Change Your Image
a-bollinger
Reviews
The Artist (2011)
Wonderful feel good movie!
This movie is a gem. Bravo to the French, their movie industry is alive and kicking, and French people actually go and watch French films, not only US blockbusters with lots of CGI and special effects. I'm not French, but I like the guts of men like the producer and director of "The Artist" to embark on the adventure of making a silent b&w movie in these 3D times... Of course, with a lead actor as versatile as Jean Dujardin, they couldn't go wrong. That guy began as a stand-up comedian, went on to star in a very successful sitcom, then created a hilariously funny character called "Brice de Nice", a parody of a wannabe "surfer" beachboy with bleached hair (no way you can surf in the calm bay of Nice...). Director Hasanavicius, co-star Berenice Bejo and Dujardin then teamed up for the first time in two funny and anarchic spy spoofs, "OSS 117". And now this global success for the Artist - I'm sure neither director, producer nor stars would ever have dreamt to scoop up ALL the great movie awards. But they did, and rightly so. And in the midst of all this hype, they remain nice and modest. I was amazed (and happy) that the Academy in Hollywood recognized the quality of this film - just such a pity that on the message board, there's so much anti-French venom. Chacun à son gout, but one should leave politics (and nationalism) alone and just lean back and enjoy a charming peace of good entertainment.
War Horse (2011)
What a disappointment
In English speaking countries, especially Britain, where they like films with horses, "War Horse" may be a cash cow. For the rest of Europe, I guess it will rather crash. The subject matter would have been interesting - showing how many animals suffered in the Great War, alongside the humans. But Spielberg misses the opportunity to really move us. Pseudo-emotional overkill, syrupy sentimentality, shameless ticking off of every cliché available, unspeakably kitschy portrayal of "rural England" 1914, with the farmhouse of the poor Narracotts looking like something out of "Lord of the Rings" - you expect to meet Frodo the Hobbitt every moment... Incredible that this awful trash got such rave reviews in the US. The Germans speak English with a German accent ("bring ze bleck horse..."), the Belgian grandpa and his granddaughter speak English with pseudo-French accents - pure Stella Artois, unbelievable!! (Only because US audiences would not accept subtitles...) - An anti-war movie?? Please - even the war scenes didn't impress me (except the scene - the only memorable one - where the horse races into the barbed wire and causes a short-lived ceasefire). The acting is wooden, the dialogues makes one wonder whether one should laugh out loud or cry with frustration. The tearful (happy) ending is improbable and the Technicolor sunset dreadful. This movie is an insult to everyone with two or three working brain cells.
Captain James Cook (1987)
Marvellous series
I vividly remember watching this enthralling mini series in December 1988, when it was first aired on the continent. When it was aired again, I watched again and it hadn't lost any of its charm. The storyline is captivating, more or less accurately based on the life and journeys of James Cook. It has a nice pace, but not the breathtaking and head-spinning fast cuts of more "modern", video-clip like productions. There are real characters and no cardboard figures. The production values are good for a TV movie of the eighties, and the acting is superb. Very often, if you have such a motley crew of actors of all the countries which have (financially) contributed to the film, the result is not always satisfactory, the actors, due for example to language difficulties, not forming a team. This is decidedly not the case here: British, Australian, French, German and Spanish actors do a marvellous job, especially Keith Michell as James Cook and the German actor Erich Hallhuber, who plays Lieutenant John Gore. Why don't TV stations air such gems more often?