Film Festivals 2006
Another eclectic clutch of fine cinema from around the world. The 30th Telecom International Festival kicked off this year with Ken Loach's 'The Wind That Shakes The Barley', exploring tense Anglo-Irish relations in the 1920s; auteur Terrence Malick returned to filmmaking with a different story of colonialism, an eerily dream-like re-telling of the Pocahontas story and the 'conquering' of 'The New World'. Speaking of dreams, the innovative Michel Gondry gave us the enchanting 'The Science of Sleep', Richard Linklater came out with the animated 'A Scanner Darkly' and Korean Joon-ho Bong revisited the monster movie nightmare with fan favourite, 'The Host'. More personal stories included the excellent Canadian coming of age flick 'CRAZY', Tommy Lee Jones's 'The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada'; low-key thriller 'Keane' and a blackly humourous tale of the prodigal son, 'Lonesome Jim'.
The Great Dictator (1940)
8.5/10
Director: Charlie Chaplin
Starring: Charlie Chaplin, Jack Oakie, Paulette Goddard
Chaplin's first talkie stands as one of his greatest achievements. In this touching and often hilarious political spoof on the Third Reich, Chaplin pl... Read more
Brick (2005)
7.4/10
Director: Rian Johnson
Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Nora Zehetner, Lukas Haas, Noah Fleiss, Matt O'Leary, Emil...
A fresh take on the hard-boiled noir, this festival hit stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as an outsider teen-turned-stoic gumshoe after his ex-girl (Emilie... Read more
Ten Canoes (2006)
7/10
Director: Rolf de Heer, Peter Djiggir
Starring: David Gulpilil, (Voice of) , Peter Minygululu, Jamie Gulpilil, Richard Birrinbir...
Rolf de Heer's uniquely enchanting and humourous fable is the first film spoken entirely in Aboriginal languages. Set before the time of Western cont... Read more
The Wind That Shakes The Barley (2006)
7.5/10
Director: Ken Loach
Starring: Cillian Murphy, Padraic Delaney, Liam Cunningham, Orla Fitzgerald, Mary Riordan,...
Ken Loach takes on the Irish-English conflict through a story of two brothers who wind up on differing sides of a philosophical divide after joining i... Read more
The New World (2005)
6.7/10
Director: Terrence Malick
Starring: Christian Bale, Colin Farrell, Q'orianka Kilcher, Ben Mendelsohn, Christopher Pl...
Terrence Malick's epic dramatization of the mythical story of Pocahantas and John Smith (Colin Farrell) is just his fourth feature, coming more than 3... Read more
The Science of Sleep (2006)
7.3/10
Director: Michel Gondry
Starring: Gael Garcia Bernal, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Alain Chabat, Miou-Miou, Emma De Caun...
Director Michel Gondry returned to France to direct his own screenplay, a surreal and entrancing journey into the mind of young idealist Stephane (Gae... Read more
Shortbus (2006)
6.5/10
Director: John Cameron Mitchell
Starring: Sook-Yin Lee, Paul Dawson, Lindsay Beamish, PJ DeBoy, Raphael Barker, Peter Stic...
From the writer and director of cult film 'Hedwig and the Angry Inch', this New York indie-style 'smart-porn' follows a group of largely non-actors, a... Read more
Ghost in the Shell (1995)
8/10
Director: Mamoru Oshii
In early 21st century Japan, the search for a criminal computer genius known as 'The Puppet Master' sends a cyborg policewoman on a dangerous search,... Read more
The Valet ( La Doublure ) (2006)
6.6/10
Director: Francis Veber
Starring: Gad Elmaleh, Daniel Auteuil, Alice Taglioni, Kristin Scott Thomas, Richard Berry...
Master of the French farce, Francis Veber, combines wacky slapstick with quick-fire dialogue in this tale of marital deception, as the ubiquitous Fran... Read more
CRAZY (2005)
3.7/10
Director: Jean-Marc Vallee
Starring: Michel Cote, Marc-Andre Grondin, Danielle Proulx, Emile Vallee, Pierre-Luc Brill...
Zac Beaulieu was born on Christmas Day in 1960 and lives with his parents and four brothers in Quebec. He grows up longing for acceptance from his ho... Read more