Movie reviews

MRS. HARRIS GOES TO PARIS

Recommended. Beautiful, touching but warmly fairy-tale with endearing Lesley Manville as Ada Harris. Class divide, class struggle and gender gap are shown with warmth and tenderness.

IM WESTEN NICHTS NEUES (ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT)

Recommended. There's no more powerful anti-war message than witnessing a war itself. This movie makes you watch WW1. For nearly 2.5 hours. The opening assails your ears and immediately afterwards your eyes. And it keeps doing so. Relentlessly. Squalor, weekly deaths of 40 000 soldiers, rats, cold, weapons, wounds, carnage, shattered lives. Repeatedly. In between the images of fighting negotiations take place. As the invaders observe at capitulation, the truce needs to be just in order to last. As soldiers observe, a war is like a disease - no one wants it. The German Oscar candidate brings analogies with the ongoing war in Ukraine - unwanted by both sides but the crazed commander. Also, a little mention indicates Jews fought in WW1 alongside German troops. The images and sounds of the war dominate the movie. Yet occasional tones of modern music, always when the troops march out with enthusiasm, are wonderful pieces in their own right. The plot is gripping as you follow one young man from conscription to the very end of the war.

LA SANTA PICCOLA  (THE MIRACLE CHILD)

Watchable. A bit on the slow side. With some hot sex scenes including one good-looking guy (Francesco Pellegrino). It's a tongue-in-cheek view of Italians and their piety. Tricky because the blessed girl fulfills a woman's wish to abort

Reviewed online from Outfilm where the movie was too quiet and froze a few times, cinematic reception might differ.

LES CINQ DIABLES (THE FIVE DEVILS)

Watchable. Barely. "Total Eclipse of the Heart" indicates a lame attempt at repeating the magic of "Deserto Particular" ("Private Desert") - this time in a lesbian version. And without the magic. The song and tripping to mum's real past while unconscious don't make it. Once you discover the secret of Julia's criminal past, it's a soppy melodrama. The beginning where the girl's healthy sense of smell scares her mum is ludicrous. And there's no chemistry whatsoever in this homo-hetero-black-white triangle. 

MANTO DE GEMAS (ROBE OF GEMS)

Walked out. Amateurish. People just go round their daily matters and talk about others. Poorly shot too. For the first 35 minutes I couldn't make out what the movie was about. Then I left.

PIEKNA LAKA KWIETNA (A BEAUTIFUL WILDFLOWER MEADOW)

Recommended. This short film is a damn smart situation comedy with a top performance by Andrzej Kłak.

A policeman consulted on the film so the depicted intervention is quick, as it should be. Director Emi Buchwald says Polish films are rarely shot on tapes, only commercials are. Americans often use tape. Hers is obviously on tape. As for comedy, there was some humour in the director's earlier "Heimat" and "Nauka" ("Education") too. This one is fully a comedy as intended.

KONIKI NA BIEGUNACH (THE ROCKING HORSES)

Watchable. This short film is pure chaos, I couldn't make out the point.

The director explained the disease in the documentary is childhood meningitis, later a mental disease appeared too, the protagonist's mum suffers ftom it too, the director doesn't know what "em zety" ("MZs") mentioned in the film are. There's no solution even though both women have been precisely diagnosed. Ewa saw the film and realised she's happier in the nursing home than at her own home. The beds of her design are truly comfortable.

SEN WUJKA VAKHO (UNCLE VAKHO'S DREAM)

Watchable. Not quite clear what this documentary short film is about but how he takes care of the goat baby is amazing. 

Shot in Georgia. According to the director, the little goat crying desperately refers to his difficult past. 

UCZTA KONESERA

Watchable. This short film is chaotic, at least the music is good.

No wonder the film is chaotic, so is director Sławomir Shuty. But he's not concerned, he "has also seen lots of movies he didn't get". The script alone took 5-6 years, a few editing versions on top of that and filming time extra. A number of women worked on it. The director dreams of making a horror, he's a fan of camp. He's seen all Polish horrors of the break of 80/90s. He's been obsessing about cannibalism for 30 years. 

PRZYTUL MNIE. POSZUKIWACZE MIODU (HUG ME - THE MOVIE)

It's the third full-length movie by Animoon, the producers of "Myši patří do nebe" ("Even Mice Belong in Heaven") and "Muumipapan urotyöt - Erään nuoren Muumin seikkailut"/"Pamiętniki Tatusia Muminka" ("The Exploits of Moominpappa"). This time by two Polish female scriptwriters, produced in 4 years which is fast for an animation. It's cheap (American cartoons have budgets 100 higher), with co-financing from China. Based on a 52-episode series available on Netflix and TV Puls which, in turn, is based on a book which has sold over 100 000 copies. The trailer and the song video I've seen are endearing. Polish Independence Day on 11th November saw this cartoon and other Polish films at special cinema screenings.