Foreign

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 …

A challenging, morose, metaphysical, metaphorical film by Christian Mungiu (“4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days”); not for those looking for fluff or fantasy. Based on an historical event in Romania (2005);  atmospherically medieval, somber (much like “The Turin Horse”); a monastery (The New Hill) devoid of electricity, plumbing; water dredged from a well, technology has not brushed the “nuns”, …

1980, East Berlin. “Barbara” a brilliant doctor is shunted to the “provinces’ because she applied for an exit visa; masterfully developed and directed, initially her reasons unknown; she is under constant surveillance, subjected to haphazard and degrading searches by the Communist German Democratic Republic, “Stasi”; Nina Hoss, as Barbara, is poetic, hypnotic; her pain, palatable, her dedication to medicine supersedes …

Recently, an erudite mentor posed a question to his twenty-year-old mentees (of mixed backgrounds), “what makes America great?” Watching this fine film about the sacking of Chile’s dictator, Augusto Pinochet in 1988; an election he felt compelled to initiate; I was pivotally reminded of our free election process; negative campaigning by all parties is simultaneously shunned and accepted; no one …

Highly controversial but massively intriguing is Israeli filmmaker, Dror Moreh’s documentary revolving around six former leaders of Shin Bet; Israeli Security Agency, whose motto is “unseen shield” or “Defenders that shall not be seen”. Watching and listening to the true tales of these conflicted men; men whose existence has been informed by war, strife, threatened perpetually by hatred and flaming …

The second highest grossing film in Chinese history (US $200 million), and I found it embarrassingly bland, ridiculous , sophomoric; unworthy of the viewing time. I watched with three Chinese Americans whose chuckles were tepid and vastly sporadic. “Lost in Thailand” will be “lost” on Western audiences; will not last a week in AMC theatres which were recently  purchased by …

Every role, every life’s lesson prepared Emmanuelle Riva and Jean-Louis Trintignant to depict the tragic demise of “Anne” and “Georges”; a classically beautiful, harmonious marriage suffocated by horrific, debilitating circumstances. Director and screenwriter Michael Haneke (“The White Ribbon”) uses these two inimitable actors to paint a devastating portrait of the effects of a stroke on cultured, intellectual, “Anne”, her caregiver, …