World War II
The Last Laugh is a profound documentary that somehow warmly weighs the need for laughter with the immense tragedy that was the Holocaust.
Live by Night is the next directorial effort from Ben Affleck, in which he also stars/writes/produces; it is another indicator of his talent.
Gentleman’s Agreement is not merely an indictment of anti-Semitism, but a film that also “agrees” with the domestic concerns of its day.
With Allied, yet another volume has been added to the overflowing pile of wartime films. Though with the talented Robert Zemeckis at the helm, it seldom showcases his trademark focused and proficient direction, which is therefore not enough to raise the film above its many aching flaws.
What helps to distinguish Hacksaw Ridge is that, at its core, it is a film that attempts to combine the seemingly contradictory qualities of pacifism and the violence associated with patriotism.
About midway through Andrei Tarkovsky’s feature 1962 film debut of Ivan’s Childhood, in the midst of a Russian battlefield field torn asunder during World II, a cross is backlit by a setting sun. The cross is obscured in shadow and yet its beauty remains. A spiritual man, Tarkovsky was never afraid to ask questions about spiritual matters.
When it comes to World War II, there is never a shortage of stories that are needed and are waiting to be told. Anthropoid is one of these stories. The film begins with an introduction to the true events that have led up to the assassination of a high-ranking Nazi official to be rendered a necessary means in a time of war.
In this part of Positive Psychology & Film, Laurie Agard interprets Life Is Beautiful, the inspiring and gut-wrenching Italian war film.
As a director, Atom Egoyan has increasingly shifted away from the emotionally raw content of his beloved 1997 film The Sweet Hereafter in favour of seedier, pulpier material that film suggested he had emotionally matured away from. Egoyan’s love of trash cinema informed his earlier work, but after showcasing his potential to make a drama film divorced of genre pretensions, the fact he is still preoccupied with putting an unwarranted arthouse inflection on such material feels like wasted potential. How to make trash cinema out of human tragedy without being offensive He manages to attract the attention of A-list casts and find his way back into the official selection of the Cannes official selection with most releases, purely on the strength of his earlier work, not out of a desire to honour his current sub-De Palma mindset.
Fly Girls is a potential mini-series about an important piece of WWII history, the largely forgotten women pilots. Some people might find it hard to believe, but there were women pilots on active service during the war. However, unlike their male counterparts they were restricted to the transportation of planes, and did not engage in air to air combat.
In What Our Fathers Did: A Nazi Legacy two sons are brought together by a shared legacy, the legacy mentioned in the title. Both are the sons of high-ranking Nazi officers.
“Comrades! People of the world. The revolution is on the march.
The film Ida by Pawel Pawlikowski is admired by critics and viewers around the world. The movie won awards at important international festivals and it was nominated for an Academy Award in the category for Best Foreign Language Film. A glimmer of hope woke in the Poles after winning a golden statue:
I first saw Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan in the early 2000s; it was a VHS copy playing on a big old JVC television that had a similar depth to a Toyota Aygo. I have since seen Saving Private Ryan a large number of times, but my reaction to its first 25 minutes remains unchanged, a reaction of shock, recoil and deep admiration for the people who executed this excellent, transformative piece of filmmaking. My knowledge of WW2 was minimal at this time, but I roughly knew the basics.
Suite Française is an adaptation of Irène Némirovsky’s novel of the same name. Prior to seeing the film I had no knowledge of its provenance, and will withhold this particular information for now lest it misinform how you read the rest of this review. As always, I will attempt to remain objective.