L’amant double

Exactly one year ago, I was in Paris (to watch tennis) and tempted to go see L'amant double which had just opened in cinemas there, barely a couple of weeks after being screened at Cannes. In the end I didn't get time to go, but the fact that we've just had Cannes, and that tennis …

You Were Never Really Here

There's an awful lot packed into these 85 minutes, and they're all pretty intense. Joaquin Phoenix is not averse to taking on an enigmatic role, and this fits the bill. Enigmatic in that he says little and with no exposition, the audience is left to work out what's happening by simply following the action and …

Нелюбовь – Loveless + Q&A

A week in advance of the official UK release, Manchester's leading independent cinema (and my own personal favourite) HOME brought the cinema-going citizens of the region a preview screening of Loveless followed by a Q&A with director Andrey Zvyagintsev and producer Aleksandr Rodnyanskiy. Loveless is nominated for an Academy Award this year in the 'Foreign Language Film' …

Aquarius

"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger." A woman of later years (Sonia Braga), independent and strong-minded, refuses to be forced out of her apartment so that a property company can build a new development on the site. I love this woman. No matter what life throws at her, she knows her own mind and …

The Death of Stalin (2017)

Sadly, although I could appreciate what I was supposed to feel while watching this, it just didn't happen for me. I'm not much given to farce and so although I gave a couple of wry smiles, all the entering and exiting of rooms, and the trying to say the right thing just left me a little irritated, particularly …

Call Me By Your Name (2017)

"We wasted so much time" Spring and part of the summer of 1983 (when this film is set) was the beginning of an important period of my life - although I didn't realise it at the time. Aged somewhere between main characters Elio and Oliver, I spent several months living in Italy as part of …

Le Fidèle – Racer and the Jailbird (2017)

This is a strange one. I thought it had finished twice before it finally got there and found it a little all over the place in clarifying which strand of the narrative was important for plot and which was supposed to be exposition. And yet it was still very enjoyable. I could hear some perplexed …

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

You may recall that I did not like director Luc Besson's previous feature film Lucy AT ALL. But I had seen and heard the reviews, and I do like Jupiter Ascending, so I was prepared to give Valerian a go. Good choice, Marie! Yes there are things wrong with the film, but I had real fun in …

Siete días de enero – Seven Days in January 

Siete días de enero begins in a documentary style, with news reels and on-screen text outlining the events which are about to be dramatized in the film. It may seem like a strange choice, telling the audience the important points beforehand, but in reality this would have been for contemporary Spanish audiences little more than a …

Cien años de perdon – To steal from a thief

The annual VIVA Spanish and Latin American Film Festival swung into life this evening at HOME with a feature and a short, both of which were reminiscent of classic films from decades past, yet which also stood up very firmly in their own right. They are also linked by a theme. TheThe short, Nini, is …