Berlin
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Berlin 2013: ‘The Nun’ review
★★☆☆☆ Guillaume Nicloux’s The Nun (La Religieuse, 2013) is based upon French philosopher, art critic and writer Denis Diderot’s controversial novel of the same name. Previously adapted by Jacques Rivette, whose daringly derogatory adaptation was originally banned by the French censors for its controversial representation of the church, The Nun’s infamous story has all the…
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Berlin 2013: ‘Paradise: Hope’ review
★★★★☆ Originally conceived as one 130-minute feature film, Paradise: Hope (2013) sees 60-year-old Austrian director Ulrich Seidl (2007’s Import/Export) complete his trilogy of films inspired by Odon von Horvath’s 1932 play Faith, Hope and Charity. The final chapter in the trilogy leaves us with the remaining young girl of the three women whose stories comprise…
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Berlin 2013: ‘Don Jon’ review
★★★☆☆ Tackling the sensitive and provocative issue of pornography addiction is a brave move for any director, even more so if it’s your debut feature and one that’s sure to receive heavy scrutiny due to your impressive resume of on-screen acting roles. This is the mammoth undertaking Joseph Gordon-Levitt has handed himself with Don Jon…
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Berlin 2013: ‘In the Name Of’ review
★★☆☆☆ Malgoska Szumowska’s In the Name Of (W imie, 2013) is first out the blocks in the race for this year’s Golden Bear prize. An uneven, yet innovative examination of love through the constraints of the Catholic church, Szumowska’s follow up to the underwhelming Elles (2011) is a patchy affair that asks its audience to…
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Berlin 2013: ‘The Daughter’ review
★★★★☆ The impressive third feature from Greek director Thanos Anastopoulos, The Daughter (2012) provides an intelligently rendered, gripping drama reflecting the wider issues of Greece’s current financial crisis. When 14-year-old Myrto (Savina Alimani) discovers that her father has mysteriously disappeared, she stalks the Athenian streets trying to discover where he’s fled to and why. She…
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Berlin 2013: ‘A Fold in My Blanket’ review
★★★☆☆ Premièring in the Panorama section of this year’s 63rd Berlin Film Festival, A Fold in My Blanket (Chemi sabnis naketsi, 2013) is the debut feature from Georgian filmmaker and former Berlin resident Zaza Rusadze. Ignoring the usual gritty and harsh approach to social commentary, Rusadze’s examination of the social constraints of a small Georgian…
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Berlin 2013: ‘I Used to Be Darker’ review
★★☆☆☆ Lo-fi realist director Matt Porterfield returns to the public eye with third feature and Berlin Film Festival entrant I Used to Be Darker (2013), a sombre and incredibly despondent look at the declining sanctity of traditional family values in contemporary American society, told from the wide-eyed and innocent perspective of a young Northern Irish…
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Berlin 2013: ‘The Grandmaster’ review
★★★☆☆ Opening the 63rd Berlin Film Festival is Grand Jury president Wong Kar-wai’s highly anticipated, years-in-the-making martial arts epic, The Grandmaster (Yi dai zong shi, 2013). Ostensibly a biopic about real-life Wing Chun master Ip Man (Tony Leung), who famously trained Bruce Lee, Kar-wai’s sumptuous kung-fu tale is a far more commercially viable and straightforward…
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Berlin 2013: Our Top 10 Programme Picks
This week sees the curtain rise on the 63rd incarnation of the prestigious Berlin International Film Festival (7-17th February). The festival opens in spectacular style with a World Premiere showing of latest offering from this year’s jury president, Wong Kar-wai’s The Grandmaster – just one of the many films to feature from high profile auteurs…