When Parisienne begins, we meet the beautiful Lina (Manal Issa), an eighteen-year-old freshman from Beirut, studying abroad in Paris. She’s eating dinner at her uncle’s house in the suburbs, the only connection to home she has in this strange country, when he attempts to rape her. She stops him, violently, before running out into the night […]
Film Festivals
TIFF15 Review: The outside world is a prison in The Here After
Magnus von Horn’s directorial debut, The Here After, is a sensitive character study of a boy coping with the aftermath of his violent act.
88:88 is a formal and ideological marvel **** 1/2
88:88, an emphatic statement on poverty, debuts an exciting, radical new voice in cinema: Winnipeg-based Isiah Medina. The numbers ‘88:88’ flash across alarm clocks when electricity goes out: The accurate time is replaced by these place holders and time essentially stands still. The central philosophical meaning of 88:88 in the film is one of stasis, and how that stasis caused by poverty subjects people to a minimized life.
TIFF15: The Whispering Star is new, uneven ground for cult director Sion Sono
The Whispering Star marks an intriguing departure from filmmaker Sion Sono’s usual themes of hopelessness and hysteria. Languid, dramatically minimalist, and shot in crisp black and white, the film lacks Sono’s characteristic frenzied emotional pitch. Though its scanty narrative and creeping pace hindered my engagement with the film, The Whispering Star is a well-crafted addition to Sono’s […]
TIFF15: Leanne Pooley discusses her animated war doc 25 April
Leanne Pooley’s boundary-pushing animated documentary 25 April follows six New Zealanders’ experiences during the World War I Battle of Gallipoli in 1915. The battle was an important part of New Zealand history because of how poorly the British treated their colonial forces: underquipped, under-supported troops were deployed in Turkey for what ended up being a pointless […]
Gillian Armstrong talks Women He’s Undressed
Director Gillian Armstrong discusses Australian costume designer Orry-Kelly and her gorgeous documentary about his life and craft — with a side of Cary Grant and Bette Davis.