Stromboli (Roberto Rossellini, 1950) - The first Rossellini/Ingrid Bergman match-up that apparently like the tabloid world on fire during its production when the two began an extramarital affair. Sounds like it was much more interesting than the film itself. Bergman is a petulant, spoiled and whiny woman stuck on a little island with her new husband and some Italians that don't like her. There's a volcano. Usually Rossellini's neo-realist visual style works, but here it does an already uninteresting story no favors. 5.8/10
Don't Look Back (Marina de Van, 2010) - Sophie Marceau and Monica Bellucci. Seriously beautiful ladies. That's all you really need to watch this movie. Marceau starts physically transforming into Monica Bellucci. It's as weird as it sounds, but it does end up working as an effective story about intense identity crisis. The transformation between the women is slow, and it really is hard to tell when Bellucci actually takes over. Did I mention how beautiful these two actresses are? 6.5/10
Life During Wartime (Todd Solondz, 2010) - In his sequel to the fantastic 1998 film Happiness, Solondz has brought in new actors to play the old characters. Ciarin Hinds is a particularly brilliant work of casting. The film is very up and down, but every scene with Hinds as the just released from prison pedophile (previously Dylan Baker) is fantastic. Other scenes don't work as well, but the film is a mostly enjoyable whole. But damn is it dark and twisted. 6.8/10
The Magic Flute (Ingmar Bergman, 1975) - A filmed stage-play of Mozart's opera. The camera work is pretty great, and the sound is downright magical. I can't really recommend it, though. It's 135 minutes of people on a stage, singing in Swedish. I have friends that think Bergman's film are of the "good but boring" variety. This film will do nothing to dissuade anyone of that feeling. 7.0/10
L'Age d'Or (Luis Bunuel, 1930) - Bunuel's first feature and second collaboration with Salvadore Dali. It's got more of a plot than Un Chien Andalou, but it's still just a surrealist, strange dream sequence. It's got the master's trademark themes of sex, religion, and the bourgeoisie, but it's ultimately a minor work in comparison to his later films. 7.3/10
35 Shots of Rum (Claire Denis, 2009) - A great film about a strong father/daughter relationship and the hardships that come with love and aging. The plot is very similar to Ozu's Late Spring, but Denis is all about the extreme close ups and hand-held camera, giving us a stylistically polar opposite version of the Japanese classic. 8.0/10
Tokyo Sonata (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2009) - He usually makes films that creep the shit out of me but Kurosawa's latest is more of a social satire, or something. It's so subtly weird and then over-the-top at the same time, while also being incredibly moving and funny. A corporate drone is fired, but doesn't tell his family. He spends his days walking around in his suit, sitting in the library and on park benches. The whole family starts to fall apart, and soon every member is on their own strange odyssey through Tokyo. 8.4/10
Valhalla Rising (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2010) - Speaking of The Odyssey, Refn's story of a one-eyed, mute viking named One-Eye (a fear inspiring Mads Mikkelsen) shares some similarities, but it's a lot more violent, compact, and glacially paced. It features a stand-off worthy of Sergio Leone; the beautiful landscape cinematography to rival Terrence Malick; it's got a mist shrouded chapter clearly inspired by Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood. Between the Pusher trilogy, last year's Bronson and now this, Refn is clearly an exciting, (relatively) new directing talent to keep your eyes on. 8.9/10
