Anton Checkhov’s The Duel

Dover Koshashvili 2010

An adaptation of a novella, very much like a novella, it more or less washes over you and then it ends, and then you think about it for a few days hence.

Carnage

Roman Polanski 2011

Not particularly cinematic, but not exactly theater on film either.  You get to see four great film actors (John C. Reilly, Christoph Waltz, Kate Winslet and Jodie Foster) working with excellent material (an adaptation of Yazmina Reza’s play, The God of Carnage, about a meeting between two sets of parents following a scuffle among their respective sons), directed by one of the greatest living directors in the world.  I’d rather have seen it as a play in the theater, but given that I didn’t, and that I might not, I’m glad I got to see it like this.

Enter the Void

Gaspar Noe 2009

The Tibetan Book of the Dead, on screen, via DMT. The descent down the staircase early in the film hooked me, and even if the film and its roving eye dragged on at times, it keeps its own rhythm and delivers a unique experience.

Black Cat White Cat

Emir Kusturica 1998

There’s no reason to take this rich, ebullient, gypsy farce any more seriously than it asks to be taken, which is not very seriously at all.

 

Unknown

Jaume Collet-Serra 2011

Liam Neeson loses his identity while on a business trip to Europe. His wife pretends not to know him – but why? By the time you find out you won’t really care. Despite having all the standard ingredients of a good thriller, UNKNOWN is better left unseen.

Fast Food Fast Women

Amos Kolleck 2000

Anna Thompson does a great turn as a single woman in her thirties in New York at the beginning of the century. She flashes her neighbors, lies down in front of oncoming traffic, and works in a diner. The director is the son of Teddy Kolleck, the much loved former mayor of Jerusalem.

The Double Life of Veronique

Krzysztof Kieslowski 1991

Kieslowski is one of the only directors who was ever able to take a character’s inner experience and convey it as a compelling film.  Highly recommended.

New York I Love You

Various Directors / Produced by Emmanuel Benbihy 2009

Nowhere near as good as PARIS JE T’AIME. The stories shouldn’t have been connected – it ain’t SHORT CUTS. Standout performance by – I shit you not – Shia Labeouf. He held his own with Julie Christie.

Tetro

Francis Ford Coppola 2009

How Coppola is capable of making a sleeper is beyond me, but mark my words: this film will be appreciated yet. Makes you want to go to Buenos Aires toot sweet.

Koyaanisqatsi

Godfrey Reggio 1982

The title is a Hopi word for ‘life out of balance’  and the film is an wordless operatic look at the natural world, circa 1982, and what we’d done to it.  A masterpiece.  Scored by Philip Glass.  Also how great of a name is “Reggio” for a director?