Amour
Haneke’s latest knocked me for six. Brought up memories of my granddad caring for my nan who had Alzheimer’s. Had me a blubbering wreck by the end. Then I came out into the cinema foyer, saw the poster, and welled up all over again. Not cool… Stunning film though, the cold as ice director can do intense, heartfelt human drama too! Getting a lump in my throat now just thinking about it. Another top 5 of the year contender for sure (in a mighty fine film year!).
Alps
The long awaited follow up to Dogtooth. Think it was wise to expect the unexpected! I went into this cold, and it took me quite a while to settle into it. Whereas the previous film laid out its bonkers setup pretty quickly, this one took a long time to reveal itself, and even then I was left befuddled by individual scenes. It seems the madness of Dogtooth extends beyond the walls of the family compound. All of Yorgos Lanthimos’ version of Greece appears to be like it, as though the population are robots learning how to be human. So there’s more joyless sex, freaky dancing, and dry, monotone line readings. I laughed occasionally, and cringed at some the pure ‘wrongness’ on display. Deeply strange, mostly in a good way.
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