Er shi si cheng ji - Change and a city in China. In Chengdu, factory 420 is being pulled down to make way for multi-story buildings with luxury flats. Scenes of factory operations, of the workforce, and of buildings stripped bare and then razed, are inter-cut with workers who were born in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s telling their stories - about the factory, which manufactured military aircraft, and about their work and their lives. A middle-aged man visits his mentor, now elderly; a woman talks of being a 19-year-old beauty there and ending up alone. The film concludes with two young people talking, each the child of workers, each relaying a story of one visit to a factory. Times change.
Gomorra - Don Ciro (Gianfelice Imparato) is a timid middleman, who distributes money to the families of imprisoned clan members. When making a delivery, he is ambushed by two angry clan members with an obvious grudge against their fellows; there is a feud within the clan. Wanting to save his own skin, he later offers to defect to their side. They explain to him their families were murdered by the clan and want retribution, and that they have no need for a money-carrier. Instead, Ciro leads them to the location where he is given the money for distribution. The pair raid the place, killing everyone but Ciro, and take the money. Ciro quietly walks off to an uncertain future.
My Magic - There's plenty of buzz overseas surrounding Eric Khoo's latest movie My Magic, which has recently been selected as Singapore's official entry to the 2009 Oscars in the foreign language film category, hence the rush to have it screened this month to qualify. While his previous effort Be With Me was disqualified on a technicality in the same category (they really timed the amount of English or lack thereof in the film!), this time round Eric has crafted a movie in Tamil as the story tells of the love-hate relationship between an Indian father and son. I don't recall any recent Tamil feature films being made in Singapore, save perhaps for the segment in Wee Li Lin's Gone Shopping, and in the upcoming Salawati, so this marks a first that race and language didn't become barriers, but celebrated that a filmmaker can transcend these issues or capitalize on what is uniquely Singapore given that universal themes apply anywhere. For a father-son story, the last which I enjoyed was Patrick Tam's After This Our Exile, but of course this is a different story and setting altogether.
Palermo Shooting - In every serious artist's life there're great oscillations and changes. Years of great and masterful work are followed by long passages of creative drought and emptiness. But every artist who takes himself seriously one day must understand and face facts that his best years are over and it would be wise to drop the pencil and leave the field for a new, emerging generation. After seeing Wender's latest "work" at its premiere in Berlin last night I felt that everyone in the audience quietly shared the same thoughts about this flick: That this can hardly be called a film anymore - but is a preposterous, embarrassing, empty and painful blow to anyone who liked some of the better of Wender's works in the past.
Serbis - A drama that follows the travails of the Pineda family in the Filipino city of Angeles. Bigamy, unwanted pregnancy, possible incest and bothersome skin irritations are all part of their daily challenges, but the real "star" of the show is an enormous, dilapidated movie theater that doubles as family business and living space. At one time a prestige establishment, the theater now runs porn double bills and serves as a meeting ground for hustlers of every conceivable persuasion. The film captures the sordid, fetid atmosphere, interweaving various family subplots with the comings and goings of customers, thieves and even a runaway goat while enveloping the viewer in a maelstrom of sound, noise and continuous motion.
Le silence de Lorna - In order to become the owner of a snack bar with her boyfriend, Lorna, a young Albanian woman living in Belgium, becomes an accomplice to a diabolical plan devised by mobster Fabio. Fabio has orchestrated a sham marriage between her and Claudy. The marriage allows her to obtain Belgian citizenship and then marry a Russian Mafioso willing to pay a lot of money to acquire the same quickly. However, for this second marriage to be possible, Fabio has planned to kill Claudy. Will Lorna keep silent? - 40731
Gomorra - Don Ciro (Gianfelice Imparato) is a timid middleman, who distributes money to the families of imprisoned clan members. When making a delivery, he is ambushed by two angry clan members with an obvious grudge against their fellows; there is a feud within the clan. Wanting to save his own skin, he later offers to defect to their side. They explain to him their families were murdered by the clan and want retribution, and that they have no need for a money-carrier. Instead, Ciro leads them to the location where he is given the money for distribution. The pair raid the place, killing everyone but Ciro, and take the money. Ciro quietly walks off to an uncertain future.
My Magic - There's plenty of buzz overseas surrounding Eric Khoo's latest movie My Magic, which has recently been selected as Singapore's official entry to the 2009 Oscars in the foreign language film category, hence the rush to have it screened this month to qualify. While his previous effort Be With Me was disqualified on a technicality in the same category (they really timed the amount of English or lack thereof in the film!), this time round Eric has crafted a movie in Tamil as the story tells of the love-hate relationship between an Indian father and son. I don't recall any recent Tamil feature films being made in Singapore, save perhaps for the segment in Wee Li Lin's Gone Shopping, and in the upcoming Salawati, so this marks a first that race and language didn't become barriers, but celebrated that a filmmaker can transcend these issues or capitalize on what is uniquely Singapore given that universal themes apply anywhere. For a father-son story, the last which I enjoyed was Patrick Tam's After This Our Exile, but of course this is a different story and setting altogether.
Palermo Shooting - In every serious artist's life there're great oscillations and changes. Years of great and masterful work are followed by long passages of creative drought and emptiness. But every artist who takes himself seriously one day must understand and face facts that his best years are over and it would be wise to drop the pencil and leave the field for a new, emerging generation. After seeing Wender's latest "work" at its premiere in Berlin last night I felt that everyone in the audience quietly shared the same thoughts about this flick: That this can hardly be called a film anymore - but is a preposterous, embarrassing, empty and painful blow to anyone who liked some of the better of Wender's works in the past.
Serbis - A drama that follows the travails of the Pineda family in the Filipino city of Angeles. Bigamy, unwanted pregnancy, possible incest and bothersome skin irritations are all part of their daily challenges, but the real "star" of the show is an enormous, dilapidated movie theater that doubles as family business and living space. At one time a prestige establishment, the theater now runs porn double bills and serves as a meeting ground for hustlers of every conceivable persuasion. The film captures the sordid, fetid atmosphere, interweaving various family subplots with the comings and goings of customers, thieves and even a runaway goat while enveloping the viewer in a maelstrom of sound, noise and continuous motion.
Le silence de Lorna - In order to become the owner of a snack bar with her boyfriend, Lorna, a young Albanian woman living in Belgium, becomes an accomplice to a diabolical plan devised by mobster Fabio. Fabio has orchestrated a sham marriage between her and Claudy. The marriage allows her to obtain Belgian citizenship and then marry a Russian Mafioso willing to pay a lot of money to acquire the same quickly. However, for this second marriage to be possible, Fabio has planned to kill Claudy. Will Lorna keep silent? - 40731
About the Author:
Maddox Penner is an absolute movie nut and invites you to Download Movies For Free at the Movie Pan. You'll find all the latest hits as well as the great oldies.
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