Howl is neither a biopic about the poem’s author Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997), nor does it delve into any other poem in his literary oeuvre. These are the first of many missteps that the producers take in their approach towards the rich material of Ginsberg’s life and work. …more

Agnés Jaoui directed her sublime first film The Taste of Others (Le goût des autres) in 2000, and received an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language film in the process. Jaoui and her writing partner Jean-Pierre Bacri have since collaborated on two other movies: Look at Me (Comme une image, 2004) and Let it Rain (Parlez-moi de la pluie, 2008), which is now playing at the Opera Plaza Cinema in San Francisco. If you’ve happened upon the film trailers, you’ll get the misleading impression that the movies are screwball comedies. …more

Hiring a prostitute to relate to you the nature of how your husband behaves is asking for, not proof of an affair, but an erotic retelling of a person you no longer have an intimacy with. Catherine wants that this surrogate will reimagine her husband in a way that she can no longer. …more

My name is Jeff and I’m an addict. My drug of choice: Swedish detective fiction.

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Haneke breathes an unholy life into the generation of children who would grow up to become the obedient soldiers and members of the Nazi party, indirectly asking: What was the genesis of, and who is accountable for, this morally corrupt generation? …more

The plot reveals an intricate maze, in which all of the characters find themselves intimately connected, but no one in the story emerges from this labyrinth unscathed.

When your lover has gone — leaving only darkness as a companion — where in this world can you find some consolation? …more