Baraka

Director: Ron Fricke
Studio: Mpi Home Video
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
The word Baraka means "blessing" in several languages; watching this film, the viewer is blessed with a dazzling barrage of images that transcend language. Filmed in 24 countries and set to an ever-changing global soundtrack, the movie draws some surprising connections between various peoples and the spaces they inhabit, whether that space is a lonely mountaintop or a crowded cigarette factory. Some of these attempts at connection are more successful than others: for instance, an early sequence segues between the daily devotions of Tibetan monks, Orthodox Jews, and whirling dervishes, finding more similarity among these rituals than one might expect. And there are other amazing moments, as when sped-up footage of a busy Hong Kong intersection reveals a beautiful symmetry to urban life that could only be appreciated from the perspective of film. The lack of context is occasionally frustrating--not knowing where a section was filmed, or the meaning of the ritual taking place--and some of the transitions are puzzling. However, the DVD includes a short behind-the-scenes featurette in which cinematographer Ron Fricke (Koyaanisqatsi) explains that the effect was intentional: "It's not where you are that's important, it's what's there." And what's here, in Baraka, is a whole world summed up in 104 minutes. --Larisa Lomacky Moore

Baraka
Average customer rating:

Visually stunning, it will stir your soul

baraka the film

great efforts to capture the global experience......

Powerful images

The One Indispensable DVD

Baraka
Director: Ron Fricke
Manufacturer: Mpi Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Koyaanisqatsi / Powaqqatsi (2 Pack)

Chronos [Blu-ray]

Naqoyqatsi

Waking Life

Microcosmos

ASIN: B00005M91K
Release Date: 2001-09-25

Amazon.com

The word Baraka means "blessing" in several languages; watching this film, the viewer is blessed with a dazzling barrage of images that transcend language. Filmed in 24 countries and set to an ever-changing global soundtrack, the movie draws some surprising connections between various peoples and the spaces they inhabit, whether that space is a lonely mountaintop or a crowded cigarette factory. Some of these attempts at connection are more successful than others: for instance, an early sequence segues between the daily devotions of Tibetan monks, Orthodox Jews, and whirling dervishes, finding more similarity among these rituals than one might expect. And there are other amazing moments, as when sped-up footage of a busy Hong Kong intersection reveals a beautiful symmetry to urban life that could only be appreciated from the perspective of film. The lack of context is occasionally frustrating--not knowing where a section was filmed, or the meaning of the ritual taking place--and some of the transitions are puzzling. However, the DVD includes a short behind-the-scenes featurette in which cinematographer Ron Fricke (Koyaanisqatsi) explains that the effect was intentional: "It's not where you are that's important, it's what's there." And what's here, in Baraka, is a whole world summed up in 104 minutes. --Larisa Lomacky Moore

Customer Reviews:

Visually stunning, it will stir your soul.......2007-07-08

A very beautiful film with stunning imagery of 24 countries combined. You can tell that a lot of love and care went into making this film. I can understand why some people would be frustrated that there are no captions or commentary that comes with it, the commentary is at the end of the film. I felt if that were included in the film itself, it would somehow take away the beauty of the film. It was meant to be an experience, an adventure, not something that you need to comprehend. Very nice to meditate to and really soothes the soul. It makes you quiet your inward thoughts and stirs something deep within. I highly recommend it.

baraka the film.......2007-06-14

One of the best movies ever. It shows it doesn't take more than nature and imagination to do a strong film.

great efforts to capture the global experience.............2007-06-12

I saw BARAKA in theaters, back in the early 1990s. I was immediately drawn to the eye-popping photography. The filmmaker spent twelve years gathering footage from over twenty countries, to capture life at its best and worst. The name of the film, "Baraka" is translated as "blessing" in several languages. Was this film a blessing to me? No, not really. It felt more like a ponderous, new age journey, set to mind-numbing orchestral accompaniment. In all honesty, the film repulsed me in many ways. The director tried to contrast visions of beauty with visions of the grotesque. Instead, I was left with phantom images of death, torture and sickness, and that superceded any attempts at beauty. We see the elements exposed (mountains, etc), and I am sure for anyone seeing this film, more recently, these visions of peaks and valleys are poignant, in the age of global warming and environmental trauma. What's more, visions of people from very diverse cultures almost seemed more exploitative than honorable. It almost felt as though they were puppets acting in a very strange (and sprawling) incidental play about mortality. There are shots of skulls, women who have participated in genital mutiliation and glimpses into very tragic events in humankind. This felt more manipulative than visionary. Yes, I am aware I am going to receive a lot of flack because I didn't give this film a perfect five star rating, like 95% of the Amazon writers here, but, I must speak my truth. And, if you asked, "Should I buy BARAKA, and find out what everyone is talking about?" I would advise you to pass on this one.

Powerful images.......2007-06-08

Basically that's all it is, a series of powerful images that give an accurate and above all objective view of our world and society in general.

The One Indispensable DVD.......2007-05-27

I own at least 500 DVDs. If you asked me which is my favorite film/DVD I would have to say "Baraka," because, if for no other reason, it is the DVD I watch most. Scarcely a week goes by that I don't watch Ron Fricke's masterpiece.

"Masterpiece" is not a term I use lightly. In fact, it's not a term I use at all but it describes this film. First, it is simply beautiful. If you have a home theater system that you take pride in, this is the one DVD to own. It's approximately ninety minutes are spread over two layers: as a result the picture is almost HD-like, especially if you have an "upscaling" DVD player and a suitable display.

The music, a combination of Michael Stearn's original score and contributions by artists like "Dead Can Dance," compliment the visuals perfectly.

None of this would matter if the subject of the film weren't worthy of your consideration. Rest assured, it is. I don't trust the words "spiritual" or "spirituality" but I will make an exception for "Baraka." As Fricke puts it in the documentary on the DVD, while we have been invited to live on the planet, life has not given any of us a veto over the guest list. "Baraka" is about that "guest list."

There is no other film I can say this about: I watch it a lot because I am always a better person for having watched it. 12/10

Average customer rating:

"...they whipped you good..."
GRRR, YUCKY MOVIE!!!
The fickle finger of fate...
It was a'right......
Best Film Ever!!

Just My Luck
Starring: Lindsay Lohan , Chris Pine , Samaire Armstrong , Bree Turner , and Faizon Love
Director: Donald Petrie
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000GB775E
Release Date: 2006-08-22

Amazon.com

Ashley (Lindsay Lohan) is lucky: She always gets a taxi, she always says the right thing when the right person needs to hear it, gorgeous dresses get mis-delivered to her apartment. But when she kisses a cute guy at a masquerade ball, her luck vanishes--because the guy is a total loser named Jake (Chris Pine, The Princess Diaries 2) whose collapsing life desperately needs a little luck. Suddenly everything goes right for Jake, while Ashley--who now can't take a step without breaking a heel--has to go on a mad search for the unknown guy she kissed so she can retrieve her stolen luck. Just My Luck isn't as creative with this whimsical premise as it could be, but there are amusing moments as the movie wends its way to the inevitable happy conclusion. As a Lindsay Lohan vehicle, this isn't as smart and funny as Mean Girls or as all-around likable as Freaky Friday, but it's superior to Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen or Herbie: Fully Loaded. Lohan's fans are likely to enjoy the light pop of the British band McFly, who play themselves and have a scruffy charm. --Bret Fetzer

Description

From the director of How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days, comes a "funny, twist-of-fate comedy" (KBWB-TV)! Lindsay Lohan lights up the screen as Ashley, the luckiest girl in Manhattan. But little does she know, her good fortune is about to change. When Ashley shares a kiss at a party with Jake, a bad luck magnet, they miraculously switch paths. Suddenly Ashley is plagued by one hilarious disaster after another, and Jake is headed for fame instead of failure. As she desperately races to find Jake and reverse her misfortune, Ashley discovers that her terrible twist-of-fate is the luckiest thing that ever happened to her.

Customer Reviews:

"...they whipped you good...".......2007-06-04

Lindsay Lohan plays Ashley Albright, who is a New York gal who is always lucky. Her friends envy her streak of good luck. She always get sunny days. Always lands a cab. Always wins on her lottery tickets. Always! Always! Always!

Chris Pine plays Jake Hardin. Jake is one such unlucky guy. Nothing goes his way but he has made life manageable. Now, his current assignment is to get a CD demo of a band (McFly) to one of those record label bigwigs. However, things keep blocking his path.

Meanwhile, Ashley throws a promotional party for this one record label, Masquerade. Jake miraculously sneaks into the party as a masked dancer hired for this party. However, before he sees this particular bigwig, he steals a kiss from Ashley. However, he doesn't just steal a kiss, he also steals Ashley's good luck.

From there, things are opposite for Jake and Ashley. Ashley is determined to get her luck back by kissing every single guy who was hired as a dancer for the party. The problem is that Jake is not listed because he snuck in.

So, will Ashley give up her quest and accept her unlucky life or will she ever find her luck back?

Cute and simple movie with some cheesy slapstick.

GRRR, YUCKY MOVIE!!!.......2007-05-15

MMKAYY, THIS WAS THE WORST F MOVIE I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE, LINDSAY LOHAN CANT ACT, THIS WAS A CHEAP PRODUCTION MADE BY A BUNCH OF UGLY CRACKHEADS WHO DONT KNOW ABOUT MAKING A MOVIE. GRRR THIS WAS A WASTE OF TIME. AND I DONT CARE IF THIS REVIEW IS PUT UP OR NOT, BUT I JUST WANTED TO VOICE MY OPINION. thanks. =)

The fickle finger of fate..........2007-04-03

This one is a fable. JUST MY LUCK is a sweet and funny love story about a mismatched pair, Ashley and Jake. Ashley (Lindsay Lohan) has always been touched by fabulous luck, while ill fate seems to persistently hang over Jake (Chris Pine). One fateful night, at a masquerade party while wearing masks, they kiss and, somehow, their respective lucks flip flop. Now, with the world suddenly crapping on her, Ashley must find Jake in the Manhattan jungle and reclaim her good fortune before she again gets fired, arrested, or electrocuted, among other things. But, as it turns out, maybe meeting Jake wasn't that unlucky of a thing...

As I've said, this one's a fable. My advice for someone who hasn't yet seen JUST MY LUCK? Just sit back and go with the premise. Outrageous luck and even karma are integral to the plot, but don't overanalyze all the wacky events. JUST MY LUCK is a breezy romantic comedy which modestly tries to please its audience. It also showcases the British pop rock band McFly, whose band members cheerfully play themselves.

I enjoyed the acting here. Lindsay Lohan is again reliably engaging as, this time, she navigates the role of a glam girl turned very, very unfortunate soul. Lohan and Pine seem to match up well and show very good chemistry together; I found myself quite actively rooting for their happy ending. Chris Pine I had never seen in anything before, but he proves to be sweet and likable in his performance, with his klutzy side naturally engendering the most sympathy. Lohan continues to build on her promising career as, here, she displays equal measures of charm and pathos. She's very effective during her moments of bleakness, unveiling a touching vulnerability, which is never more endearing than when she at last calmly succumbs to a life of seemingly bad luck. I like the fact that she isn't afraid to look silly as she has several scenes wherein she careens into mud, commits pratfalls, or stumbles about in a broken heel as her ruined mascara gives her that raccoon look. Honestly, Lindsay Lohan is right up there with the young, up-and-coming actresses who can legitimately act. No, sit down, Tara Reid.

There are some funny gags in here as both the leads take their turns getting the bejesus kicked out of them by Lady Luck, including a gross out moment with Jake picking up some tainted cash from the trash. No, the storyline isn't as complicated in plot or as witty as some of Lohan's other works. What it has, though, is an undeniable sweetness and a certain good humored buoyancy which carries the viewer along until the happily ever after. This one rates three and a half lucky stars.

It was a'right.............2007-03-30

Ashley (Lindsay Lohan) stars as a yuppie who takes life (and her luck) for granted. After meeting loveable loser Jake (Chris Pine), he siphons away her luck with a kiss turning her luck sour. Can Ashley restore her luck to its former greatness or is she destined to be a loser?

This was an enjoyable lightweight comedy with unchallenging dialog, pretty people and a few really funny scenes. I enjoyed it, but I got a bit bored during the part where Ashley's luck runs bad. I don't really like watching someone constantly humiliated and embarrassed, even fictionally, and I'm not a huge fan of slapstick so the scenes with the washer and dryer and the blow dryer were 'meh' moments for me. Overall, it was a cute film but nothing ground breaking. 3 stars.

Best Film Ever!!.......2007-02-13

I loved this movie and you will to. The band McFly is great!!! This Movie for ages 10 and up!!!

Average customer rating:

A Great , Exceptional and Informative Documentary!
Excellent Documentary
Extraordinary documentary. A Must see for all persons of African Descent!
If I could beg you to see this film I would.

500 Years Later
Starring: Dr. Kimani Nehusi , Molefi Kete Asante , Amiri Baraka , Nelson George , and Dr. Francis Cress Welsing
Manufacturer: Halaqah Media Films
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Documentary | Genres | DVD | Video

African American Heritage | Documentary | Genres | DVD | Video

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What We Want, What We Believe: The Black Panther Party Library
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Slavery and the Making of America
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ASIN: B000BY99B6
Release Date: 2006-10-01

Product Description

Crime, poor education, poverty, self-hatred, prison system, broken homes plague people of African decent globally Why? Filmed in over twenty countries and on five continents, 500 Years Later is a compelling journey, infused with the spirit and music of liberation, that chronicles the struggle of a people from enslavement who continue to fight for the most essential human right - freedom.

Customer Reviews:

A Great , Exceptional and Informative Documentary!.......2007-04-08

This one of the Greatest, Most Exceptional and Informative Movies I ever seen. The Traumatic Maafa(a.k.a. Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade) and its today's consequences on Africans is seen through African eyes. I recommend this documenatry to every human being on this planet, whether you are from African descent or from any other descent. A friend of mine recommended this movie to me and I bought it and greatly thanked my friend for letting me know about this documenatry. I'm a teacher in high school in the Paris area in France and have worked on this documentary with my students, they Greatly liked it. The only regret I would have is that it is not subtitled in French. However, I gave this documentary 5 stars because it more than deserves it. GO GET IT!!!!!

Excellent Documentary.......2007-03-31

This is an excellent doucmentary of the issue of slavery and its reprecussions from a BLACK perspective, which is very important. Too often we allowed the descents of the very people that enslaved us to dictate to us how to view and look at our holocaust. This is a wonderful companion to the great movie SANKOFA, which is a thousand times more powerful than Roots.

Extraordinary documentary. A Must see for all persons of African Descent!.......2007-01-18

500 years later is, in my opinion, one of the most informative, captivating, and eyebrow raising films produced through the honest, but too often ignored lens of the Afrikan centered collective. It not only outlines in outstanding narration, the history of Afrikan peoples' early relationship with the Europeans (and Arabs to a certain extent) via. the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, as well as our experiences in the so called New World; but it breaks down with unshakeable precision, the damaging results such enslavement has had on Afrikans, not only in the Western world, but also back on the Motherland. Such modern-day manifestations are organized into specifc issues which formulates into the chapters of the DVD (i.e. Race, Class, Education, Culture, etc). Without revealing too much, I can say with absolute confidence that this documentary is deserving of all the accolades, awards, and honors received at this point. Truely a must-see!

Peace brothers & sisters!
Karamou

If I could beg you to see this film I would........2006-11-07

Finally, It's here on amazon in the U.S. I purchased mine from amazon uk, that's how desperate I was to see this film. By now I saw it three times, the last time I watched it was with my two teens, I broke it up one hour per week, they were almost moved to tears, even my son! The film documents why we as brown people are in such horrendous conditions. If you ever wondered why the people in New Orleans during Katrina didn't just leave, this film will bring you overstanding. Prepare your self, this film take you on a mental journey like nothing you have ever seen before. If you have any preconceived notions, that this will be the "same ol same" Masa slave story well, your wrong, and you will miss out a film that prehaps could change your life, or better yet your childrens lives. This film was made for the world NOT just brown people.

Average customer rating:

Sham
Watch this movie
Slam (1998)
An Undeniably Important Movie for the Age
Powerful Poems and a Marion Barry Cameo... What's Not to Like?

Slam
Starring: Saul Williams , Sonja Sohn , Bonz Malone , Lawrence Wilson , and Beau Sia
Director: Marc Levin
Manufacturer: Lions Gate
ProductGroup: DVD
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Slam Nation: The Sport of Spoken Word
The Dead Emcee Scrolls: The Lost Teachings of Hip-Hop
Said the Shotgun to the Head
She
Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry: Season 3

ASIN: B00000I1LN
Release Date: 1999-03-09

Amazon.com

A darling of the 1998 festival circuit, Marc Levin's Slam won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance as well as the Camera d'Or (best first film) at Cannes. Despite its shortcomings, the film merits these awards--Slam offers a strong cast and compelling subject matter, a perfect setting with a killer soundtrack, and over-the-top rap poetry.

The film opens with an exterior shot of the protagonist, Raymond Joshua (played by real-life poet Saul Williams), walking away from the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. The image of a young black man turning his back on this symbol of government scant minutes before he's popped on a chump-change drug charge is poignant and disturbing--not easily forgotten by anyone aware of the immense contradictions inherent in the demographics of the nation's capital.

Slam depicts Raymond's fall from relative innocence, and his apparent redemption. As a small-time dope dealer and street poet, his arrest thrusts him into an unfamiliar world--the violence of life in the slammer is palpable and altogether frightening. Incarceration, however, awakens the slumbering power of Raymond's poetry; eventually, its strength keeps him alive. In a prison yard scene when he's about to get whomped, Raymond gives free rein to his words, choosing poetry in motion over violence. Hearing Raymond's impassioned words, the hardened cons let him walk. One of them even covers his bail, and Raymond hits the streets, eager to check out Lauren (Sonja Sohn), the creative-writing teacher he met behind bars.

Although the third act dilutes the credibility established by Levin's in-your-face vérité style, Slam is relentlessly passionate, unswerving in its conviction that there's an alternative to the violence that decimates North America's inner cities. Indeed, for all the film's preachiness, we cheer Raymond on, fueling his poetry, hoping, somehow, that it can transform those around him. Peace is the word. --Stephan Magcosta

Customer Reviews:

Sham.......2007-06-03

Poetry is the apotheosis of all literary forms; clarity and emotional honesty chiseled into words with incredible discipline, worked and reworked tirelessly until they communicate with elegance and precision. The relentless clanging of A/B rhyme portrayed in Slam bears as much resemblance to poetry as female mud wrestling in Berlin nightclubs bears to ballet.

But that's part of this film's larger tragedy. Raymond Joshua, Saul Williams, seems like the highly intelligent, sensitive kid who, in a better world, could really go places. But in his milieu rap is de rigueur, so his talents are wasted there, stifled by the astonishing limitations of the idiom. (How many rhymes for MF are there?) This said, Ray seems stunningly naive for a kid who grew up in the projects, his "dream" argument with Lauren, Sonja Sohn, late in the film, reflects worldly innocence a 12-year old might envy. This "man-child" theme, worked overly hard, is in jarring juxtaposition to the gritty realism of the film's first half, a stark look inside prison life.

No one in the film technically qualifies as an actor, and it shows. (Marion Barry's legendary impersonation of a Mayor comes closest.) This glaring deficiency is most evident when a prison guard delivers the movie's only memorable moment. He is clearly untrained, but manages to summon what no one else can, conviction, authenticity, and passion. In clearly defined terms, using a mathematical formula, he explains to Ray why he's so angry. It's all about the number of young black men in his prison, and how disproportionate that number is when compared to Washington's overall demographic. He breaks it down, and then expresses his pain felt witnessing the self-destructive cycle of drugs and street crime. It is a sharp moment that neatly punctuates all the gassy, preachy speeches characterizing most of this film.

What little chance the movie had of succeeding is lost completely in the third act, a bizarre blend of goopy love story and poetry slam funfest. The poetry slam is especially poor, the poetry itself is shabby and the crowd seems to have been bussed in from another movie set. Williams and Sohn are likeable, and do well considering their obvious lack of experience. The fault here lies with the script and the director. If Levin had played his cards right, he could have made one coherent, well structured lousy movie. Instead, what he managed to do was chop together unrelated sections of three lousy movies. The subject matter is serious and certainly deserved better than this.

Watch this movie.......2007-03-23

Great story line makes me fall in love with Saul Williams all over again.

Slam (1998).......2006-09-07

Great movie and extremely powerful and motivational. I am a 42 year old African American male military war veteran (single parent)with a BA in Social Science and a ThM in Theology. I have coached, taught and ministered to my people; African Americans. Only to become discouraged in the fight and caught in the same traps; sex, drugs, anger, remorse, unforgiveness, hate, regret, shame, mental pain etc. I fought so hard for others of my race not to placate to; even to the point of using drugs. But GLORY has come! This movie has given me new strenght to continue to advocate, fight and defend (help) my enslaved (physical or mental)people. I am also ordering extra copies for all individuals I am lead to help by the anointing, gifts and Spirit in me. Thank you God for this anointed message and gift; SLAM (1998). "What an encouragement."

An Undeniably Important Movie for the Age.......2006-06-01

With the great resurgence of poetry jams and slams in our cities and schools, it's no wonder this riveting, romantic movie has develped such a huge following.

Saul Williams is something of a phenomenon here, with a Shakespearean voice and an uncanny knack for freestyle. Because of a drug deal gone bad, Ray Joshua (Williams) is thrown into the criminal justice system for possession of 1/4 ounce of marijuana. He resists his plea bargain and rejects the judicial logic of trials. He is a fundamentally good person who cares for his neighbors and resists being another slave of the system.

Sonja Sohn, his female lead, plays a former prostitute turned prison poetry workshop leader, and she is convincing indeed. She has a fabulous screen presence and her chaaracter has an iron will that seems enmeshed with Ray's.

While their eventual romance is predictable, it is also satisfying. The film's premise, simply that words have the power to redeem lives and heal deeply set wounds, has universal appeal. Those who have participated in jams and slams know this is true.

Director, Mark Levin employs ace cinematography, a drop-dead hip-hop score and steady pacing to produce a film that honors the human race. I have no idea why it sells for so little. I can only assume that the mass market has become so bovine in its tastes that many are unwilling to confront life on the other side of the fence, convinced that it simply does not exist.

A superb, multiple-award-winner, beautifully photographed, scripted and edited. Those pour souls sensitive to so-called "explicit" language, need not view. You will be offended for all the wrong reasons.

Powerful Poems and a Marion Barry Cameo... What's Not to Like?.......2006-05-02

It's a sign of SLAM's verisimilitude that I thought it might be a documentary for its first five minutes or so. (Not surprising, since director Marc Levin is known for his documentary work.) With only a couple of exceptions, the actors in it are amateurs, which actually works to the film's advantage.

Anyway, SLAM is a simple, sometimes dopey, sometimes thrilling story of a guy who winds up in jail, gets out, and might be heading right back in again. But both Saul Williams, the principal actor, and his love interest, Sonja Sohn (of THE WIRE) are real live poets, and man, does it show when they do their poetry readings... or "slams" as they are known.

And I'll tell you what: SLAM has some scenes that will knock your socks off.

There's one in particular where our protagonist avoids a fatal shanking in the prison yard by giving a dramatic reading of his poetry. One of his fellow felons says of the performance, "I still don't know what that nigga did, but it was fascinatin'." That was pretty much my reaction, too.

SIDENOTE: Yeah, that's crack smoker, prostitute patron, and former mayor of Washington, D.C. Marion Barry playing the judge. That was a cameo that blew my mind.

Average customer rating:

Visually stunning, it will stir your soul
baraka the film
great efforts to capture the global experience......
Powerful images
The One Indispensable DVD

Baraka
Director: Ron Fricke
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Documentary | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $9.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( B ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Koyaanisqatsi / Powaqqatsi (2 Pack)
Chronos [Blu-ray]
Naqoyqatsi
Waking Life
Microcosmos

ASIN: B0000700KL

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

Visually stunning, it will stir your soul.......2007-07-08

baraka the film.......2007-06-14

One of the best movies ever. It shows it doesn't take more than nature and imagination to do a strong film.

great efforts to capture the global experience.............2007-06-12

Powerful images.......2007-06-08

Basically that's all it is, a series of powerful images that give an accurate and above all objective view of our world and society in general.

The One Indispensable DVD.......2007-05-27

Average customer rating:

Superb and Hilarious
Bulworth Is Right On Target
Beatty was way ahead of his time on this....
MUST SEE MOVIE: A CAUTION AND A CURE FOR ROVE/BUSH
Bulworth.

Bulworth
Starring: Kimberly Deauna Adams , Vinny Argiro , Sean Astin , Kirk Baltz , and Ernie Lee Banks
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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The Candidate

ASIN: 6305297142
Release Date: 1999-03-16

Amazon.com essential video

Jay Bulworth is your typical senator going through a nervous breakdown. The empty speeches, lies, money, and pressure have led him to plan his own assassination on a weekend trip home to California just before the election. However, a cord snaps in him and like Jim Carrey's rambling lawyer in Liar, Liar, Bulworth can only tell the truth. This new freedom turns Bulworth on and he spews the ugly truth about politics: he tells mass media they are as corrupt as insurance companies; lambastes a black church for not having leaders; and riles the Jewish power elite of Hollywood. He enters South Central running away from advisors (including a bemused Oliver Platt) and mixing it up with a potential new girlfriend (Halle Berry) and a local boss (Don Cheadle). He offends across the board, even developing an inherent knack to rap his speeches. And the public loves it. The weekend becomes a clarifying point for Bulworth: he finds a reason to live.

Beatty's rude and relevant comedy is a one-joke movie, but the joke is pretty good. It's a courageous film that is always sharp even though it loses narrative focus. Beatty's hilarious raps are so inspired they deserve repeated viewings. As usual, Beatty surrounds himself with a great crew, Ennio Morricone's music and Vittorio Storaro's cinematography being especially noteworthy. Beatty and Storaro even have the audacity to imitate two very famous photographs in the film's final seconds. The script by Beatty and Jeremy Pikser won the L.A. Film Critics award and was nominated for an Oscar. --Doug Thomas

Description

Believing his career is over, Senator Jay Bulworth (Beatty) takes out an enormous insurance policy - and a contract on his own life. but his impending death fills him with an outrageous desire to break the rules and tell it like it is.

Customer Reviews:

Superb and Hilarious.......2007-01-08

When Warren Beatty's "Bulworth" was first released it was the most acclaimed film of the year. Nowadays, few people even see it. Sad, since this was one of the best films of that year. A truly original, fresh, and hilarious piece of filmmaking from a very unlikely source. The movie was directed, produced, co-written, and stars Warren Beatty, an actor not known for his rapping skills or connection with the black community. Watching the film, I can't believe Beatty wrote it. He seems like the most unlikely person to do a film like this, but he pulled it off. Beatty plays California Senator Jay Bulworth, who is trying to be re-elected for the senate job but is being overshadowed by the Clinton re-election. Bulworth's life is a mess. His loving wife is actually more of an employee, a woman who is paid to be "his wife" but openly has affairs. Sensing his life is going nowhere fast, Bulworth takes out a $10 million dollar life insurance policy and than orders a contract hit on his own life. Deciding that in his final days he's going to do what he wants, he begins hanging out in Compton and connecting with the black people he has neglected for so long. Pretty soon, he falls for a young black woman named Nina (Halle Berry) and decides he wants to cancel the hit. Problem is, that's a lot easier said than done. As his chief advisor Dennis (Oliver Platt) desperately tries to get Bulworth to pull himself together, they find that his popularity is shooting up in the polls. I'm not sure Beatty's exact age, but had to be 60 or pushing 60 when he made this film and that's a lot of the reason this film is so funny. There are several scenes in the film, in which Beatty puts on "gangsta" clothing (beanies, baggy pants, etc.) and begins rapping. That's right, rapping. If you don't find the idea of Warren Beatty rapping hilarious than you should see some movies like "Bonnie and Clyde" and "McCabe & Mrs. Miller" to see how someone could find this funny. But not only is he rapping, but he's making serious and relevant political points as he's doing it. Kind of like Zack de la Rocha, just not as talented. Sure, Beatty's not a good rapper but the stuff he's saying is just as relevant now as it was 9 years ago. "Bulworth" is a terrific film, one of the best that Beatty has directed. It's got a great cast, great dialogue, and it's hilarious (picture the Robin Williams vehicle "Man of the Year" if the script knew what direction it was going in from the start and if Williams had started rapping). See this film.

GRADE: A

Bulworth Is Right On Target.......2006-10-05

Warren Beatty raps out the best work of his career both in front of the camera as Senator Jay Bulworth, and behind it as the film's director. Bulworth is hilarious, politically incorrect, and tells truths that come in the form of shocking interviews, and also in the form of a manic white-rapper phase that delivers his message. Halle Berry is at her hottest, most mysterious and intriguing, the streetwise kids in the ghetto almost steal the show, and a jumping soundtrack pops the movie right off the screen.

There are a few movies that display so much insider acumen, "Wag the Dog," "Primary Colors," and "Thank You For Smoking" come immediately to mind. Bulworth is in an elite satirical league that could include "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," but to be more accurate it is in a tradition dating back several centuries that includes greats like Swift, Voltaire, Shaw, and even George Orwell.

Beatty was way ahead of his time on this...........2006-07-29

When this film came out, most reviews were respectful, but most of them really missed it. Beatty plays a liberal Senator who is being told by idiotic, overpaid consultants to "move to the middle" and be "centrist". These were just code words for "agree with the Republicans on everything, be nice to them, tell them they're wonderful, and tell the liberals in your party to go f--k themselves.". Bulworth was being instructed to sell out all of his principles, and sound like GOP-lite. Well, he hires a hit man to kill him, and this makes him start speaking the truth. Then he becomes a liberal again. Beatty saw through all that "third way, triangulation" crap that Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Joe Lieberman, and James Carville (to name a few) was pushing. Essentially, the Democratic party told its base to go to hell, to be more "moderate", to "reach out" to the Republicans, to be "bipartisan". But when you look at Bill Clinton's record, he was as conservative as Bush Senior (especially on economic issues). All those were code words for making the Democrats act just like the Republicans. It was BS back in 1996, and it's BS now. The Dems bought it hook, line, and sinker, and it alienated their base. If they had been a little more like Bulworth, they may have held onto Congress. Beatty is a hardcore, unapologetic liberal who thinks that government can do good for working class people, and he infuses this film with that message. Whether you agree with him or not, the film works very well. Only now do the Dems (and the left wing blogs) see through the lies that Clinton and his ilk told them. Well, Beatty was tellin' ya that in 1996....

MUST SEE MOVIE: A CAUTION AND A CURE FOR ROVE/BUSH.......2006-07-01

please watch this movie

as one who recalls the night of the shooting of Bobby Kennedy and the death of all and any hope, this movie which opens with Sen. Bulworth viewing his wall of RFK, MLK and Minister X, this movie says it all, right up to the shattering but inevitable ending. IT carefully and clearly lays out the issues in many ways, visually and verbally. Listen carefully to Halle's character's analysis, no matter how quickly it is spoken, and see her hopelessness briefly relieved by Bulworth, as also the excellenty Cheadle's character. Try this as a double feature with Bob ROberts and be afraid very afraid at what we see now in DC.

Bulworth........2006-06-16

I like this movie a lot.Rated R for persuive strong language and drug use.Canada:18A and 14A[DVD Rating].

Average customer rating:

Inspirational
It makes you think..... and it makes you want to cry.
Five stars for the kids...
bring the kleenex
What it takes to make a difference

The Boys of Baraka
Starring: Romesh Vance , Richard Keyser , Montrey Moore , Darius Chambers , and Devon Brown
Director: Rachel Grady , and Heidi Ewing
Manufacturer: Velocity / Thinkfilm
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ASIN: B000F48D78
Release Date: 2006-06-06

Amazon.com

If everyone in high government office saw The Boys of Baraka, who knows what kind of positive change it might inspire? From this remarkable documentary about hope and second chances, the message is clear: The poorest, most violent, undesirable neighborhoods in America are a breeding ground for hopelessness and despair, and there's a solution if only we'd give it a good fighting chance. The scene is Baltimore, Maryland, in 2002, where 76% of all African American boys living in the inner-city ghetto will never earn a high school diploma. As one adult tells the kids at a Baltimore school, they have three choices: jail, an early death, or graduating high school--and you know she's telling the cold, hard truth. That's when we learn of the Baraka School in Kenya, East Africa, where 20 African American boys (ages 12 and 13) are chosen each year to enter a transformative two-year course of schooling, away from their families in Baltimore. The purpose of the school, in part, is to demonstrate that the toxic environment of Baltimore, and its negative impact on the self-esteem of ghetto residents, can be reversed by removing these boys to Baraka, where a strict regimen of classes and responsibilities has an immediate, if not always permanent, beneficial effect.

We follow several boys on this fascinating journey toward growth and renewal. Devon is an aspiring preacher with musical talent; Montrey is a troublemaker with a bad attitude, who dreams of a career in science; brother Richard and Romesh are both accepted into Baraka, and despite setbacks both flourish in the program. Codirectors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady capture their gradual awakening to a new way of living and a new outlook on life, and then comes bad news: Due to security concerns and regional politics, the Baraka program is suspended, and the boys must return to the bleakness of Baltimore. Have they changed for good? Will they find a way to earn their diplomas and have hope for their futures? The Boys of Baraka offers no easy answers, but in showing us a glimmer of hope against all odds, the film gains depth and power with a conditional happy ending. Uncertainty remains, but so does a palpable sense of achievement and self-improvement that could, on a grander scale of government and societal support, lead to a positive revolution in our school system, which currently offers a depressing shortage of options for our most underprivileged citizens. Without forcing its uplifting message, this exceptional documentary offers proof of a better way, if only enough people would step up and support it. --Jeff Shannon

Description

Don't miss the true coming-of-age story that follows a group of extraordinary 12-year-old boys from the most violent ghettos of Baltimore to an experimental boarding school 10,000 miles away in rural Kenya. An emotionally explosive journey shot over three years, the film zeroes in on a group of brave kids who are willing to cross the ocean to chase an opportunity - boys with a fierce determination to fight the label of "throw-away."

Winner! Best Documentary
Chicago Film Festival 2005
Atlanta Film Festival 2005
Newport International Film Festival 2005

Winner! Audience Award
Silverdocs Film Festival 2005
Woodstock Film Festival 2005

Winner! Special Jury Prize
SXSW Film Festival 2005

Short-listed for the Academy Award® nominations for Best Documentary Feature Film

Customer Reviews:

Inspirational.......2007-05-13

Inspirational movie about the inner strength all of us have. Everybody deserves a chance! and this movie reflects that belief

It makes you think..... and it makes you want to cry........2007-04-09

This is an excellent documentary in regards to multicultural, poverty, and urban/inner-city issues. This is a great depiction of how a person's environment can strongly affect their future success. Basically, this movie is about a group of African American boys who live in the worst parts of Baltimore living in crime and drug infested neighborhoods and are given a chance to go to a boarding school in Africa. Its amazing how the film shows the change in all of the boys throughout the movie.

At the start while they're living in Baltimore, many of them are very aggressive and have very low self-esteem covered up by acting out behavior. Their role models in their neighborhoods are mostly drug dealers and gang members. The movie stated that 76% of African American youth in Baltimore never graduate high school. By watching this film, one can see why. Their schools are in chaos due to the fact that what behavior works in the Ghetto doesnt work in the education system. Their enviroments at home are not preparing them for educational success. Also, the government ignores the problems of the inner-city schools.

About the boys evolving... after about four months in the new school away from their bad neighborhoods, any viewer can see the positive change in them. They're respectful, are less aggressive, believe in themselves, and are just..... wonderful boys. They seem like the boy next door. Someone who can become anything and someone who you would trust to take any where. It makes you feel good to see that positive transformation in these deserving youth that have not been given a fair chance in our society. It makes you want to cry... but for good reasons.

After the boys finish their first year at the school, the boys return home for Summer break. They all come home in good spirits and dont seem to instantly fall back into the negativity.... their whole lives have become... the Baraka school. Their happy to see family... however you can look in their eyes and see that they miss that safe and positive environment of Africa. There was one scene in which one of the boys was sitting on the stairs of his house surrounded by his neighborhood. The people around him were cussing, becoming aggressive and you could see in his eyes the fear and uncomfortablness. You can also see in his eyes that he now knows that the whole world isnt like that..... thanks to the Baraka school. He now knows the world does offer better and has better chances.

Now the heart-breaking part..... due to overseas violence after 9-11 the Baraka school has to close down and the kids are abandoned by the system... again. I wont tell you what happens after that-- you'll have to watch the movie to see. I hate reviewers who tell everything about a movie. But I'll say one thing.... it will make you want to cry. Excellent documentary!!!!

Five stars for the kids..........2007-02-05

The youth in this touching documentary were an unusually intelligent and courageous group of kids. I give this work five stars for them - but not for the system, which abandoned them just when they were at the point of making an emotional, educational and cultural breakthrough on the way to exceptional lives beyond the ghetto. What I didn't understand was why the Baraka project had no alternatives for these kids. Since they had the model down, why not simply move the school to another location, appealing to a Bill Gates - a Bill Cosby, Sidney Poitier, Oprah, Steve Jobs, etc. - to help set it up somewhere else? How in the heck could all these so-called "philanthropists" - and the school staff itself - abandon these kids? Actually, I do not think this was an inspiring film. It was horribly disappointing because of the adults who failed the children.

bring the kleenex.......2007-01-25

Every year the Baraka School selects twenty seventh-grade boys from the most violent ghettos of Baltimore, where 76% of male students do not graduate from high school, to spend two years at their all male boarding school in rural Kenya. This documentary movie won awards at six film festivals for its portrayal of one such class, with a special focus on four of them--Richard and his brother Romesh, Montrey, and the budding preacher Devon. The first twenty minutes of the film takes place in Baltimore, where we experience the horribly dysfunctional context in which the boys live, meet their families, learn of their selection to Baraka, and watch as their mothers bid them tearful good-byes at the airport. The next forty minutes documents their lives in Kenya, culminating their first school year by climbing Mount Kenya, then the last twenty minutes follows them back home to Baltimore for eight weeks of summer vacation. An unexpected plot turn at the end of the film ratchets the emotional quotient of this fantastic film even higher than you could have imagined. This is one of the finest films I have watched in a long while.

What it takes to make a difference.......2007-01-18

This documentary opens with an unflinching look at the social/educational environment that exists in the inner city projects, and it isn't pretty. Fortnately, the film also offers hope. Boys of Baraka has the same emotional power and intimacy with the characters as Hoop Dreams, even with half the running time. You'll never forget the boys you see in the Baraka program. For example, the kid with the worst attitude at the beginning of the film ends up going to a competetive high school and earning the highest score statewide on the state math test in Maryland. You will also be outraged over the fact that this innovative and effective school is closed down due to politics and difficulties with financing. Boys of Baraka shows how much promise exists in the "throwaway kids" of the ghettos, and how much potential we, as a society, are squandering. I hope there will be other Baraka-type schools in the future.

Average customer rating:

fear and loving on the '72 Chisholm trail
Thanks Shirley! We've gotta take your experience at the '72 Convention & make it work for OBAMA!
Get Fired Up
Sister Shirley gave 'em her all
a true Ground-Breaker

Chisholm '72 - Unbought & Unbossed
Starring: Hubert H. Humphrey , Walter Cronkite , Ron Dellums , Octavia Butler , and George Wallace (IV)
Director: Shola Lynch
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
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ASIN: B0006UEVMC
Release Date: 2005-03-01

Amazon.com

Shirley Chisholm, a Democrat from New York, was the first black woman elected to the United States Congress (in 1969), and then--long before the likes of Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton--the first African American of either gender to seek a major party's presidential nomination, an effort recounted in Unbought & Unbossed. Chisholm, who died in January 2005 (the 76-minute documentary was produced the previous year), undoubtedly knew that her chances of winning her party's 1972 nomination, let alone the general election, were nil; she ran, she said, to "shake up the system." But while her quest may have been hopeless (as it turned out, so was that of George McGovern, the eventual nominee, who lost to incumbent Richard Nixon in a landslide of historic proportions), it was hardly quixotic. Well-educated, articulate, and tough, Chisholm faced plenty of opposition, including from women and other black politicians; she was even physically attacked on the "Chisholm Trail," as she called her campaign ('72 was also the year that Alabama governor George Wallace, another would-be Democratic nominee, was shot and paralyzed). But she stayed the course all the way up to the Democratic convention in Miami, when she finally released her delegates to McGovern, and continued serving in the House of Representatives until 1983. Whether or not Shirley Chisholm met her goal of becoming "a catalyst for change," as she planned, is arguable. But that she had guts and the strength of her convictions is beyond debate. --Sam Graham

Description

CHISHOLM ?72 Unbought & Unbossed is the first historical documentary on Brooklyn Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm and her campaign to become the Democratic Party?s presidential nominee in 1972. Following Chisholm from the announcement of her candidacy in January to the Democratic National Convention in Miami, Florida in July, the story is like her- fabulous, fierce, and fundamentally ?right on.?

Chisholm?s fight is for inclusion, as she writes in her book The Good Fight (1973), and encompasses all Americans ?who agree that the institutions of this country belong to all of the people who inhabit it.? Shunned by the political establishment, Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm asks people of color, feminists and young voters for their support to ?reshape our society and take control of our destiny as we go down the Chisholm Trail in 1972.? To the surprise of many, voters responded.

Customer Reviews:

fear and loving on the '72 Chisholm trail.......2007-03-07

Chisholm '72 (2004)
directed by Shola Lynch
approx 76 minutes

This is a very good PBS-style documentary on Shirley Chisholm's run for the Democratic presidential nomination. The movie is a good mix of historical footage and recent interviews with people involved in the race. 1972 was a very strange year in politics in general and in the Democratic Party in particular. At one point, more than 10 people were trying to capture the nomination. Unlike today where the DLC-dominated party makes pathetic efforts to appear "centrist", the runners in '72 knew they had to work for their vote rather than count on a Republican to screw up enough for voters to shrug their way to the polls. Nobody had to work harder than Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman in the US congress.

In this movie, you will see the brave Brooklyn woman who refused to step down when the majority of "leaders" in her own party wouldn't hear her out. You will see how she was abandoned by the congressional black caucus (most likely for being a woman) and by the mostly white "women's movement" (most likely for being black). These groups of course respected her efforts as a symbolic gesture within the establishment- "look how far we've come"- but they did not take her seriously as a candidate. The Black Panther Party was the only group in the so-called "progressive lobby" to rally behind her. You will see members of all the above groups give their thoughts on the election then and now, and whether they regret their decisions. You will also see some of her loyal campaign workers and the harassment that they underwent for refusing to go along with the status quo in their choice of candidate. Shirley Chisholm herself was physically attacked three times during the race, a tragedy which may explain why there haven't been many Shirley Chisholms since '72.

Like independent and third party candidates in later elections, she was blamed for "taking" votes from other wealthier candidates. In the primary, she finished 4th out of all the candidates, not bad for someone who was counted out from the start. Shirley Chishlom's own politics were very close to those of George McGovern, who went on to win the Democratic nomination and lose the 1972 election to Richard Nixon in one of the biggest landslides in American history. Her politics and campaign were not perfect, but I admire Ms. Chisholm for her efforts in '72 and afterwards. At the end of this movie, she reflects on democracy and the election process in a very personal and meaningful way. This movie is a suitable memorial to a inspirational figure in recent American history.

R.I.P. Shirley Chisholm, 1924-2005

Thanks Shirley! We've gotta take your experience at the '72 Convention & make it work for OBAMA!.......2007-02-02

Shirley Chisholm was a brave lady with a whole load of class. It's understandable that one could say she was ahead of her time, but hell she would have been an amazing statesperson. The fundamental lesson that I learned from watching this DVD however was the horse trading the goes on with delegates behind the scenes at the party convention. I'm a young person who has felt an overwhelming sense of powerlesness and depression over the last 6 years due to the victories achieved through fear by the current administration. I whinnied with genuine delight when I heard Barack Obama announce his exploratory thingy for a presidential run. When he speaks, his ideas are clear, they make sense and he motivates me to believe in our common goals. Nothing would make me happier than to see him as president with HRC as vice prez. Now Hillary has announced her candidacy, and I saw one of her key cronies Charles Shcumer on Charlie Rose say "a woman & a black...I don't think so" expressing what America is ready for. The time is now, I don't want to wait 16-20 years to see Barack lead our country in the distant future, the stakes are too high for us to be without his insight in shaping it. This DVD provides tremendous insight in as I said the horse trading that goes on at the convention. We need to be prepared to support Barack through the race to the White House, and to have enough game to not settle for a cabinet post in some back room of the administration.

Get Fired Up.......2005-08-26

This documentary reawakens the political activist in us all! It's as educational as it is entertaining. Ms. Lynch reveals the American election process while unfolding the story and character of the vivacious Shirley Chisholm. I saw this film at the Sundance film festival and had to have it for my DVD collection. It'll fire you up and make you care again.

Sister Shirley gave 'em her all.......2005-06-11

Shirley Chisholm ran for President of The United States in my favorite year, 1972. This fine documentary shows what a lot of guts and determination, along with real, concrete convictions, the lady had, and we can now fully appreciate what she set out to do. A real progressive candidate is such a breath of fresh air any time, and Ms. Chisholm was certainly ahead of hers. It's fun to see the vintage 1972 footage for all the wonderful fashions and hairstyles as well. I dig Shirley's suits, which matched right down to her blouse. Now that's style.

a true Ground-Breaker.......2005-02-28

Shirley Chisholm truly was a Ground Breaking Soul Sister who made a change. this Documentary shows all the Politics&everything that went down with her 1972 Campaign. there should be a Film&also more determined minds to follow in her shoes because Shirley Chisholm truly was ahead of her time. she was truly one of a Kind.she was like a Modern Day Harriet Tubman meets Dr Martin Luther King Jr all rolled into one. Barbara Jordan made a Impact in DC but we haven't had another Shirley Chisholm&we need that spark now more than ever.

Average customer rating:

Visually stunning, it will stir your soul
baraka the film
great efforts to capture the global experience......
Powerful images
The One Indispensable DVD

Baraka
Director: Ron Fricke
Manufacturer: Mpi Home Video
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ASIN: B00003ETJQ
Release Date: 2000-01-25

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

Visually stunning, it will stir your soul.......2007-07-08

baraka the film.......2007-06-14

One of the best movies ever. It shows it doesn't take more than nature and imagination to do a strong film.

great efforts to capture the global experience.............2007-06-12

Powerful images.......2007-06-08

Basically that's all it is, a series of powerful images that give an accurate and above all objective view of our world and society in general.

The One Indispensable DVD.......2007-05-27

Average customer rating:

The beauty reality of the chimeras!
Not Casablanca . . .
changing deneuve
"You can't possess someone without causing harm,"
"You can't possess someone without hurting him or her."

Changing Times
Starring: Catherine Deneuve , Gérard Depardieu , Gilbert Melki , Malik Zidi , and Lubna Azabal
Director: André Téchiné
Manufacturer: Koch Lorber Films
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ASIN: B000GNOH6O
Release Date: 2006-10-03

Amazon.com

On the surface, Changing Times is a love story about a couple that is reunited after decades apart. But unlike many films so desperate for a happy ending that the characters' development are sacrificed to reach such a goal, this picture concentrates on the bittersweet reality of who they are today. Catherine Deneuve and Gerard Depardieu reunite (for the first time since 1988's Strange Place for an Encounter) to portray Cecile, a radio hostess living in Morocco, and Antoine, an engineer who finds a project in Tangier in the hopes that he can find her and win her back. Their lives are now more complicated than when they first met. She is married to a Moroccan doctor who is unfaithful to her. And Antoine doesn't seem able to relinquish the memories of the Cecile he fell in love with, regardless of the fact that the woman standing before him today may actually be more compelling. The expressive actors take their time, revealing as much with their faces as their words. Directed and co-written by Andre Techine, Changing Times has a languid, exotic, and authentic feel. The one flaw is the inclusion of another subplot--that of Cecile's adult, bisexual son who hopes to rekindle a relationship with the love of his life--an ex-boyfriend. --Jae-Ha Kim

Description

Can your first love be your last?

Catherine Deneuve and Gérard Depardieu star in André Téchiné's (Wild Reeds, Les Voleurs) film about two former lovers reunited by fate. Antoine (Depardieu) has held a torch for his first love Cécile (Deneuve) for 30 years and arranges to be reunited with her in Morocco in the hopes of rekindling their love only to find that his advances are not welcomed.

"visually alive, quick-witted and full of heart" - Stephen Holden, The New York Times

Customer Reviews:

The beauty reality of the chimeras!.......2007-05-17

May you even think around the remote possibility of rejoining a couple after thirty years? . This is the main discursive line among a successful architect who never, never forgot his first and genuine love, who thirty years after is happily ? married with a doctor. They have chosen to live in Tangier, and so the expected meeting so desired by him is produced. However there are secondary but not least important facts around this couple, they have a son who lives with a Moroccan woman who has a child and a twin, on the other hand he is bisexual, and his mother knows about it. So under this nothing easy environment this drama is driven magisterially by Andre Technne, one of the finest and genuine poets of the camera in France. As a matter of fact, if you take a look around his artistic trajectory, you will realize his main trouble turn around the feelings, desolation and solitude. His camera, scrutinizes with accurate charm all these little insights of the human being, but he never assumes a position, leaving one as spectator to wrought oneself an own opinion. Author cinema of highest order, and so ceaseless lovers of the cinema as artistic expression have an eternal debt with him.

The fine performances of Depardieu and Deneuve, two consecrated legends of acting, make of this singular melodrama, an anthological piece with that feature so common of the masterpieces.

Not Casablanca . . ........2006-11-30

The trailer for this film by French director André Téchiné gives the impression that it's a story of rekindled romance between two people who were once young lovers. This is true in only the strictest sense of the word, as the obsessive and undying infatuation of one of them (Depardieu) is met for most of the film by the unsentimental reluctance of the other (Deneuve) to feel much of anything but annoyance with almost everyone in her life - including her husband, her son, and her son's girlfriend.

The larger theme of the story is the lack of real emotional connection holding any two people together. The son carries on a purely sexual relationship with an old boyfriend, while his girlfriend tries unsuccessfully to reunite with a twin sister she has not seen in many years. Deneuve's character and her husband are separating as he takes a job in another city. Meanwhile, their son's girlfriend has a drug addiction and is indifferent to his professed affection for her. In the background is the cultural divide that lies between secular Europe and Muslim North Africa.

Words fly fast and furious in many scenes as characters express anger and frustration with each other. For non-French speakers, this is a drawback, as the film's setting in Tangiers offers much for the eye and the ear that speed-reading subtitles causes the viewer to miss. Deneuve, of course, is worth seeing in anything, and while her character here is not altogether sympathetic, her presence and the way emotions register on her face are fascinating. Depardieu, for his part, looks lumpish and a bit implausible as a lovelorn man of certain years, especially as he takes a bruising tumble after walking into a glass partition.

changing deneuve.......2006-10-26

who could possibly have nothing better to do than watch this nonsense !? a half hour of it and i was dumbstruck w boredom---- exit me-- but one more thing -i used to love both these actors` work---- esp depardiue in his best vehicle-- going places--- a gem-- and she was always great to watch----esp in repulsion---- deneuve had this wonderful face-- it was very expressive in its way--- u could literally read her lips--- her whole face used to register emotions-- that she was also pretty in the classic sense added to her attraction and demure magic--- gone-- all of it--- vanity takes another actress`s prime instrument --her face--gone- she blew up her lips-- so they no longer register anything -static fake looking lips---- her eyes-- brows --something around there that used to be alive is dead now- frozen - botoxed into a mask like thing that might as well be ---a mask !!!!----there are nerve endings in these facial gifts that are wired just so by the archtitect of life if u will-actors should never screw with these delicate things - esp since we see them blown up the size of a house--- emblazoned in the minds of movie goers and fans--these delicate features we have come to watch w mesmerizing concentration at their best--- working a kind of magic with their instruments---and they screw them around so they no longer work and look completely ridiculous- blown up the size of a house----a pitiful shame-join the others-- cher jessica lang and the rest--- bye---unless they get into kabuki theatre of course

"You can't possess someone without causing harm,".......2006-10-22

Apparently in André Téchiné's Changing Times Gérard Depardieu and Catherine Deneuve are together again after appearing in The Last Metro all those years ago. Surely though, they could have picked better material than this to appear in.

This strangely turgid and dramatically static drama is set in Morocco and features some great views of Tangier, and tries to probe the cultural gulf between the French ex-pats who live there and the Muslims, but the film comes across more as a vehicle for a reunion between two great French acting legends than anything else.

Depardieu plays Antoine, a successful construction supervisor who is in Tangier, to oversee a new housing project, but his reasons for being there are not exclusively professional. Antoine as it turns out still holds a flame for Cecile (Deneuve), the first and only great love of Antoine's life.

It's been more than 30 years since they split up, but Antoine, who never married, has apparently never stopped thinking about her for a single minute of a single day. So whilst Antoine seems determined to live the bachelor life, Cecile's life is so complex that she seems unendingly short-tempered.

Cecile is the host of a successful local radio show, is married to Nathan, a Moroccan doctor (Gilbert Melki), and has a grown son named Sami (Malik Zidi), who makes his home in Paris but has returned to Tangier with his own issues. Sami has bought Nadia, (Lubna Azabal.) to Tangier with her son, but he is equally interested in rekindling a relationship with a local Moroccan boy Bilal (Idir Rachati). Nadia, in turn, has a problematic relationship with a more traditional twin sister named Aicha she hasn't seen in six years.

The whole proceedings verge on tawdry soap opera and although these characters are richly textured and undeniably sympathetic, the under-written screenplay doesn't really give them much to do. There's very little plot and even less drama, so the whole film comes across as desultory at best. And in a totally silly turn of events, Antoine attempts to persuade Cecile to fall in love with him by consulting Nabila (Nabila Baraka), seeking a voodoo spell that would awaken Cecile's love for Antoine.

Though Téchiné doesn't deal with it in a ham-fisted way, his film is also interested in exploring what it is like to live in a city where cultures crash, Tangier is obviously a city where McDonald's and traditional sorcery both do a thriving business practically side by side and where illegal immigrants camp out in the coast, waiting for an opportunity to travel to Spain.

Changing Times feels like three separate movies all plied into one. Sami who is trying to balance his relationship with Nadia and Bilal feels like it comes from a totally separate film and Nadia's efforts to see her twin sister also feels like a sort of add-on.

Also, Deneuve and Depardieu don't have a lot of chemistry together; consequently, you never get the feeling that this is supposed to be the timeless love and devotion. As it stands Changing Times is a rather spotted and ramshackle film that tries to explore the themes of eternal passion but comes across as rather shallow and unsophisticated. Mike Leonard October 06.

"You can't possess someone without hurting him or her.".......2006-10-17

Thirty-one years ago, Cecile (Catherine Deneuve) and Antoine (Gerard Depardieu) were madly in love and swore that they would spend the rest of their lives together. But things didn't work out, and Cecile and Antoine went their separate ways. Now, they are both in their 50s, and Antoine is ready to claim Cecile back.

Antoine is an extremely successful, wealthy man, and he's arranged a job near Cecile supervising the construction of a broadcasting station in Tangiers. Meanwhile Cecile, a radio announcer, is unaware that she's the object of Antoine's schemes. While Antoine has remained a bachelor, Cecile's life is messy, and she's on her second, troubled marriage. Her younger unfaithful husband, physician Natan (Gilbert Melki) drinks too much and resents the fact that Cecile refuses to move to his home country, Morocco, where a much better paying job awaits him. To complicate matters, Cecile's son, Sami (Malik Zedi) and his drug-addicted Moroccan girlfriend, Nadia (Lubna Azabal) have just arrived from Paris.

Director Andre Techine explores the bittersweet fallout of the big reunion between Antoine and Cecile. For the first few moments of "Changing Times", the plot seems to be gearing up for an epic romance ("Indochine"), but the film veers away from that towards a soapy drama, and then settles in reality. Antoine's been planning his big moment--the first time Cecile sets eyes on him again--with great care--even taping fancy speeches into a cassette player in his efforts to make that moment perfect. The reality of their first moments together are humiliating and embarrassing for Antoine, and it's soon clear that while he's harboured and fueled this passion, Cecile can barely remember him. Meanwhile Antoine seems oblivious of the fact that Cecile is a person in her own right--a person with problems and objectives, and not just some fantasy figure he's stored in his head.

Techine's film is more concerned with the sort of realities that life is constructed of--disappointments, and the day-to-day struggles within a marriage vs. the imagined thrill of an unrequited romance. As Cecile frankly tells Antoine, it's easier to carry an image around of someone in your head for thirty years than it is to actually live with that person day in and day out. Reality batters romance, and it always will.

One of the film's sub-plots involves Sami's relationship with another man, Bilal (Nadem Rachati). And there's another sub-plot with Nadia's twin sister that proved to be distracting. As with most of Techine's films, the plot is interesting, but the characters remain bloodless and unsympathetic. Obviously the audience is supposed to be impressed with this on-screen coupling of two of the biggest names in French cinema, and while this is a decent role for Deneuve, Depardieu's role is less-than-centered. For animal lovers, there are two scenes that may prove offensive to some viewers--the slaughter of a sheep and also the decapitation of a chicken. In French with English subtitles--displacedhuman

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