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
The Great Dictator ( Blu-ray + DVD ) (1940)
8.5/10
Director: Charlie Chaplin
Starring: Charlie Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Jack Oakie
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
The Heart of the Game (2005)
7.6/10
Director: Ward Serrill
Starring: Narrated by, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges
What started out as a small documentary about an eccentric, middle-aged tax professor coaching a Seattle girls basketball team, the Roosevelt Roughrid... Read more
The Host (2006)
7/10
Director: Joon-ho Bong
Starring: Kang-ho Song, Hie-bong Byeon, Ah-sung Ko, Hae-il Park, Bae Doo-na
AKA 'Gweomul'. 'Godzilla' meets 'Alien' in this monster movie with everything, from Korean director Joon-ho Bong. Following a careless toxic waste le... Read more
The Last Resort (2006)
3/10
Director: Errol Wright, Abi King-Jones
Opposition to the sale of a 60-year-old camp ground at Mahia is the subject of this fascinating documentary as long-time visitors and local residents... Read more
The Method (2005)
7.3/10
Director: Marcelo Pineyro
Starring: Eduardo Noriega, Najwa Nimri, Eduard Fernandez, Pablo Echarri, Ernesto Alterio,...
A cutting corporate satire from Spain, based on a famous play by Jordi Galceran, it features seven job applicants who turn up for an interview and fin... 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 New World: The Extended Cut ( Blu-ray ) (2005)
6.7/10
Director: Terrence Malick
Starring: August Schellenberg, Ben Mendelsohn, Brian O'Byrne, Christian Bale, Christopher...
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 Passenger (1975)
7.6/10
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Maria Schneider, Jenny Runacre
Antonioni's suspenseful and haunting adventure is a portrait of a drained journalist, covering a guerrilla war in North Africa who exchanges identitie... Read more
The Road to Guantanamo (2006)
7.5/10
Director: Michael Winterbottom, Mat Whitecross
Starring: Riz Ahmed, Farhad Harun, Waqar Saddiqui, Afran Usman, Shahid Iqbal, Sher Khan
A searing dramatisation of the real-life experiences of three men who set off from Tipton, England, for a wedding in Pakistan in September of 2001. O... Read more