Un Prophete

This year at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival "Un Prophete" made a big name for itself winning the Gand Prix Award. The award was well deserved, and if you ask me it is a superb film. Thirty minutes into the story and my heart was racing faster than a reel in a film projector.
The story follows a nineteen year old Malik El Djabena, a young Arabic boy who is convicted with six years in a violent prison. In the prison there are rules, and these rules don't make themselves, they are enforced by violent mafias. Malik soon finds that he has no choice but to do what he is told. As the years pass, Malik will realize he can make rules of his own.
The classic story of the underdog rising in power has been told for many years, but "Un Prophete" has told it in a very unique way. There is a contrast in Malik's mind between the joy of violence and control, and the disguised need for a normal religious life. He is a good man, but somewhere inside there is a violent beast, a leader, and a prophet. Malik El Djaben was played by actor Tahar Rahim, although a new face in cinema, he put on one of the best performances I have ever seen. With just a look Tahar Rahim can make you understand just how he feels, and what he is thinking. His mentor, "Cesar Luciani" played by Niels Arestrup was a genius character with an outstanding performance. With little dialogue in the beginning, Niel Arestrup displayed who was in charge with a brilliant act of body language. The tension filled chemistry between the two actors in truly a work of art with a strange balance of hate and a father-son like relationship.

The Cinematography and direction of the film is very professional. The camera in the film almost seems to be a prisoner watching everything, or perhaps an imaginary character that follows Malik. The change from real to surreal filming gives the movie a sentimental side, a chance to slightly break away from the chaos and violence, letting us see inside Malik's mind with just a filming technique. Much of the camera work relied very much so on the actors performances, same can be said about most films, but the background of the prison left little room for a landscape advantage. This is a hard thing to do, when you cannot rely on background to make up for you film, you really have to get in, connect with the actors, while still disguising the camera in tight corners. The director, Jacque Audiard should be respected and recognized for his amazing work.

The DVD should be released early February of 2010 so keep your eyes open. If you wish to see the film I have a copy. you can contact me by going to my profile. Enjoy the film and be ready for an amazing ride!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyOyUwwKgvc

Barry Lyndon

Watching "Barry Lyndon" is like stepping foot into an 18Th century painting with pastel colors, rosy cheeks, and ruffled blouses. The film might just be the most visually beautiful picture in the world. Just four years after the release of "A Clockwork Orange" Stanley Kubrick embarked on a new adventure. Like most Kubrick films it was a challenge to find a way to master his perfect vision. Kubrick wanted to capture the true light and color of the 18Th century, to do so he had to light most of the film with candles as they would have in the past. Kubrick began to research on low-light camera lenses that had very high speed and apertures, he later discovered a lens that was used by NASA during the Apollo moon landings.Extraordinarily, he managed to get his hands on this high performance lens and developed a way to mount it to a camera. The result was outstanding, beautiful images with a high quality pastel-like colors. Deciding to light the film with natural light was a genius idea, it gave a sense of softness and reality that audiences had never seen before and it added a beautiful touch to the film. At the 48Th annual Academy Awards "Barry Lyndon" won four Academy Awards including Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Musical Score, and Best Art Direction . Everything that was created was obsessively overseen by Kubrick in every detail, this gave the actors medium on which to submerge themselves in the world that was so well created. When you watch the film it is as if a man with a time machine and a camera found himself in the middle of a beautiful 18Th century story. The story is based on a novel called "The Luck of Barry Lyndon" written by William Makepeace Thackeray in 1844. The film tells the story of a smart, tricky boy named Barry Lyndon. As Barry grows up, he finds himself in many dramatic situations due to his schemes and lies. It is more of an adventure than a story, and adventure of this mans life from rags to riches, from a nobody to a man with power, a story about love and hate and war.
Overall the film was well received, but like many of Kubricks films it did not get it's full respect until much later. Today it is considered a masterpiece and it has been recorded as one of the best films of all time. The film is beautiful, it is a ride of emotions, a moving painting, a collaboration of art beyond perfection, I recommend this movie to anyone who has the patience to let an amazing story unravel with time, leading to a very satisfying ending. Enjoy!

A Clockwork Orange

"A Clockwork Orange" is a masterpiece. It is a film that shares a perfect balance of beauty and terror, similar to a tornado. The tornado itself is beautiful, but it comes with the terror of destruction and death. Same can be said about Alex and his "droogs" with their fabulous outfits, and devilish makeup. Their acts and literature are outrageous, and criminal, but the genius cinematic framework makes it all so interesting to watch. The man responsible for the beauty and genius of the film is no other than Stanley Kubrick. Kubrick is a remembered legend, with films like "The Shining", "2001: A Space Odyssey", "Spartacus", and many more. Kubrick set a high standard of professionalism and artistic capability in the industry, and when "A Clockwork Orange" was released in 1971, nobody had ever seen anything like it.

The film was adapted from Anthony Burgees's novel "A Clockwork Orange", which was released just nine years before the film in 1962. Burgees created a unique, sophisticated, well structured language for the novel which would later be used in the film. In the beginning it was a mistake, screenwriter Terry Southern gave Kubrick the novel as a recommendation, not knowing that Kubrick would go on to make the picture. Kubrick thought is was genius, the unique characters with their psychological dream-like worlds and well thought out literature. At first author Anthony Burgees did not like the idea of the film at all, but when it was released, he thought it was a masterpiece. Although it was shocking, the film was well received by critics and audiences, but as it grew in popularity, it became controversial. As the picture slowly became a cult classic, young men began to mimic the characters in the film, dressing like them and performing acts of violence in a similar fashion. This became a big problem for Kubrick, in March 1972, several criminal cases were held in court, blaming the film for an influence in violence due to "copycat behavior". Later that month Stanley Kubrick stopped the distribution of the film in England and removed it from the shelves. Despite all of the problems, the film was later released and has since become a masterpiece classic around the world.


The story takes place in the future. It is based on a group of young men called the "droogs". Their leader Alex Delarge (Malcolm McDowell) is a violent deranged boy who happens to have a strong appreciation for the beautiful things in life, particularly Ludvig Van Beethoven's music. They spend their time at the "Karova milk bar" a place where you can indulge yourself to a mescaline-spiked milk, a psychedelic drink that should prepare you for a night of what they call "ultra-violence". They wear white overalls with black bowler hats and thick mascara, holding little baseball bats ready to pound away at any gang or target. Throughout their nights they randomly cause terror to whatever or whomever comes along. Thier days consist of violence, sex, and beautiful music. After a series of events trouble comes along and AlexDelarge finds himself in a tight spot between the police and the local religious groups. What follows can only be described by actually watching the film, I don't want to ruin it for you so I urge you to see it.
To sum things up, this film is a masterpiece, a painting of moving pictures that so well tells the story of an amazing novel.

Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amelie Poulain

"Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amelie Poulain" is a wonderful film.
Originating in France, it somehow made its way to the U.S with much popularity. It is one of those films you love and you don't know why, and you can't seem to find anything quite like it. There is something fantastic about Audrey Tautou, the well known French actress who starred in the movie as Amelie Poulain. Her cuteness in the film is well balanced with a touch of mystery and intellectual curiousness.
Audrey Tautou plays as a twenty three year old waitress at a little restaurant in Paris. She has a regular routine life, until one day she discoverers a little box hidden in her apartment. She does some investigation and finds out the box belongs to a little boy who lived in the apartment years before she did. When Amelie finally finds this man, she places the box inside a phone both, she then calls the number when he is passing by. The man soon discovers the box from his childhood, Amelie watches with infatuation as tears of joy begin to roll down his face. After the incident, Amelie once again tries to find that feeling inside herself, the feeling of satisfaction that she brought joy to someones life. Her life becomes a fun ride of secrecy with a sole purpose of bringing joy to others.

Director Jean-Pierre Jaunet was well known before "Amelie". In 1991 he released his successful film "Delicatessen", he would later release his masterpiece "The City of Lost Children" in 1995. Jean-Pierre is well known for his camera movement, in "Amelie" the cinematography is unbelievable. It is an amazing feat to move the camera so much, yet have it be so well camouflaged, blending into the story as if it were a character itself. Another amazing aspect of the film is the consistency of the colors. After the filming process was over, Jaunet and the crew picked out a beautiful pallet of colors to be used during the entire film, primarily green and red, an unusual Christmas-like combination that somehow fit the film perfectly. The creativity in "Amelie" is very impressive, as the film breaks the forth wall (actors speaking to the audience) several times, you are not discomforted by it, but on the contrary very amused.

Overall it's a great film with a wonderful story, make sure to see this one, most people I know enjoy it, its a good mixture of different emotions. Enjoy!