Joseph is a tormented self-destructive and angry drunken old man whose sad life seems one violent episode after another. One day he runs into a Charity Thrift Store to avoid a mob and encounters Hannah the Manager, who as devout Christian. offers to pray for him. On a subsequent visit he soon discovers that Hannah’s … Continue reading
Howard Marks was a drug smuggler who, when on the run as a Wanted Criminal, stole the identity of a Denis Nice. And according to this entertaining biopic based on his life it was a very appropriate name for him as everybody (except the police and customs officials) seemed to love this rather charming and outgoing fun-loving … Continue reading
This movie starts out with a stunning long visual prologue played out to the sound of Wagner’s Tristan & Isolde that sets the tone of this powerfully dramatic story told in two parts named after two sisters. The first is Justine, who is a severely disturbed and melancholic bride, struggling to get through the lavish … Continue reading
There is a wonderful old-fashioned sensibility in this latest movie from idiosyncratic Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismaki that portrays an essentially gritty story about a major casualty of contemporary life as a somewhat sentimental fairy tale. Set in the French Port Town it tells of Marcel a shoeshine man who plies his diminishing trade wherever he … Continue reading
Fresh from watching the second series of ‘Downton Abbey’ the Emmy Award winning period drama, I had a urge to seeing some more work of one of it’s biggest stars, Dame Maggie Smith who now appears to be more regal than the aristocratic characters she excels at playing. My search turned up this rather intriguing … Continue reading