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Have to be honest and say that I haven't seen many independent films, but I thought this one was very well done. The direction and cinematography were engaging without becoming a distraction. The angles, settings, and lighting used successfully created the nightmarish world in which the main character was trapped. Many...
1pos
ea982aaaf04305c7385b2d1da4463d6c
I must say that I had wanted to see this film for a long time, and I was not disappointed. The acting of Dominic Monaghan is simply fantastic. As a part insomniac myself, I can relate with how the story develops. I have never experienced anything of the sort but some awake moments overlap the sleeping and it can be sca...
1pos
a4ab7539d709b836804028525f134483
I came across An Insomniac's Nightmare while looking for offbeat independent films, and glad to say it did NOT disappoint. This crazy half hour ride had me wondering all the way through, and the ending was excellent - one of those NOOOOO moments that really stays with you. I've shown it to a number of people and everyo...
1pos
0f516a0d694a9ba8c3d413b61c2117e4
This film, as low budget as it may be, is one of the best psychological thrillers I've ever seen. If you accept that it's low budget from the start, you can appreciate just how good of a story it is, how very well written the script is, and how great the filmmaker was to produce something so wonderful with so little mo...
1pos
adb03e8b5193930a272c870c00532c3e
I rated this a ten just because I find it so impressive what a single eighteen year old can do with a video camera. It's no epic but it's plenty engaging and I was never bored. If tens of millions of dollars can go into the countless bad films that are poured out en masse, then give this director the same amount of mon...
1pos
f04678303a4f4a9f23df3e352ef4c479
This film is one of the best shorts I've ever seen - and as I make it a point to be at all the major film festivals, I've seen a lot, especially of what the industry considers "the best." I'm not a fan of Monaghan. His acting generally tends to be overdone and uninteresting to me, his only decent performance being in L...
1pos
b65c3cd54177b1b62bb4d34d942b3637
I didn't know what to except so I think it was a lot better not having excepted much. Don't get my wrong its not a bad short film. Tess Nanavati is a relatively new directer and writer so I think she deserves a lot of kudos for making this film. You can tell that it has been an act of love for her. The acting (outside ...
1pos
6f659962680f3d6f4c61abc7df750b35
An Insomniac's Nightmare was an incredibly interesting, well-made film. I loved the way it just throws you into the main character's subconscious without coddling the viewer...the acting was top notch - honestly, I would watch Dominic Monaghan read the phone book! - but everyone else, especially the young girl, was gre...
1pos
c09508d4394fda5a2f187b117bc7eb11
I saw Insomniac's Nightmare not to long ago for the first time and I have to say, I really found it to be quite good. If you are a fan of Dominic Monaghan you will love it. The hole movie takes place inside his mind -or does it? The acting from everyone else is a little rushed and shaky and some of the scenes could be ...
1pos
22c3dd6e5c458ae56b20ca7943e86c88
I have seen this movie a while back, after ordering it for my friend, who is a big Dominic Monaghan fan. The movie itself was very interesting, though it had its positive points, which for me was the Donnie Darko kind of "wtf?" factor after the movie had ended.<br /><br />Of course, with positive also come negative poi...
1pos
d3339f8949069c4cc9819a98b76abc10
This is one of the first independent movies I've ever seen. For such a very low budget, it was done well; as an insomniac myself, I can sympathize with the main character, although my sleeping problems have never been as intense or as disturbing. <br /><br />Well directed, well acted, of a subject that I haven't seen m...
1pos
e5b722e58057b8a0631bc59f14485e49
Surprisingly well done for an independent film, An Insomniac's Nightmare paints a startling picture of what it would be like to suffer from insomnia. Wonderfully well written, and directed, it creates the atmosphere of a dream as the viewer is taken through one night in the life of an insomniac.<br /><br />Starring Dom...
1pos
a74572328ee4f33a4d027d6ba999cf37
This movie draws you in and gets you hooked on keeping your eyes on the screen. The writer/director is brilliant with the narrative parts and the use of creative and interesting camera angles and perspectives which all add to the gripping hold it will have on you. Insomniac's Nightmare is original and refreshingly diff...
1pos
1f2534d0a691edcef929cab736cd25d9
An Insomniac's Nightmare is the story of a man's plunge into insanity. Having chronic Insomnia, Jack is plagued by hallucinations; causing him to try and determine what is real and what isn't.<br /><br />We find out interesting things about Jack near the end, and think that by the time the movie is over we will have a ...
1pos
84c7de8234643e036b0d44d4ff31be60
This is an almost action-less film following Jack, an insomniac, as he goes through hallucinations, is visited by dead friends, throws himself off a building, and, for a lot of the time, can't tell reality from hallucination.<br /><br />Dominic Monaghan, as Jack, is truly believable. Confused, and scared but lethargic ...
1pos
ece106933ac568ba3475e55fa03e5737
I first saw this movie at a festival. There were many good movies, but few kept me thinking about it long after, and An Insomniac's Nightmare was definitely one of them. Tess is definitely a gifted filmmaker. The shots were great. Casting was perfect. Dominic shined in his role that she perfectly crafted. There wasn't ...
1pos
fb6abe39ee6eb787cd76ac2644e57427
I'll come clean. The only reason I even found out about this DVD was because Dominic Monaghan is a favorite actor of mine. When I heard the title of the film, I thought it was going to be...different, perhaps in not such a good way.<br /><br />But I was wrong. After reading what few reviews were out there about this sh...
1pos
45fa5790f9d219b57944e06f0dd333fe
I had no idea what this film was about or even knew that it existed until about 1 month ago when I stumbled upon when I was searching for other films that stared Dominic Monaghan. I thought this film was a strange insight into the mind of a none sleeper and what his/her mind may be going through in the hours that they ...
1pos
c61576924129168a2608d33705cb33b6
maybe i identify with this film cause i live in nyc and suffer from bad insomnia but whatever it is, i must praise the filmmaker on a most amazing job. to do what she did with no budget...wow, thats all i can say. really, really good. like no money was spent on this film and it still blew me away. i definitley suggest ...
1pos
c8f1b84b7de643c8376e5cd992c9884b
I had the pleasure of seeing this film at the Rhode Island International Film Festival and was very impressed. Tess Nanavati is clearly a great screenwriter and I would love to see more of her films. If she could do what she did with the budget of this film, I'm very anxious to see what she can do with a major picture....
1pos
649992029599e2932fbd3ecfe86ab2b5
This is a very entertaining flick, considering the budget and its length. The storyline is hardly ever touched on in the movie world so it also brought a sense of novelty. The acting was great (P'z to Dom) and the cinematography was also very well done. I recommend this movie for anyone who's into thrillers, it will no...
1pos
86b2f4f7b3ac7163850a5149591360c6
Ghost Story (the TV Movie--1972) was the pilot for the NBC series. The movie was well-written and well-acted and, I thought, when the 1972-73 tv season started, if the tv series is half as good as the movie, then NBC has a winner. (I wish this film was available on video!!) The series was a colossal disappointment--eve...
1pos
f7ed9a6cdb4a4cff07ead5a2ec1f9216
Ghost Story,(The New House) is a terrific horror story. This is from the Circle Of Fear and the Ghost Story series of the early seventies.The beginning and ending of each story is narrated by Sebastian Cabot. Remember him from the early family series, Family Affair in the 1960s? This particular story has Barbara Parkin...
1pos
23ce342eab772d0019a1c83b1e844668
I grew up watching this series. I was about seven/eight years old when it was on. I still remember the 1st episode which was called "The New House." It scared the h*ll out of me! I can almost still hear that statue, laughing madly. And the ending, oh my God! The hooror spirit comes in the room for the child: Yikes! Thi...
1pos
9b56540a6e338ecf9b70f5553462a046
I like Ghost stories. Good ghost stories of bumps in the night, voices that cannot be explained. Now I've see many of them. As special efx have a ever more grip on todays films, some times to find a real gem , you gotta turn the clock back to the time when the writers and directors really had to use their heads to crea...
1pos
94aa91e39ebc242cef5739f186226219
This is one of my all-time favorite films, and while it may move too slowly for some, it's well worth seeing. A corporate lawyer (Richard Chamberlain) is dragged into a case involving "city" Aborigines, and this is no ordinary case. OK, a man has died but it wasn't exactly a normal killing. There has also been a greate...
1pos
6f01f2a0178175dffbd196da2f29372e
Richard Chamberlain is David Burton, a tax lawyer living in Sydney, Australia who is drawn into a murder trial defending five Aboriginal men accused of murdering a fellow native in Peter Weir's apocalyptic 1977 thriller The Last Wave. Taking up where Picnic at Hanging Rock left off, the film goes deeper into exploring ...
1pos
e6560b519c8fcbda2789d295fa09c0a0
"The Last Wave" is one of those movies that relies heavily on the mind. The title refers to the Aboriginal doomsday theory: there will be one last wave that wipes out everything.<br /><br />David Burton (Richard Chamberlain) is a Sydney lawyer hired to defend some Aborigines accused of murder. Around this time, there h...
1pos
7afe3b36349b588b52240b3c216c28fc
This supernatural Peter Weir thriller is truly one of the most haunting and fascinating movies ever seen. Richard Chamberlain does his best performance here as the Australian lawyer who defends a group of young Aborigins accused of murder. As he gets closer on the case, he discovers more about the main defendant, Chris...
1pos
2e9a7682f9245a19faa2c05e73aa5499
Peter Weir's first international success, THE LAST WAVE is a mainly effective chiller with a fascinating back story based on Aboriginal myth. Richard Chamberlain gives a good performance as a defense lawyer whose life becomes increasingly unmoored from reality as he delves deeper into a murder case involving Aboriginal...
1pos
5581ec3bd74b0568cd7664b7ecfe9446
****SPOILER ALERT**** All throughout Australia the summer turned into a deluge of rain and hail stones the size of baseballs that was causing havoc in coastal cities like Sydney. It's under these hectic conditions that tax lawyer David Burton, Richard Chamberlain,got involved in a case, as a defense attorney, involving...
1pos
3c9150cab73f851b146080355671061a
'The Last Wave' is far more than the sum of its parts. It's not merely a disaster film, not simply an exploration into Australian Aboriginal spirituality, and certainly more than a simple court drama. Writer/Director Peter Weir manages to take these elements to the next level to produce a truly effective and thought-pr...
1pos
939ce77d3158c1156ef78f3748ce441e
David Burton(Richard Chamberlain, quite good)is a lawyer, more adept at handling corporate taxation(..and suffers from unusual dreams which bother him seeing this aboriginal man shrouded in darkness), who is called on to take a case concerning a group of aboriginals charged with the murder of one of their own named Bil...
1pos
4daa9e41c5b0df3e6eba082a43d3dae1
While to most people watching the movie, this will be of little interest, but out of the many hundreds of movies dealing with magic and the occult in one form or another, this one is probably the best in many ways.<br /><br />From The Golem to The Craft the subject seems to be of endless interest to the movie industry....
1pos
6c8e60f409521c061b530a65557394e6
Across the great divide which we call understanding, there is still much we do not know about that which was explained by the early tribal Elders. In every instance, there is much concerning the dangers of knowing too much. Conversely, there are those who warn us of not preparing for what they warn is the 'End Time.' I...
1pos
ae5be5230f71c37fd41ec5e574ec987f
This motion picture has a steady, haunting pace backed up with great acting (one of Chamberlain's best performances) and a story that is revealed to us over time.<br /><br />Beyond that, the music fully establishes the mood and assists in maintaining an uneasy, cautious and somber tone.<br /><br />Weir's story is enhan...
1pos
1a1426ab0279f176cb746178f7934a90
I remember seeing this when it was released, in a theater in Palo Alto, and not expecting much. I mean -- an Australian movie? But it finally got to me. Here's a scene. Richard Chamberlain is sitting cross legged on the floor of a shabby apartment in Sidney, facing an Australian aborigine elder named Charlie.<br /><br ...
1pos
1d40e041ce1a4eb5705df9af7e7b449b
THE LAST WAVE is never going to win over the mainstream audience. It is a slow-moving but fascinating film for those who are willing to go along with it. An Australian properties lawyer is asked to take on the case of five aborigines accused in the murder of one of their own. All sorts of portents and omens soon pop up...
1pos
e37539f7c85b8ab31913137993a3f544
You know the people in the movie are in for it when king-sized hailstones fall from a clear blue sky. In fact, the weather stays pretty bad throughout this atmospheric thriller, and only lawyer Chamberlain has the answer. But he's too much the European rationalist, I gather, to get in touch with that inner being that o...
1pos
7aec6b56df56a952fc66a872e3803794
I just watched "The Last Wave" in my school's fine arts library. It's intriguing, like all Peter Weir's stuff, but it's not always as attention-holding as I would have liked. I found myself fascinated by the ideas being thrown at me (because they are very well handled by the film's director Weir)but at the same time I ...
1pos
a756c199e828b3730a5a308b21aabb7e
Although I've long been a fan of Peter Weir, I hadn't watched any of his Australian movies until I watched The Last Wave. And it was a pleasant, unpredictable surprise.<br /><br />Richard Chamberlain plays David, a lawyer invited to defend five aborigines charged with murdering another Aborigine. For David's peers it's...
1pos
6ca07b2db716af1a1592dff32f074150
Episode two of season one is a delightful holiday tale of love, betrayal,...and a homicidal, escaped lunatic dressed as Father Christmas.<br /><br />A woman (Mary Ellen-Trainor)has just murdered her hubby on Christmas Eve for his life insurance. What begins as a perfect crime begins a struggle to survive as a deranged,...
1pos
a6deffa9e0528bc69ff1aac103ae62a9
"And All Through the House" is a special crypt episode not only because it's from the first season, but this episode was the first one I saw! I remember as a young man being on vacation with my parents that summer in 1989 in our hotel room in South Carolina on HBO I saw this episode and I was buried to the Crypt right ...
1pos
95c375f8480d60ed5785bbdcbe3ea9c1
Tales from the Crypt: And All Through the House starts on Christmas Eve as Elizabeth (Mary Ellen Trainor) kills her husband Joseph (Marshall Bell), she drags his body outside ready to throw it down a well but while doing so misses an important news bulletin on the radio that says a homicidal maniac (Larry Drake) dresse...
1pos
8eb25c458d6f05fb3981cef3b6485e81
I have watched this episode more often than any other TFTC episode, it is that enjoyable. And it is quite scary, but all in good, ghoulish fun. A woman kills her 2nd husband but runs into a problem when an escaped maniac in a ragged Santa Claus outfit decides to pay her and her little girl a visit at that very moment. ...
1pos
3aee40d4c90d466acb05443bd7820a15
An axellent second installment that manages to be just as good as the first. <br /><br />Once again, the casting is just wonderful. I like how the first and second episode have nothing in common except for the wit and cleverness.<br /><br />The second episode is just very funny, very silly and very enjoyable. It is the...
1pos
da9b1b251c83ac84c992c0c19c1f02a7
Ho, ho, homicidal maniac! This spirited tour-de-force adaptation of a great EC Comics horror tale is undoubtedly one of the best episodes of the cable TV series ever made. Director Robert ("Back to the Future") Zemeckis makes the most out of a witty script by Fred ("Night of the Creeps," "The Monster Squad") Dekker whi...
1pos
956254b3436d36935d90a63be1cc294a
9/10- 30 minutes of pure holiday terror. Okay, so it's not that scary. But it sure is fun.<br /><br />The Crypt Keeper (John Kassir) tales a tale of holiday FEAR, giving us all Christmas Goose... GosseBUMPS That is. Bwahahahahha. You should really be careful what you AXE Santa for. Have a Scary Christmas and a Happy Ne...
1pos
33853a5ba9758af4bacbcb8d7f4fc1d1
One of the last classics of the French New Wave. For direction, cineaste Jean Eustache drew from the simplicity of early-century cinema; for story, Eustache drew on the torments of his own complicated love life. So many things can be said of this film - observationally brilliant; self indulgently overlong; occasionally...
1pos
9bd07647f9d7395399ff984e9f566473
It is not an easy film to watch - it is over three and a half hours long and it is composed entirely of conversations. Yet it is so incredibly compelling and ruthlessly observational of the human character, that it is, in my humble opinion, one of the very greatest films of all time.<br /><br />The film is depressing, ...
1pos
87efc4a0f8822231b8195315e6f63b61
La Maman et la Putain has to be watched as a movie that is both related to the time it was released (post-68) and eternal in many respects. True, the actors don't "act" ... True, they talk a lot... But what they talk about is just what makes life worth living... or dying. The very long monologue spoken by Françoise Leb...
1pos
dbb79b78e6f7cb602c9c99800acb236f
Of all the reviews I've read, most people have been exceedingly hard on Alexandre. Neither Marie or Veronika ever seemed that they would particularly desperate to keep Alexandre, he being only slightly intelligent though not at all intellectual, as most of us are, however hard it may be for anyone to admit. Alexandre i...
1pos
a2d2c24f8018866c1bede98138414363
Unfortunately, Jean Eustache (1938-1981) belongs like so many once leading French film makers nowadays to the great unknown ones whose movies are hard to find and are not released on international DVDs. Since we have a good old-fashioned video-store in Tucson, I had the chance to watch this 3 1/2-hour marathon masterwo...
1pos
43cdfb99a2293b74f643da685b2bb6af
In what could have been seen as a coup towards the sexual "revolution" (purposefully I use quotations for that word), Jean Eustache wrote and directed The Mother and the Whore as a poetic, damning critique of those who can't seem to get enough love. If there is a message to this film- and I'd hope that the message woul...
1pos
f61efb31e498800a6e51ee573766f9a8
"La Maman et la putain" is the beautifulest film of all time. And what's most moving about it may be the relation between reality and art the movie deals with, which is directly inspired by Proust's "A la Recherche du temps perdu".<br /><br />Indeed, "La Maman et la putain" and "In search of lost time" apparently tell ...
1pos
4eeeef264b2abbe8e75f075e0a567715
this movie is so complex that it can be given any description and still roll with it. you have a insecure, troubled and fascinating main character (played by Jean-Pierre Léaud) who is trapped between two (no, three) women. we listen to his social, philosophical and moral idiosyncrasies in interminable monologues, we se...
1pos
5fa530f51073790a898bbd64c6fa4092
** possible spoilers **<br /><br />I like this film and have no problem staying awake for it. It reminds me of me at 20, except this is even better. Like Veronica says, two chicks at one time. It brings out the horniness in me, the casual conversation, these two real life chicks, rather than hookers, teasing us every s...
1pos
531004a0e34109f83e15360fdf95b8fc
A great movie, rather challenging than really entertaining. Sadly, no memorable quotes here, but this one's my favorite: Alexandre: If you're leaving someone that you have loved, you have to say what I'm telling you now: "Farewell, I'm going." But to disappear, to hide like a criminal, is ignoble. (didn't watch it with...
1pos
a246ecdfd92381990bfe5bbed4b32e91
We don't have to lose this movie, this is one of the greatest I have ever seen. Jean Pierre Leaud is amazing (more than usual) and the movie is one of the most unforgettable of the nouvelle vogue. Jean Eustache is no more on this earth, we just have this black and white images to remember one of the greatest and most s...
1pos
74c4ef7c56784e8e7be4a59d212d7135
I decided to watch this because of the recommendations from this site. I would have to say it was worth the effort. However, you should take heed that this film will go on for 210 minutes. If you don't have the staying power, get it on tape and watch it over a couple of nights.<br /><br />Now to the film, what I say wi...
1pos
c094f9ae2d0b8ea8425208c244e5f3de
Well, of course not, women are overly sensitive and needy on average, which is interestingly portrayed from mother to whore, though not pseudo-artistically, extravagantly, or blatantly dwelt on. Unlike many of you I have only seen La Maman et La Putain twice. As many good films, I noticed my opinion of it improved afte...
1pos
dd388fa56de7a543f0ce2f81d5021d41
A have a female friend who is currently being drawn into a relationship with an SOB who has a long term girlfriend. Of course the SOB is very good-looking, charming, etc and my friend is a very intelligent woman. Watching Jean Pierre Leaud's character at work is exactly like watching what goes on in real life when guys...
1pos
03c338c90a74a0c09e7ccd51e9a001bb
I hate over-long over-talky French movies, but my favorite movie of all time is the longest and talkiest French movie of them all. I saw it twice in the mid-70's, and then it disappeared. But I finally got to see it again in 1999, and fell in love all over again. What is most remarkable is that it feels every bit as fr...
1pos
a5b3053f0b20c8a0029e446016583e5b
A have a female friend who is currently being drawn into a relationship with an SOB who has a long term girlfriend. Of course the SOB is very good-looking, charming, etc and my friend is a very intelligent woman. Watching Jean Pierre Leaud's character at work is exactly like watching what goes on in real life when guys...
1pos
03c338c90a74a0c09e7ccd51e9a001bb
Since my third or fourth viewing some time ago, I've abstained from La Maman et la putain while I wait for the DVD. In the meantime, I've read the french screenplay as well as Alain Philippon's monograph on Jean Eustache. The latter ends with a frustrating filmography, eleven films, fiction, doc, and in-between, imposs...
1pos
4e3c9da2aaad3446b6afde280dd2f2bc
I was dragged to this movie about four years ago by a French actress friend of mine.<br /><br />For the first half hour I was sitting in my uncomfortable seat at the New Beverly theater in Hollywood, hating this film, hating myself and even hating the French actress. And then...<br /><br />I don't know what happened bu...
1pos
b856a5e7844a2b27a7e408a607603962
This show has a few clichés and a few over the top, Dawson's Creek-like moments (a 16-year-old talking about way back when life made sense?), but overall it seems like a decent show. Most of the characters seem very real, and the story seemed to move along well in the pilot - ending with a good lesson in the end. I jus...
1pos
1c60efd942c3b730a2641c42ff546ff9
me and my sister saw the premiere last night... it was so good we were glued for the whole thing.. hahaha..i think I'm hooked for the season!!.... they have some really good actors in this thing.. the head coach guy and the player that likes pete were very good and the plot has already got me but i don't really underst...
1pos
6fe64e7144b0b7d24cfa8acc8141af10
I have seen this movie. This movie is the best according today's need. Dowry in marriages is the major problem nowadays. In stating this problem this movie is the best. In this movie, the Indian values are stated very well. Today's youth must understand this problem. There is less population of girls. And due to this p...
1pos
5c802b676d56974886f3e816177a3a30
This, "Prodigal Son" and "Eastern Condors" are my favourite Sammo Hung films. The Fat Dragon is fatter in this outing than he was in "Condors", but he's no less sure-footed as director or actor. He is, in fact, at the top of his form and delivers a devastating, brutal actioner that boasts half a dozen amazing sequences...
1pos
ca1c6d2bb2614d31e7f94bb97a947e5f
Sammo Hung's 1989 film Pedicab Driver is considered by many to be his masterpiece. I have to agree to some extent as the film in its greatest parts really gets as incredible and fantastic as any Hong Kong film ever has. It is a combination of pretty good and well written drama, interesting and sympathetic (and also non...
1pos
d62f9615e3dbaf6851db51eba5bda80a
sammo has to have a 10 out of 10 for this movie as it has everything. great story, great fights, great characters and great cameos.<br /><br />this film sees dick wei take on billy chow and chong fat. sammo takes on lau kar leung in a casino, sammo loses the fight but what a fight it is full of high tempo action and el...
1pos
6954272ee3f8bfec40d744fbfe0bdd7a
What can I add that the previous comments haven't already said. This is a great film and the Light Sabre duel Star Wars tribute has to be seen to be believed!! There are moments of genius throughout this movie, if you can, SEE IT NOW! Thanks again to Rick Baker who gave me this movie many years ago!
1pos
2a2752a8b9b5aa69b7a747e98853c8f1
This is one excellent Sammo Hung movie. Actually, this is a great piece of Hong Kong action cinema. The story tells the story of pedicab drivers in Macao looking for love and getting mixed up w/ a vicious pimp. The performances are excellent and the characters are all likable and well-defined. The story is involving an...
1pos
1f868ac420c6c0d84538955910b71e44
This is one of the best Hong Kong (action) films around and it has a tense and exciting storyline as well as great fight scenes. This Sammo film has it all, Romance, Drama, Excitement and a great hero as well. It is the only martial arts film that got me interested in the plot rather than just waiting for the fights. S...
1pos
c551dd8da60044fb343dc6a33fd50f44
One of the better kung fu movies, but not quite as flawless as I had hoped given the glowing reviews. The movie starts out well enough, with the jokes being visual enough that they translate the language barrier (which is rarer than you'd think for this era) and make the non-fight dialogue sequences passable (for a kun...
1pos
f2b4a6869bd93e08b3f369203ce4458c
French film directors continue to amaze with their extraordinary ability to simulate the sights and sounds of ordinary, everyday suburban life. This was readily apparent with the release early in 2002 of L'Emploi du temps ( Time Out ) , a brilliant character study of of a white collar worker's descent into melancholy a...
1pos
f4a57457c30bc7cc3b82142dc256a945
This was one of the DVD's I recently bought in a set of six called "Frenchfilm" to brush up our French before our planned holiday in beautiful Provence this year. So far, as well as improving our French we have considerably enhanced our appreciation of French cinema.<br /><br />What a breath of fresh air to the stale, ...
1pos
a42e2a2005b5d65f913b3fccf9ca9962
I must admit that I had my doubts about this movie before I was going to watch it. The main reason for that is because it was compared to a Hitchcock movie. I've seen several movies that were said to be inspired by Hitchcock or that could have been made by the 'Master of Suspense' himself, but so far I haven't seen any...
1pos
d61282bc5767ffdc319e1f739d268c02
If you're a fan of film noir and think they don't make 'em like they used to, here is your answer -they just don't make 'em in Hollywood anymore. We must turn to the French to remember how satisfying, subtle and terrific a well-made film from that genre can be. Read My Lips is a wonderfully nasty little gift to the fai...
1pos
de3d10af10887c129a71b28c2123aa31
I settled back to watch "Read My Lips," a plate of Freedom Fries before me. The food was quickly forgotten as I became engrossed by director and co-writer Jacques Audiard's original and superb thriller.<br /><br />Carla (Emmanuelle Devos) is a secretary at a firm that develops major building projects. She actually has ...
1pos
d84820f9c865e177e13b1942dbd07206
I picked this one up on a whim from the library, and was very pleasantly surprised. Lots of tight, expressionistic camera work, an equally tight script, and two superb actors all meld together to make one very fine piece of film. Not for the reptilian multiplex brain, but rather the true aficionado of cinema. If Hollyw...
1pos
0fa3715d8b66dbc6543f2acfc007569e
"Read My Lips" tells of a strange symbiosis which develops between a plain, socially maladroit female office worker (Devos) and her workplace trainee, a crude excon (Casel). As the film fleshes out this unlikely duo down to their ids they become embroiled in a chilling merging of the minds, each using the other for the...
1pos
7c0f79ec822786857b6c65a4dcbfd1fc
Probably the best film of the year for me. This small French film centers on put upon office secretary Carla (Emmanuelle Devos) who spends her days doing other men's jobs, uncredited, and being the source of their scorn and lunchtime conversation which is all too clear to her as, being partially deaf, she reads lips. A...
1pos
e5452e951e81d4bdb42d11cc0d9ea487
After erasing my thoughts nearly twenty-seven times, there is a feeling that I can now conquer this review for the complex French drama, "Read My Lips". Having written over five hundred reviews, I have never found myself at such a loss of words as I did with director Jacques Audiard's subtle, yet inspirational love sto...
1pos
4fda02be31cb9ebbcb184a6faeb331be
Interesting characters, lots of tension. As close to black and white without being black and white. I was turned off by how casually the supposedly sympathetic mainstream character, a quiet, near deaf secretary, was able to turn to crime to ruin colleagues, rough up people in her way and finally participate in a heist,...
1pos
2db1ac01c23525bca948820ca32c8995
Jean-Jacques' career began with his essay answer to a prize question: civilization makes us evil. This intelligent and exciting movie supports that argument. In that sense it repeats a theme common to French films: society is real, identity is a construction, freedom is criminal. Here the idea is treated literally. Bot...
1pos
e8c7c450a276ad75a8ab3ecfca2b875c
A super, unusual film from Audiard, Read My Lips is a pulpy, lonely- hearts thriller. It's perfect for the handsomely grizzled charisma of Vincent Cassel and features a marvellously contained performance from Emanuelle Devos. Devos is a recurring feature of Audiard in the same way that KArin Viard pops up for Jean-Pier...
1pos
b4fb2b6cba2de77f452fabf4fee1258a
Well, what can I say having just watched this fantastic film, when my nerves are still jangling! Jacques Audiard the director must be making quite a name for himself in France, and rightly so. Vince Cassel is no Tom Cruise and Emmanuelle Devos is no Penelope Cruz either, but these two are fantastic actors, and this is ...
1pos
b4918857f0692c69c1eb8c878fd60c1a
This movie just pulls you so deeply into the two main characters. I popped it into my laptop without even reading the cover (let alone reviews) and was intrigued for two solid hours. Two lost ships from two different worlds collide. The sexual tension that brews between a secretary and a criminal is almost palpable eve...
1pos
60b29ac3ea0784b58475f01379ca3d43
I watched this film not expecting much and not knowing anything much about it. I loved it. A very good, tight plot, an intriguing hook in the form of the ugly, fat, deaf girl and the ex-con, and a pace that kept things flowing without being hurried. <br /><br />A much, much better film than the same director's De battr...
1pos
7f33489429a7be888659bfe3cc205e84
Carla works for a property developer's where she excels in being unattractive, unappreciated and desperate. She is also deaf.<br /><br />Her boss offers to hire in somebody to alleviate her heavy workload so she uses the opportunity to secure herself some male company. Help arrives in the form of Paul, a tattooed hoodl...
1pos
64bf150566f313f6fe31544dc7309b8b
Sur mes lèvres or READ MY LIPS is fine little thriller that also examines the lives of 'outsiders', people who live in the periphery of our vision who struggle with the need to 'fit in'. Director Jacques Audiard with and co-writer Tonino Benacquista have created a tense, tight, completely entertaining little thriller t...
1pos
b1a4c073f7eec7839f1bac619cb98127
"Read My Lips (Sur mes lèvres)" (which probably has different idiomatic resonance in its French title) is a nifty, twisty contemporary tale of office politics that unexpectedly becomes a crime caper as the unusually matched characters slide up and down an ethical and sensual slippery slope.<br /><br />The two leads are...
1pos
2d18e569537c2d6c0bfc86c758f4b37b
Deaf secretary Carla (Emmanuelle Devos) is bullied by her mean spirited male colleagues.<br /><br />When they suggest she needs an assistant it seems like the final insult, but, when the first applicant is ex-con Paul (Vincent Cassel) she seizes the chance to change her life.<br /><br />Carla covers his mistakes and he...
1pos
75e9f6827e307641ddf03c441ecc9211
What is very French about this film is the time taken to establish the two leading characters. This might require a bit of patience, especially since neither is "attractive" in the typical Hollywood definition of such. However, once the "heist" kicks in, the film rushes forward quickly, perhaps at times too quickly. Bu...
1pos
029bc2ec608d66cc705af205a4cf26a1
As in Amelie, recent French films seem to be taking a stereotypical male-female relationship slant, centered on a female finding her one true love. In this case, desperation leads to a convict, which leads to her evolution into a mob prototype. Clever and surprising story in many ways, except that the female is there t...
1pos
f90228bedab2ae6b470144356b79b8a4
Put yourself into Carla's shoes. She is an overworked, unappreciated administrative drudge who is invisible. You know her: she's trained three of her last three bosses, knows where all of the bodies are buried and might even look back at you in the mirror when you brush your teeth. Always having time for another thankl...
1pos
86ed12c3a4ad2aab01c2f0909a78ab9b
Vincent Cassel plays the part of Paul, an ex-con assigned to an office job where he meets Carla, a secretary who is ‘quite deaf', when she has her hearing aids in ‘very deaf‘ when not (played by Emmanuelle Devos). Together they help each other to develop as people.<br /><br />What was particularly interesting about thi...
1pos
05f6f564116df9d90be6f6a26e3e6387
Surely one the French films of the decade so far, a taut, atmospheric thriller making full use of the lead characters hearing impediment to use sound in a way rarely explored in cinema. Emannuelle Devos gives a truly stunning , multi-faceted performance, at times devious and manipulative, at other times open and vulner...
1pos
102732e5113ae6efa3024710b42e92fc