Subterranean handheld camera: flickering patches of light in darkness: human faces; human lives. There must always be the modern Israel: this is the message of Agnieszka Holland’s stunning In Darkness. About the almost inconceivably challenging ordeal of Jewish adults and children hiding for 14 months in the dark, rat-infested Lvov sewers during the German […]
Tag Archives: Claire Denis & Agnieszka Holland
Somewhere in Africa that was formerly, or is currently, colonized by the French, war rages. Both the government and the rebels have ordered Maria to vacate ex-husband André’s coffee plantation, which she has been running with perseverence and an iron grip. French soldiers in an overhead helicopter have beseeched her to evacuate the country immediately. […]
“Don’t feel I need looking after,” Lionel tells daughter Joséphine, but he does need this and might never be prepared to set her free, although he knows he must accept that Jo will set herself free, and soon. Since the death of his wife, Jo’s German mother, Lionel and Jo have developed a life together […]
On the list that I’m preparing of the 100 greatest films from France, Belgium, Netherlands and Switzerland, at least one film by Claire Denis is assured a place: Friday Night (2004). I also love Beau travail (1999) and Trouble Every Day (2001), one of the three or four most brilliant vampire movies ever made; and […]
A co-production of Canada and Poland, Agnieszka Holland’s powerful Julie Walking Home is aptly titled—except in the U.S., where it is ambiguously called The Healer. Julie Makowsky declares her ten-year life-partnership with Henry over when she walks in on him having sex with another woman. The couple has two children, twins, a boy and a […]
Dennis Grunes 