Battle for Sevastopol (orig. Битва за Севастополь - Bitva za Sevastopol) [2015]

MPAA (UR would be PG-13)  Fr. Dennis (3 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing
KinoPoisk.ru listing*
Kino-teatr.ru listing*
Megacritic.ru listing*

Smithsonian.com (G. King) - article about The Friendship between Lyudmila Pavlichenko and Eleanor Roosevelt

KinoUkraine.com (E. Rubashevska) review*

Film.ru (Yevgeny Ukhov) review*
KinoHod.ru (L. Frolova) review*
Nezavicimaya Gazeta (N. Grigorieva) review*
OVideo.ru (M. Malyukov) review*
Postcriticism.ru (V. Gorbenko) review*
The-Village.ru (N. Kurganckaya) review*
TimeOut.ru (D. Serebryanaya) review*
Vechernyaya Moskva (I. Nikolaev) review*
Vedomosti.ru (O. Zintsov) review*
Zavtra (A. Belokurova) review*

Woody Guthrie's song Miss Pavlichenko [YouTube] [Amzn]


Battle for Sevastopol (orig. Битва за Севастополь - Bitva za Sevastopol) [2015] [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]* (directed and cowritten by Sergey Mokritskiy [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]* along with Maksim Budarin [IMDb] [KP.ru]*, Maksim Dankevich [IMDb] [KP.ru]*, Leonid Korin [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]* and Igor Olesov [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]*) is a recent if somewhat _mistitled_ still RUSSIAN / UKRAINIAN _coproduced_ WORLD WAR II WAR FILM that serves as the second stop on my 2016 Russian Film Tour.

The film which was nominated (but did not win) two 2016 Nika Awards (Russia's closest equivalent to the Oscars) -- for Best Picture and Best Actress -- was noted by several of the Russian reviewers cited above as one of THREE World War II themed films that were released in close succession in Russia in the Spring of 2015 (the others being Batalon [2015] [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]*[MC.ru]* and The Dawns Here are Quiet... [2015] [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]*[MC.ru]* a remake of the classic Soviet Era WW II film ...The Dawns Here are Quiet [1972] [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]*).

What was going on in Russia in the first half of 2015?  The country's attention was focused on events in the Ukraine: (1) the overthrow of Ukraine's notoriously corrupt (if elected, if  questionably so) pro-Russian government and replaced by a pro-Western leaning one (confirmed by a second election which, in turn, was never recognized by Russia), and (2) the subsequent conflicts in the primarily Russian speaking Donetz and Luhansk regions of the Ukraine (which border with Russia), Crimea (of which Sevastopol is its primary city / capital) having voted to break away (in a still controversial referendum) and join itself to the Russian Federation the year before.  So it's not altogether surprising that a fair amount of "war" / "patriotic" films would be coming out in Russia at the time.  What perhaps would be most interesting for Readers to note here is that these "patriotic releases" won _neither_ a lot of awards in Russia _nor_ a lot of popular acclaim among Russian viewers.  (Contrast this honestly with the wild popular acclaim (and especially on the part of the American Right) in the United States of American Sniper [2014])    

The current film, again arguably _mistitled_ (or _retitled_ to call attention to more current events...), tells the story Lyudmila Pavlichenko [wikip] (played excellently in the film by Yuliya Peresild [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]*) an Ukrainian (Kiev) born Soviet sniper who killed 309 Fascist (German / Romanian) soldiers during the Sieges of Odessa and Sevastopol in 1941-42 and who upon being one of the few evacuated near the end of the latter siege was _sent to the United States_ as part of a Red Army "student" delegation to the United States to encourage support for the (unified) War Effort.

By this point a thoroughly hardened soldier, she apparently deeply impressed (if also worried / disconcerted) Eleanor Roosevelt [wikip] (played in the film by Joan Blackham [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]*) who invited her to spend some time as a personal guest of hers at the White House.

FOLKS, this is honestly a QUITE FASCINATING FILM because it tries (like Eleanor Roosevelt) to understand this woman, who by the time she arrives in U.S. comes across as a thoroughly efficient killing machine that the American Press nicknamed "Lady Death."  How did she become that way?

Well, _even before the war_ she was a rather serious student / "product of the Soviet State."  Her father (played by Stanislav Boklan [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]*) was an NKVD agent... (Incidently, the film portrays her as _not particularly liking him_  in good part because of his strictness). Yet, she had friends represented in the film by the the giggly boy-crazy Masha (played by Polina Pakhomova [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]*) a fiance' named Boris Chopak (played in the film by Nikita Tarasov [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]*) a soft-spoken doctor from Odessa, would have been fun in-laws (Jewish), parents of Boris (played by Vladimir Kononenko-Zadniprovky [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]* and Lyubov Timoshevskaya [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]* respectively) as well as two battlefield romances one with her sniper instructor Makarov (played by Oleg Vasilkov [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]*) still defending Odessa and the second with another sniper Leonid Kichenko (played by Yevgeny Tsyganov [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]*) while fighting in the defense of Sevastopol.  By the time she gets sent to the U.S. as part of the "young soviet" / "student" delegation EVERYONE OF THESE PEOPLE WERE DEAD.

And despite NO ONE being able to accuse her almost frightening single-minded determination to continue to "kill Fascists," IMHO one of the strongest / most honest aspects of the film was the portrayal of the (all but in the White House itself) ever-present "Political Commissar" (played by Gennadiy Chentsov [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]*) accompanying the "student delegation" to the United States, there to keep EVERYBODY, including Lyudmila _in line_. 

So why did Lyudmila seem so driven / cold?  Well, honestly, how could she not be?

Younger western viewers may catch a fascinating (and IMHO _entirely appropriate_) aspect of the sound track in the film.  At various times, the film seems to employ (or certainly mimic) the most haunting strains of the soundtrack to the recent American-made young adult oriented dystopian series The Hunger Games [2012-2015].  I do think that the application was entirely appropriate (though perhaps also double-edged, as Russia would seem at least to an outsider like me to be as one of the most "capital vs the provinces" dominated societies in existence today...).

Still, I think that the current film would help Westerners better appreciate the horrors / sufferings of the 40s Russian / Soviet generation and hopefully help us to better understand, why Russia even today responds to various geopolitical situations the way that it does.

In any case, no could doubt that Lyudmila Pavlichenko [wikip] was one brave, capable and patriotic woman who suffered and overcame an enormous amount.

Excellent film.


* Foreign language webpages are most easily translated using Google's Chrome Browser. 

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L'Attesa [2015]

MPAA (UR would be R)  Fr. Dennis (3 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing
FilmTV.it listing*
AlloCine.fr listing*

CineBlog.it (A.M. Abate) review*
cinematografo.it (G Arnone) review*
Indie-Eye.it (A. Mastarntonio) review* 
LaRepublica.it (M. Uzzeo) review* 

aVoir-aLire.fr (A. Martin) review*
Critikat.fr (N. Brarda) review*
LaCroix.fr (J.C. Raspiengeas) review*

AVclub (M. D'Angelo) review
EyeForFilm.co.uk (J. Kermode) review
Slant Magazine (C. Gray) review


L'Attesa [2015] [IMDb] [FT.it]*[AC.fr]* (directed and cowritten by Piero Messina [IMDb] [FT.it]*[AC.fr]* along with Giacomo Bendotti [IMDb], Ilaria Macchia [IMDb] and Andrea Paolo Massara [IMDb] based on two works by Luigi Pirandello [wikip] [IMDb]) is an ITALIAN / FRENCH COLLABORATION that played recently at the Gene Siskel Film Center here in Chicago.  The film is also available, subtitled, in the United States on various streaming services for a reasonable price.

Heavy on symbolism and playing-out largely at a hill-top estate somewhere in Sicily of today, the story's mainly about two women: Anna (played by Juliette Binoche [IMDb] [FT.it]*[AC.fr]*) middle aged, and Jeanne (played by Lou de Laâge [IMDb] [FT.it]*[AC.fr]*), early 20-something, both French.  Anna had married (and some years back divorced) a Sicilian man, perhaps since deceased, and was living now with the exception of having a few servants in said Sicilian hilltop citadel alone.  Jeanne, the (former?) girlfriend of Anna's beloved son Giuseppe, "comes visiting" around Holy Week (so basically around "Spring / Easter Break"). 

Jeanne's arrival comes as something of a surprise to Anna and the handful of her servants.  She tells them that Giuseppe had invited her to come, ... 'cept Giuseppe's "not around."

So ... the rest of the film (80-90% of it) is about Jeanne _waiting_ for Giuseppe to arrive.  She leaves messages on his cell phone.  He _never_ answers.  Anna, his mother, more or less clearly "in mourning" (though she tells Jeanne it's on account of her (Anna's) brother having recently died), _doesn't say much_.  As the film progresses, it becomes clear that Jeanne and Giuseppe did have "a falling out" ABOUT A YEAR AGO ... so one starts to wonder if Jeanne had really been invited to be there (and yet she _insists_ that she was).

What the heck was going actually on?   With _almost no one talking_ and even when they did talk, saying _very little_ (of pertinence anyway) this becomes a _fascinating_ if _irritating_ "mystery" of sorts.   What happened?  What happened to / where was Giuseppe?  Why doesn't Anna know where her own son is?  What was Jeanne hoping to accomplish by being there (or staying there)?

And with this playing-out in the context of Holy Week, there's _a lot_ of symbolism present as well.

Fascinating / irritating and above all _slow moving_ story ;-)

Honestly, quite a good job! ;-) 


* Foreign language webpages are most easily translated using Google's Chrome Browser. 

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The BFG [2016]

MPAA (PG)  CNS/USCCB (A-I)  ChicagoTribune (3 Stars)  RogerEbert.com (3 1/2 Stars)  AVClub (C+)  Fr. Dennis (3 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (K. Jensen) review
ChicagoTribune (M. Phillips) review
RogerEbert.com (M. Zoller Seitz) review
AVClub (A.A. Dowd) review


The BFG [2016] (directed by Steven Spielberg, screenplay by Melissa Mathison based on the children's book [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] by Roald Dahl [wikip] [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] [IMDb]) is a truly _excellent_ children's film that many parents / adults may very well enjoy as well.

Further, the reason why many adults may enjoy the film is very nice as well: Unlike many other children's oriented films made these days, it's not as if there's "a second level" in which to understand the film that would be geared more to the adults.  INSTEAD, as Matt Zoller Seitz writes in his review of the film for the website RogerEbert.com, the film invites Viewers to re-experience the world through the eyes of a kid. 

So the film begins with 8 year old orphan named Sophie (played wonderfully by Ruby Tarnhill) who can't seem to sleep one night.  So she's looking out the window of the orphanage in what seems to be 50s era London around three AM and ... to her _enormous surprise_ she spots an "older" 50-60 ft GIANT lumbering down the street. 

Now SHE'S scared because though GIANTS _do exist_ in the world of an eight year old, she _didn't_ really expect to run into one.  Then from the Giant's perspective (played again very, very nicely by Mark Rylance), he didn't expect to be spotted by her either.  Even though he's 50-60 ft tall, he'd only come to London late in the night, and with a very very dark cloak, and a cane that looked kinda like a streetlight, he'd make himself quite invisible to passerbys that encountered (first).  THERE'S A VERY, VERY CUTE / ENJOYABLE SEQUENCE in which we, the Viewers, (along with Sophie) watch this 50-60 ft GIANT quite gracefully avoid being spotted by five or six different passerbys.  The one thing that this kindly GIANT (what's he doing there? well it turns out that he has a fairly important job to do each night... No, I'm not going to tell you here, but it'd make perfect sense to a 5-10 year old) didn't expect was to be spotted / watched by the eight year old Sophie. 

So she's scared and he's scared and he just takes her up then to "Giant Country" where he lives to figure things out.  He may be A BIG GIANT, but not a particularly BRIGHT ONE ;-).  But if not all that bright, he turns to be remarkably kind.  Hence why Sophie comes to call him BFG or "Big Friendly Giant."

Now after Sophie wakes up the next morning up there with her new found friend, BFG, up in Giant Country, she finds that even GIANTS don't have it all that easy.  Indeed, there always seems to be "someone" EVEN BIGGER than they are.  So Sophie / we find that even the BFG finds himself picked-on by EVEN BIGGER GIANTS than he.

And who then better to help him THAN A KID (and even an ORPHAN KID) who knows a bit about being SMALL and yes, often, LONELY / ALONE ...

This is just a wonderful story folks ... and yes, much, much ensues ... ;-)


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The Purge: Election Year [2016]

MPAA (R)  Fr. Dennis (1/2 Star)

IMDb listing


The Purge: Election Year [2016] (written and directed by James DeMonaco), the third in this base franchise is a film that I could not bring myself to watch. 

I did view and review the original film The Purge [2012] in the series.  However, I saw no positive value to viewing / reviewing the sequel that appeared a year later  And despite a certainly having a seductive title (of sorts) playing to frustration (and encouraging cynicism) in our country with the current state of our election process, I similarly could not find positive reason to view / review the current film. 

I do give the film 1/2 Star because I do believe that the franchise does apparently speak to a frustration existing today in society, otherwise I don't believe that the original film and its sequels would have had box office success to justify (financially) the continuation of the series.  I fully expect the current film "to do well" (financially).  I just do hope that the more-or-less inevitable fourth film will prove to be a flop.

Yes, there is frustration in the land.  But do we need to exploit it for monetary gain?  And if we do, does this not approach making a living through blood money?  Call this film (and the films of this series) essentially a kind of porn:  AT BEST these films "dissipate" anger / frustration present in their viewers.  AT WORST they may actually encourage more violent acting out in society and ALMOST CERTAINLY they _further_ degrade our consciences and further numb us to the shock of violence (making violent behavior appear ever more acceptable).

Folks, this is not a good slope to be going down...


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Legend of Tarzan [2016]

MPAA (PG-13)  Fr. Dennis (0 Stars)

IMDb listing


It's been several years that I've walked out of a movie.  I've done so twice -- Killer Joe [2012] and Sinister [2012].  Now surprisingly, with Legend of Tarzan [2016] (directed by David Yates, story and screenplay by Adam Cozad and Craig Brewer based, sort of, on the Tarzan stories [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] by Edgar Rice Burroughs [wikip] [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] [IMDb], lead role played by Alexander Skarsgård)

What the...?  Why the...?  Well the chief villain (played by Christoph Waltz) strangled people using his Rosary.  When about 45 minutes into the movie, after already doing so several times, he explains to Jane (played by Margot Robbie) that he got said Rosary from a priest friend when he was nine, she retorts: "You must have been close..."

I stayed dazed in the theater for about 5-10 minutes more and then said, "You know what, I'm done..."

Zero stars.   Indeed, for the second week in a row, as I asked with Independence Day: Resurgence [2016](though for different reasons) yet even more so here, can one give a film negative stars?  Both awful and sad.


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The Shallows [2016]

MPAA (PG-13)  CNS/USCCB (A-III)  ChicagoTribune (2 Stars)  RogerEbert.com (3 Stars)  AVClub (C+)  Fr. Dennis (4 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (K. Jensen) review
ChicagoTribune (M. Phillips) review
RogerEbert.com (M. Zoller-Seitz) review
AVClub (I. Vishnevetsky) review  


The Shallows [2016] (directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, screenplay by Anthony Jaswinski) is ... an EVER ENTERTAINING but ALSO   SURPRISINGLY INTELLIGENT -- "SUMMER SHARK" MOVIE ;-).  

I say EVER ENTERTAINING because I _jumped_ "early and often" during the course of the film that was often spectacularly shot in the "small indie" / "surfing documentary" idiom (honestly, the cinematography alone is worth going to see the film).

And I call this film _surprisingly intelligent_ because though made in said "small indie" rather than "Blockbuster" fashion, (hence for a fraction of the cost of Jaws [1975], the film that one would have thought was "the shark movie to end all shark movies," THE "shark movie" that arguably "jumped its own shark" ;-) ... the current film is arguably MORE INTELLIGENT than Jaws [1975].

Honestly, the current film could be thought of as Steven Spielberg's name-making blockbuster Jaws [1975] meeting a surprising / updated retelling of Ernest Hemingway's classic Old Man and the Sea [wikip] [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] [IMDb], featuring instead of "an old bearded man in a boat trying to reel-in a fish," a bikini clad medical student named Nancy (played honestly magnificently by Blake Lively) trying to take down a shark. 

Indeed the film could be thought of  as "the revenge of the stupid / arguably 'immoral' utterly anonymous woman who gets "munched" in the opening sequence of Jaws (while carelessly going 'skinny dipping', alone, in the sea at the end of some random beach-side party).  In contrast, Blake Lively's late-20 something surfing medical student Nancy is _anything_ but stupid / careless or immoral (indeed, let's just being by saying that SHE'S GIVEN A NAME...)  Yes, she finds herself alone 200 yards out from a secluded ("secret") beach somewhere in Mexico.  However, that's because she wants to take-in "one last wave" before calling it a day.  And she's at the beach to begin with, in good part, to grieve for her mother who had died recently of cancer. 

Blake Lively's Nancy is thus quite similar to Reese Witherspoon's character in Wild [2014] ... trying to "do what she loves" (in this case surf) to get herself out of her grief.  And that she would have gravitated toward a more secluded ("secret") beach to do this, given her circumstances would even make sense ... people generally don't like to grieve "in public" ...

Anyway, while she tries to take-in that "one last wave" on that fateful late afternoon ... she gets "knocked off her surf board" (and even bitten) ... by a (it turns out, one rather "driven" / "single minded") shark ... some 200 yards from shore, and much then ensues over the subsequent several days ...

Honestly, a quite excellent film and on several levels ;-)

Good / great job! ;-)


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Invention for Destruction (orig. Vynález Skázy previously released as The Fabulous World of Jules Verne) [1958/2015]

MPAA (UR would be PG)  Fr. Dennis (4+ Stars)

IMDb listing
CSFD listing*
FDb.cz listing*

aVoir-aLire (V. Dumez) review*
Moria Sci-Fi, Horror, Fantasy Review (R. Scheib) review

FilmServer.cz (V. Limberk) review*

Invention for Destruction (orig. Vynález Skázy previously released as The Fabulous World of Jules Verne) [1958 / 2015] [IMDB] [CSFD]*[FDb]* (directed and screenplay cowritten by Karel Zeman [wikip] [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDb]*, along with František Hrubín [IMDB] [CSFD]* [FDb]* dialogues by Milan Vácha [IMDb] [FDb]* based on the story Facing the Flag (orig. Face au Drapeau) [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] by Jules Vernes [wikip] [GR] [IMDb] [CSFD]* is a TRULY REMARKABLE 1950s-era Czech combined animated / live-action gem that was _solemnly_ re-released digital restored form at the 2015 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival* and has subsequently been made available in said digital restored form on DVD (available on Amazon) for a reasonable price.  The film played recently at the Gene Siskel Film Center here in Chicago as part of the 2016 Czech That Film Tour organized annually by the Czech Ministry of Culture and the Czech Diplomatic Mission to the United States.  Indeed, presenting the film at the Friday 6/24 screening here in Chicago was Ludmila Zeman, the legengary director's daughter.

Often today we tend to think of Science Fiction, especially Sci-Fi film to be almost an exclusive province of the United States.  Films like the current one here are a reminder of the VARIETY of SciFi visions available once one gets past our borders.  And it is a _lovely_ trip.  Over the years, I've reviewed fair amount of foreign SciFi films including Upside Down [2013] from Argentina, Blue Desert (orig. Deserto Azul) [2013] from Brazil, Melancholia [2011] by Denmark's Lars von Trier, the Twilight-Zonish The Similars (orig. Los Parecidos) [2015] by Mexico's Isaac Ezban, and the Russian sci-fi films Calculator (orig. Вычислитель / Vychislitel) [2014],  Hard to be a God (orig. Трудно быть Богом) [2013] and  Under Electric Clouds (orig. Под электрическими облаками / Pod elektricheskimi oblakami) [2015].  All these films expand our horizons of what's possible in the genre.

And the current film, black and white, done with a truly marvelous mix of 1950s-era animation and live action, and doing so in a manner that respects, spectacularly, the style of the illustrations in Jules Verne's novels, arguably ANTICIPATES the Ian Flemming inspired James Bond films of the 1960s.

What's the plot of this story?  A scientist, Professor Roch (played by Arnošt Navrátil [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDb]*) is kidnapped by an evil pirate / capitalist / industrialist Artigas (played by Miloslav Holub [IMDb] [CSFD]* [FDb]*) taking him to a far off island with a giant volcano where he forces the scientist build him a weapon of unimaginable destruction, and it's up to the French Navy to come in to save the Day.  Okay, switch the French Navy to the British Agent 007 and move the story by 75 years or so and this becomes the plot to essentially Ian Flemming's Dr. No [book 1958 , film 1962]].

So yes, this becomes a fascinating film to look-up for _all kinds_ of historical, technical, thematic reasons.  And typical of the era, it's not even too long -- about 78 minutes ;-) -- SO it's not even that big of a risk to take ;-) ... and once it starts, I'm _positive_ that most film lovers will just watch this remarkable film with jaw dropped fascination.

Technically, it really is that good and then when one thinks that thematically this story / film could have ANTICIPATED some of the James Bond novels / films that followed, it just becomes all the more remarkable.

Thanks for making this part of this already quite remarkable Czech That Film Series!



* Foreign language webpages are most easily translated using Google's Chrome Browser. 

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