The White Countess, directed by James Ivory, an obvious clone of the classic film Casablanca (1942), is set in Shanghai during 1936-1937. (There are also similarities with the 1993 film The Remains of the Day, both crafted by director Ivory from a story by Kazuo Ishiguro.) Due to tragic events before 1936, Todd Jackson (played by Ralph Fiennes […]

The White Countess, directed by James Ivory, an obvious clone of the classic film Casablanca (1942), is set in Shanghai during 1936-1937. (There are also similarities with the 1993 film The Remains of the Day, both crafted by director Ivory from a story by Kazuo Ishiguro.) Due to tragic events before 1936, Todd Jackson (played by Ralph Fiennes

A Wake in Providence, directed by Rosario Roveto, is a variation on the theme of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? (1967), but the ethnic group is Sicilian, not Greek. And the African American is the girlfriend, not the boyfriend. When the picture begins, Anthony Gelati (played by Vincent Pagano), a macho Italian, is auditioning for a part

Walk on Water, directed by Eytan Fox, begins in Istanbul, where Mossad agent Eyal (played by Clive Owen lookalike Lior Ashkenazi) gives a lethal injection to a Hamas terrorist in a public park. Returning to Tel Aviv, he finds that his wife has committed suicide; he shows no emotion, just an unwillingness to continue as a

The Unwanted Woman, directed by Tahmineh Milani, who received a Political Film Society nomination for The Hidden Half (2001), offers another stark film that exposes the inequality of women in Iran. When the film begins, Sima (played by Merila Zareie) is a thirty-five-year-old teacher in a girls’ high school. A student is reading an essay in front

Unleashed, directed by Louis Leterrier, is marketed as an action film, but there is more to the plot than the excellent fighting sequences. What unfolds is a new version of George Bernard Shaw’s classic Pygmalion (1916). When the film begins, Danny (played by Jet Li) has a collar around his neck. Soon, his gangster “uncle” Bart (played

Although the Cold War produced no armed aggression on the battlefield between the Soviet Union and the West, there were casualties. Some spies and counterspies died, of course, but a major battlefront was in Berlin after the wall was erected in 1961. The film The Tunnel (Der tunnel), an expurgated version of a three-hour German television

The title of the film Transamerica, directed and written by Duncan Tucker, has two meanings. One is the quest of Stanley Osbourne, who has taken the identity of a very proper Sabrina (played by Felicity Huffman), “Bree” for short, and wants to undergo a gender reassignment operation. The second meaning is a trip from New York

Travellers & Magicians, directed by Khyentse Norabu, features cinematography of the Bhutan countryside. The film falls into the “on the road” genre. The road, as usual, represents life, and the lessons learned are Buddhist. Dondup (played by Tshewang Dendup) is a government official in Khumbar, a small Bhutan village; from the capital of Thimphu, he

The Tracker, directed by Rolf De Heer, is an Australian film set in the outback in 1922. But the movie really should be called “The Legend of the Tracker,” as the story is accompanied by magnificent storyboard primitive paintings by Peter Coad and by melodious tunes sung in the manner of protest folk songs. When