Category: Movies

Performer of the Year: Isabelle Huppert

With two powerhouse performances and some serious Oscar buzz brewing, 2016 is officially the Year of Huppert.

Isabelle Huppert is without a doubt one of the finest actresses of all time, an immense talent we’ve been fortunate enough to witness for decades. She is the most nominated actress for France’s César Award, with thirteen nominations; she has had more films in competition at the Cannes Film Festival than any other actress; she is a BAFTA winner, Silver Berlin Bear Winner and she unanimously won Best Actress at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival for her role as Erika Kohut in Michael Haneke’s The Piano Teacher. In short, Huppert is who Meryl Streep likely wakes up wanting to be [ . . .  ]

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Chanson Du Jour (for Zsa Zsa): Moulin Rouge

Rest In Peace, Zsa Zsa Gabor, who passed away today at age 99. Here’s a song from a film you starred in – John Huston’s “Moulin Rouge.” The song is not quite as catchy as your sister’s themesong from Green Acres, but considerably more highbrow.

You had more marriages than sister Eva (nine to Eva’s five). If there is a Heaven, I hope They allow you eleven.

Dardenne brothers: “We felt the rhythm of the film was wrong”

“There is an American photographer who, every year, took portraits of his wife and her sisters,” Luc Dardenne tells me. “As they get older in the photographs they huddle together more. They become physically closer. They hold on to each other more.”So Luc and his brother Jean-Pierre have come together in this fashion? They are closer now than they ever were?“Ah, it’s like…” Jean-Pierre says and, as his English runs out, makes ambiguous gesture with both thumbs and both forefingers.

They need money from each other?“ No. No. Ha ha ha!” I mean they are scared.”If mortality is nipping at the film-makers’ heels they are putting a brave face upon it. Almost everybody who has interviewed Jean-Pierre and Luc – directors of such realist masterpieces as L’Enfant and The Son – has noted the pleasing contrast between the sobriety of the films and the gaiety of their creators. The Belgians could hardly be friendlier.“ Continue reading “Dardenne brothers: “We felt the rhythm of the film was wrong”” →

Review: God Is Alive and Crabby, According to ‘The Brand New Testament’ – The New York Times

In the Belgian filmmaker Jaco Van Dormael’s wickedly amusing religious satire, “The Brand New Testament,” God (Benoît Poelvoorde) is a snarling, meanspirited bully who rules the universe from an apartment in Brussels. Inside his locked office, surrounded by walls of card files, the tyrannical, perpetually bored deity sits behind a computer and plays nasty practical jokes on humans.

A favorite pastime is contriving Laws of Annoyance, like making sure that when a piece of toast falls, it always lands with the jelly side down.God’s wife (Yolande Moreau) is a silent, slavishly dutiful housekeeper; his son, JC, has been reduced to a statue. It remains for his rebellious young daughter, Ea (Pili Groyne), to flout his authority.

Sneaking into his office, she hacks into his computer and, in what the news media later names “DeathLeaks,” sends text messages to everyone in the world, informing all of the dates of their deaths. Suddenly, millions are free to use the time they have left as they see fit. One daredevil, assured of a long life, keeps jumping from heights and landing safely [ . . .  ] Read Full New York Times Review