Gangleri – filmreviews

This film was on TV yesterday. I saw Ashley Judd and Samuel L. Jackson, had a peek on text-tv (I don’t have a TV-guide) and saw “Kaufman” as director (which turns out to be another Kaufman than I first thought), so I decided to have a try. There are several films with the same title, but this one is about a young, female detective (Judd) who just got promoted to homicide. In her free time, she is an unrestrained woman, picking up strangers to have sex with. Her first case immediately looks like a serial killer and Jessica and her partner Mike (Andy Garcia) go to investigate the case.
“Twisted” is a somewhat standard serial killer thriller with a few shifts of suspect and a not too surprising end. The acting is good (but Judd looks a bit too sweet for her part) and so is the atmosphere, so for a tv-film, not a bad surprise.
-2.5-

As this Columbian film opens, it suggests becoming a grim serial killer thriller like Se7en or Saw, but soon it becomes clear this this is more like a British police/crime film. Since these seem to become more grim recently, “Losing is a question of method” fits well in that genre. A journalist is dragged into the investigation of a gruesome murder, but soon the focus shifts to something completely different. In the process the Victor falls in love with the way too young, but beautiful prostitute Quica and drags her into the investigation. The film has a very nice sence of humour and the Southern temperament makes it a good film in a genre that is not really mine. The story and plot shift enough to keep you wondering what everything is all about and however the conclusion is not that strong, this film surely is not a bad watch.
-3-

In our famous five minutes to chose three films, we picked out “The Secret” which seemed like ehm, I don’t know what actually; if it seemed like a Da Vinci Code like film, I think I wouldn’t have picked it out, but it was about a secret that was known way back in the past a to a few in the present. The “film” appears to be some kind of documentary about the “law of attraction” which says that everything that happens to you, you attracted to you yourself. The rich are rich by choice, the poor are poor by choice. A completely over the top New Age documentary with scientists and gurus telling you that you lead your own life and that you can have the car you want and be successfull only by having good thoughts and positive feelings. After 20 minutes of listening to all this, we pulled out the DVD and put on something descent: The Prisoner. I have no clue why a DVD such as this one should be in a videostore.
-1-

Opium, diary of a madwoman is a film with a perhaps not too original story, but which is well worked out. Also it is a Hungarian film and I haven’t seen much of those. Dr. Brenner is an opium addict and writer with a writer’s block. Also he is psychiatrist and agrees to an appointment at a remote psychiatrical hospital where he hopes to find inspiration to write again. Brenner’s modern methods (Jung) conflict with the “medieval methods” of Dr. Moravcsik who runs the hospital, but Moravcsik allows Brenner to try his methods on a hopeless patient called Gizella. Brenner is intrigued by Gizella, her illness and behaviour and also finds out that the forced writing of the young woman is better than he even hopes to write himself. The mad and unpredictable Gizella drains the life out of Brenner who starts to use more and more opium, but eventually his only writing inspiration is copying Gizella’s writings.
I know, I know, I give away much of the story, but it is mostly the atmosphere that makes this film a suggested watch. However “thriller” is a bit too much of a description, the film has some good, dark moments, but I would just call this film a drama. The acting is great, the stages are magnificent and inspite of the not-too-good English, the “Naked Lunch”-like commentary of Brenner is wonderfull.
So perhaps this means that the Balkan might be an area to look out for when it comes to films that are a bit different from all the rest. By the way, the IMDb page seems to suggest that the film was based on real diaries.
-4-

A masterpiece directed by a true master of theatre (Peter Brook)
Based on an classic Indian epic, Peter Brook & his international team have created masterpiece film. Peter Brook captures not only the story/plot but conveys the nuances & philosophies within this Indian epic. It is amazing that Mr. Brook captures the essence of the characters even in the “stylized” filming. If I am not mistaken, the full version is nine hours long. Nonetheless, it captivates the audience. Peter Brook is a great director. Excellent!!!

This is what it says at the IMDb page of this film. I just pulled it from the shelve at the DVD rental, interested to see if the gigantic Hindu epic would fit in a 164 minutes film. Reading the quote, the film is again a shortened version of a TV-series (which apparently also has a 9 and a 5 hour version). The film is alright story-wise. Slightly confusing is the fact that Gods and men are all just men and rather quickly is jumped from the world above to the world below. Furtunately I have read my share about Hindu mythology, so most of the time when I hear a name, I know what the film is talking about. It looks like Brook stayed quite closely to the actual story, so this film/series works well if you want to get a rough scetch of the Mahabharata.
As for the film itself, in my eyes it is far from a “masterpiece film”. The acting is silly, the dialogues boring and the English pronounciation awfull (which is in a way a good thing, since at least mostly indigenous actors were used). These harsch words do not mean that this is a terrible film. I had to get used a little to the 90′ies overall appearance, but the story and the way the text is dealt with, still make this a nice viewing experience, especially from an educational viewpoint.
-2.5-

The film is not as “hilariously funny” as the box promises, but this film is quite amusing. It holds the middle somewhere between “Forrest Gumb” and “Fargo” (a little closer to the first title). Albert Burroughs is a “retard” fishing wonderkid who has won an awfull lot of money at fishing tournaments, so he draws attention of certain people. The story isn’t really original and the film is even quite predictable, but still not a bad watch. Playing in the same area as “Fargo” and with similar shady figures Albert is tried to be manipulated for obvious reasons. With amusing scenes and nice dialogues the story continues, shining its light far ahead.
-2.5-

Directing veteran Cronenberg has made a nice drama/thriller that opens with a peek into the Russian community on London to slowly shift towards the Russian maffia (or rather Vory V Zakone). The very naive Anna (Naomi Watts) wants to find the family of a young woman who died in childbirth on her shift in the hospital. However Anna is of Russian descent, she fails to recognise the swamp she walks into. The film seems to give a nice idea of the Vory V Zakone and in total is a nice watch. Too bad about the thin ending! The film has some quite brutal scenes by the way.
-2.5-