The plot of Heaven, directed by Tom Tykwer, revolves around a woman who kills five people and then evades criminal responsibility. Schoolteacher Philippa (played by Kate Blanchett), who was born in England but lived most of her life in Italy, is the murderess. In the beginning of the film, she makes a bomb to blow up […]

Frida, directed by Julie Taymor and based on the biography of the same title by Hayden Herrera, is the story of a Mexican artist who not only was married to Diego Rivera (played by Alfred Molina) for more than twenty-five years but also was an artist in her own right. Similar to last year’s Bride of

Most New Yorkers doubtless think of their city as the very embodiment of advanced civilization–as a small village that grew continuously and gloriously over nearly four centuries since the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam was founded in 1626. Gangs of New York, directed by Martin Scorcese, who began preproduction of the film some twenty-five years ago,

Last year, The Debut, a highly professional and dramatic film about experiences of Filipino Americans in Southern California, presented some of the problems faced by various generations of Filipinos in the United States. This year, The Flip Side, a low-budget black-and-white movie directed by Rod Pulido, has the same objective but is far more amateurish in acting and

  Before 1949, gays played a visible role during New Year celebrations in Shanghai. When Communist rule began, the gay contingent was gunned down, as the new regime believed that same-sex affection was a bourgeois aberration. Thus, release of the government-sponsored Fleeing by Night (Ye Ben) two years ago represented a revolution in Communist thinking. The story

  Custom, whether based on norms of social etiquette or rules of religious authorities, can empower the few and make life miserable for the many. The Indian film The Fire and the Rain (Agni Varsha), directed by Arjun Sajnani, presents a case in point. The story is an adaptation of Girish Karnad’s play based upon “The

When Equilibrium begins, a voiceover tells us, accompanied by stills of Stalin and Saddam Hussein, that World War III in the early twenty-first century so devastated the world that a new order arose to prevent World War IV. The new order, Librium (obviously named after the once-used tranquilizer for calming irritable bowels), embarked on a mission to

How does one become an accomplished actor or actress? What are the appropriate life experiences and coaching secrets? Esther Kahn, directed and written by Arnaud Desplechin, provides answers to both questions, at least for one Jewish tenement girl in London at the end of the nineteenth century, in a film 145 minutes in length. The story

Best-selling American films often have a lot of action in which a maverick hero defies everyone but nevertheless gets the job done spectacularly. xXx, directed by Rob Cohen, is the quintessential action film, with the hero Xander Cage (played by Vin Diesel) somehow evading gunfire while riding a motorcycle, skiing ahead of an avalanche on a

Imagine a comedy by Edgar Allan Poe! The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar (1845), Poe’s short story, is anything but. Brought to the screen by director Gil Cates, Jr., as The Mesmerist, the attempt at comedy is a butchery of Poe’s genius. Fewer cinema patrons stayed through the entire screening that I attended, but some remained