ICFF (Italian Contemporary Film Festival 2022)

• Print
• Email

Details

Category: Cinéma - Movies

Published: Saturday, 11 June 2022 01:28

Written by Gilbert Seah

ICFF Film Festival: Capsule Reviews of Selected films: 

ENNIO (The Glance of Music) (Italy et al, 2021) ****
Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore

In ENNIO, Giuseppe Tornatore directs a nostalgic documentary of his film music composer for his first and most famous film, CINEMA PARADISO.  Tornatore is the perfect director as his doc has the same feel, tone and atmosphere as his classic film.   Both films pay tribute to the cinema.  ENNIO also pays tribute to Ennio Morricone, one of the most, if not the most, influential film composers of all time.  Everyone recognizes his composition of his iconic tune for Sergio Leone’s classic spaghetti western, THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY.

Read more: ICFF (Italian Contemporary Film Festival 2022)

Film Review: Lux Aeterna

• Print
• Email

Details

Category: Cinéma - Movies

Published: Monday, 30 May 2022 10:00

Written by Gilbert Seah

LUX AETERNA (France 2019) **

Directed by Gasper Noe

LUX AETERNA arrives in Toronto after VORTEX though it was made and released in France and premiered at Cannes before VORTEX.  For commercial audiences, beware as this is an experimental film, which means that there is no head or tail and this is true for the film.  It is a 2019 French independent experimental art film written and directed by Gaspar Noé, screened out of competition at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. The film makes heavy use of epileptic imagery, split-screen, and 1920s-esque documentary footage involving witchcraft.  Though running at only an hour and 5 minutes, it is a hard watch.

Read more: Film Review: Lux Aeterna

Film Review: Madeleine Collins

• Print
• Email

Details

Category: Cinéma - Movies

Published: Monday, 06 June 2022 10:28

Written by Gilbert Seah

MADELEINE COLLINS (France/Belgium/ Switzerland 2020) ***1/2
Directed by Antoine Barraud

The film’s trailer makes the film look like a thriller but the film is more a drama with some suspense.  So, it is easy to be fooled just as the film’s main female protagonist’s men are fooled by her.  The woman goes by two different names, and leads two separate lives juggling both rather well till trouble rears its head in paradise.

Read more: Film Review: Madeleine Collins

Film Review: Vortex

• Print
• Email

Details

Category: Cinéma - Movies

Published: Saturday, 07 May 2022 10:07

Written by Gilbert Seah

VORTEX (France 2021) ***

Directed by Gasper Noé

Filmmaker Gasper Noe has never failed to astound audiences - though not always in a good way.  Take his SEUL CONTRE TOUS.  In the film’s last 10 minutes, a warning appears on screen with the image of a clock ticking, that if one thinks one cannot stomach what is to come, then leave the cinema within one minute.  When I first viewed this film at TIFF, most of the audience did not leave.  But when the last 10 minutes of film unfolded which involved a father raping his retarded daughter, a quarter of the audience walked out.   His last film CLIMAX which displayed the best of dancing also created quite the stir with the dancers all high on the LSD laced punch.  The best Noé film remains his first short hour feature CARNE with Jean Much Godard-like titles and the film displaying humour and oddity.

Read more: Film Review: Vortex