Foreign

“Amin Jaafari” (Ali Suliman) a Palestinian surgeon living and practicing in Tel Aviv, embraced by his Israeli co-workers, the first Arab to obtain an Israeli achievement award; at the ceremony he articulates his fervent desire to remain in his adoptive environment. Noticeably absent from this, the most important moment of his life, is his beautiful wife, of fifteen years, “Siham” …

Spanish actor, director Pedro Almodovar has blessed the world with some of the most entertaining, creative, formidable films ever visited upon the screen; my favorites: “Volver”, “Broken Embraces”, “All About My Mother”, “Talk to Her”, “The Skin I Live In”. His films have amplified the careers of Penelope Cruz, Antonio Bandaras, Javiar Bardem, and countless others. It was with anticipation …

Director Francois Ozon (“The Swimming Pool”) serves arguably, one of the most intriguing, conversation-provoking films of the year; wickedly psychological, creepily voyeuristic “In The House” explores the relationship between a beleaguered, bored, high school English professor “Germain” (caustic, keen-witted performance by Fabrice Luchini) and his precocious student “Claude” (titillating portrayal by handsome newcomer, Ernst Umhauer). Lonely, manipulative Claude, writes about …

This enthralling, riveting, compelling film is for anyone who has actualized their dreams, defied the “odds” and the “gods”,  bulldozed antagonistic skeptics, spitting in the eye of the disbeliever; castrators of ingenuity, promise;  and for all those who have yet to slay the cynics;  give birth, sculpt their fantasies into reality. “Kon-Tiki” is filmmaking at its pinnacle; actors, especially Pal …

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), masterful champion of “Impressionism” is brilliantly depicted by Michel Bouquet in Gilles Bourdos film about the legendary painter at the conclusion of his life, in tandem with his second son “Jean” (1894-1979, destined to be the iconic filmmaker), at the commencement of his, (Vincent Rottiers); linked by “Andree” (Christa Theret) the luminous, endorphin-infused, final muse of Renoir …

Pablo Berger’s homage to silent, black –and -white film’s legendary history was the opening feature at the Palm Springs Film Festival in January. Referencing the Grimm Brothers historical fairy tale; flaying “Disneyesque” (1937), benign, whistling interpretation, Berger’s heroine is of stronger, tougher “stuff”; “Carmen” (“Snow White”) inherits from her father, a matador’s muleta. Seville, Spain in the 1920’s harbors the …

I do not care for animation; even as a child I found it boring and enervating. If any film could convert me to the genre it is “From Up On Poppy Hill”; it is an enchanting tale set in 1963, Yokohama, Japan. “Umi” our seventeen-year-old heroine runs a boarding house with an exquisite view of the sea, aided by her …

With the exception of director, Ana Piterbarg. Obscure, obtuse, buried in boredom: Viggo Mortensen characterizes twin brothers (“Agustin”/”Pedro”) plainly, diminished in the womb, they flounder in their professional and personal lives; empty vessels, blessed with substantial female companions. The film is set in Buenos Aires,  plus a depressed island in the Delta; Agustin cloaks himself in the guise of his …

It is a rarity when something or someone does not need a minimal amount of tweaking or tucking with the pillage of time; gusting technology slaughtering privacy, gluttonous craving for the “new”, voracious quest to conquer the vicissitudes of age, instead of celebrating them. “Cinema Paradiso” is an anomaly, because its perfection is as fine today, with the addition of …

A recent Chicago Shakespeare Theatre’s remarkable production of “Julius Caesar” imbues, without altering a word, a contemporary interpretation; hawkers selling “Caesar” T-shirts, hotdogs and huge signs encouraging voters to go to www.juliuscaesar.com to register; proving Shakespeare’s power to habitually defy the archaic, lending ubiquitous credence to his  massive appeal throughout the ages. Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, brothers whose efficacious, formidable …