Nominated for five Oscar awards including best picture, director, original screenplay but ended up with just best foreign language picture.
Human drama about a wife in her eighties who suffers paralysis on one side due to a clot and is taken care of by her old husband at their home.
The film won the "Palme d'Or" at last Cannes film festival as well as several awards from the European Film Festival and was written & directed by austrian Michael Haneke who presents here one of his least obscure films.
Carefully written script showing with accuracy & realism the involved case & its development familiar to persons who went thru similar experience, reflecting the great love of the husband towards his wife and exposing the controversial case of Euthanasia.
As for the pigeon, it could be the symbol of the wife's soul.
The director managed thru diverse scenes & shooting angles as well as amazing performances, in breaking the boredom that could result from slow pace & limited location.
As usual in the ending of his films, Haneke drives the spectator to wonder about its meaning, however the scene of the daughter returning to the now empty flat should have been longer to express the new situation and convey the feeling to the audience.
Grade : 7.5 out of 10
Nominated for five Oscar awards including best picture and got Oscars for original screenplay & supporting actor.
A western with its action taking place just before the american civil war about the slave Django who is liberated by a german bounty hunter so that he assists him in finding the wanted men and in return he helps him free his enslaved wife from a southern plantation.
An "explosive" movie written & directed by Quentin Tarantino (a cinema passionate) who blows up racism, violence in the american society and, why not, himself (i.e. the character he personifies in the film). He also pays tribute to italian spaghetti westerns specially to Sergio Corbucci, maker of "Django" (1966) and its star Franco Nero who appears in one of the scenes.
Great script, although suffering from some longueur & slow pace in its first part but a handshake (possibly to become one of the most famous handshakes in the cinema) causes the film to overturn into a cinema that we don't see often.
The film leans towards black comedy & too much violence even after the removal by Tarantino of some of the more violent scenes.
Great performances from most of the cast specially Christoph Waltz & Leonardo DiCaprio (who wasn't nominated). This film will appeal to every cinema fan and will be Tarantino"s most successful film so far.
Grade : 7.5 out of 10
Nominated for eight Oscar awards including best picture, costumes, actor, production design & song and got Oscars for best supporting actress, make-up & sound mixing.
Historical drama taking place in France during first half of 19th century that witnessed several revolutions, where an ex-convict dedicates his life to raise an orphan & provide her with a decent life while being pursued by his ex-jailor for violating probation.
The film is based on the musical play inspired by the novel written by great French poet & writer Victor Hugo who lived thru that period and opens with a great scene.
The English director Tom Hooper who won an Oscar two years ago for "The King's Speech" succeeded in transforming the musical play into a film & ensured, while doing that, that the actors sing live while shooting the scenes with lots of close-ups and using several cameras simultaneously to add credibility but adding at the same time the burden on the actors although Anne Hathaway succeeds superbly. He manages to present an innovating (and sometimes experimental) look that doesn't match the drama of the novel.
The script emphasizes too much the love story while some of the songs are not up to the level and the film carries some bad cinematography (by hand held camera) & some bad editing.
Deserves however to be seen specially that it deals with the hard times that led the French people to revolt.
Grade : 7 out of 10
Nominated for twelve Oscar awards including best picture, director, actor, adapted screenplay and got Oscars for best actor & production design.
Historical film on the circumstances of passing a constitution amendment that abolishes slavery in use in southern states of Americaat that time and reason behind the civil war (1861-1865) during the rule of America's 16th president Abraham Lincoln.
Unfortunately the film is weaker than the event it treats
maybe because the script focuses, more than needed, on the human side of Lincoln and very little on opposing views & racism during that period, and maybe because Spielberg wasn't at his best form specially that the film is a slow paced little action one, or maybe because Daniel Day-Lewis set an example of a great acting not serving the film's subject by choosing the tone of a sick man & being overly calm.
If it wasn't for the brilliant set decoration, shooting frames & performances of most of the cast (specially Tommy Lee Jones) the film would not have been worthwhile watching.
Grade : 7 out of 10
By Daniel Tanielian
Alexandrian fan of cinema and arts
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