Giddi Dar’s delightful comedy and religious parable, which unfolds in contemporary Jerusalem, involves a young couple, recent Hasidic converts. Impoverished Moshe and Malli Bellanga wonder how they will be able to observe the approaching harvest holiday of Sukkot; what kind of spread can their threadbare cupboard yield for them, much less for guests? And a […]
Daily Archives: October 13, 2007
From Hungary, Miklós Jancsó’s third film is concerned, as usual, with war. In the last days of the Second World War, a 17-year-old schoolboy is captured by Soviet troops, which are occupying Hungary. In the countryside, he is turned over to a same-age wounded soldier; together, alone, they are responsible for herding cows. Robbed of […]
Like many bad Hollywood films, On Golden Pond is so full of good stuff that one roots for it. After all, it’s frequently funny and as frequently moving. If cinema were rated by how emotionally engaging a film is, this mess would rank high. On Golden Pond pursues one theme adequately, the facts of deteriorating […]
Prague-born, Ivan Fíla has ended up making films in Germany, perhaps inspired by the geographical trajectory of the twentieth century’s greatest writer, Franz Kafka. I have seen only one of Fíla’s films, Lea. It is a very good film. Her father beats Lea when she is a child and her husband does the same when […]
The following is one of the entries from my 100 Greatest Films from the Soviet Union, Russia, Ukraine and Eastern Europe list, which I invite you to visit on this site if you haven’t already done so. — Dennis The tenth anniversary of Lenin’s death inspired Dziga Vertov to make the lyrical Tri pesni o […]
Dennis Grunes 