By Michael Roddy Teenaged Sara (Florence Hunt, winsome) has a question for her mother Amanda (Juliette Binoche, superb) after they walk in on octogenerian Martin (Tom Courtenay, ditto) having sex with his dementia-stricken wife, Amanda's mom Leslie (Anne Calder-Marshall, convincing) in the elderly couple's north London townhouse. How, at his age, does he perform the…Read more Courtenay, Binoche, shine in Berlinale dementia film “Queen at Sea”
Uprooting ripples down the years in Berlinale “Nina Roza”
By Michael Roddy Art expert Mihail (veteran Bulgarian stage director Galin Stoev, in fine form) works in Montreal for collector Christophe (Christian Bégin) who has become obsessed, through seeing online videos, with an eight-year-old supposed art prodigy in rural Bulgaria named Nina (twins Ekaterina and Sofia Stanina). If the girl is who she is made…Read more Uprooting ripples down the years in Berlinale “Nina Roza”
Amy Adams is recovering alcoholic in Berlinale’s “At the Sea”
By Michael Roddy When we first see Amy Adams (Lois Lane of the Superman movies, “Junebug”, “American Hustle”) in the Berlinale competition film “At the Sea” she is pounding away outdoors somewhat distractedly on a set of drums along with other people doing the same. In other words, she's doing the kind of thing people…Read more Amy Adams is recovering alcoholic in Berlinale’s “At the Sea”
Hüller superb as 17th-century woman passing as man in “Rose”
By Michael Roddy Sandra Hüller (“Anatomy of a Fall”, "Toni Erdmann") gives a textbook performance of subtlety and craft as the titular character in the Berlinale competition film “Rose”, based on the true story of a woman who dressed and passed as a man not in the modern-day metrosexual world, but in the strictly gendered…Read more Hüller superb as 17th-century woman passing as man in “Rose”
Kurdish feud is warning to the world in Berlinale film Kurtuluş
(Caner Cindoruk as vision-possessed Mesut in Kurtuluş) By Michael Roddy Clan rivalries spiral fatally out of control in a farming and shepherding village in southeastern Turkey that could be any place where tensions between feuding groups end in violence in the Turkish-Kurdish film “Kurtuluş” (Salvation), which had its premiere at the Berlinale on Sunday. In…Read more Kurdish feud is warning to the world in Berlinale film Kurtuluş
Child of the Forest: “Nightborn” picks up where Polanski left off
By Michael Roddy First time Finnish mother Saga (Seidi Haarla) has a problem, and it's not just that her British husband Jon (Rupert Grint, of “Harry Potter” fame) is alien to the local culture or that her grandmother, whose wreck of a house deep in the Finnish woods they've renovated and moved into, warned before…Read more Child of the Forest: “Nightborn” picks up where Polanski left off
A lethal “Succession”-style family in Berlinale’s “Rosebush Pruning”
By Michael Roddy In the Berlinale competition film “Rosebush Pruning”, by Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz (The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão), the first member we meet of a stinking rich and utterly loathesome American family, who've transplanted themselves to obscene levels of luxury in Spain, is son Edward (Callum Turner). He is on a busy…Read more A lethal “Succession”-style family in Berlinale’s “Rosebush Pruning”
Irish Bill Evans film plays the right tune in Berlin
By Michael Roddy One of the hardest tricks to pull off in moviemaking is a fictionalised film based on the career of someone whose music and discs everybody knows and loves, and whose performance by actors who are not musicians is at best hit or miss. “Everybody Digs Bill Evans” neatly avoids that bear trap…Read more Irish Bill Evans film plays the right tune in Berlin
Lesbian couple deal with Tunisian mores in Berlinale film
(Hiam Abbass as Wahida and Eya Bouteraa as her daughter Lilia in "A Voix Basse") By Michael Roddy The cast and director of a Tunisian film that deals with a lesbian love affair said at the Berlinale on Friday they hoped “A Voix Basse” (In a Whisper) would help shift Western stereotypes about the Middle…Read more Lesbian couple deal with Tunisian mores in Berlinale film
Yeoh sheds tears as she gets honourary Bear
Michelle Yeoh wiped away tears as she accepted an Honourary Golden Bear for Lifetime Achievement at the Berlinale, but said it marked not the end of her career but a step to greater things to come. “I feel an immense sense of gratitude, a quiet sense of wonder,” Yeoh said on the stage of the…Read more Yeoh sheds tears as she gets honourary Bear
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