Why did François Truffaut cast a teenaged actress in L’histoire d’Adèle H. when the real Adèle Hugo was 33 at the time—1863—when this poignant, beauteous film is set? This was in the period of her family’s exile in Guernsey owing to her father’s opposition to dictator Louis Napoléon. Adèle’s father was the great poet, novelist […]
Daily Archives: July 19, 2008
These two films are failures for much the same reason. From Iran, Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s Bicycleran is reminiscent of the anti-American Depression-set Hollywood film They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969), while the British Elephant, Alan Clarke’s final film, plagiarizes the “relay” structure of Chantal Äkerman’s glorious Toute une nuit (1982), turning its vignettes of romantic couplings […]
“Why didn’t you tell me?” 7-year-old Joey asks his 12-year-old brother, Lennie, who has told him, “It was a joke.” Earlier, Lennie faked his death, fooling Joey into believing he was responsible, to get out of taking care of Joey while their mother visited their ailing Grandma. This is Lennie’s birthday; Lennie had hoped to […]
Dennis Grunes 