Postcards from the Edge (1990)

Seen on 19-9-2013
   It is about a mother-daughter relationship, one an alcoholic and another a drug addict fresh out of a detox centre.  Their relationship is complicated by the mother mothering her grown up daughter while unconsciously showing herself off as someone who was a better performer than her daughter,while  trying to help her in her acting career.  Meryl Streep plays the addled addict trying to make sense of ego masquerading as love on the one hand men take advantage of her even as she is bungling her way through her Hollywood career.  Shirley McLean playing the mother, both had put in memorable performances.  Both in a sense are cracking while desperately trying or save themselves from the crackup.   The comedy is good and the knife-edged throw away lines coupled with some lyrics leave a deep impression.

Spring 1941 (2008)

Seen on 19-9-2013
     A memorable movie about a Jewish doctor and his family seeking refuge from Nazis in a German grocer's attick (like in Inglorious Bastards with Christoph Waltz) getting caught in complications with the infatuation of their hostess ending in exposure and eventual death.  The lone survivor, the wife of the doctor, a renowned cellist, living on the tragic memories of the war.

Coco Before Chanel (2009)

Seen on 18-9-13
This biopic is about an orphan girl, nicknamed Coco, struggling to survive and live independently and with dignity, going on to become the most influential fashion icon in France--CHANEL!

Films seen from Sep 5-17, 2013

10/09   -  The Soloist (abt a street singer, played by Jamie Foxx, being helped by an LA reporter).
12/09  -   The Night of the Shooting Star (Italian. Abt people fleeing Nizism and hoping American forces to save them)
13/09. -   Age of Innocence (dir. Scorsese. *Daniel Day Williams, Winona Rider, Michelle Pfeffer)
                   Based on Edith Wharton's novel
15/09  -  Declaration of War (French.  Abt young starry eyed lovers desperately fighting to save their son from deadly cancer, spending their first years of marriage hopelessly pursuing doctors and hospitals). MUCH LIKE US IN THE EARLY DAYS OF MARRIAGE TRYING TO SAVE OUR FIRST BORN DAUGHTER.
16/09  -  A Bronx Tale (1993 De Niro crime drama, very different from the type, where the father is trying to protect his young impressionable son from the influence of a neighborhood gangster)

Notes on Scandal (2006)

Seen on 4-9-13
       Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench played the lead roles (the reason for our choice) and it is abt a an art teacher getting involved with one of her pupils, a 15 yr old much younger to her.  To keep this secret affair under wraps she has to befriend another teacher whose intention to blackmail her into a homosexual relationship become evident later.  When things go out of control eventually, all hell breaks loose plunging both women into trouble with the school, family and society.
        Good but not all that worth spending precious night hours on it.

The Hedgehog (2009) - French

Seen On 3-9-1013
      - This is said to be based on the best-selling novel by the French philosopher, Muriel Barbery.  This seems to pit the absurdist philosophy of meaninglessness against the earthy love of life.  A precocious young girl decides to end her life on reaching her 12 th birthday, about 300 days to go, because of  the essential absurdist view that life is like a fish in a bowl--a trap to escape from.  She is not afraid of death, but on the other hand, despises people around, given as they are to their silly fads.  She, however, enjoys filming life all the time, as a kind of aesthetic object. While she awaits the D-day she set for herself, she gets involved with the conceirge, a widow in her early 50s  (the janitor of their of apartment building), who lives a secluded life and nurtures a private passion for literary books; Tolstoy is her favorite.  The young girl befriends her and eventual grows fond of her.  eventually she comes to know that love suddenly enlivened her arid life when a Japanese man started seeing her.   At this point of time the concirge is accidentally killed by a speeding vehicle and the girl is deeply disturbed.   She realizes that death could mean you are denied the privilege of seeing your loved ones when you die.  This simple revelation changes her decision to die!
        As the reviewer of Philadelphia Enqirer calls it is an enchanting fairy tale about the redemptive power of love--a Sartre's Being and Nothingness-meets-Dr. Seuss (the philosopher and cartoonist who wrote children's books)!!!

Romantics Anonymous (2010) - French

Seen on 3-9-13
       A comedy that is the result of two clumsy awkward people, drawn to each other by an emotionally charged love, but hesitation and fear inhibits their initiative.  One is the owner of a chocolate factory and the other is his employee.  They are overpowered by this fear and hesitation and they struggle hard to overcome them before they are fulful their love.  This struggle is comic but surprisingly resonates  with us.

Zodiac

Seen on 2-9-13
   Left the viewing midway bec it was getting to be too tedious and complicated to follow. To begin with, we decided on this movie bec it is David Fincher's (known fo Love In The Time of Cholera based on Garcia Marquez's novel of the same title which we had read when we nothing better to read).

Well-Digger's Daughter

Seen on 2-9-13
     Although trite, the movie with its earthy screenplay.  This requires great imagination, I suppose.  We liked it.  Typically unlike a Hollywood movie, this French movie works and is memorable.

Beyond Silence (1996)

Seen on 1-9-2013
    --A French movie about the daughter of a deaf and dumb parents trying to become a clarinet musician  against many odds.  A touching movie

Sequins (French)

Seen on 31-8-13
       --There is a delicate and sensitive touch in the treatment of this subject.  A French movie abt a pregnant unwed girl trying to fend for herself with dignity and grace.  We loved this movie for its color, quiet photography and music although nothing really happens except a relationship that develops between the girl and her employer, a seamstress who recently lost her son in an accident.

Concert (2009)

Seen on 31-8-2013
     A touching movie about a deposed Bolshoi conductor trying to stage a comeback thirty years after he was being fired.  He was fired thirty years ago for defending the Jewish members of his orchestra in defiance of Brezhnev's orders to send away his Jewish compatriots.  However he kept his passion for music alive and offers to play Tchaikovsky in Paris, an opportunity he steals and goes on to a successful and moving  performance.

Enchanted April

Seen on 30-8-2013
      directed by Mike Newell (known for Love in the Time Cholera), this movie is abt 4 women who try to seek happiness in the isolation of an old Italian manor only to discover they need the company of their men to be happy..