Pasha's Film Reviews Etc.

  * * * * * It's sixties in Western Germany. Thirty-something Gisela Werler is working in the wallpaper company during the day and looking after her sick invalid father at night. She has a boyfriend but is reluctant to marry him. She is waiting for a chance to get away, to be loved and truly alive. When her boyfriend forgets his suitcase at her place he triggers a chain of events. Step after step Gisela is turning into someone else. She is becoming a first ever, German female bank robber. They nicknamed her BANKLADY. Actor Nadeshda Brennicke, who uncovered the real story of Gisela Werler and was successful in her quest to turn the idea into a movie, gives a reserved, but intuitively believable performance of Gisela, a woman in love, for whom the passion becomes a source of powerful determination. At the same time Gisela is not a heartless bitch, and never really understands the consequences of her actions. Hermann Wittorff (Charly Hubner) is larger than life,...

* * * Walter, Paul and Jacques are true friends. Or so it seems. Men in their fifties, they follow the traditions, catching up for lunches during the week and go away fishing on weekends. But there are secrets lurking underneath. Jacques is a closeted gay and Paul is dating Walter’s daughter Clemence - half his age. What adds complications is that Walter cannot stand secrets and expect only perfection from all around him. When truth is exposed something is going to hit the fan. Will three men be able to keep their friendship against the odds? TRUE FRIENDS is easy to watch. It’s characters are amusing, its ending is predictable and the dialogue is swift and entertaining. Not going too deep into the problems of friendship and “true lies” the story touches lightly upon the subject at hand. TRUE FRIENDS is what you call “a slice of life” story. You live for two hours with the characters, doing things they do, visit places they visit. You like them enough to feel you want to beco...

* * * * Two actors in their fifties. One is a recluse, who shied away from theatre, movies and glory, considering that “LE METIER” does not worth to pursue for it's treacherous nature. The other one is a successful, compromising actor, who wants to break into theatre. Celebrity actor Gauthier arrives to Ile De Re to ask his friend (and the actor he had been admiring it for years) Serge, to take part in his new interpretation of Moliere’s METHANTHROPE. Serge had been retired from his acting for years and reluctant (AKA SCARED) to take on the part. Hence two men begin rehearsing. The interruptions in the face of the beautiful Italian widow, a love interest to them both, and a glorious porn starlet, who reminds them of their true age, are welcome interruptions.   But can the differences between the two egocentric men be put aside for the sake of friendship? CYCLIG WITH MOLIERE can be compared to this years festival favourite (not my personal favourite) THE VENUS I...

* * * * * Carole and Jerome, young cousins pretending to be an engaged couple on a romantic trip, arrive to Odessa, beyond the so called Iron Curtain, but not to sight seeing. They bring presents and stories to the Jewish community, people who tried to immigrate to Israel and failed. They meet good and bad people, many of them relatively happy, but all of them desperate to change their lives. When Victor, a banned physician, asks the young couple for a favour, a sense of real danger emerges. It releases sleeping passions and desires, taking the story far beyond the mission in Odessa. FRIENDS FROM FRANCE is an atmospheric timepiece. It is a love story that pretends to be a thriller, that pretends to be a love story. You’ll know what I mean. The feeling that the plot is lost in some parts of the film evaporates by the end, when you realise that it was incredibly focused from the opening credits. For once here is a film about Russia done right. It is not a surprise that...

* * * * * Violette Leduc is unhappy. She wants to be a great writer, but more than this she craves a human connection. The salvation comes in the face of Simone de Beauvoir , a beautiful and talented writer who takes Violette under her wing. But Violette is not looking for charity. Her insecurities and frustrations push her to the brink of disaster. Will she be able to save herself by focusing on what she does best - writing? The biopic from Cesar winning director Martin Provost is uncompromising look at woman’s desires as a writer and as a human being. The story takes us into Paris of 1944 - robbed by war off its glamour, but not off its talent. It is inhabited by the famous figures of French literature such as  Jean-Paul Sartre , Jean Cocteau and Jean Genet . Violette, fresh from her strange friendship with French author Maurice Sachs, is plunged into the world of literature giants, where she is only a small fish that no one takes seriously (or so it seems to h...