won - after the greatest moment of their life - there was nothing left. Most of them just stayed in that town to rot. Without giving away all of the ending (since it's a true story, who gives a shit) if this team won, they too would have more than likely just stayed in Odessa and wore their rings till the day they dropped dead. These are powerful realizations from a film such as this. I wont spoil any of the details of the film for you (if you have not seen it) but there are 3 incredible scenes worth describing briefly. The first, is when Boobie Miles finally realizes that he's got nothing left - after an accident - and his scene in the car with his Uncle is so moving, I felt like balling. The second, when the team is in the final game (half time) and the almost always silent Preacher starts to rally the other players - this scene would have been schmaltzy in any other film, but it really works here. This is followed by Coach Gaines' last speech to the boys about "perfection" - it is so perfect itself that you really feel like you've just gone through an actual war with these characters (and the worst is yet to come). The last scene happens on the side-lines, after the big game, when a father and son re-unite.

This is a real film, folks. A powerful character study, and an extremely smart and well handled property. I could go on about the film, but I think most of it's pleasures should be left up to you to discover. There are visceral scenes here that reminded me of another under-rated film, David Gordon Green's, George Washington (00) - a brilliant and almost perfect "coming of age story" of a completely different kind. I don't know if Friday Night Lights is a "perfect" movie - but that's not what having 5 stars is all about. I'm giving this film 5 stars because I think everyone who truly loves the art of film-making should see it. It's one of the best films I think I've seen from last year. This film is afterall about football. Football is not just a game, and it isn't fun at all. It's a way of life for some people (just like film) and to see it handled with such loving respect and uncompromising realism - this reviewer was simply left awe-struck. And that, brothers and sisters, is what 5 stars is all about.


5 out of 5 stars

Ossie Davis 12/18/17 - 2/4/05

"Here—at this final hour, in this quiet place—Harlem has come to bid farewell to one of its brightest hopes—extinguished now, and gone from us forever. For Harlem is where he worked and where he struggled and fought—his home of homes, where his heart was, and where his people are—and it is, therefore, most fitting that we meet once again—in Harlem—to share these last moments with him." - Ossie Davis, from his eulogie for Malcolm X (delivered at the funeral of Malcolm X on February 27th, 1965 at the Faith Temple Church Of God)

my favorite Davis performances:

The Hill (65) as Jacko King
The Scalphunters (68) as Joseph Winfield Lee
Harry and Son (84) as Raymond
School Daze (88) as Coach Odom
Do the Right Thing (89) as Da Mayor
Joe Versus the Volcano (90) as Marshall
Evening Shade (90, TV Series) as Ponder Blue
Jungle Fever (91) as The Good Reverend Doctor Purify
Grumpy Old Men (93) as Chuck
I'm Not Rappaport (96) as Midge Carter
12 Angry Men (97) as Juror #2
Bubba Ho-tep (02) as John F. "Jack" Kennedy

they're killing me

This film really is a litmus test: if you really liked it, than you probably don't really like horror films or zombie flicks. Zack Snyder was the director of the recent update of Dawn of the Dead (04). This was his first major film for a Hollywood studio (Universal). James Gunn's new screenplay was based on George A. Romero's original 1978 screenplay. Little of the charm, wit, humor, energy, social commentary and over-all horror of the first one managed to make it into the re-make. Shocker. Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber and Mekhi Phifer are the least of the film's problems. Most of the acting is supposed to be visceral, but mostly comes across as stilted. Working with little to no script, there is no doubt that the actors had to rely on their own individual bag of tricks to get them through. With an actor like Rhames - that means playing the same old character you've been turning out since the mid-ninties. I have heard the arguments that this new film was a "contemporary" success compared to the original. Well, I wont bother writing about the original (if you have never seen it - just go out and buy it on DVD right now - in any of the wonderful current Anchor Bay editions) but I will tell you that the only thing that seemed "contemporary" in the new version: was Dave Draiman, Dan Donegan and Mike Wengren's wretched song: "Down With The Sickness". I would not put the 04 version of Dawn of the Dead on the top of any great "genre" film list. This is mainly the type of film that keeps an eager summer cineplex audience laughing and shrieking for it's average hour and a half running time. Any longer than that, and the film would have bordered on something truly unbearable. There is an "Unrated Director's Cut" available on DVD (region 1) that extends the theatrical version by close to nine minutes.

"Don't worry, guys...it's going to look great after we add the CGI, I promise!"

It would have been more of a challenge if the film-makers sought a more "Run Lola Run" route and gone for a complete non-stop thrill-ride. Instead, they just went for quick-footed zombies who make noises something a kin to mountain goats in heat. I will not be buying this film on DVD. I will probably never watch it again. I would have loved to tell you it was "fun" - but the truth is: it's pretty much a waste of a few good actor's talents. I usually don't have any problem with watching Sarah Polley on screen. She lends a perfect non-Hollywood flair to the rather dull proceedings. Jake Weber (when he's not looking like Alan Cumming's heterosexual American cousin - switched at birth perhaps?) was quite interesting in the most well-written part in the film. Mekhi Phifer (who's probably the best actor in the film) was sadly given the most under-developed role and it's a real shame that the writers could not come up with something a little better than what they did. That last comment pretty much sums up how I feel about the film as a whole. Rent it if you like. You wont be insulted by it. Another thing I will say in it's defense is: it doesn't look like an MTV movie, that's for sure. But ya know, maybe it should have taken itself a little less seriously (a plague that affected most of the major studio horror films in the last couple years, Van Helsing especially). I wish I would have seen this film before I saw, Shaun of the Dead (04). Shaun, now almost seems like a perfect parody of this American sub-genre of the horror film: the big-budget Zombie flick. Well, you know what they say: hind-sight is always 20/20. If you want to watch a great Hollywood zombie film (Romero aside) try: Driving Miss Daisy (89). That time - they got it right.

Jake Weber - "I am not Alan Cumming's heterosexual American cousin."

2 out of 5 stars