PUCCINI ADVANCES THE CAUSE OF DEMOCRACY & HUMAN RIGHTS When the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens was issued in Paris in 1789, the scope of applicability was not limited to France. The declaration was intended to apply to the entire world, or at least to Europe. When Napoleon Bonaparte conscripted Frenchmen into […]

PUCCINI ADVANCES THE CAUSE OF DEMOCRACY & HUMAN RIGHTS When the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens was issued in Paris in 1789, the scope of applicability was not limited to France. The declaration was intended to apply to the entire world, or at least to Europe. When Napoleon Bonaparte conscripted Frenchmen into

BUCCANEERS PILLAGE AGAIN IN SUNSHINE STATE Director-writer John Sayles’s pilgrimage across America to uncover conflicts of class and race has taken him to Florida in Sunshine State. The setting is mythical Plantation Island, though the actual filming took place at a resort on Amelia Island, Florida. Using short cuts, we learn how the tragic past

THE BELIEVER CHALLENGES FILMVIEWERS TO LINK GLOBALIZATION & POLITICAL EXTREMISM The Believer, directed and written by Henry Bean, is the most controversial film of the year, so any review is bound to be misinterpreted until the reader sees the film. The story is based on the book One More Victim by Arthur Gelb and A.

A CROOKED WHITE LAWYER RUNS OVER AN HONEST BLACK TELEMARKETER IN CHANGING LANES African Americans are accustomed to being screwed by the power structure in American society. In Changing Lanes, insurance salesmarketer Doyle Gipson (played by Samuel L. Jackson), a recovering alcoholic, is driving on the FDR Expressway to a child custody hearing when Wall

After Nazi Germany attacked Poland in 1939, the Soviet Union demanded military bases from Finland. Helsinki refused, whereupon the Red Army attacked Finland in November 1939 in what is known as the Winter War. Using skis, the Finnish army held back the Soviets for several months but ultimately surrendered, signing a treaty of peace in

PRISONERS CAN BE REHABILITATED, ACCORDING TO LUCKY BREAK Are British filmmakers trying to tell the world that prisoners can be rehabilitated? After the delightful Greenfingers (2001), we are now treated to the amusing Lucky Break. After fifteen years of bad luck, that is, unsuccessful robberies, Jimmy Hands (played by James Nesbitt) and Rudy Guscott (played

Kang Je-Gyu, writer-producer-director of the Korean film Shiri has entered the North American film market with the biggest splash of any Korean film to date. After making box office records in South Korea and receiving acclaim in Hong Kong and Japan, Shiri‘s success on a budget of a mere $5 million has served to revitalize the Korean film

Time Machine is a retake of the 1960 film of the same title, inspired by the 1895 novella by H. G. Wells and directed by his great-grandson Simon Wells. Cinematic advances are evidently the sole purpose of the retake. Indeed, the story resembles last year’s retake of Planet of the Apes. Mechanical Engineering Professor Alexander Hartdegen

Scotland, PA is loosely based on Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The reason for the title is that the venue of Shakespeare’s play is Scotland, but the screenplay has been written for a mythical town in eastern Pennsylvania. Norm Duncan (played by James Rebhorn), a widower, has accumulated enough capital to sell his donut shop to buy a café. He