If I was smart I would write each review after I saw the film, but being the procrastinator that I am I put them all off till tonight. If you didn't read by bulletin last week I have started writing up a weekly DVD review so you see what I think about the movies I watch (and I watch 2-5 weekly.) This week I've added in a little Netflix link for you Netflix subscribers along with the IMDB link for the title. If you think a review is 'inadequate' or have something to say, feel free send me a message or leave a comment and I may even add and addition to the weekly review just like I did this week. If your wondering why I use a 5 star rating system, but don't stick to integers it's because I'm stuck with integers on Netflix and this gives you a better view why it got the star rating it did in my Netflix profile. Feel free to check my blog for older reviews.
Au Revoir Les Enfants: This is a French coming of age story of Julien Quintin and his classmates in a Catholic boarding school during the German occupation of France in WWII. Julien befriends a new student who is Jewish (but posing as Protestant). The cruelty of the war makes them grow up fast, in this un-romanticized picture of boyhood to manhood. Great acting for all the children and well shot 3.5/5 stars.
I Married a Monster From Outer Space: I added this to my queue because it's called 'I Married a Monster From Outer Space' and it had been a while since I got my cheesy 50's B-Movie fix, but as I watched it I realized that it was a well shot, well acted low budget sci-fi noir. It is notable that this is a rare film for it's era to have no male hero, Marge, the unfortunate bride of the outer space monster does everything in her power to alert the town and rally the them against the terrors from space that hides in there midst. If you like film noir and 50's cinema you should check this out 4/5 stars.
Visions of Light: I found this interesting but it's for cinematography nerds only, after watching this I added 'The Conformist', 'Naked City', 'Blue Velvet', and 'On the Waterfront' to my queue and bumped up 'Taxi Driver' closer to the top. 3.5/5 stars.
Bande à part (Band Of Outsiders): I've only just begun to watch French New Wave films and watching 'Band of Outsiders' helped me understand what the 'New Wave' entails. This is the story of three people involved in a heist, rather then being about a heist involving three people. The crime was secondary to the relationships and characters rather then it being in the forefront. While it had similarities to film noir, it was not nearly as dark in the story or the photography. Overall enjoyable, but I would have a hard time as describing it as ground breaking. 3.5/5 stars.
Re Cara: Big Fish: Last week Cara found my big fish review to be disappointingly short, and overall useless, so heres a bit more incite to what I felt about the film. One of the great aspects of this film what how the reality was so dependent on the fantasy. Without that fantastic element the relationship and the conflict between William Bloom and his father would not have been believable in the reality based segments of the film. This dependency is very unusably to movies and really played to Burton's strength as a director. Oddly enough that tie in to fantasy makes this one of Burton's most realistic movies that I've seen (apart from Ed Wood, which was a bio-pic) 4.5/5 stars
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