DVDs watched in 2009

Aug 09 - Incredible analysis of fascism, cruelty and passiveness. Can't forget seeing it for the 1st time 12 years ago in the Fajr Festival.

Aug 09 - The lonely Spencer Tracy with a strong moral stand and his hidden left hand which we never really know what happened to it. The loneliness of the hero in the middle is good, the end when the good prevails is bad.

Aug 09 - Such a powerful psychological drama. Leaves me twisting and turning. You are the voyeur and no wonder you feel so much sympathy with him.

Aug 09 - Quite attractive thriller. I wish it did not have such a super complicated story though.

Aug 09 - Quite Funny but very shallow.

Aug 09 - I don't see the point. The narration, acting and disorganization left me bored.

Aug 09 - I liked the main character and disliked the girl. Langella does a good job playing the part but the whole thing does not raise to anything more than an average movie.

Jul 09 - A masterpiece! The view of the war from the point of view of the children makes this one of the most humanist movie I have ever seen. It was also amazing to relive the incredible feelings I had 16 years ago watching the same movie.

Jul 09 - At best a tv drama. Simply the fact that it is loosely based on a recent true story does not make it a good movie. Almost everything remains nearly mediocre and the ending is actually kind of stupid.

Jul 09 - I certainly expect more than a flat, shallow political drama from Schlondorff. It is an incredible story but making things into black and white only antagonizes me as a viewer.

Jul 09 - So simple and yet amazingly effective love story. The honesty and ease that the dialogues are spoken is so touching. I enjoyed it and especial thanks goes to K & S who watched it with me.

Jul 09 - Incredible characters and how fit is the music than naturally accompanies them. What leaves you stunned is the political/racial/religious tension behind the story than no one speaks about. Loved the final scene.

Jul 09 - Nothing more than a tele-theater. The story does not engage anyone and leaves you with the picture of a talkative Christopher Plummer.

Jun 09 - Interesting story and interactions among the characters are also fascinating but does not get close to become a masterpiece.

May 09 - It felt like a preaching tale of morality and righteousness. But was successful for making me feel guilty all the time.

Apr 09 - A nice family movie and a mellow view of the depression.

Apr 09 - This has been famous for a single sequence but I also found the narration quite adventurous. It does not work that well but it is amazing how courageous Wilder was even in the most commercial of his movies.

Mar 09 - Incredible movie that challenges all of one's views on relationships, parenthood and children. A perfect example of telling the story, explaining the characters with no judgment, with no black and white divisions. A masterpiece.

Mar 09 - I enjoyed many of the sequences, dialogues and the main character but I admit I did not understand it for the most part.

Mar 09 - A masterpiece by one of the most incredible masters. Amazingly it stars from the reality and all of a sudden you are in the middle of a modern fairy tale. The final sequence is so memorable.

Mar 09 - A not so much original story of a juvenile criminal who at the end chooses to reform in some way. Interesting to see a young Sean Penn though.

Mar 09 - A very professionally told story. I was also quite impressed by Markovics' acting but I will be surprised if too much of the movie remains in my memory in a few months.

Mar 09 - I think it is the best Breillat movie, I have seen. The modest story, small number of players and limited space makes it possible to concentrate on the relationship and the dialogues remain quite attractive to the very end.

Feb 09 - Such a touching family drama. The characters are very real and very soon you get to know them very well. What an incredible performance by DiCaprio.

Feb 09 - An early Ivory-Merchant production which doesn't really measure up to the later successful projects. Yet it was fun watching it after listening to the book.

Feb 09 - Very essential and important historically and politically. But as a documentary, I expected a deeper view of things from Errol Morris.

Feb 09 - Perhaps the most poetic war propaganda ever made!

Feb 09 - There is no question of the originality and bravery in showing the viewpoint of someone suffering from a mental illness. The images and sounds become so disturbing at times that make it hard to follow the movie though.

Feb 09 - Interesting idea but I think the writer and director had a hard time figuring out how to turn it into a long movie with a decent ending and I don't thing they were quite successful in doing so.

Jan 09 - An interesting mystery from Jules Dassin. Even though is not as good as his noir movies but the movie does a good job telling the story and keeping the elements at their places.

Jan 09 - A classic based on a single character who has lived beyond this movie.

Jan 09 - I don't really get this. Didn't find it funny either.

Jan 09 - Very shallow!

Mar 09 - The book remains much better and even gives you more cinematic images.

Mar 09 - Interesting but not such a good documentary.

Apr 09 - Not recommended unless you like Ben Kingsley or Penelope Cruz.

May 09 - Terrible! Had a hard time watching it to the end. I feel bad why Fiennes and Blanchett play in this.

May 09 - Fantastic comedy/horror. Also incredible how cheap it was made. Finally Jack Nicholson fans should not miss this.

May 09 - Watching it after 15 years, it did not seem as good as what I had thought then. Still brings the strange relationship between Ford and Buckley in a challenging way.

Jul 09 - A powerful mystery. The plot however seems artificial after 65 years which I suppose is normal.

Jul 09 - The drama involving Guy and his girlfriend is a bit phony and annoying but on the other hand, the psychology of Bruno is quite powerful.

Jul 09 - It becomes theatrical at times but the characters are very powerful. The mystery is not played out well but the noir atmosphere is fantastic.

Jul 09 - Wonderful tribute and modernization of the noir genera. The script and dialogues are written masterfully and bring out an interesting dimension to the noir experience. Loved it!

May 2009 - Interesting and funny at times. Gives an honest view of the different viewpoints at this critical point of the German history. But I didn't feel connected to the movie for some reason.

Aug 2009 - What an amazing movie! Mystery turned into a psychological thriller. The love making scene is priceless.

Aug 2009 - As always, this is another amazing view of the urban japan after the war. The conflict of the different generations this time around marriage. It is funny at times and a few of them don't really fit Ozo's style well. This is his first color movie but the colors are so fantastically beautiful.

Aug 2009 - A masterpiece of Carol Reed. He is so good in portraying the loneliness of the antagonist. The images are also so aesthetically satisfying and the acting even though a bit theatrical but very catching. The only thing I can consider as a flaw is the too much use of the music.

Aug 2009 - Watched for the 3rd time and still amazed at how strong the story line is. An incredible view of the decadence of family in 70s. This time, I was also shocked that completely accidentally K and S were watching this exactly when H and I were.

Sep 2009 - An experimental picture of the master of such experiments. I find myself fascinated that it is still pretty attractive and more amazed at the quality of the acting.

September 2009 - A very interesting psychological thriller. The story is a bit lousy but to me is a good example of when the surrealist features of a movie make it stand out more significantly than the realistic parts. The dream is fantastic and unconventional for such thrillers.

Sep 2009 - Quite interesting account of the perversive and decadent life in provincial France of late 19th century. Everything is going well but it has nothing that is really eyecatching. I would be very interested to see Renoir's adaptation of the same novel.

September 2009 - It is so strange that even for the 4th time watching it, it is still so engaging and attractive. This time I owe part of the joy to K and S who were great company in watching it.

September 2009 - Hard to imagine something more realistic and less melodramatic among movies with the same theme. After hating so many ones where you are bombarded by a shallow image of the instructors selflessness and students overdramatic changes, this one remains as accurate as a documentary.

September 2009 - This is a masterpiece. A statement of how fantastic the pure formalism of cinema's language can become. The sounds, the vision, the precision that overwhelms the viewer everything is exactly what it wants to become. One wonders how else you could do this movie. On a personal note, again after about 15 years this reminds me of beauty of mathematics. The precision, the abstraction and the pure joy of doing things precisely only for the sake of beauty is absolutely mathematical at its best.

September 2009 - A fascinating story of the plunder of the art during the World War II. It is more fascinating to see how emotional we can be regarding these objects and how important they are for our cultures.

September 2009 - An interesting detective drama with a twist that makes it quite different.

September 2009 - It is a nice mixture of a romantic comedy and a tiny bit of magic realism but remains quite shallow. The importance of cooking is probably the only significant thing that remains with me after watching it.

October 2009 - He may be the devil himself but he knows exactly how to portray those evil feelings. A perfect triangle with no unnecessary additions. The angles and the acting and the black and white view of the water is so powerful and fits well with the characters. Enjoyed watching it after many years from the first time.

October 2009 - This is a very decent and modest portrayal of a transsexual. I love it that the character looks so normal within the framework of the american family and the classic road movie genera. It does not become very deep but this is also perhaps a good point to insure that it attracts a larger audience.

October 2009 - Another interesting attempt by Dassin to mix the crime and noir genera. I find it weaker than his earlier works and rather than a good mixture of the two genera, it splits the movie in two parts which don't match so well with each other.

October 2009 - The dialogues are very hilarious and very believable. I did not like the more action second half of the movie but the acting and dialogs were good enough to make it worthy of watching.

October 2009 - A magnificent documentary! This is incredibly honest and at the same time so visually perfect. It is such a good feeling to know there are still amazing and original movies and ideas. Thanks!

October 2009 - It is hard to imagine many movies that are so appealing in their images, sounds and also the human drama that unfolds in front of our eyes. The silence and the restriction of dialogs to the children's makes this so impressive. The acting is of course incredible and finally the homages to the classic movies and Frankenstein is done in a very natural manner.

October 2009 - The success of the movie depends so much on the character and unique acting of John Malcovitch. Other actings are also very decent and overall make a pretty attractive movie worthy of watching for the second time.

October 2009 - A very well structured action/war movie. The character of Dieter is really attractive and so is all the scenery and the cinematography.

October 2009 - It is quite funny but it doesn't really deliver the expectation that one would have of a Mendes' movie. The characters are quite interesting and are possibly some of the weirdest one can imagine.

October 2009 - The story and character of Dieter Dengler is enough to make this interesting on its own. Herzog does a good job of finding such an amazing story and not staying on the way of it being heard. It is also interesting to find out how truthful he was to the story in Rescue Dawn not to exaggerate things and in fact he had even toned down or eliminated some of the dramatic events.

October 2009 - It was quite brilliant. The story, the atmosphere of the movie and the light symbolism of the dialogues and events all were surprising from a movie I had not heard about.

November 2009 - It is a decent independent movie which seems very inexpensive in production. It is also admirable as a socially aware drama.

November 2009 - This is a fantastic human drama with such a straight and simple story-telling skills. The humanist nature of the movie and the very original witty tone of the movie makes it very attractive and unforgettable.

October 2009 - Interesting thriller with more emphasis on the characters of reporters and investigators around the story.

November 2009 - Very personal and a very honest movie. Richard Jenkins does a terrific job and the movie remains very faithful to a realistic portrayal of its characters. It gets a bit melodramatic at times but the ending makes it alright. Very touching for me as it was also reminding me of someone very close.

November 2009 - Interesting but a bit long. I think the most important facto for the movies success was that it was based on a true story and real well known characters otherwise I am not sure if it would get the same ratings.