Diane Carson – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

THE ZONE OF INTEREST – Review by Diane Carson

September 23, 2023September 24, 2023 Diane Carson Auschwitz, cannes film festival, Christian Friedel, holocaust, Jonathan Glazer, Łukasz Żal, Martin Amis, NYFF 2023, Rudolf Höss, Sandra Hüller, telluride film festival, The Zone of Interest

It is a daunting challenge to present a cinematic experience that does justice to the Holocaust without repeating previous worthy considerations of the unfathomable horrors. Stretching back to Alain Resnais’ 1956 Night and Fog, important fiction and nonfiction works have honored the victims’ memories amidst various dramatizations of Nazi inhumanity. Writer/director Jonathan Glazer has forged a new approach in The Zone of Interest, a narrative of overwhelming, astonishing restraint. Loosely based on Martin Amis’ 2014 novel, Glazer’s narrative enters the pantheon of unforgettable films on the Holocaust, adding another chapter to our understanding of the banality of evil.

Reviews

BEFORE, NOW & THEN – Review by Diane Carson

September 22, 2023September 23, 2023 Diane Carson Before Now & Then, Indonesian films, Kamila Andini, Ricky Lionardi

Before, Now & Then follows an Indonesian woman’s readjustment. Indonesian director Kamila Andini brings a haunting, historically grounded story to gorgeous life in Before, Now & Then. Set in West Java in the 1960s, wife and mother Nana, has escaped the civil war which forced President Sukarno to relinquish power in 1967 to Suharto. The disappearance of her husband during that tumultuous time haunts Nana’s recurring, terrifying nightmares.

Reviews

THE ROYAL HOTEL – Review by Diane Carson

September 21, 2023September 23, 2023 Diane Carson australian films, Hotel Coolgardie, Jessica Henwick, julia garner, kitty green, Michael Latham, Oscar Redding, The Royal Hotel

Consider the desperation, courage, and naiveté prompting two young American friends, Hanna and Liv, to accept a job bartending at the completely misnamed Royal Hotel, located in a remote Australian Outback mining town. As backpacking tourists in Sydney without any viable options, they certainly need the money. However, Hanna and Liv fail utterly to anticipate the clientele, to their dismay.

Reviews

EL CONDE – Review by Diane Carson

September 15, 2023September 17, 2023 Diane Carson Augusto Pinochet, chilean films, edward lachman, Gloria Münchmeyer, Jaime Vadell, netflix, pablo larrain, Paula Luchsinger, political satire, vampire

Now, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of Pinochet’s coup d’état against Allende, Larraín’s El Conde again targets Pinochet. However, Larraín has departed from realistic storytelling, creating a grisly, at times even repulsive, presentation of Pinochet as a jaded vampire in his late eighties. He and his enablers retrieve fresh hearts from victims, put them in blenders, and feast on ugly smoothies. Legendary cinematographer Ed Lachman captures all this in rich, deep black-and-white, the only buffer against our aversion to these loathsome individuals

Reviews

THE PASSENGERS OF THE NIGHT – Review by Diane Carson

September 15, 2023September 17, 2023 Diane Carson french films, Mikhaël Hers, The Passengers of the Night

In The Passengers of the Night, French director Mikhäel Hers settles in with a recently separated, middle-aged woman and her two children for an exploration of unexceptional and yet quite moving 1980s Parisian lives. Affection for all the characters results from a nonjudgmental, straightforward presentation of events over a seven year period, beginning with François Mitterrand’s election, May 10, 1981.

Festivals

Telluride FF 2023: Celebrates Diversity for its 50th Year – Diane Carson reports

September 7, 2023September 10, 2023 Diane Carson Anatomy of a Fall, Christy Hall, Daddio, justine triet, kitty green, Telluride Film Festival 2023, The Royal Hotel

The Telluride Film Festival, always held over Labor Day Weekend in that gorgeous Colorado town, celebrated fifty years with a dazzling diversity. The twenty films I squeezed into five days ranged from director Tod Browning’s 1927 The Unknown, starring Lon Chaney and Joan Crawford, to writer/director Justine Triet’s intriguing Anatomy of a Fall, this year’s prestigious Cannes Palme d’Or winner.

Reviews

BETWEEN TWO WORLDS – Review by Diane Carson

August 24, 2023August 27, 2023 Diane Carson Between Two Worlds, Emmanuel Carrère, Florence Aubenas, french films, Hélène Lambert, Le Quai de Ouistreham, motw, Movie of the Week

In cinema or books, adopting a disguise, a fake persona, to learn about a different race’s or social class’s experiential reality is not new. Perhaps the many iterations speak to the quite fascinating fantasy of stepping out of our own world into another. French director Emmanuel Carrère adopts this idea with full immersion in Between Two Worlds. Adapted from Florence Aubenas’ 2010 nonfiction book The Night Cleaner, Carrère immediately establishes author Marianne Winckler in disguise as a cleaning woman, euphemistically called a ‘maintenance agent.’

Reviews

GOLDA – Review by Diane Carson

August 24, 2023August 24, 2023 Diane Carson bleecker street, Golda, Golda Meir, Guy Nattiv, helen mirren, Yom Kippur War

In 2023, how can a 100-minute film portray the complicated, multidimensional 1973 Yom Kippur War? For Israeli director Guy Nattiv in Golda, the answer consists of several elements. First, anchor the history in Prime Minister Golda Meir’s exceptional ability to navigate Arab-Israeli politics, her cabinet’s multiple conflicts, and her friendly but fraught relationship with U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Golda is a significant film and history lesson. The cast advances every delicate nuance, with Helen Mirren as Golda, the anchor of every scene.

Reviews

OUR BODY – Review by Diane Carson

August 24, 2023August 27, 2023 Diane Carson claire simon, documentaries, french films, gynecology ward, Our Body, women’s medical conditions

Unobtrusively, in Our Body, French director Claire Simon documents patients, doctors, and nurses in a gynecology ward of a Parisian hospital. In over two hours and forty-nine minutes, Simon observes interaction concerning a wide range of women’s medical conditions and records several operations. Discussions include abortion, trans therapy, hysterectomy, endometriosis, fertility testing and treatment, breast and cervical cancers, mastectomy, and more. Unexpectedly and ironically, director Simon becomes one of the subjects part way through her filming, and she joins the diverse group of women.

Reviews

BOBI WINE: THE PEOPLE’S PRESIDENT – Review by Diane Carson

August 17, 2023August 19, 2023 Diane Carson Bobi Wine: The People’s President, Christopher Sharp, documentary, Moses Bwayo, Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, Ugandan films, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni

Codirectors Christopher Sharp and Moses Bwayo’s documentary Bobi Wine: The People’s President tells a story that, were it fiction, would qualify as a fanciful Hollywood invention. For its subject moves from the slums of Uganda’s capitol Kampala to star status as a reggae-inspired musician to candidate for Ugandan president, then arrested, tortured, and eventually released, ill and lame. Bobi Wine: The People’s President is a tribute to a fearless advocate for democracy and yet another tragic tale of power run amok, too often supported by developed nations.Bobi Wine: The People’s President is a tribute to a fearless advocate for democracy and yet another tragic tale of power run amok, too often supported by developed nations.

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