I have seen this movie 2 times now and I will watch it again later. That's for sure. There are so many layers to this film when it comes to being human between humans - family, friends or complete strangers. What is the most important thing while we are here? What do we value? Who eats who? Who uses who, and is it allowed in the name of creative art. Meryl Streep can act, we have known that for decades now. But how excellent and funny Candice Bergen is along with the touching Dianne Wiest. Everyone is doing their best in their acting and it is joyful. It is a film and a story that is told at a slow pace, and that's how it should be. Human emotions cannot always be forced.
Reviews
8 Reviews
Falling
(I) (2020)
This is Oscar material
6 November 2020
"FALLING" is a strong, harsh and very moving film. Beautifully filmed in terms of light and colors, especially the nature scenes. Everyone plays deeply touching and convincing, but especially Lance Henriksen's acting is in a class of its own and he deserves an Oscar! Pay attention to every detail. They are joyful.
The first thing the father says to his little newborn son in the entrance scene: "I am sorry I brought you into this world ... so that you could die" - and the exit scene of this movie is amazing and liberating in more than one way- WOW! It is ingeniously written, directed and so beautifully filmed by Viggo Mortensen, and this film is his debut, as a director. And what a debut!
This IS a film about love - also the love that can not be expressed directly and genuinely and therefore becomes degenerated (bestial) and turned into hatred and pure evil. But it is first and foremost a film about a deeply complicated man and the masculine, about the feelings between father and son, father and daughter - and not least between a man and his two wives. But it is also a film about dementia and what this disease does to a human being and its relatives, and then it is a film about the fear of death. I do not know why we in Denmark or Europe have to settle for a differently cut version? The trailer shows several touching scenes, which are not in this one, among the cut scenes scenes are one where the sister weeping embraces her brother with the words: "Heaven does not want him and hell keeps sending him back!".
The first thing the father says to his little newborn son in the entrance scene: "I am sorry I brought you into this world ... so that you could die" - and the exit scene of this movie is amazing and liberating in more than one way- WOW! It is ingeniously written, directed and so beautifully filmed by Viggo Mortensen, and this film is his debut, as a director. And what a debut!
This IS a film about love - also the love that can not be expressed directly and genuinely and therefore becomes degenerated (bestial) and turned into hatred and pure evil. But it is first and foremost a film about a deeply complicated man and the masculine, about the feelings between father and son, father and daughter - and not least between a man and his two wives. But it is also a film about dementia and what this disease does to a human being and its relatives, and then it is a film about the fear of death. I do not know why we in Denmark or Europe have to settle for a differently cut version? The trailer shows several touching scenes, which are not in this one, among the cut scenes scenes are one where the sister weeping embraces her brother with the words: "Heaven does not want him and hell keeps sending him back!".
The Assistant
(III) (2019)
This is a little masterpiece!
14 July 2020
This movie was to me a little masterpiece. Great script and directing, and so moving acting by Julia Garner the whole way through.
It's slow in it's rhythm ... just as the life and daily routine is for Jane, even though she is stressed, another quality of this movie.
It deals with how men and women see, interact ... and how men use women not only sexually, but also psychologically in a big firm. But it also deals with how some women see other women.
I won't make any spoilers, but pay attention to Jane's observation and "concern" when it comes to her boss - AND her father. That is the red thread for me through out the film.
I will give this movie 12 stars out of 10
It's slow in it's rhythm ... just as the life and daily routine is for Jane, even though she is stressed, another quality of this movie.
It deals with how men and women see, interact ... and how men use women not only sexually, but also psychologically in a big firm. But it also deals with how some women see other women.
I won't make any spoilers, but pay attention to Jane's observation and "concern" when it comes to her boss - AND her father. That is the red thread for me through out the film.
I will give this movie 12 stars out of 10
Osama
(2003)
Despite the cruelty and evil of war and suppression this is also a fairy tale.
19 February 2016
Warning: Spoilers
Much too late this stunning and so moving film came to my attention. I won't go into the obvious story that all other viewers have referred to , BUT I will say please notice all the symbols and signs: the old grandmother telling about boys and girls, man and woman being the same on the inside, the grandmother is also the one cutting off Osama's long hair to make her look like a boy
so that Osama can get a chance to survive, notice how Osama is planting a hair look in a pot and keeps watering it, and notice the old man, the mullah – that Osama later will be forced to marry. This old man is also the teacher in the bathhouse who teach the young boys how to wash and clean their genitals and he teach them of their sexual dreams when they sleep. When Osama inters the bath house the old man says that "he" (Osama) looks like a girl, a nymph, a heavenly spirit. Later on the old man is the one (perhaps the only one) who rescue Osama from being executed when the community and the Taleban have revealed the truth about her not being a boy. The old man brings Osama to his house with his many wives and children. The old man is wealthy and so Osama will be able to look forward to a better life than the poor one she left with her mother and grandmother
or will she? The movie ends with the old man taking a bath so that he can be clean before the wedding night with Osama.
Do also notice the boy, Espandi in the beginning with the incense, Espandi is the one who renames her Osama, and he by turns support her and betray her
Question: has Osama been the chosen one (by the Gods) the special one?
This movie is a masterpiece.
Do also notice the boy, Espandi in the beginning with the incense, Espandi is the one who renames her Osama, and he by turns support her and betray her
Question: has Osama been the chosen one (by the Gods) the special one?
This movie is a masterpiece.
Ingrid and we have deserved much much more.
12 September 2015
Ingrid Bergman – "In Her Own Words" (2015) Ingrid Bergman was a rare and brave woman, and she was of course a big and genuine actress of the very few who lived and died for art no matter the consequences for herself, her children and her husbands.
This documentary is not bad, but it's not successful either. The reason why is that the documentary is simply too private, it does not become interesting to a larger audience. It's mainly private film footage (8 and 16 mm) and diary quotations over and over again. And we see and listen to Ingrid's children telling the same – more or less – again and again, and not one single bad or negative thing is said about their mother. I was not convinced. The documentary runs for 114 minutes and sadly it feels like 228 minutes.
What have Stig Bjökman (the writer and director), Dominika Daubenbüchel and Stina Gardell been thinking about? This documentary would have been complete and beautifully put together IF it have had at least 3 blocks of montages with clips from Bergman's greatest parts. We got nearly 8 seconds from "Casablanca" and that was it!!! We should have SEEN and WATCHED Ingrid in Alfred Hitchcock's "Notorious" and "Spellbound" – not someone telling us about her acting in these movies! And we should have seen clips with Ingrid and Cary Copper in "For Whom the Bell Tolls" or seen Ingrid afraid to be insane in "Gaslight" or Ingrid together with Goldie Hawn in "Cactus Flower" – and I could go on and on! But we didn't. There's a saying that goes: "don't tell, show!" someone is this production should have whispered this saying to Stig Björkman.
It's not until the last 10 minutes that this documentary really speeds up and get's very interesting when we meet Sigourney Weaver, Isabella Rossellini and Liv Ullmann. Weaver recalls what it was like being on stage with Ingrid in her first professional job was as an understudy in Sir John Gielguds production of "The Constant Wife". Liv Ullmann is telling us about how Ingrid and Ingmar Bergman left the set when they were making "Autumn Sonata", because they could not agree on how a dialog should be. All on the set could still hear them quarrel very loudly. Bergman and Bergman came back, Ingmar got his will and they all continued. Now that would have been interesting to see and hear much more of, especially because the movie was about a mother abandon her children for the art.
What a shame, because Ingrid and we have deserved much much more.
This documentary is not bad, but it's not successful either. The reason why is that the documentary is simply too private, it does not become interesting to a larger audience. It's mainly private film footage (8 and 16 mm) and diary quotations over and over again. And we see and listen to Ingrid's children telling the same – more or less – again and again, and not one single bad or negative thing is said about their mother. I was not convinced. The documentary runs for 114 minutes and sadly it feels like 228 minutes.
What have Stig Bjökman (the writer and director), Dominika Daubenbüchel and Stina Gardell been thinking about? This documentary would have been complete and beautifully put together IF it have had at least 3 blocks of montages with clips from Bergman's greatest parts. We got nearly 8 seconds from "Casablanca" and that was it!!! We should have SEEN and WATCHED Ingrid in Alfred Hitchcock's "Notorious" and "Spellbound" – not someone telling us about her acting in these movies! And we should have seen clips with Ingrid and Cary Copper in "For Whom the Bell Tolls" or seen Ingrid afraid to be insane in "Gaslight" or Ingrid together with Goldie Hawn in "Cactus Flower" – and I could go on and on! But we didn't. There's a saying that goes: "don't tell, show!" someone is this production should have whispered this saying to Stig Björkman.
It's not until the last 10 minutes that this documentary really speeds up and get's very interesting when we meet Sigourney Weaver, Isabella Rossellini and Liv Ullmann. Weaver recalls what it was like being on stage with Ingrid in her first professional job was as an understudy in Sir John Gielguds production of "The Constant Wife". Liv Ullmann is telling us about how Ingrid and Ingmar Bergman left the set when they were making "Autumn Sonata", because they could not agree on how a dialog should be. All on the set could still hear them quarrel very loudly. Bergman and Bergman came back, Ingmar got his will and they all continued. Now that would have been interesting to see and hear much more of, especially because the movie was about a mother abandon her children for the art.
What a shame, because Ingrid and we have deserved much much more.
Up the Sandbox
(1972)
Barbra Streisand has never been better or more beautiful than in this movie.
6 January 2012
Warning: Spoilers
I believe that Barbra Streisand and the director Irvin Kershner were way ahead of their time when they did this wonderful and great movie which I think it's highly underrated.
I haven't read the novel by Anne Richardson Roiphe yet, but I will that's for sure.
Margaret (Barbra) is a house wife with 2 small children and a husband (a university professor) whom that she really loves. She had given up her studies (journalism). But at the same time she wants more out of life. She's only Mrs. Paul Reynolds and appendix to her husband. And she does not want to lead a life (petit bourgeois) like her mother, sister and the rest of her family. It's also pretty obvious that Margaret has a very strained relationship with her mother who's always criticizing her directly but mostly indirectly, and who's a real master when it comes to manipulation.
Margaret discovers that she's pregnant again and maybe because of a hormone imbalance or a personal crisis she begins to have these bizarre fantasies. Shall she give birth to this child or have an abortion? What about the future and her own development/growing as a person, and there's the pain of giving birth to a child. (The tribe in Africa who has a natural and painless way of bringing children into the world) Does her husband still love her, and does he find her attractive with small boobs or large boobs? Her mother did also have 3 children, and Margaret does NOT want to become like her mother for anything in the world (the family party). The scene with The Black Panthers, where she and they blows up the statue of Liberty is a dream as I see it. Dark or black people in dreams are often a symbol of hidden and unconscious resources in you, and these are men so it's Margaret's own masculine side which wishes to be liberated. It is the statue or liberty, but a statue is stiff and NOT a live that's why it has to go. In her dream or fantasy she realizes that her husband is inside the statue, and by liberating herself (blowing up the statue) she might "kill" him. The scene with Fidel Castro is also very symbolic. Fidel wants to give women "equal rights" but on his and other men's terms, and the fact that his beard is fake (a beard is a symbol of men's strengths) and that his has got tits tells us that this kind of a man is sick (not healthy) and that woman shall not "become men" or a very manly (masculine) butch woman like this Fidel person. The scene at the end of the movie where Margaret is in the hospital to (maybe?) have an abortion is also pure symbolic in many ways. Remember the older doctor who's a transvestite once more we have them theme of man/woman-mix (power/suppression) just as Fidel as half man/half woman contra being yourself and free or at least have your own choice to choose. This is exactly where the movie ends; what does Margaret really choose when she leaves in the yellow cab? That is the question?
I really like how reality/dream or fantasy is floating in and out of each other.
This is how I see this movie questioning; what is it and what does it take to be a free growing and independent woman, and at the same time still being a mother, wife and having a career?
Great and very important questions asked in 1972 (or even today) when the Women's Liberation and the other sexual movements were growing - spreading and tearing down all the conventional barriers that were build on an old fashion tradition and a stiff sex role pattern.
Barbra's acting – the way she looks – and the scenes with the children are simply breathtaking.
I haven't read the novel by Anne Richardson Roiphe yet, but I will that's for sure.
Margaret (Barbra) is a house wife with 2 small children and a husband (a university professor) whom that she really loves. She had given up her studies (journalism). But at the same time she wants more out of life. She's only Mrs. Paul Reynolds and appendix to her husband. And she does not want to lead a life (petit bourgeois) like her mother, sister and the rest of her family. It's also pretty obvious that Margaret has a very strained relationship with her mother who's always criticizing her directly but mostly indirectly, and who's a real master when it comes to manipulation.
Margaret discovers that she's pregnant again and maybe because of a hormone imbalance or a personal crisis she begins to have these bizarre fantasies. Shall she give birth to this child or have an abortion? What about the future and her own development/growing as a person, and there's the pain of giving birth to a child. (The tribe in Africa who has a natural and painless way of bringing children into the world) Does her husband still love her, and does he find her attractive with small boobs or large boobs? Her mother did also have 3 children, and Margaret does NOT want to become like her mother for anything in the world (the family party). The scene with The Black Panthers, where she and they blows up the statue of Liberty is a dream as I see it. Dark or black people in dreams are often a symbol of hidden and unconscious resources in you, and these are men so it's Margaret's own masculine side which wishes to be liberated. It is the statue or liberty, but a statue is stiff and NOT a live that's why it has to go. In her dream or fantasy she realizes that her husband is inside the statue, and by liberating herself (blowing up the statue) she might "kill" him. The scene with Fidel Castro is also very symbolic. Fidel wants to give women "equal rights" but on his and other men's terms, and the fact that his beard is fake (a beard is a symbol of men's strengths) and that his has got tits tells us that this kind of a man is sick (not healthy) and that woman shall not "become men" or a very manly (masculine) butch woman like this Fidel person. The scene at the end of the movie where Margaret is in the hospital to (maybe?) have an abortion is also pure symbolic in many ways. Remember the older doctor who's a transvestite once more we have them theme of man/woman-mix (power/suppression) just as Fidel as half man/half woman contra being yourself and free or at least have your own choice to choose. This is exactly where the movie ends; what does Margaret really choose when she leaves in the yellow cab? That is the question?
I really like how reality/dream or fantasy is floating in and out of each other.
This is how I see this movie questioning; what is it and what does it take to be a free growing and independent woman, and at the same time still being a mother, wife and having a career?
Great and very important questions asked in 1972 (or even today) when the Women's Liberation and the other sexual movements were growing - spreading and tearing down all the conventional barriers that were build on an old fashion tradition and a stiff sex role pattern.
Barbra's acting – the way she looks – and the scenes with the children are simply breathtaking.
London Boulevard
(2010)
Excing, moving and surprising. Great entertainment!
6 January 2012
This is an amazing film with great acting by all, especially by Colin Ferrell, and it has a very good script. The film has a fabulous slowly build-up suspense, at times it's moving and even funny, but these funny scenes are all appropriate
and the ending makes a full circle to the beginning - just perfect! I'm not a big fan of Colin Ferrell, but in this movie – just as in "A Home at the End of the World" and "Cassandra's Dream" – he shows what a good and marvelous actor he really is.
I would be very happy to recommend this movie, and I'll give all ten stars!
I would be very happy to recommend this movie, and I'll give all ten stars!
Premonition
(I) (2007)
Awkward ending
5 March 2011
Warning: Spoilers
A great and very interesting movie all up until the end
then something really goes wrong and the illusion falls totally a part. We are being told by the mortician that her husband has his head chopped off in the car crash and that's why they refuse to open the coffin. But the undertakers drop the coffin and we SEE the head roll down the street. Then later on we actually witness the car crash with the big gasoline truck
and it explodes with the husband's car stuck underneath and everything goes up in flames which means that the husband is not only being decapitated
he is being barbecued until he IS coke!!! This is not the way to end a good script or a good movie
this is sloppy work!
As always great acting by Sandra Bullock!
As always great acting by Sandra Bullock!
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