Tag Archives: motherhood

7,0-7,9, drama,, male director

“A Monster Calls” (Juan Antonio Bayona, USA 2016)

A Monster Calls

Excellent direction, weak on minorities

Cast: Lewis MacDougall, Sigourney Weaver, Felicity Jones, Toby Kebbell, Liam Neeson, Geraldine Chaplin
Director: Juan Antonio Bayona
Writer: Patrick Ness, based upon the novel written by Patrick Ness, from an original idea by Siobhan Dowd
Cinematographer: Oscar Faura
Editor: Jaume Marti, Bernat Vilaplana
Composer: Fernando Velázquez

7,0-7,9, drama,, male director, romance,

“Being 17” (André Téchiné, France 2016)

Being 17

“The moving qualities in this film are mostly a coming-out thing, so perhaps straight people won’t relate, but there are glimmers here (and in our times) of that narrative holding enough substance to speak to universal truths.” -[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4331970/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1]

Cast: Kacey Mottet Klein, Sandrine Kiberlain, Corentin Fila, Alexis Loret, Jean Fornerod
Director: André Téchiné
Writer: Céline Sciamma, André Téchiné
Cinematographer: Julien Hirsch
Editor: Albertine Lastera
Composer: Alexis Rault

8,0-8,9, drama,, female director

“Hounddog” (Deborah Kampmeier, USA 2007)

Hounddog

“Rape and repressions are the two sides of the same coin. When you rape a girl, the problem is not that you’re taking away her purity, which gets everyone all up in arms. It’s that you’re taking away her wholeness. Trying to keep her pure, repressing her sexuality also takes her wholeness. I don’t want my daughter to grow up pure. I want her to grow whole.”  says Anja in Split.
The idea of sexual violence taking a woman’s or a girl’s wholeness is the leading theme in Deborah Kampmeier’s three movies (Split, Virgin, and Hounddog).

Cast: Dakota Fanning, David Morse, Piper Laurie, Afemo Omilami, Robin Wright Penn, Cody Hanford, Jill Scott
Written and directed by Deborah Kampmeier
Music: Gisburg
Cinematography: Jim Denault
Photography: Edward Lachman
Editing: Sabine Hoffman

 

7,0-7,9, drama,, female director, romance,

“Virgin” (Deborah Kampmeier, USA 2003)

Virgin

A few aspects that are common to Split and to Virgin: The female lead is a ‘good’ person but some things she does puts her on the margin of society / She loves but is not loved back / A man destroys her life.
Unbearable music

Cast: Elisabeth Moss, Robin Wright Penn, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Charles Socarides, Socorro Santiago, Peter Garety, Stephanie Gatchet
Written and directed by Deborah Kampmeier
Cinematography: Benjamin Wolf
Editing: Jane Pia Abramowitz

8,0-8,9, drama,, female director

“Evolution” (Lucile Hadzihalilovic, France 2015)

evolution

strong images and silences punctuated by sparse dialogues

The total absence of explanation allows the viewer to create his/her own story, a magnificent present, but difficult to carry out. See mine below.

Beware: spoilers ahead!

My story. An island serves as a prison for a group of women. They are all the same age and do not grow old. Each woman has a boy to fulfill her maternal desires. The boys are all the same age, but are human, thus growing old. For that reason, they must be constantly medicated and operated to prevent them from reaching puberty. The nurse who takes care of the young Nicolas bonds with him and helps him to escape.
The sea – the magnificent images sharply contrast with the colorless and lifeless prison-island – represents the living world to which Nicolas belongs.

Cast: Max Brebant, Julie-Marie Parmentier, Roxane Duran, Mathieu Goldfeld, Nissim Renard
Director: Lucile Hadžihalilovic
Writers: Lucile Hadžihalilovic, Alante Kavaite
Cinematographer: Manuel Dacosse
Editor: Nassim Gordji Tehrani
Composer: Jesús Díaz