28 February 2013

59/365 Petites Coupures

Not content between being caught between relationships with his wife and his girlfriend, Daniel Auteuil's character gets lost on a car journey with yet another woman (Kristen Scott Thomas) and his life becomes even more complicated.

Cert: 15

UK Release: 2003

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0304547/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1


27 February 2013

58/365 Sur mes lèvres

Story of the developing relationship between a hearing-impaired woman who gives Vincent Cassel's ex-con a chance with a job in her office, and then becomes embroiled with him in a plot to rob his gangster boss.

Cert: 15

UK Release: 2002

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0274117/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1


26 February 2013

57/365 De battre mon coeur s'est arrêté

Roman Duris plays a young man who reaches a point where he can choose between a life of crime and violence like his father, or that of a concert pianist like his mother. Directed by Jacques Audiard.

Cert: 15

UK Release: 2005

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0411270/?ref_=sr_1


25 February 2013

56/365 Un Coeur En Hiver

A great story of a passionate woman (Emmanuelle Béart) and man with whom she becomes obsessed (Daniel Auteuil); he, however, cannot or will not express any emotion towards her.

Cert: 12

UK Release:  1993

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105682/?ref_=sr_1


24 February 2013

55/365 Bronenosets Potyomkin

Based on actual events which resulted in a riot when the crew of the Battleship Potemkin was given rotten meat to eat, this film is a classic of early cinema.

Cert: PG

Original Soviet Union Release: 1925 (According to IMDb: "The film was rejected for a UK cinema certificate in 1926 by the BBFC following fears of working class insurrection, and remained banned until January 1954 when it was finally released with an X certificate.")

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0015648/?ref_=sr_2


23 February 2013

54/365 Das Wunder von Bern

The German nation delicately tries to get back on its feet after the war. What better than a good run at the World Cup to make a nation proud again.

Cert: PG

UK Release: 2004

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0326429/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1


22 February 2013

53/365 Diarios de motocicleta

Based on the memoirs of the 23 year old Che Guevara, the story charts his travels around South America and his experiences with social inequality, which plant the seeds for his future revolutionary activity. Gael Garcia Bernal stars.

Cert: 15

UK Release: 2004

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0318462/?ref_=sr_1


21 February 2013

52/365 Wo hu cang long

I had totally forgotten that Ang Lee directed this historical martial arts epic drama, which has themes of power, revenge, love and a touch of magic included. Great fight scenes.

Cert: 12

UK Release: 2001

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0190332/?ref_=sr_1


20 February 2013

51/365 Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain

Over-protected Amélie decides to help people by carrying out acts of kindness, and in doing so discovers love herself.

Cert: 15

UK Release: 2001

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0211915/?ref_=sr_1


19 February 2013

50/365 Jagten

The beautiful and most excellent actor Mads Mikkelsen plays a quiet, lonely but amiable kindergarten assistant whose life is turned on its head by a lie told by one of his pupils. It's torture to watch what happens to him, and at no point do you doubt his innocence, which makes the treatment of this delicate subject so engrossing.

Cert: 15

UK Release: 2012

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2106476/?ref_=sr_3

18 February 2013

49/365 De rouille et d'os

The story charts the relationship of a woman readjusting to life after an horrendous accident, and a man struggling to engage emotionally with anyone, including his young son. Marion Cotillard is great.

Cert: 15

UK Release: 2012

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2053425/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1


17 February 2013

48/365 Barbara

Set in East Germany in the 1980s, Barbara looks at the life of a doctor, sent to a rural hospital after she dared to ask for an exit visa to the West. Subtle, slow, and benefiting from an excellently contained performance from Nina Hoss.

Cert: 12A

UK Release: 2012

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2178941/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1



16 February 2013

47/365 Chico & Rita

Fictional animated story set against a factual background - Havana and New York in the 1940s/1950s. It's a really lovely, simple tale of star-crossed lovers - a singer and a musician - looking for their big break.

Cert: 15

UK Release: 2011

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1235830/?ref_=sr_1



15 February 2013

46/365 La femme du Vième

Kristen Scott Thomas doing her thin, enigmatic, potentially dangerous stuff. Ethan Hawke trying to pick his way through confusion and huge changes in his life. A depiction of Paris seldom seen in glossy blockbusters.

Cert: 15

UK release: 2012

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1605777/?ref_=sr_1


14 February 2013

45/365 Holy Motors

There isn't a story in this film as such, but rather a series of 'appointments', mostly staged, featuring Denis Lavant in numerous guises, from beggar to motion capture artist, family man to total weirdo.
There's no rhyme nor reason to any of it - we don't know who he really is, where he comes from, or why he does any of the things he does.

Cert: 18

UK Release: 2012

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2076220/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1


13 February 2013

44/365 Nostalgia de la luz

The Atacama desert in Chile is home to a series of major optical and radio telescopes, which astronomers use to scrutinise the heavens, look back into the universe's past, and try to unlock the secrets hidden there.
But the Atacama desert also hides another secret - the remains of Pinochet's Desaparecidos. In the years of General Pinochet's dictatorship (1973 - 1990), tens of thousands of people who opposed his political views were 'disappeared': taken away from their families and never heard from again.

Cert: 12A

UK Release: 2012

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1556190/?ref_=sr_3


12 February 2013

43/365 Hodejegerne

An action/thriller movie - a decent romp with a couple of twists and turns and one or two interesting characters.

Cert: 15

UK Release: 2012

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1614989/?ref_=sr_3


11 February 2013

42/365 Carancho

A love story set in the murky underworld of traffic accident insurance scams in Buenos Aires. The always brilliant Ricardo Darín struggles to find a way out of events which just seem to get the better of him.

Cert: 15

UK Release: 2012

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1542852/?ref_=sr_1


10 February 2013

41/365 Hors la loi

Three brothers whose lives take them in different directions until eventually they unite in the struggle for Algerian independence from France in the 1950s.
Three brothers, set in the 1950s, smart suits, hats and guns ...I was just waiting for someone to make an offer he couldn't refuse...

Cert: 15

UK Release: 2011

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1229381/?ref_=sr_1


9 February 2013

40/365 Le quattro volte

There is no dialogue, apart from background conversations among the Calabrian villagers, and so there is no need for subtitles.  Nobody addresses the camera. There is no plot. There is no beginning, middle or end.  It's just Man interacting with Nature.  A totally extraordinary film.

Cert: U

UK Release: 2011

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1646975/?ref_=sr_1


8 February 2013

39/365 Paisà

6 individual stories tracking the Americans as they sweep north from Sicily to free Italy from the control of the Germans between 1943 and 1944. As well as showing the realities of war (rather than the stateside glamour which Hollywood was producing at the time), the film presents a variety of relationships hampered by a language barrier.

Cert: PG

UK Release: 1948

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038823/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

7 February 2013

38/365 Dialogue avec mon jardinier

A moderately successful artist returns to his old family home and inadvertently employs an old school friend as his gardener. The paths that the lives of the two men took were markedly different, but each learns something from the other as the film unfolds.

Cert: 12A

UK Release: 2008

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0825244/?ref_=sr_1


6 February 2013

37/365 Noruwei no mori

Very beautiful, at times achingly sad look at grief, guilt and growing up.

Cert: 15

UK Release: 2011

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1270842/?ref_=sr_1


5 February 2013

36/365 Patagonia

A young couple come to terms with their relationship during a visit from Wales to Patagonia, whilst an Argentinian teenager and his elderly neighbour go in search of her ancestral Welsh home. Essentially two totally independent stories linked by journeys, beautiful landscapes, and an historical link between Wales and the southern part of Argentina.

Cert: 15

UK Release: 2011

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1020559/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1


4 February 2013

35/365 La piel que habito

Antonio Banderas is mysteriously obsessed by a woman whom he appears to have total control over ... Almodóvar directs in his usual outrageous manner.

Cert: 15

UK Release: 2011

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1189073/?ref_=sr_1


3 February 2013

34/365 Biutiful

Terminally ill, small-time criminal, estranged from bi-polar wife who is sleeping with his brother, trying to bring up two children on his own - difficult to imagine anything else which could go wrong for Javier Bardem.
The city of Barcelona is an important character in the film, but not the Barcelona of the tourist brochures. This is the Barcelona of back streets, of immigrants and of poverty, and is far from being 'Biutiful'.

Cert: 15

UK Release: 2011

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1164999/?ref_=sr_1


2 February 2013

33/365 Loong Boonmee raleuk chat

Inexplicable but engaging, and with a touch of David Lynch Twin Peaks-ness about it. Uncle Boonmee encounters a collection of people and creatures from his past as he nears the end of his life.

Cert: 12A

UK Release: 2010

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1588895/?ref_=sr_2


1 February 2013

32/365 La teta asustada

A woman struggles to come to terms with the death of her mother, and searches for freedom from the fear which she has carried with her throughout her life. Slow-paced, sad and strange story set in rural Peru.

Cert: 12

UK Release: 2009

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1206488/?ref_=sr_1