Posts Tagged ‘ foreign language ’

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This movie is an interesting example of how great movies can be made outside of traditional independent avenues and rather with the help of a premium cable movie network, in this case HBO. Maria Full of Grace is a new movie set primarily in rural Columbia revolving around the life of Maria (Catalina Sandino Moreno), a teenager whose life is about to break free of its bondage to a family that squanders her hard-earned money, to a boyfriend who has impregnated her and is unworthy of her company, to friends who are more like tagalongs, to a dead-end job at a rose plantation, and blossom in the United States with the promise of easy-money to be earned as a drug mule.

I had high expectations for this movie having seen director Darren Aronofsky’s previous films: Pi and Requiem for a Dream and enjoying both immensely. That said, The Fountain has a significant depth to its plot that is typical for Aronofsky’s work, but in this case it seems to almost over-power the plot. There are at least three revolving sets, scenes, and characters, all of whom are related, but each of which is distinct: a bald Hugh Jackman in a spherical cosmic envelope traveling with a large tree with whom he speaks; a character portrayed by Jackman as a guardian to the Spanish queen as played by Rachel Weiscz at an indeterminate point in time; and what seems to be a present and rational world in which Weiscz’s character Izzy is married to Jackman’s character and is dying of a terminal form of cancer.

When considering what to write in a review after having seen Memoirs of a Geisha it is difficult not to think that this movie is very much what Titanic could have been. The film is as beautiful as the characters are graceful and the story, while revolving around a very specific time period in a very specific locale and within a specific culture, tells a universal story of romance that is both charming and to which one can easily relate.

Having found success three years ago with Amelie Jeunet moves to this story of a romantic relationship between Mathilde (Audrey Tatou) and her lover, a soldier fighting in World War I.  A Very Long Engagement tells its story by reflecting upon the lives of five soldiers who have been caught during the war injuring themselves in order to get sent home.  The military finds out and decides to send these troops beyond the front-line to have the German soldiers kill them.

Amelie was my first introduction into movies from this particular director and is what I believe to be his second strongest film following The City of Lost Children.  For those who haven’t yet seen it, it is highly recommended.  It is very light-hearted and positive, following the life of Amelie Poulin (played by Audrey Tatou), a twenty-something waitress at a Parisian restaurant who decides to become a do-gooder who helps others better their lives and in the process betters her own life as well.