Produced in Belgium in the original English language by a French director for a story set in Germany. An impossible love develops between a young man who is making a career in a company and the young wife of the old owner. At a certain point the young man goes to live in the old man's house, of which he has become trustee. Obviously things get complicated, but only because feelings need to be managed. However, everyone is in their place. Then there is the young man's departure for Mexico, where he will go to found a new business for the company, the outbreak of the First World War, the impossibility of communicating between Germany and Mexico. Seven years will pass before the two "young people" can see each other again. In the meantime the old man has died. Green light to feelings, now. Even if the story is therefore that of a long passion that is maintained over time despite the distance, therefore not a particularly original story, in the writer's opinion the film is well directed and acted. Certainly more suitable for those who love romantic stories without melodramatic excesses, with a dry flow that records facts and people, without expressing judgements. Life is also about resisting events.

To know if the ending is really happy as the title suggests, you need to see the film. In metaphor, however, it does not only refer to the end of the film, but much more generally to the sense of the future. We are talking about a rich bourgeoisie in Calais who must solve various problems both in family relationships and in the company, where an immigrant and irregular worker loses his life. The old man has already attempted to commit suicide, even her granddaughter has no qualms about poisoning someone in the family, after as a young girl in a scout camp she passed the sedatives prescribed to her to a companion she didn't like. Despite all this, the family members don't seem particularly upset, so much so that there is a final party, in which something unexpected will happen. Very pessimistic story about enriched humanity, therefore, which seems to have lost the meaning of life. A sort of unconscious existential nihilism. There are no positive values, unless wealth as an end in itself is considered such. For its logical rigor the film is certainly appreciable, just as logically several scenes are represented without any feeling, given that they are videos shot through a cell phone, as happens in real life too often when there is an accident and no one helps, some prefer to film. All of this can also be taken as an irony when faced with the behavior of those who turn the other way in order to continue their business.

Dear American film, in which two elderly people find each other. Man accumulates in view of the end of the world, woman is a serial accumulator without a specific purpose. Some problems were soon resolved with relatives and acquaintances. It is no coincidence that she is slow to invite the man to her house. The man's son was unaware of his father's concerns, and he is brilliant at organizing the necessary supplies for when the time comes. The two still manage to decide to get together, love is good for life... but... what will happen in the end?

Roberto Minervini, Italian by birth and American by adoption, made his name in international cinema with documentaries that described modern American society in all its contradictions. He now approaches fiction without denying his art as a documentary maker and tells us about the American Civil War by following a group of comrades sent on scouting missions without great chances of success. As is clear scene after scene, what Minervini is interested in, however, is not telling us a story, but immersing us in that situation. His story becomes a sort of imagined documentary of times gone by. Scene after scene he wants to show us the fatigue of war and how inhospitable and cruel nature can be. With a precise use of sound it makes us feel abandoned in the middle of a forest with the wind blowing and freezing our heads, the snow freezing our feet and only the crackling of a fire made with wet wood trying to give us relief. We are more in the area of ​​The Thin Red Line than Saving Private Ryan, even if the religious inspiration is decidedly more contained and the soldiers' reflections are relegated to a couple of scenes that are not too original. Everything is inspired by a homo homini lupus also recalled by the opening scene. There is little hope even among those who belong to the faction that we know will win the war. In the end, The Damned is a film more of form than substance which unfortunately struggles to captivate because its characters are little more than sketchy despite the inquisitive close-ups. Good technique but little soul and for today's cinema it's a bit little.

Kumiko is a treasure hunter. Kumiko has a rabbit. Kumiko walks on the beach, enters a cave, digs with her hands in the ground, finds her treasure. A VHS of Fargo, the Coens' film. In the film, someone buries a suitcase full of money under the snow. And Fargo, you will surely remember, opens with a warning: "this is a true story." Kumiko believes it. That briefcase must still be buried there, under the snow. The treasure is waiting for her. So she leaves, Kumiko, from Japan towards Minnesota. Towards the treasure, towards the snow, she is inside a film which is a true story, but remaining on the margins of that story which is her life. Because here we are talking about depression, estrangement from reality, loneliness which becomes a unit of measurement of the things of the world. We talk about that snow that covers the hearts of men, that deadens their beats, that freezes every heartbeat, that covers entire expanses of existence. I experienced Kumiko's story with a sense of growing sadness. I had no idea what kind of film it was, the title and the first scene, on the beach, made me think of something different, dreamy and tender. I was ready to fall in love with Kumiko, but she did everything to reject me, just as she did with all the people she met during her journey. But I loved her very much, and I still love her. This young girl's profound depression and sense of estrangement from reality make her perform gestures that absolutely destroy social relationships. The most touching moment, at least for me, the one in which she definitively detaches herself from everything and everyone, is the abandonment of the bunny on the subway seat. A sad, silent, heartbreaking farewell,

Solène is the owner of an art gallery in a suburb of Los Angeles, a forty-year-old single mother who finds herself facing a divorce that is not exactly wanted but necessary. Ready to face a much-desired solitary weekend in the woods, her ex decides to ruin her plans by asking her to accompany her teenage daughter with friends to the Coachella Music Festival, upsetting not only her plans, but unknowingly also her life.Solène will accidentally meet Heyes Campbell, singer of the hottest boyband on the planet, August Moon, handsome, famous, charismatic... and twenty-four years old. The immediate chemistry between the two soon turns into a relationship full of passion. But soon the young man's fame will be the creator of a thousand challenges that the couple and in particular Soléne will have to face, realizing that enduring a life in the spotlight is not something that easy to bear. The premise seems like that of a sort of fanfiction dedicated to Harry Stiles (but the author of the best-selling novel from which The Idea of ​​You is based, Robinne Lee, categorically denies it), but the film manages to range, focusing not only on the relationship between Heyes and Soléne from a relational point of view. The character of Soléne allows the film to explore several universal themes. One of the most prominent is the issue of social expectations regarding age and relationships. Soléne finds herself navigating a world that often judges relationships between people of different ages, especially when the woman is older. The film also addresses the theme of motherhood and the mother-daughter relationship, showing how Soléne tries to be a positive role model for her daughter as she pursues her own happiness. Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine have an undeniable, palpable and authentic chemistry, making the their love story. Galitzine, as Hayes,

A well-made spy story that stands on the shoulders of its magnificent protagonist (how much we miss it...). The atmosphere is that of films like Mole or series like Slow Horses; wrinkled spies and losers, who despite everything try to make a difference.

Hung returns to the international spotlight after having signed The perfume of green papaya and Cyclo in his youth, admired and awarded at various festivals. With Il gusto delle cose you decide to talk about the everyday life of love and its manifestation in small gestures, without shouting or ostentation. She does it with sumptuous direction that accompanies the protagonists in a sort of opulent culinary dance. The camera follows the protagonists, cradling them by suggesting their feelings between the preparation of one meal and another. The story of a life, of an affection, is consumed in the kitchen. Hung takes us into the middle of the kitchen among ancient ingredients and tools, making us feel the power of food. So what doesn't work? Unfortunately the script. The plot is too rarefied and the events are few for the over two hours duration. Everything is lost between a dessert and a second course. The steam from the kitchen clouds the spectator's vision and in the end he feels exhausted. An interesting subject which however seems to lack a narrative twist. Benoit Magimel and Juliette Binoche (formerly a couple in life) confirm their chemistry and manage to give us remarkable moments of complicity. Affection must only shine through their gestures rather than words. Unfortunately, however, everything seems very embalmed in a society that in fact left little for unexpected transport. Winner of the best director award at Cannes and representative of France at the Oscars for best international film The taste of things remains a film that nauseates the viewer by dint of food and risks ending up like the fois gras goose. In the end, such an aesthetic staging seems to hide little. Smoke in the eyes?

I have always been fascinated by contemporary Korean cinema and its most capable directors: Kim Jee-Won who amazed the world in 2003 with that absolute masterpiece of "A tale of two sisters" and in 2010 he was the author of the beautiful "I saw the devil" ;Bong Joon-ho who came to the fore with the excellent “Memories of Murder” in 2003, who achieved worldwide fame in 2013 with “Snowpiercer” and who in 2019 reached where no one had ever even remotely imagined winning the 'Oscar for best film with “Parasite”; Park Chan-wook who in 2002 directed the excellent “Mr. Vendetta” and the following year he made one of the most beautiful films in the history of cinema, that “Oldboy” whose screenplay is still studied and analyzed in film schools while in 2005 with “Lady Vendetta” he closed the "Trilogy of Vendetta" which had brought him great fame and not yet satisfied he will direct two films such as "Stoker" in 2013 and "Mademoiselle" in 2016 of the highest artistic level; Na Hong-Jin with the surprising debut of "The Chaser" in 2008 followed by amazing “Goksung” of 2016; Yeon Sang-ho author of the most beautiful zombie film ever, “Train to Busan” of 2016 which will remain an extraordinary gem and of “Psychokinesis” of 2018 which denotes his ability to deal with comic movies; Kim ki-duk, the artistic father of the aforementioned directors, the master who embodied the Korean cinematographic spirit. This “The Moon” is also the work of a Korean director, Yong-hwa Kim, a filmmaker who I personally did not know until today and who with this film begins to appear on the international stage. Played entirely by Korean actors, the film describes South Korea's attempts to manage to bring its own crew to land on our satellite. The first launch, although the government is very confident, turns out to be a catastrophe: after a few tens of seconds from I launch the rocket

There is a language that unites all of us bipeds who grope on this little planet floating in the Milky Way: music. Music consoles us, makes us fall in love, gets us excited, makes us wag our tails while we cook, brings out people, places, scents that they are part of us. Music has a soul, like this film. Dan and Gretta, the two protagonists (an excellent Mark Ruffalo and a delightful Keira Knightley) infuse the film with energy that flows karstly and then in some moments overflows and it overwhelms us by making us love characters who are so simply human but desperately in love with Life. How can you not love Dan Mulligan? A wrinkled Mark Ruffalo, an adorable scoundrel with a heart of gold who navigates between a job as a successful ex-producer that is marginalizing him with a broken family behind him and an adored daughter to get closer to. And what about Gretta, "cuckolded and beaten ”? Keira Knightly with her wet chick pout who slowly goes back to being a woman who knows what she wants (and above all what she DOESN'T want) and that with Dan... Who knows. And so here is the meeting of vulnerable souls, two hearts with wounds still painful where he senses her talent and, after listening to her play one of her songs, proposes to produce a CD for her (yes, the film is a few years old... now they would publish the song on Spotify). "Shall we do it or not?" Obviously it will be done (and it will be a success), the author who has lost the self-confidence produced by the ghost of the successful producer. I (the writer) as they say "I have a certain..." and when I was As a teenager we made "cassettes": 60 or 90 minute cassettes where we recorded what we now call 'Playlists' and gave them to those who made our hearts beat faster and which, now as then, was a kind of diary where the music and the

“The Secret Fan,” directed by Wayne Wang, is based on a novel by Lisa See, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. Although both the director and the original author of the novel are of more American than Chinese origin, the film was made entirely in China, with the clear consent of the local authorities. This detail, often overlooked by other reviews I have consulted, is important to better understand the meaning of the operation. In fact, it happened that the director added another story to the original story of the novel, set in contemporary China. The story of novel talks about Snow Flower and White Lily, is set in rural China in the nineteenth century, when the little girls whose social advancement they wanted to encourage were still subjected to binding their feet so that they remained small, which was intended as a sign of distinction. Certainly not of social advancement, however, unless at a certain point they became widows after marrying a rich man: up to that point they were in fact subservient to their family of origin or to their husband. The story added to the film, of Nina and Sofia, instead, it is set in present-day Shanghai, and anyone who has been to this city will find images of the skyscrapers with the famous television tower more than once, which can be seen from the Bund, the riverfront characterized by colonial buildings from the late nineteenth century and later, where the Europeans had their own business district and trade. From the city center the riverside can be easily reached on foot via Nanjing Lu Street, and all those who reach the city for the first time for work, commerce and tourism are invited to this route, which is also accompanied by skyscrapers always spectacular in shape. There we realize the leap, even more than in Beijing

Conceptually Hitchcockian film in that the spectator knows more details of the characters on stage. Dark comedy that plays a lot on dialogues creating black humor situations. The couple Cristina and Jesus begin the film while arguing over the purchase of a coffee table which will be key for the turning point of the film, the death of his son which Jesus will then have to hide from his wife, creating black comedy situations with references, teasing about the broken table and the subsequent arrival of the relatives. The scene of the son's death is well managed, it is out of bounds, there is a slow movement of the camera and you can hear the table crash. Casas' direction often opts for the destabilizing hand-held camera and often tries to frame Jesus' reactions, his turning pale in the face of his wife's speeches and jokes. and therefore to internal confusion. At times it may perhaps be a little too wordy but it is a black comedy that knows how to do its job by playing with Hitchcockian suspense and showing macabre touches with hilarity.

As a chapter it is better than the previous one, there isn't that whole part with the multinational managed badly and in a rather childish way, just as there isn't the classic generic human villain. However, Wingard confirms himself as not having the slightest sense of the epic, he doesn't know how to give a mythology, a strength to the kaiju and the lore he creates. This is due to the timing that the director proves he really doesn't have, there's no breathing space, everything is fast, even the introduction of the Kaiju, including the new ones they have no emphasis, there is no intensity and in general a certain eye is missing, the ability to construct iconic shots. Even when he tries, when he uses long shots showing the whole, the totality of the scenario or the moment from a glance, the final result is never memorable and not even Wingard himself seems to believe it as these moments are hyper fleeting. So the staging is standard, it's a film if the Russos or Col-Serra had directed it I don't think there would have been any differences and that's a bad thing. Skar King's entrance on the scene is too flat especially because we are talking about the main villain, I repeat, there is no visual power, just as there is no drama in the human side either. Jia's key moment for example has no awareness, it has no narrative arc, he simply makes the gesture without the direction even building an expressive moment around it. The Iwi tribe is the same, you don't stop to understand how the tribe works, to explore it, to make some characters interact, it's always all fast. Personally I love films of the Showa era so it's certain that a Godzilla film doesn't necessarily have to be as serious as the recent Minus One, it plays a whole different league compared to Wingard's film, but the Showa films were the triumph of craftsmanship, Godzilla, the kaiju

Two different films: this is Challengers which for 2 hours infects us with the sentimental and very little sexual disturbances (contrary to what the advertising wanted us to believe), of the three protagonists ready to do anything and everything to confuse the plot and prepare the way for the final clash, i.e. 25 minutes of tennis clash shot in a masterful way even if at times redundant like all of Guadagnino's cinema. In fact, I confess that I have not loved Guadagnino since his previous works and this Challengers is the sum of all his qualities and all his defects. Because the directorial skills of the Italian director who is now a permanent fixture in Hollywood are undeniable. An impeccable technique and an always personal point of view. Sometimes, however, he fiddles and the constant desire to amaze gets out of hand. In this Challengers the last half hour is remarkable: his direction combined with the editing and the soundtrack create something that hasn't been seen on the big screen for a while, but there always remains that feeling that he could have done a little less. Also because this type of direction is accompanied by a screenplay which to say is redundant is an understatement. The first two hours are a concentration of insecurities, contradictions and illogical behaviors which, in the scriptwriter's intention, should create the substrate for the decisive meeting, but which in reality weigh down everything. In an hour everything could have been said and the disagreements between the protagonists which, according to the screenplay, would have lasted years and years more credible. The result is a discontinuous, irritating film (who knows why when I write about Guadagnino before or after I use this adjective) built in a rather fashionable way on the figure of Zendaya in continuation of a continuous cool language. Probably worth seeing, less likely loving.

With a rigorous and form-conscious style, Schaublin outlines the control of time as the foundation of capitalism and social imbalance. The asynchrony present in Bern (with four different times) represents the manipulation of time which causes social asynchrony, the progression of social classes on different tracks at different speeds. On the contrary, the anarchist's job is to balance the different speeds, thus rebalancing the social imbalance. Original and precise.

Jeff Daniels plays a real estate entrepreneur who is apparently very rich and "bigger than life" but who in truth struggles to stand both financially and physically (the metaphor of the knee which, as a former football player, now betrays him, is all too clear). On the other side, intertwined with that of the tycoon, is the story of a black boy (related to him as the secretary's husband) awaiting trial and who risks a heavy sentence for having responded to the rude methods of a white policeman and not having agreed to a plea deal in the face of the obvious prejudice of a judge (also white). It is therefore an interesting miniseries (in just six episodes and self-contained) on wealth, power, appearance and racial contrasts (it is no coincidence that the series is set in Georgia); not a masterpiece, but in which interesting ideas can be found.

A very beautifully packaged adaptation, well scripted, directed and acted. The story doesn't add much compared to Minghella's film, but the tones are darker and colder (starting from the choice of black and white) and the key to understanding and the parallel between the protagonist and Caravaggio is interesting. The main flaw is the duration; in the sense that the series could easily have lasted at least two episodes less; despite this, viewing is recommended (strictly in the original language also to appreciate acting and exchanges in different languages).

Debut film for Canadian director Ariane Louis-Seize who directs an adolescent film, a coming of age film with horror comedy tinges where issues such as suicide, bullying and oppression are addressed. Sasha is a vampire who doesn't want to kill , her fangs are slow to emerge, she is oppressed by her family, with the exception of her father who represents parental oppression, the desire to force her daughter to grow up according to dogmas. Paul is a bullied boy who has no friends and is depressed.Both characters have suicidal tendencies and would like to end it hence their meeting and the future story between the two.It's interesting how Ariane Louis-Seize plays with the sexual references between the two characters. Sasha is unable to let out fangs, he is compassionate and would not like to kill, the presence of Paul, seeing him in danger however acts as an erection as on such occasions the fangs come out. It is therefore the female character who has to penetrate the partner, overturning the sexual dynamic. By its vampire nature, the film has a dark style and photography, the packaging, the basic staging is actually good. Due to the tendencies that Sasha and Paul have, their character, depression and underlying melancholy, the rhythm of the film is cadenced and the direction also opts a lot for fixed shots. There are overtakes that work like the one in Sasha's room where the warm light slowly arrives in the background. It's a debut film so style is to be defined, certainly some moments could perhaps have been more rhythmic and perhaps more daring could have been made with the presence of blood and the dynamics of the vampire bites. Other moments could perhaps also be a little uncertain, like when a boy going bowling goes to collect the glass of the broken glass in a dynamic. So yes,

Well staged Korean horror-thriller where Jang Jae-hyun knows how to create good suggestive shots, the director, as in his previous films, talks about dualisms. The film begins with the shaman Lee Hwa-rim who looks out of the window during the plane journey irradiated by sunlight. Light and darkness, as in Priests Jang Jae-hyun frames the people walking peacefully, in Exhuma in a more fleeting and less insistent way, signifying the population living peacefully despite the presence of darkness through spirits and forces supernatural. In addition to this, in the film there is a discussion on how it is the bourgeois class that turns more to shamans or experts in occult forces, the wealthier class lives its own luxurious life but has darkness behind it as if to say that the origin of this wealth is marked, precisely, by dark and malevolent acts. The story narrates the formation of the occult team mainly following the geomancer Kim Sang-deok and Lee Hwa-rim. At first the team joins together for economic reasons , Hwa-rim is described as a shaman who is very attached to the economic aspect of her clients and in fact despite the warnings and doubts about San-deok's case, Hwa-rim wants to move forward. Shamanic rites have their good results, the The dynamics of the exhumation are well managed with atmospheric shots such as that of the tombstone, but in general the setting, the forest, the symbolic element of the foxes are functional to the context of mystery and horror of the film. Jang Jae's direction hyun uses camera movements that represent the presence of the soul which, now freed, haunts the heirs of the Park family. Jang Jae-hyun does not give in to the temptation to show easy jump scares, the presence is seen through mirrors and reflections. Maybe it could have been do more than the pivotal moment when the spirit undermines the Park family's newborn, despite the alternating editing the dynamic could have been more tense. Already in the first

I'm too biased because I awarded it together with FilmAmo Family as best film at the Not Film Festival. But this is an extraordinary film. Because it was shot with zero euros. Only 4 actors. Shoulder camera and off you go. A cross-section of sentimental education among young people on the other side of the world, who dream of a Western world. If you are a parent or teenager, watch it, Extraordinary Film