Plot summary : Seven shorts about childhood problem through the eyes of seven directors. 1) "Tanza": Mehdi Chafer shows a boy called Tanza in an undefined country in Africa fighting in a civil war with machine gun and explosives, and dreaming on having his home and going to school. 2) "Uros": Emir Kusturica shows a gypsy boy called Uros in his last day in a juvenile prison in Serbia-Montenegro without any other perspective but returning to the place. 3) "Jesus Children of America": Spike Lee shows a HIV positive girl called Blanca, daughter of junkies' parents with Aids and the cruelty of her schoolmates in school. 4) "Bilu and João": Kátia Lund gives an optimistic approach of two homeless children that fight to survive working on the streets, collecting beer and soda tins and paper to sell in a junkyard, and transporting shops in street fairs. 5) "Jonathan": Jordan and Ridley Scott show a photographer correspondent of war in pain for his past experiences. 6) "Ciro": Stefano Veneruso shows a young boy in Naples that pickpockets to survive. 7) "Song Son and Little Cat": John Woo shows a tale of fantasy, with a homeless orphan and a spoiled wealthy girl.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
All the Invisible Children (2005)
Their Eyes Were Watching God (2005) Review
The movie is remarkable for its depiction of hot Black romance and sexuality. But it would be an understatement, as well as a cliché, to say that sparks fly between the movie's star, Halle Berry, and the last of her three husbands in the movie, played by Michael Ealy. These two can burn down the bed, and their chemistry is what makes the movie rise above the restrictions of its format and at least touch the level of Hurston's ebullient narrative.
"Their Eyes Were Watching God," rescued from out-of-print status during the 1970's flowering of the Black Studies movement, tells the story of Janie Crawford (Halle Berry), a Black girl who grows up poor in rural Western Florida but never gives up on the idea that life should be filled with deep, abiding love. Janie lives with Nanny (Ruby Dee), her grandmother, who, fearing that the teen-ager is starting to kiss boys, marries her off to an elderly farmer, Logan Killicks, who has "60 acres" of land, and therefore can offer his young wife a step up in life. A weepy Janie takes this step up, but then soon finds herself stepping out on the old man. She runs away and marries Joe Starks (Ruben Santiago-Hudson), who, in the story, becomes the mayor, principal landowner and businessman of Eatonville, Florida, the first African American town to be founded and incorporated the United States (and also Hurston's hometown.)
In her second marriage, Janie finds the higher social standing and wealth that Nanny always wanted for her. In the beginning she is showered with love, and then later, only showered with possessions. She realizes over the course of 20 years that she is also a possession. She is the mayor's trophy wife who is kept in her place—only a more highfalutin place. As fate would have it, life offers Janie yet another chance at love and a fuller definition of living. She meets Vergible "Tea Cake' Woods (Ealy), an migrant laborer, with a taste for gambling and liquor, who is much younger. Janie cannot pass up this chance to see if she can, at last, find a fulfilling love.
This is a quality production by Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Films. The settings, which appear to be on location, don't have that made-for-TV cheesiness. The cast, which also includes Terrence Howard, delivers believable performances that keep us in the Deep South during the first half of the 20th Century. Berry has to be given props for a topshelf performance, and so does Ealy and Santiago-Hudson. Berry has the starpower to draw audiences but she may be miscast as a woman described in the book as "very dark" and therefore defying the typical barriers of color discrimination within the Black community, especially during this time period. Also, Berry's stylists may have gone overboard with a long, wild hair weave that contrasts to the book's depiction of Janie's hair worn in a long, thick braid.
Despite such troubling departures from the novel's fabric, "Their Eyes Were Watching God" is a worthy effort at adapting to the screen one of the great and classic American novels.
The White Masai / Die Weisse Massai (2005)
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Top 20 Romantic Comedies
1.Casablanca (1942)-Humphrey Bogart , Ingrid Bergman
2.The Princess Bride (1987)-Cary Elwes , Mandy Patinkin
3. Sleepless in Seattle (1993) -Tom Hanks , Meg Ryan
4. Pretty Woman (1990) - Richard Gere, Julia Roberts
5. Annie Hall (1977) - Woody Allen, Diane Keaton
6.Bridget Jones' Diary (2001) - Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth and Hugh Grant
7.You've Got Mail (1998) - Tom Hanks , Meg Ryan
8.Love Actually (2003) - Colin Firth , Sienna Guillory
9.When Harry Met Sally... (1989) - Billy Crystal , Meg Ryan
10.Notting Hill (1999) - Hugh Grant , Julia Roberts
11.As Good as it Gets (1997) - Jack Nicholson , Helen Hunt
12. Two Weeks Notice (2002) - Hugh Grant , Sandra Bullock
13.Pillow Talk (1959) - Rock Hudson , Doris Day
14.My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002) - Michael Constantine , Nia Vardalos
15.The Holiday (2006) - Jude Law , Cameron Diaz
16.Serendipity (2001) - John Cussak , Kate Beckinsdale
17.Down With Love (2003) - Ewan McGregor , Renee Zellweger
18.About a Boy (2002) - Hugh Grant , Sharon Small
19.Music and Lyrics (2007) - Hugh Grant , Drew Barrymore
20.French Kiss (1995) - Kevin Kline , Meg Ryan