The World Cup of Films 2009

The "game" is translated as hypocrisy.May I offer my point of view just for the sake of it?I am allowed to do as I please,even so...where is my moral credibility so as my point to be justified,amongst the superficial points of our everyday lives?And who's to say that poets tell the truth?It depends on the "poets" and their class division,right?

Glorious,improvisatory and the impeccable Belmondo in a surreal state of adjustment.Nothing is oblivious according to the chaotic screenplay and there lies the whole charm of it.

Effective,disturbing,heavily sentimental but never without a flesh of humanity in spite of the major fragility out of all characters of the drama.Ki-young doesn't give a shit when he's portraying a demolished by famine ancient society where corruption and pledge simultaneously interweave the excellent finale.

The division bell is ringing too fast for the weak and meek.Reds,Whites,colors are futile.It's the physical and mental torture that fastens your seat.Whatever occurred in historical manners,this vice-versa irony is entrancing and utterly disturbing,since cruelty isn't measured in uniforms and consequences.

I can't describe it.It's an opus equivalent to what philosophy and opera really mean to anyone who's a fervent supporter of all types of arts.No mental delights,no gloominess,this is an attack to the senses by a long shot!
Whoever is against natural formations,better stay away...the hours and the times,literally.

Apocalyptic manifesto,the last 20 minutes are what our subculture today should have been: decadent in a vicious square of thoughts.And here is the wizard's illumination,a plot where what's seen isn't less real than what's felt.

Sadness and solitude.Can't spread any optimistic message if one erases the finale which is a huge diversion from most Angelopoulos' films.The little girl is a blast as with the visual silence of a film like that.

And what is the brink of life anyway?So what if a close friend disappears as if the earth swallowed him(or her in our case)?The signs of the weather,of earth,of the future mean nothing,present is the intellectual stimulation we all must utilize to prove our existence.Needless to say it's a requirement to move on whether a misfortune or a laughter approach us,it is continuity!Antonioni's first part is the evidence...

I shall applaud Lin,and a thousand more cheers if he continues to preserve this aromatic stigma like in this picture.Jia Siao-guo as the nerve-cracking psychologist and Lunmei Kwai as the feminine free spirit fill the screen with superb warmth,parts of the road trip triangle,immobilized by time and yet in search of this love,this flame,a "something" to root for.

Rocha the anarchist...well,partially.The Autran-Lewgoy-Filho trio of compulsive reactions is more than enough for the disbelievers to continue watching an operatic motion picture way ahead of its time.Sure,it's a flashback but what a flashback that was!!!

The optical purposes of a study on architecture and the historical treatise of a long-forsaken land.We come full circle the moment all seasons approach their climax,Egoyan's static camera focuses in the buildings and their caressing stature instead of the human beings.A contrast which fits Egoyan's overtones and the oozing atmosphere that encompasses this exceptional film.

Hicks' attempt to seal morbid childhood is a success and a brilliant equilibrium to the present salvation.Helfgott's true story marches as one of those small diamonds from Australian cinema and as a clean-cut biography where you don't always notice (Rush needs no introductions) the "paraplegic" in our case a mentally disturbed pianist.It is in fact a very emotional father-son drama.

Magnifico Bergman,a splendid anatomy of the human remorse and parental arrogance.God isn't a disbeliever rather the entity on our heroine's interior expedition.The Oscars awarded it foreign language film.So what?The best should have been the ultimate prize,but you see,it's a joke,language restrictions I suppose...

Expressive and staggeringly touching.The process of film-making and the various interactions by the members/crew,job and personal issues altogether.A brilliant finale,worthwhile as one of 90's magnificent finales.

It's a comedy film,right?Well,not really,unless you can point out that conference rooms and Seller's character alterations and satirical quotes are comedic.So it's a satire...and my slice of eccentricity in it.

There is no place like home Valerie.....
The assassination of a blossoming violet.Also known as the savage youth and how to embrace your dreams evading hell.

All fairytales are derivatives of the guilt-innocence syndrome of the children's notion of the world.Beast is the vicious but kind-hearted soul thus Belle becomes the penultimate saint in Cocteau's mind.A Saint without wings,nonetheless a spirit of the most divine emotions a child would love to have as a protector.And of what of us,adults?An adventure in the forest is all that's left for us...but what an adventure!

"I kick arse for the Lord!" and the miracle happened!Probably the Jackson epitome of indestructible goriness and slumbering...nastiness,ha!A rolling-thunder baby or a foul-mouthed zombie-killer?Take your pick you heathens,viruses are old-school,welcome to the real deal of mass sickness!!!

Up until recently,a number of films dedicated to the lives and times of exceptional painters,fine artists in a broader scope started emerging out of nowhere.Ladies,gents,I present you the unanimous masterpiece of them all,forget Pollocks and Fridas,Sung-up,a humongous legend in the Joseon dynasty in Korea,a fabulous poetic journey by the hands of an elderly Im Kwon-taek and yet profoundly young,Min-sik proves he is an Actor.

Brilliant melodrama from Bier,a renovator of touching scenes,roaring upheavals inside the souls of close interrelations.The core of this film lies to the characters,primarily speaking because Bier is calmly emphasizing on the hushes and inner voices.A pity for this creator deserves more than a Hollywood career.

If everyone reads the Hellenistic period classic "Daphnis and Chloe",they will discover the extremely powerful sighs and emotional silences this movie brings,same premise as the book.A wonderful Greek film,a definite must amongst a glamorous and kitsch era in our then film production,sensational cinematography and pagan signs.

Fragrant stimulation.A top notch film of 2004,a great film production,a charming gem of reflecting views and the magic of cinema inside out.Where the truth lies,the darkness' consequence dies.

Sexual,provoking,masochistic,
luscious,breathtaking,like biting the most delicious fruit and realizing temptation worthed the undeniable stir of your body.Bertolucci uses psychological symbols,eroticism is the main course and bohemianism = life.

Punishment,self-inflictive testament.Man in the face of his destiny..crumbled and torn apart.The trauma Jodorowsky implies is what will expiate us finally and leads us to personal catharsis.Wonderfully crafted film,exceptional tricks by the steady-cam,it often feels as if you're in another dimension and these unearthly events appear normal indeed.

Wonderful and a bewildering thunderbolt to the senses.What separates Cidade from other 2003 releases is the narrative theme: apparently,Meirelles thought it would be useful to rip off Los Olvidados....this outcome however becomes a superb exploration of the Brazilian slums,like a forgotten cousin of Pixote!

Babenco's jack pot in Hollywood was the death of his Oscar career.So what?Against the norms of studio decisions,Babenco controlled a subject truly remarkable and whoever thinks love and passion was a revolution in Brokeback Mountain,this is the real deal,the deserted souls.A fragmentary relationship gives the opportunity to Julia and Hurt to deliver exceptional interpretation of two incarcerated figures.What is fantasy constitutes the unacceptable and yet..so enticingly lustful.A memorable 80's film,different in structure and depth.

The complacent portrait of Lopez dwells in the silence and state of fine art retaining the elaborate "auteur" detail which makes Erice's study of conversation,nature,intoxicating feeling such a beloved textbook on time's benefits.Perhaps the simple stuff and as naive as it sounds,just watch those two old men reiterating the past,their affections and the still images of youth.

Grand depiction of the underdogs in New York of the 70's,a must-see for Scorsese's multi-faceted career,he literally comes up like a knowledgeable school-student and in the end,not only he's a fast learner,his gunslinger skills have risen in a spectacular level after some years from his debut with Keitel once again.

Remarkable,breathtaking and a perfect chill towards female nobility.Yes,a shaking stir will come from her mouth and Hunter is a poem herself.Campion delivers her magnum opus and I keep my silence until I hear encores once more.

Holy cow,what a true work of art.Stiff,relentless in its grueling painting of the lives controlled by a ruthless leader.Tyranny as a weapon against free speech,not just freedom as a whole.Crime and punishment is how it goes.Where heaven and hell commit a tormenting piano sonata.

An elegy of a passionate,disproportionate nonetheless relationship,it's not that a divine creature could have controlled the subsequent actions of Bess,Von Trier IS the maestro who doesn't takes sides for all that matters.he preferably speaks through an alarm clock,the one which vitalizes our inner strength and where religion is (arguably) the "foreigner".

Antonioni masterfully juxtaposes the drastic male and the imperfect female,Vitti transforming in a black/white wraith,choking in the decreasing moods of New Italy.And yet,why can't there be a fitting hole for the cloistered emotions,the hapless devotions?Is it dreariness or more unanswered questions...?

Which is which?The primary insight is Paz Vega.A wild,carnivorous cheetah,providing a passionate,frivolous dash in a jolly film with hints of melodramatic strings about love's torments.How does fate sound in Spanish?

For what it's worth,ghost stories are at their best when the monumental hour of illusion takes place in the minds of the victims.Not exactly a feminist work of art but the eeriness of the girls and the trembling musical notes assist Weir to film in a surprisingly warm scenery his treatise on questionable events,the mythology behind them and how nature is arguably both a friend and a foe to the living creatures.

Illustrious portrait of a heroic Russian figure demented by a dutiful force in a spiritual defense.The film may display images of pious behavior but haste not,this is an epic drama and the people are who matter most,not ideologies.Magnificent score by Prokofiev.

One-shot and that's it....the course of the rich and wealthy empire of pre-communist Russia unfolds before us,nostalgic sequences towards the cultural landscape of the era,the museum as the pole of connection between distant seasons and timelines.And our host commenting and mingling with the people around him.Aspiring.

Realism,frivolous beauty and a caressing miracle in the routine of a Swedish small town,where the context of lesbianism is treated in utmost subtlety and openness.Moodysson is aware of his raw themes (remember Lilja 4-Ever) and I should cry out art-house cinema forever!

Coming into the second bleakness of the trilogy,a clarification and a distant remorse,Gunnar Bjornstrand gives acting lessons and the limits of breakthrough and Deity create a fruitful bond of knowledge.Well,and unsurpassed atheism.

Undoubtedly,it's one of the top 10 films of 2000.Justification knows no boundaries and female,psychological suffering is excellently displayed on this film.Real drama,nothing fake to cover the truth.Panahi eluding his road to "sacrilegious perdition" contrary to the customs of Iran,we can say with certainty it's a universal journey.A journey disastrous through the looking glass of a handful of women.

A unique debut,spooky in its simplicity and...mental excitement.The inner scope on this unconventional trio is more than just a picture.The only Polish feature film of Polanski.Three thumbs up!

Gargoyles vs Harpies,or in the Tarkovsky syndrome "let's direct a film containing a stiffed embrace of Russian historical texts,nurtures,sanctimonies,scribbles which will make some point to everyone who decides to watch it".
Seriously,Terekhova alone is a feast for the cine-eyes,even so...the aesthetic feverishness is as endless as it gets,letting the viewers to figure out the grains of philosophical salt.

Perfection like a Rembrandt or a Modigliani painting.There's no exaggeration,an overlooked by some masterpiece,impaling the modern society in half like the samurai's lonely aptitude.Disgrace is the formula of the weak.The loyalty however is what makes us sally and oppose abstract rulers.

Aggressive,iconic,mesmerizing in every frame.Bunuel's depiction of the grim social life of a bunch of street smarts and other lost souls is hallucinating.A staggering finale for a maleficent future prediction.

Rapture in a lazy afternoon could be an alternate title.Poncela meditates in a stoned phase next to the apathetic Roth and both give sublime performances opposite the spooky More whose character's cinematic obsession characterizes this masterful nightmare and welcomes us to explore the web of rarely defined mentalities of our environment.That and Zulueta's meticulous attempt to underline the pansexual signals,particularly those of More's figure which provides a skeptic perspective to the film's thriller nature.

One might raise the hand and question the authenticity of the director's responsibility for executing a precise account of horrifying events,or the sympathy he showed towards Hideo Nakaizumi's role of the Japanese private or maybe giving Gao Yuanyuan her most mature performance to date.Maybe nothing will happen at all and the film will exhume under the roaring blockbusters.Whatever the result will be,Lu Chuan's crescendo is here to stay.
Jancso's The Red and the White in pre-WWII Nanking.

A doomed marriage,hence a classic leading lady.Oh you Fassbinder,executive persona.