Sunday, June 27, 2010

Harlan County, USA

This is a documentary about how a group of coal miners in Harlan County organised a strike during the early seventies.

Liked the nice songs and how the camera captured the intimate details of people's lives! Reminded me of a Chinese film "Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks" by Wang Bing that also showed the lives of blue collar workers.

Internet Movie Database Link

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Repulsion

The story is about how a young woman slowly became crazy at her apartment in London when her sister went on a holiday.

The special effects were pretty good! The weird sounds and strange camera angles helped to make the film more scary!

Internet Movie Database Link

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Remember Chek Jawa

This is a documentary about how a group of people came together to do a nature survey of Chek Jawa in Pulau Ubin during 2001 so as to appeal against the government's plan to reclaim the area.

Liked the interviews with the people involved and the wonderful animals and plants found in Chek Jawa! The teamwork to do something that one believed in was very commendable!

Internet Movie Database Link

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Silent Light

The story is about how a religious man suffered over his feelings towards both his wife and another woman.

Pace of the film was really slow but I liked the beautiful Mexican scenery and the nice relationship that the father had with his children! Was quite puzzled by the ending though!

Internet Movie Database Link

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Marketa Lazarova

The story is set during the dark ages when there was a shift from Paganism to Christianity. The fate of the two rivals, the Kozlik and the Lazar families became intertwined when Mikolas Kozlik abducted Marketa Lazar to be his wife just when she was about to join the convent.

Liked the nice vocal music and the beautiful scenery! The lead nun looked cool, Alexandra the witch looked wild and Marketa looked sweet!

Internet Movie Database Link

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Pauline at the Beach

The story is about how Pauline and Marion who were cousins spent their holidays at the beach. They met Pierre who was Marion's ex-boyfriend and befriended two other guys Henri and Sylvain.

Liked the interesting dialogues that helped to explain different people's attitudes towards relationships! Thought the director was quite clever to think up a situation that would cause a misunderstanding among the five characters towards the end!

Internet Movie Database Link

Reconstruction

The story is about how two young men were brought by a prosecutor, a policeman and a teacher to a restaurant to re-enact their drunken brawl there and have it filmed to show the effects of alcoholism.

Liked the catchy song and the cheerful bikini girl! Thought the director was subtly criticizing the communist society through the small details in the film.

Internet Movie Database Link

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Shoah

This is a documentary about the Holocaust told through interviews with the eye witnesses. The film title is the Hebrew word for this historical event.

Liked the scenes of the strange looking stones scattered in the camp as they looked beautiful! The analysis by the historian was insightful and I was particularly struck by Filip Muller's moving account of how helpless he felt when he had to help the Germans to send his fellow countrymen to their death!

Internet Movie Database Link

Tuesday, June 08, 2010

Children of Hiroshima

The story is about how the people in Hiroshima coped with their lives after the atomic bombing on 6 August 1945.

Liked the use of flashbacks to contrast life before and after the atomic bombing! The short sequence that depicted the historic event was very well done too!

Internet Movie Database Link

Saturday, June 05, 2010

Children in the Wind

The story is about how children lived in dysfunctional families. The father of a family was locked up in the police station for suspect fraud, forcing the mother to look for a job and to send her younger son away to a friend's place.

Liked the nice depiction of Japanese life in the thirties! The children seemed to enjoy themselves very much during play and respected their parents at home!

Internet Movie Database Link