Category Archives: romance,

“Mary Shelley” by Haifaa Al-Mansour (2017)

Mary Shelley

Great images and strong performance, but somewhat lost in time

Cast: Elle Fanning, Douglas Booth, Bel Powley, Maisie Williams, Joanne Froggatt, Stephen Dillane, Tom Sturridge, Ben Hardy, Hugh O’Conor, Jack Hickey, Ciara Charteris
Director: Haifaa Al-Mansour
Writer: Emma Jensen
Editor: Alex Mackie, Nathan Nugent
Director of Photography: David Ungaro

"Mary Shelley" by Haifaa Al-Mansour (2017)

Mary Shelley
Great images and strong performance, but somewhat lost in time
Cast: Elle Fanning, Douglas Booth, Bel Powley, Maisie Williams, Joanne Froggatt, Stephen Dillane, Tom Sturridge, Ben Hardy, Hugh O’Conor, Jack Hickey, Ciara Charteris
Director: Haifaa Al-Mansour
Writer: Emma Jensen
Editor: Alex Mackie, Nathan Nugent
Director of Photography: David Ungaro

“The Stolen Years” by Chun-Chun Wong (2013)

The Stolen Years

This young and beautiful woman goes first through amnesia, then Alzheimer, and then, after an unsuccessful operation, she’s paralyzed. Did I forget something? Oh yes!: euthanasia! But no worries: no matter what happens to her, she stays young and beautiful.
One of the worse scripts l’ve ever seen, and to add insult to injury, the movie is doted with a childish score!

Cast: Baihe Bai, Hsiao-chuan Chang, Ken Lin
Director: Chun-Chun Wong
Writers: Skipper Cheng, Silver Hau
Music by Henry Lai
Cinematography by Cheng Chen
Film Editing by Chi-Leung Kwong

"The Stolen Years" by Chun-Chun Wong (2013)

The Stolen Years
This young and beautiful woman goes first through amnesia, then Alzheimer, and then, after an unsuccessful operation, she’s paralyzed. Did I forget something? Oh yes!: euthanasia! But no worries: no matter what happens to her, she stays young and beautiful.
One of the worse scripts l’ve ever seen, and to add insult to injury, the movie is doted with a childish score!
Cast: Baihe Bai, Hsiao-chuan Chang, Ken Lin
Director: Chun-Chun Wong
Writers: Skipper Cheng, Silver Hau
Music by Henry Lai
Cinematography by Cheng Chen
Film Editing by Chi-Leung Kwong

"Miss Stevens" by Julia Hart (2016)

first feature

Miss Stevens
A young female teacher has a short-lived sex-only relationship with another teacher but feels a deeper attraction for one of her students, which she has to resist
Cast: Lily Rabe, Lili Reinhart, Anthony Quintal, Timothée Chalamet, Pamela Drake Wilson, David Faulkner
Director: Julia Hart
Writer: Julia Hart, Jordan Horowitz
Cinematographer: Sebastian Winterø
Editor: Amy McGrath, Lee Haugen

“Outside In” by Lynn Shelton (2017)

Outside in

A focused, “quiet, deeply empathetic film” (Allison Shoemaker) / Formidable performance by Edie Falco

Cast: Edie Falco, Jay Duplass, Kaitlyn Dever, Ben Schwartz, Aaron Blakely, Claudine Nako
Director: Lynn Shelton
Writer: Jay Duplass, Lynn Shelton
Cinematographer: Nathan M. Miller
Editor: Celia Beasley
Composer: Andrew Bird

“The Pretty One” by Jenée LaMarque (2013)

The Pretty One

An intelligent take on ‘a young woman in search of her identity’ / enjoyable, witty, deep, sensitive… / First feature

Cast: Zoe Kazan, Jake M. Johnson, Ron Livingston, Danny Pudi, Sterling Beaumon, Jeremy Howard
Director: Jenée LaMarque
Writer: Jenée LaMarque
Director of Photography: Polly Morgan
Editor: Kiran Pallegadda

“The Feels” by Jenée LaMarque (2017)

The Feels

Another approach to ‘a young woman in search of her identity’ / Team work gives a very nice ‘feel’ to the movie

Cast: Constance Wu, Josh Fadem, Jenée LaMarque
Director: Jenée LaMarque
Writers: Jenée LaMarque, Lauren Parks
Music by Julian Wass
Cinematography by Kristin Fieldhouse
Film Editing by Steph Zenee Perez

“Brief Encounters” by Kira Muratova (Russia, 1967)

Non-U.S. female directors

Brief Encounters

Muratova’s images have their own language, her dialogues are very poetic – although at times obscure – and the abrupt cuts do not hinder the continuity. Original and powerful!

Cast: Nina Ruslanova, Vladimir Vysotsky, Kira Muratova, Yelena Bazilskaya, Olga Vikland, Aleksei Glazyrin, Valeri Isakov
Director: Kira Muratova
Screenplay: Kira Muratova, Leonid Zhukhovitsky
Dir. of Photography: Gennadi Karyuk
Music: Oleg Karavaichuk, Vladimir Vysotsky
Editor: O. Kharakova