Celebrated and provocative French director Francois Ozon’s latest film Frantz is a slow-moving but undeniably affecting piece of cinematic art. Set in 1919 with Europe physically and emotionally scarred by the First World War, the film focuses on young German woman Anna (Paula Beer) whose fiancée Frantz (Anton von Lucke) was killed in the trenches in France. Visiting the cemetery
Read moreIranian director Ashgar Farhadi’s The Salesman recently won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Farhadi caused the evening’s second most controversial moment when he refused to appear because of his disapproval of the US government’s travel ban on citizens from selected countries. Instead he had an Iranian-American engineer Anousheh Ansari read a powerful statement about the dangers of divisiveness.
Read moreFrom Luis Bunuel’s dark classic Exterminating Angel to the raucous Steve Carrell comedy Dinner For Schmucks, the hellish dinner party scenario is familiar to cinema audiences. Through some inventive twists and a plot device that plugs straight into contemporary culture, the smart, acerbic Italian Film Perfect Strangers (which screened at the 2016 Lavazza Italian Film Festival and was a box
Read moreWhile few outside the chess playing community will know this true story’s details, The Queen of Katwe is a very familiar type of film. Mixing a Slumdog Millionaire-type story in which a downtrodden person uses their unique talent to lift themselves out of poverty with a To Sir with Love-style depiction of a committed teacher inspiring underprivileged children, this film
Read moreThe Danish Girl sensitively depicts the life of Danish landscape painter Einar Wegener (Eddie Redmayne) and his transition from male to female through gender reassignment. Einar was married to painter Gerda (Alicia Vikander) but came to the realisation that he felt more comfortable as a woman. In the mid-1920’s he underwent the first gender reassignment surgery and became Lili. While
Read moreGambling addiction drama Mississippi Grind indulges nearly all the clichés of the ‘nihilistic loser seeking redemption’ movie right down to the relationship with a hooker with a heart of gold but impressive turns from leads Ryan Reynolds and Ben Mendelsohn animate a slightly creaky story. Ryan Reynolds and Ben Mendelsohn play two pathological gambling addicts, Curtis and Gerry, who try
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