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Certificate: 
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Release Date: 31 August 1990 (UK)
Main Cast:
Cristina Sánchez Pascual … Yolanda Bel
Julieta Serrano … Abadesa Julia
Dark Habits is a completely bizarre film, and one that I think will either bore you or leave you thinking about it for a few days. I’m not sure if it’s a satire, black comedy, serious drama or even all three!
All of the nuns have very unique personalities and all have different reasons for being there. They are a very eclectic bunch!
Basically, the story is about a group of nuns who provide refuge for life’s waifs and strays. They offer no judgement on those whom they help, and with good reason.
Whilst this is not one of Almodóvar’s best films, it’s still very thought provoking and surprises you in many ways.
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Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Release Date: 23 August 2002
Main Cast:
Javier Cámara … Benigno Martin
Darío Grandinetti … Marco Zuluaga
Leonor Watling … Alicia
Rosario Flores … Lydia González
Not at all what I expected from an Almodóvar film, Talk to Her is a quiet tale of devotion and male bonding. It tells the story of two men who are each in love with a woman in a coma and how they both handle it.
I enjoyed it, but it didn’t set my world alight. Part of the problem, I think, is that I just couldn’t like the main characters very much and therefore it didn’t move me as it perhaps ought to have done.
Having said that though, I did enjoy it and if you are looking for a gentle film that is far from the Hollywood norm then you could do worse than to watch this.
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Director: Christian Alvart
Release Date: 17 November 2006
Tagline: The Good is the Evil in it.
Main Cast:
Norman Reedus … Polizist Schmitz
Christian von Aster … Polizist Wagner
André Hennicke … Gabriel Engel
Antibodies is the thinking man’s Silence of the Lambs. It’s a quiet paced drama that gets slowly murkier and the lines between good and evil get somewhat blurred. It’s a far darker story than the above, and is, in my opinion, better. Don’t get me wrong – I really liked Lambs, but it was undoubtedly ‘Hollywood’. Antibodies is a far more disturbing experience. I like disturbing films. They really get under your skin and make you question not only life in general, but also aspects of yourself.
Can’t say much else really, as to do so would spoil the film.
It’s not perfect, but it’s a very good film and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
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Director: Thomas Alfredson
Release Date: 10 April 2009
Tagline: Eli is 12 years old. She’s been 12 for over 200 years and she just moved in next door.
Main Cast:
Kåre Hedebrant … Oskar
Lina Leandersson … Eli
Per Ragnar … Håkan
Patrik Rydmark … Conny
Let the Right One In, is, in a word, stunning. It’s going to be hard for me to tell you quite why it is, so bear with me. It is a story about love, loneliness and finding your place in the world. It’s a very tender and innocent film despite the fact that it is a film about a vampire. Indeed, to describe it as such is doing it a great disservice. It is so much more than your average vampire film. In fact, it’s not really about that at all. It’s about Oskar and Eli. Two children who are outcasts and share so much in common despite their obvious difference. You could even describe it as a love story.
It’s not like watching a film. Both Kåre Hedebrant and Lina Leandersson are so utterly perfect that it feels like you are watching real events. I can’t remember the last time I saw two young actors that are so talented and natural. And their on-screen chemistry is a joy.
It’s beautiful, touching and sad, and it deserved to be shown in more cinemas than it was. I live in a city, but neither of our cinemas (Vue and Odeon) showed it. Doubtless, there is not much money in showing ‘foreign’ films when most cinema goers lap up the Hollywood crap that is churned out at a frightening rate. I shake my head at those who say that they don’t watch a film to read. I bet the same people don’t read books as ‘if it’s any good they’ll turn it into a film’.
Rubbish like Marley and Me plays for weeks, but LTROI wasn’t even given so much as a single screening. I was fortunate enough to be in London during its release and was able to (after some searching) watch it there.
Wonderful.
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Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Release Date: 18 May 2001
Tagline: Love. Betrayal. Death.
Main Cast:
Emilio Echevarría … El Chivo
Gael García Bernal … Octavio (as Gael Garcia)
Goya Toledo … Valeria
A horrific car accident connects three stories, each involving characters dealing with loss, regret, and life’s harsh realities, all in the name of love. And bloody marvellous it is too!
Although there are three stories, it never gets confusing as they overlap beautifully.
It’s not really possible to go into it any any great detail because it would take far too long. The above is really all you need to know!
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Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Release Date: 1 July 1994
Main Cast:
Verónica Forqué … Kika (as Veronica Forque)
Peter Coyote … Nicholas
Victoria Abril … Andrea Caracortada
Àlex Casanovas … Ramón
Whilst not one of his finest, Kika is still very enjoyable. Almodóvar films are quirky and fast paced, and Kika is no exception. He has a unique way of making you laugh in situations that should not be in the least bit funny. You are never sure what’s coming next in an Almodóvar film!
I can imagine that Kika would not be to everyone’s taste, as there are a couple of scenes that are somewhat controversial, and many will not see the humour in it. If this is your first taste of one of his films and you don’t care much for it, it’s worth checking out one or two others before deciding if his style is to your taste or not (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown is one of my favourites).
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Director: Ki-duk Kim
Release Date: 14 May 2004
Main Cast:
Yeong-su Oh … Old Monk (as Young-soo Oh)
Ki-duk Kim … Adult Monk
Jae-kyeong Seo … Boy Monk
Yeo-jin Ha … The Girl
SSAW&S is a pure joy to watch. It’s perfect in its simplicity and is simply perfect! It’s a film of understated beauty both in the visuals and the story, and it’s very hard to put into words just how good it is. It tells the story of a monk from childhood to adulthood and is all about the cycles of life and the journeys we take through it.
It’s visually stunning and so calm and peaceful that it creates a kind of serenity in the viewer (rather like the surface of the lake). There is hardly any dialogue and this just adds to the film’s brilliance.
I can’t even come close to doing justice to the film in this review. It really is an experience and should not be missed.
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Director: Juan Antonio Bayona
Release Date: 21 March 2008
Tagline: A tale of love. A story of horror.
Main Cast:
Belén Ruader … Laura
Fernando Cayo … Carlos
Roger Príncep … Simón
What a masterpiece! I was totally blown away by it. I was expecting it to be good, but it surpassed all expectations. I am going to give absolutely nothing away other than it’s the finest ghost story I’ve ever seen (closely follwed by The Others) and you owe it to yourself to see it. Whist I’ve included it in the ‘horror’ category, if you don’t like horror films then don’t let that put you off. There’s a lot of unease and it’s very creepy, but it’s such a thrill!
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Director: Chan-wook Park
Release Date: 10 February 2006
Tagline: All she wanted was a peaceful life… they didn’t give it.
Main Cast:
Yeong-ae Lee … Geum-ja Lee
Min-sik Choi … Mr Baek
I’m a big fan of Asian horror so was hoping for another treat with this. However, I was somewhat disappointed. Whilst many Asian films can be rather confusing at the start, this one remained confusing for the first half or so. It’s not until you understand what’s happened that you can back track and piece it all together. Now, I don’t need everything set out on a plate for me, but I just wasn’t getting any sense of where it was going which resulted in a steadily increasing lack of interest.
Anyway, I found SFLV rather slow and plodding and with no real satisfaction at the end. I know that many people will probably disagree with this review, but this is easily the most boring Asian horror that I’ve seen.
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Director: Ryuhei Kitamura
Release Date: 10 May 2003
Tagline: From the ravages of war rises the ultimate assassin.
Main Cast:
Aya Ueto … Azumi
Kenji Kohashi … Hyuga
Azumi is a great looking film and very entertaining. The fight scenes are great, which is just as well because there’s plenty of them! And it’s pretty gory too.
The plot is kind of standard fare; nothing too complex. This isn’t an issue though, as I tend to think that this type of film needs an uncomplicated story.
It’s an interesting mix of history and comic book heroes, and I really liked that about it. It also has the best gay goth ninja magician that I’ve ever seen (“magician?” I hear you ask. It’s the roses. Where does he produce them from? My guess is from up his sleeves).
One thing that I couldn’t grasp though was whether it was supposed to be semi-comical. There are funny moments, and it seems to descend into madness towards the end. One of the funniest moments (to me) was the odd sounds made by the above mentioned gay goth ninja magician at the end. They’re reminiscent of Paul Burrows’ sounds of terror during the Bush Tucker Trials in “I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!”.
Overall, Azumi is good entertainment if you like this genre of film.
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