— by BEV QUESTAD — He takes three colors — red, blue and yellow — and stripes them in arcs and jutting angles onto a large canvass. Beautiful balance, natural primary colors. Simple and elegant. Then he spreads bright yellow paint onto a long wedge, as if buttering the length[...]
Author Archive
Review: Red Desert (aka Il Deserto Rosso)
— by BEV QUESTAD — Forget about the name of this film. Maybe it refers to communism, global warming, anomie or the red-headed lead character, Giuliana. Michelangelo Antonioni, a classic art film director with ambitions nearly as great as his first name, once said he just gave it a random[...]
Review: A Separation
— by BEV QUESTAD — Bravo to Iran for winning the coveted Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film with a brave, insightful study of the human condition. At first, because of the headscarves and trenchant males, the viewer might be tut-tutting that this is just how we expected Iran to[...]
Review: Rocco and His Brothers
— by BEV QUESTAD — Four brothers with their shrew of a mother have left their farm and traveled to the big city of Milan to surprise and move in with the older, newly-engaged fifth son. Surprise, surprise. “Rocco and his Brothers,” renowned as perfection in cinema, begins with artist[...]
Review: The Life of Fish
— by BEV QUESTAD — Despite their own life challenges, everyone is laughing and smiling — everyone but Andrés. They quiet down and ask him seriously, “Have you seen her yet?” Andrés is back. He’s got the charm, the boyish looks, the fame and the charisma that make him irresi[...]
Review: Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
— by BEV QUESTAD — Winding slowly with burning flame headlights, three police cars necklace the dark hills of Anatolia, the great Turkish tongue of Asia, in the dark of a still night. Two bedraggled men lead the police ensemble to possible sites where they might have buried[...]
Review: Monsieur Lazhar
— by BEV QUESTAD — It is Montreal in the winter. Children are playing outside their school in the slushy cold. Two little sixth graders befriend each other. Alice (Sophie Nélisse) reminds Simon (Émilien Néron) it’s his turn to get the milk. He dashes off, excited to be a helper. He [...]
Review: Footnote (aka He’arat Shulayim)
— by BEV QUESTAD — There are five nominations for this year’s Best Foreign Language Oscar and three of them were shown at Portland’s 35th International Film Festival this month. Normally you’d be thinking that this would be a great opportunity to see great work, but unless[...]
Review: The Island President
— by BEV QUESTAD — After viewing this film you’re going to want to immediately book your trip to the sunny Maldive Islands. Why? They’re a gorgeous group of over 1000 little islands in paradise filled with palm trees, colorful flowers, warm water lagoons, and exotic, secluded[...]
Review: Patagonia
— by BEV QUESTAD — Everyone is on a journey with at least one secret. Two road trips, one set in Wales and the other in Patagonia, have another interesting connection. In 1865 about 160 Welsh people immigrated to Argentina to start a new life free of “the poverty of their hill farms an[...]
Review: Eternity (aka Tee rak)
— by BEV QUESTAD — Feel the stillness as you gaze at the rich dirt after harvest and the faint mountains in a haze. There is no movement, no sound or whisper even from nature. Then, from a distance, comes the crackle of a motorcycle. It comes into the silent scene and departs, leaving yo[...]
Review: Elena (aka Елена)
— by BEV QUESTAD — This is the story of a marriage between a cold, penny-pinching Russian capitalist conservative and his working class wife. In “Elena,” a successful retired capitalist married the nurse he met while recovering in a hospital from appendicitis. He apparently married h[...]
Review: Where Do We Go Now?
— by BEV QUESTAD — A funeral stomp in the midst of the unrest in Lebanon sets the stage for this Middle Eastern musical comedy. The women, chanting, stomping and swaying in unison set the stage for the best solutions to conflict you’re ever going to see on film. Set in a traditional li[...]
Review: Bull Head (aka Rundskop)
— by BEV QUESTAD — The best thing about “Bull Head” is that it focuses on the hormone abuse in the meat industry. Yeah, that is the very best thing. The worst thing is that it picks a big infected scab open on man’s inhumanity to man. It’s about bullying — bullying on[...]