Posts by Gerald | Picturenose

Mascarades (2008)

Dec

2010

فوضى Pronunciation: Fwḑá Definition: Chaos It’s one of my favorite words, a way to smile at the confusion that sometimes swirls around us. Arabic teachers searching for that perfect visual aid to illustrate the fawda that can come to inhabit life in places like Algeria could do no better than show the hilarious opening sequence ...

Des Hommes et des Dieux (Of Gods and Men) (2010)

Oct

2010

Who’s killing who? Official Selection, European Film Awards 2010 Though this film portrays terrorism and its victims, this is not another ‘post 9/11 film’. In fact, the events it portrays transpired between 1993 and 1996, and had nothing to do with America, George W. Bush, or Iraq. The victims were French, and the perpetrators Algerian. ...

Scheherazade Tell Me a Story (2009)

Aug

2010

On the side of the resisters It’s men – not the veil – that are the women’s main concern in life. Or, if this weren’t a film from a predominantly Muslim country, their main cross to bear. The women are the guests on Hebba’s TV talk show, and they run the gamut of Egyptian society, ...

Amintiri din epoca de aur (Tales from the Golden Age) (2009)

Jul

2010

‘Conducător’ Monty Python’s weaponized killer joke may have been used for offensive purposes, writes Gerald Loftus, but under the Ceausescu regime humor was mainly in self-defence: “Humor is what kept Romanians alive, and Tales from the Golden Age (2009) aims to re-capture that mood, portraying the survival of a nation having to face every day the twisted logic ...

Journey to Mecca (2009)

May

2010

In the footsteps of Ibn Battuta Karma, I believe, doesn’t appear in Islam, so maybe it was just fate that I’d be stopped in my tracks by the poster outside one of Washington DC’s Smithsonian museums. It was Ibn Battuta who immediately caught my eye. I had just completed hours of meetings inside that same ...

Medalia de onoare (Medal of Honor) (2009)

May

2010

Romania emerging The EuroCine27 festival, on 9th May’s Europe Day, presented a dilemma to the cinephile. Which one(s) do you go see, with a film from each EU country to choose from? Easy choice, given the day’s big WW II commemorations in Moscow: Medalia de onoare (Medal of Honor) (2009) – about an ageing Romanian ...

Qu’un seul tienne et les autres suivront… (Silent Voices) (2009)

Mar

2010

Eloquent on incarceration Qu’un seul tienne et les autres suivront…is the original enigmatic title that young French director Léa Fehner has given this “prison” drama, though it may not meet the exacting demands of genre classification set by PrisonMovies.net. No matter. The film kept the audience in utter silence for two hours, as we followed ...

Vincere (2009)

Mar

2010

Benito Mussolini – what a fascist! And I’m not talking only about his political ideology, writes Gerald Loftus. Nowadays, the term ‘fascist’ gets thrown around indiscriminately, especially in political circles. But in Marco Bellocchio’s 2009 Cannes-nominated film Vincere, we go back to its roots, and Mussolini’s personal fascism was clear in his attitude towards his ...

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