Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky (2009)
★★★☆☆
As a passionate affair between two 20th century icons, Jan Kounen’s Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky is a perfumed symphony of style. But where are the heart notes?
2009
Frontier Blues (2009)
★★★☆☆
Set in a border backwater in Northern Iran, Babak Jalali’s Frontier Blues follows four men rapidly losing the plot in a land without women.
Film Review: Bluebeard / Barbe Bleue (2009)
★★★☆☆
A faithful adaptation of Perrault’s fairytale, Bluebeard nevertheless conceals a bevy of Catherine Breillat’s favourite themes. But where’s the eroticism?
South Of The Border (2009)
★★★☆☆
Über-director Oliver Stone’s latest documentary film South of the Border offers a provocative glance at the US media’s take on Latin American politics.
Ivul (2009)
★★★☆☆
Biting into the forbidden apple of incest, Andrew Kötting’s Ivul charts the fall of civilisation in a Russian émigré family. Or is he barking up the wrong tree?
When You’re Strange (2009)
★★★☆☆
A medley of grainy super-8 footage, Tom DiCillo’s When You’re Strange strips The Doors down to no-holds-barred exuberance. Or is it just wallowing in the mire?
Wild Grass / Les Herbes Folles (2009)
★★★★☆
Alain Resnais, the great grand-monsieur of French cinema is de retour with Wild Grass a complex, lilting tale of the power of chance.
Women Without Men (2009)
★★★☆☆
Iranian visual artist, Shirin Neshat’s directorial debut focuses on the lives of four women set against a backdrop of political turmoil in 1950s Iran.
The Girl On The Train / La Fille du RER (2009)
★★★☆☆
André Techiné’s The Girl On The Train is not so much an exploration of modern antisemitism as a cumulation of our collective fears. Just mind the moral gap.
The Time That Remains (2009)
★★★☆☆
A pizzicato sonata of absurd rituals, Elia Suleiman’s The Time That Remains unpicks a lifetime stifling inside the Green Lines. It’s more than just plucking at strings.
The Happiest Girl In The World / Cea Mai Fericita Fata Din Lume (2009)
★★★☆☆
When winning becomes a losing battle, Radu Jude’s The Happiest Girl In The World casts a sly glance over Romania’s troublingly capitalist embrace.
Videocracy (2009)
★★★☆☆
Italian-born Swede Erik Gandini’s documentary Videocracy turns the camera on the power of television in Berlusconi’s celebrity-obsessed Italy.
Lebanon (2009)
★★★★☆
One day inside an Israeli tank during the First Lebanon War, Samuel Maoz’s Lebanon is much more than an ear-splitting anti-war film for the X-Box generation.
Eyes Wide Open (2009)
★★★★★
Forbidden desire in Jerusalem’s orthodox community, the love affair between two Haredi Jews raises eyebrows in Haim Tabakman’s Eyes Wide Open. And razes the temple.