Lifeforce (1985)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1985
	Director: Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Death Trap, Salem's Lot, Poltergeist)
	Actors: Steve Railsback (Ed Gein, The Devil's Rejects), Mathilda May, Peter Firth (The Hunt for Red October), Patrick Steward (X-men 1-3, Star Trek VIII: First Contact)
	Country: USA, GB
	Genre: Fantasy, Horror, SF
	Conditions of visioning: 14.10.2016, VOD, 32" TV
Synopsis: The space shuttle Churchill is approaching the Halley Comet when it discovers an alien ship in its wake. The crew decides to enter it and there it finds inexplicable remains. They are then not heard of until they reach Earth orbit.
Review: A classic SF movie from the 80's that I had never seen before, but I think I read references to the title, and I wouldn't be surprised if it had some kind of cult following. First of all the cast and crew are impressive: director Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Death Trap, Salem's Lot, and who actually shot Lifeforce right after Poltergeist) that we met at the MotelX2013 festival, actors like the too rare Steve Railsback, the French Mathilda May very sexy and very naked in the movie, Peter Firth (The Hunt for Red October) as a pervert SAS agent and an apparition that I didn't expect by Patrick Steward from both the X-men and Star Trek (the 90's one) franchises. And the movie is scored by Henry Mancini who worked on more than 300 movies including Breakfast at Tiffany's, Hatari! with John Wayne or The Pink Panther (although I didn't really like his work on that movie). Needless to tell you that after one minute of the movie opening credits I was very excited! And right after that and for 116 minutes the movie goes straight to the point. It may start as a realistic SF story with serious visuals reminding of 2001, A Space Odyssey or more importantly Star Trek: The Motion Picture, but quickly includes elements more coming from the B-movie world: nudity, horror and a story which after one hour becomes hard to follow as it picks from many genres. It is indeed a movie hard to like because the story is not totally linear and some important characters come and go, but if you like the Genre and are in the right mind-set it can be extremely pleasant. The movie doesn't usually have good ratings because of this patchwork of genres I guess, but for one I was fascinated by it. I find it original and very ambitious, and Tobe Hooper managed to produce a unique piece of cinema in spite of that ambition in contradiction with limited means at the time. An the characters all have something special, for example Dr. Hans Fallada played by Frank Finlay is a kind of modern Van Helsing (sorry it spoils a bit the story, highlight to read). I am very tempted to read the novel The Space Vampires by Colin Wilson from which it is adapted.
Rating: 7 /10

House of Cards - Season 3 (2015)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2015
	Creator: Beau Willimon
	Actors: Kevin Spacey (The Usual Suspects, American Beauty), Michel Gill, Robin Wright (The Congress), Michael Kelly
	Country: USA
	Genre: Thriller, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: September 2016, VOD, 32" TV
Synopsis: The Underwood couple (Spacey and Wright) have reached their target in the political landscape, but have to face new challenges that you would think they would have been ready for.
Review: The series is progressing faster than I had anticipated when watching the first season thanks to a never-sleeping Frank Underwood (Spacey) dead-centered on reaching his goals by any means necessary, and after a decisive second season one would think that so much change in the series (and the objectives of the presidential couple) would make it less appealing. The tone is in fact different and the crowd of characters in the landscape changes (from congressmen to presidents now). I found some excellent episodes at the very beginning of the season: Ep3: Chapter 29 staging a meeting with the Russian president and the real Pussy Riot band, Ep4: Chapter 30 has a strong religious message, and Ep6: Chapter 32 shows the return visit to Russia this time. I also found very tense the Ep9-10: Chapter 35-36 that put Frank in war times. I liked less the debates in the last 3 episodes that contributed to my disappointment towards the season ending. But to be fair this season is still pretty good, even if I don't like too much where it is going. Each episode is still very dense and sometimes even hard to follow for a non-American like me not familiar with the local political landscape and its jargon (what the hell is a causus??). Something I noticed since the first season is that it is a TV-series primarily aimed at an adults audience: it does not contain a single teenager love story although it would have been easily done by introducing the children of any of the politicians, but apparently if a younger audience watches the series it will be for its more mature message.
Rating: 7 /10

I temp felici verranno presto (2016)

	Also Known As: Happy times will come soon
	Year of first release: 2016
	Director: Alessandro Comodin
	Actors: Sabrina Seyvecou, Erikas Sizonovas, Luca Bernardi
	Country: I
	Genre: Drama, Documentary
	Conditions of visioning: 02.10.2016, ArteKinoFestival, Streaming, Italian version with French subtitles
Synopsis: In a valley, a forest between Italy and France Tommaso (Sizonovas) and Arturo (Bernardi) have managed to escape and live in the forest. Villagers talk about a legend about a wolf and a girl. Ariana (Seyvecou) comes back to the village and finds a hole in the forest.
Review: The movie has three not fully independent episodes and genres. We start with a naive story of two friends escaping in the forest without a goal. Documentary-like interviews explain about the wolf living in the forest and about a girl who disappeared. Then Ariana disappears, comes back and disappears again and we follow her journey in quest of calm and nature.  At the end, none of the three stories touched me. The last one is chaotic but I understood a storyline, maybe not the right one.  The camera movement is quite demanding in the forest and very well managed. There are many dark or too dark scenes but it does not disturbed me. This happens with any camera in the forest when you do not have large lightnings. The acting is pending on the relatively empty roles. And thus cannot be great.
Rating: 2 /10

La jeune fille sans mains (2016)

	Also Known As: The girl without hands, Das Mädchen ohne Hände
	Year of first release: 2016
	Director: Sébastien Laudenbach
	Actors: -
	Country: F
	Genre: Animation, Drama, Melodrama
	Conditions of visioning: 02.10.2016, ArteKinoFestival, Streaming, French version
Synopsis: A poor miller decides to sell one side of his mill to the devil in exchange of gold. Including apple tree and daughter. He is forced to cut her hands to please the devil. Her tears and purity protect her and she flees. She meets the spirit of a river who helps her to encounter a prince.
Review: It is the first movie of a set of movies that I watch in the frame of the ArteKinoFestival. During about 10 days, the festival gathers online viewers who can also vote for the best movie of the festival. I find the initiative great and original. The story is inspired by a Brother Grimm's tale. At the beginning it looks like a pact with the devil. But actually it does not focus at all on the contractors (father and devil) but on the victim (daughter) and how she struggles for life with love, care and kindness. This is kind of naive, but no more than Lars von Trier melodramas (Breaking the waves, Dancer in the dark). There are here also moments of beauty and poetry.  The animation style seems a bit weird as filling colours and contours are not moving necessarily together, but it has an effect of detachment enhancing the moments of poetry. The dialogues are told quite well matching the atmosphere of the scene.  Sébastien Laudenbach is a good story-teller.
Rating: 6 /10

Hardcore Henry (2015)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2015
	Director: Ilya Naishuller
	Actors: Sharlto Copley (District 9, The A-team), Tim Roth (The Hateful Eight), Haley Bennett, Danila Kozlovsky
	Country: USA, RUS
	Genre: SF, Action
	Conditions of visioning: 29.09.2016, VOD, 32" TV
Synopsis: Henry wakes up while his wife is fixing his eyes and attaching his a new arm and leg. Things turn sour before he can get his vocal cords attached.
Review: I choose to watch this movie because it was produced by visionary director Timur Bekmambetov (9, Night Watch trilogy, Apollo 18, The Darkest Hour, Wanted) that I could call the Russian Luc Besson because he offers to his audience what they want to see. I already liked Wanted and its Matrix style (always a big influence on his movies for the greatest pleasure of those of us who want to see more of it), and haven't seen Apollo 18 yet but Harcore Henry may be his best production to date. I raises the bar in terms of modern cinematography, i.e. provides new answers to the question of how can the Cinema medium evolve in our age of technology and ever-connection. In the past decade movies have already evolved to take that into account. See for example the large amount of Found-Footage movies that revolve around the protagonists filming with their phones or pocket cameras (JeruZalem), or a shooting style very close to the actors (example: It Follows). I am also thinking about the trend of showing Text messages directly on-screen, shortcutting the need for a shot of a phone screen (the most recent example is the American TV-series House of Cards). Other movies have explored the possibility to integrate a video-game point of view starting with one scene in Doom and much more in Gamer. Finally we have also seen themes of cloning recently tackled in Surrogates, and creation with 3D-printing from a First-person point of view in Frankenstein.  Hardcore Henry seems to be the culmination of all that, offering an immersive experience shot from the sole point of view of its main character. Appreciating myself FPS video games I was glued to my screen, like I have to do when playing so that my character doesn't die. The story itself is thought like an Action Shooter, the hero in a futuristic Universe constantly struggling to stay alive (brilliant idea to keep him silent) and unexpectedly confronted to hordes of faceless enemies driving all the same van. And several action scenes are some of the best I have ever seen, and kept me deep in my seat for 15 minutes non-stop. I also like very much the side-kick multiple character of Jimmy played by an excellent Sharlto Copley and that provides him the opportunity to display the large panel of characters he can play. My rating reflects more the roller-coaster sensations the movie provided me rather than its cinematographic qualities, but I would highly recommend it for those in search of new sensations in Cinema.
Rating: 8 /10

The Dictator (2012)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2012
	Director: Larry Charles (Borat, Brüno)
	Actors: Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat, Brüno), Anna Faris (May), John C. Reilly, Ben Kingsley (Ender's Game)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 27.09.2016, VOD, 32" TV
Synopsis: Aladeen (Cohen) is a ruthless dictator in a country living from oil. He travels to the USA in order to negociate the opening of his country to the World.
Review: I am not a huge fan of Sacha Baron Cohen but some moments in Brüno and especially Borat made me laugh. The Dictator doesn't seem to contain scenes with involuntary actors, so it doesn't have that Documentary style of Borat. But the humour is the same: very crude and shamelessly hitting at all people or minorities, thus reminding me a bit of You don't Mess with the Zohan with Adam Sandler. And I guess it is because of this equal treatment that the movie (and Cohen) gets away with being extremely vulgar and irreverent towards religion and customs of so many people, with often a touch of racism. Cohen's role is an exaggerated depiction of any African of Middle-Eastern dictator, with the added trait of extreme stupidity that lead to some absurd funny situations. He is accompanied by Ana Faris used to this kind of dumb movies since her starring in the Scary Movie franchise. There are a few funny scenes (if you like this kind of humour of course), and what made me especially laugh are the cover songs from American hits to the Arabic style and with many words replaced by Aladeen, especially the hip-hop Aladeen Motherf*cker. And the best moment of the movie is a single quote from the Dictator to the UN assembled before him (copied at the end of this post) and that without a doubt tries to mirror another monologue from another movie with the same title starring Charlie Chaplin.
Rating: 4 /10

Se dio vuole (2015)

	Also Known As: God willing
	Year of first release: 2015
	Director: Edoardo Maria Falcone
	Actors: Marco Giallini, Alessandro Gassman
	Country: I
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 26.09.2016, Schauburg, OV Sneak Preview, Italian version with German subtitles
Synopsis: When his son decides to be priest and no more study medicine, the expert surgeon Doctor Tomasso (Giallini) is bluffed. He is so excellent, so open, so progressist. He investigates by stalking his son and discovers that he has been influenced by the charismatic Don Pietro (Gassman). The way to get rid of the Catholicism in his family leads him to encounter the behaviour of Don Pietro.
Review: On one side it is really nice to see a movie in which the tolerant atheists and the tolerant Christians are both depicted without being set in contradiction nor polarising the audience. In that sense the story demonstrates that as long as we all want the good for the other, and love the other, nobody cares about one's religion. Well. It is a bit simplistic and works as counter balance in front of the multiple polemics on the Catolic Church.  The acting duel is quite nice. Both main actors Giallini and Gassman have charisma and you know what happens when they enter in the frame. This duel is nice to see as arguments are not only verbal but by gestures, beliefs and facts. This makes the movie very interesting.  Some locations are amazing. The old church, the view on Roma by night from the terrace.
Rating: 4 /10

The intern (2015)

	Also Known As: Man lernt nie aus
	Year of first release: 2015
	Director: Nancy Meyers
	Actors: Robert De Niro, Anne Hathaway
	Country: USA
	Genre: Comedy, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 16.08.2016, DVD on TV, English with German subtitles
Synopsis: A retired 70-year-old widower, Ben (De Niro), is bored with retired life. He applies to a be a senior intern at an online fashion retailer and gets the position. The founder of the company is Jules Ostin (Hathaway), a tireless, driven, demanding, dynamic workaholic. Ben is made her intern, but this is a nominal role - she doesn't intend to give him work and it is just window dressing. However, Ben proves to be quite useful for many in the company and, more than that, a source of support and wisdom for his boss.
Review: The story is quite surprising at the beginning. After a few scenes, it becomes clear what will happen and how the two main characters will evolve. But it is nice and a bit funny to see the charming workaholic and fragile Anne Hathaway and the solid and good boy with history. Pleasant movie without much originality in the roles. It was clear that De Niro would help and correct with his experience the colleagues.  The locations in New-York are nice, old industrial buildings, large windows, a lot of light.  The always-pleased face of De Niro disturbed me. No acting, always the same face for such an actor. The directing was fine but does not seem to take or to get much from the actors neither from the wonderful location of the company that could have been used a bit more. Nice movie for a family evening.
Rating: 5 /10

Swiss army man (2016)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2016
	Director: Dan Kwan, Daniel Scheinert
	Actors: Paul Dano, Daniel Radcliffe
	Country: USA
	Genre: -
	Conditions of visioning: 22.08.2016, Schauburg, OV Sneak Preview, English with German subtitles
Synopsis: Hank (Dano), stranded on a deserted island and about to kill himself, notices a corpse washed up on the beach. He befriends it, naming it Manny (Radcliffe), only to discover that his new friend can talk and has a myriad of supernatural abilities...which may help him get home.
Review: The story mixes extreme vulgar stupid humour and scenes with very indie scenery and acting. The farting scenes are practical for the story but not interesting and fartoo long. The homosexual scenes are optically well done, with good acting, but sound very false in contrast with the rest of the scenes.  It might be an indie movie easy to fund because of a few mind-catchers, but the movie is globally not authentic, not completely funny. As if by searching a compromise, both Dan directors did not manage to find any.  At the end, the acting was actually very diversified but the roles do not make the movie better.
Rating: 3 /10

Quo vado? (2016)

	Also Known As: Der Vollposten
	Year of first release: 2016
	Director: Gennaro Nunziante
	Actors: Checco Zalone, Sonia Bergamasco
	Country: I
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 12.09.2016, Schauburg, OV Sneak Preview, Italian version with German subtitles
Synopsis: Checco (Zalone) is born on the privileged side of life in an Italian small town, with a guaranteed job as a public servant. When a new reformist government vows to cut down on bureaucracy, Checco is forced to accept worsening conditions.
Review: In every country in Europe where you have civil servants the discussions on their privileged status are going well. The teachers, the administrative agent, etc. Checco Zalone has written a very nice comedy. Even if the civil servants are criticised for their latent corruption, they are not laughed at because of their pretended privileges. They are laughed at because of the will to keep one's pay (Checco) for the whole lifetime. Or because they make anything to get a promotion (Bergamasco).  On top of it, there is a hilarious behaviour of Italian expat and change of behaviour, that I can see almost every day in my neighborhood, at work or on the streets. The contrast of a guy who tries to adapt but has super conservative manners and a woman who really adapts and has an extremely alternative life is very funny to watch. There I found the bare level of humour. But also another more subtle humour in which people or groups are turned ridiculous for their behaviour or their surprise in front of alternative life style. The casting is quite well done, because all these characters can make caricatures with their faces and bodies. And most of them can also behave more subtly. One of the best comedies since a long time!
Rating: 8 /10