Film Of The Week – Rober Awards

Films Of The Fortnight: Caesar Must Die ★★★★ & Lore ★★★★

March 12, 2013March 5, 2013 by Roberto

Veteran Italian siblings Paolo and Vittorio Taviani are the brains behind our favourite film of the last fortnight, ‘Caesar Must Die’★★★★ . The celebrated authors are back in top form with this excellent account of the preparations for a representation of Shakespeare’s classic ‘Julius Caesar’ happening in an Italian jail. Half documentary, half dramatization and with a dazzling array of visual techniques on display, the process brings to surface the inmates’ personal lives to superb, touching effect through the way they relate to their rooles. The winner of last year’s Golden Bear in Berlin, It was also Italy’s submission for the lastest edition of the Foreign Language Oscar.

Avoiding the traditional post-Oscars lull the film industry normally experiences, our theatres are packed instead with a ridiculous number of interesting new releases. The one that would have scooped our film of the week honours last week is ‘Lore’ ★★★★ , another festival favourite finally reaching our screens. Aussie director Cate Shortland earned a great deal of praise for her former work ‘Somersault’; her follow-up is set in Nazi Germany and expertly mixes the gripping drama of a German officer’s daughter left in charge of her younger siblings and forced to escape after the Nazi defeat; with arthouse pace and a gorgeous cinematography capturing the rural landscape they pass through on their runaway.

Film Of The Week: ‘Mea Maxima Culpa – Silence In The House Of God’ ★★★★½

February 16, 2013February 16, 2013 by Roberto

Our film of the week this time is the extraordinary “Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence In The House Of God’★★★★½, with which veteran director Alex Gibney re-establishes himself as one of the best documentary makers in the world, already counting on his CV with such renowned works as “Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room’ or ‘Taxi To The Dark Side’.

Timely released coinciding with the Pope’s rare historical resignation, prompted partly by the shame brought by the subject of this work, the scandalous stories of children’s sexually abused by Catholic Priests, for which the policy of the institution through the years has been one of covering up; avoid scandal and protect the involved priests, showing little compassion for the needs of the victims.

Film Of The Week: Django Unchained ★★★★★

June 24, 2022January 20, 2013 by Roberto

Back from a long seasonal hiatus we resume our film review section in style. Our film of the week means the return to form of Quentin Tarantino, straight back to the heart of pulp by taking the Spaghetti Western genre by storm. Setting it during the times of slavery, the most shameful era in US history, Tarantino has delivered a spectacularly good film, his best since Jackie Brown, already touted by many as another masterpiece from one of the most essential contemporary directors.

Django Unchained shares a similar territory with Inglorious Basterds, both expanding the trademark elements that made of Tarantino such an influential cultural reference (His peculiar sense of humour; a collage of popular culture influences; comic-like violence; pick- and-mix soundtrack expertly selected from a broad range of sources) by taking over different film genres and boasting powerful statements against two of the most devastating chapters in the story of the world, the Nazi Germany in Basterds and slavery in the South of the States in Django. But wherever the irregular Inglorious Basterds was short of fulfilling its grand ambitions, Django Unchained achieves and even exceeds them.