The Harler in Seoul, France in … Hollywood

A woman dressed in the green is circulating on the streets of Seoul, where the green is matching as you see trees and parks everywhere. It is obviously European and has the face of Isabelle Epirus. It’s alone. And is the vehicle that will lead us to the world of the movie’s daily life « The Travel » (Yeohaengjaui Pilyo/ A Treveller’s Needs, South Korea, 2024), by Hong Shang You, a contemporary cinema poet whose work is usually scenes of scenes from everyday people where the driving force, most of the time, has a female face (« the woman ». Long -lasting shots, the camera still as a statue watches everything giving a strange inner rhythm that, no matter how tired, keeps your antennas stretched. This method is followed here as well, only this time he has Isabelle Epirus, so his « vehicle » has a dynamic from the beginning. The director lets a veil of mystery cover this woman, for whom we learn almost nothing and which, while having all the characteristics of a typical French (can be demanding, even brawling, bringing the other into embarrassment), is also distinguished by one particular humor, self -sufficient, self -sufficient. We will find nothing super dramatic or tragic, but we will stay there, until the end, dragged by the almost hypnotic directing of Hong Shang and Isabelle’s always magnetic persona.

Ready for… remake

From France comes the movie « My brother’s orchestra » (En fanfare, 2024) and would not impress us if at some point Hollywood bought its rights to an American remake. It has all the specifications. It all starts with the discovery of Timo (Benjamin Lavern), a talented orchestra director, that he is first adopted and secondly has a brother, Jimmy (Pierre Loten), who is also adopted. The reason Timo approaches Jimmy is first healthy, but, as you expect, between the two brothers will create a very special relationship that, while starting aggressively (on the side of Jimmy), finds her way slowly. And in this, their common love for music will play a role, as Jimmy is an amateur musician – the soul of his village band. Therefore, the foundations for a Feelgood Buddy Movie exist with the above, so all that is left is the harmonious management of the situation so that neither the film becomes very funny nor too dramatic. Everything is in the right balance and director Emmanuel Kourkol adheres to them. Music is a good « collaborator ». Classical music, wardrobes, jazz will enter the same « music box », so the film will take off, leaving behind, when it finishes, a wonderful « taste ».

Wild love story

Adhering to proportions, the film ‘Cracked hearts’ (L ‘Amour Ouf, France/Belgium, 2024), another attempt to direct actor Gille Lelous (six years after « swim or otherwise sinking »), has nothing to envy from the (thematic and constructive) corresponding American. Erotic adventure of dizzying speed and high temperatures, with thieves and police, love and infidelity, cabins and betrayals, and two fresh, sexy faces in the heart of history: Adel Exarchopoulos and François Sivils manage to give them all. We have seen it many times and if it is well made it is always attracted. Exarchou and Sivil is the heart of a wild love story that has been three decades in an area of ​​the French north, starting in 1980 and reaching until 2000. During this rather small venture, but it has the dimensions of epic (two hours and 46 minutes) Lelous, like Malori Wankek and Malik Frici who play the couple at a younger age. Obviously, Lelous’s goal was a high level of filling cinema, in the sense of flawless in everything production – and here is both the illustrated photography direction of Loran Tanzi, as well as John Brion’s « Beitate » music. Not a great movie, but a nerve -wracking contemporary fairy tale of A La Romanian and Juliet – and I say it with my mind mainly in Baz Lourman’s version with Leonardo Di Caprio and Claire Dance. Honestly, if the same movie was filmed in English, it would be a Hollywood Quale.

Traditional terror

I will not hide my enthusiasm for the « Entity » (Oddity, Ireland, 2024) by Damian McCarthy, who courageously goes against the millennial clichés that are more repelled despite the curiosity of watching a horror movie. McCarthy seems to have his clear mind in the past, when British films like the « entity » was the rule, not the exception to the kind of cinematic horror. I am not only referring to the era of the heyday of the legendary British studio of Hammer Films (1950s) but also in later horror films that made sense of seventies, such as « Scarecrow Man » and the least known « Neither the Sea Nor the Sand » (1974). This means removal from blood lakes and music in the scenes in the « agony » scenes – so predictable that the anxiety is often turned into boredom. Not here. With two or three rooms dramatically (exterior shooting are few), the « entity » captures the story of two twin brothers (Carolin Braken) of which one is dead and the other blind with metaphysical gifts. Through the touch she can understand much about the real causes of her sister’s death, so she begins the mystery with the noble psychologist, a widow of the dead (Guilim Lee), to become a key face. In the end, I really found this return to the old, traditional terror at a time when almost everything has been said.

Philosophy, life, cinema

Another director who has long been presenting work, Stratos Tzitzis (of « Save Me ») returns with the film ‘I have something to say’ (Greece, 2024), which you can take as a game around cinema itself, philosophy, literature and everyday life. Although the whole thing has to do with Jiji himself, his own impasses, his own concerns, his own phobias, the film finds a way to communicate with you or, if you like, Jitzis finds a way to share all of the above with the viewer without him. So we have the cinema in the cinema and a mood of self -deprecating reflection on its own life and mysteries, with a central hero a scriptwriter trying to publish a philosophical book that does not seem to be about anyone beyond himself. The hero is obviously the director’s alter ego and is played by Alkinoos Albanis with grace (and relaxation), while Tzitzis incorporates the film … Making of her, with footage (while directing) and the people of his workshop. If all of this sounds a bit of a halo, the truth is that … it is, but this « little » movie you have the feeling that it wants to make you a big hug, just to tell you her pain. And, yes, she is very loved in her deep melancholy, her humorous mood and above all her sincerity (Yiannis Zouganelis, Zeta Doukas, Vicky Flessa, Alekos Syssovitis, etc.)

Aliens in Bulgaria

The fact that a weird incident about the existence of aliens that actually occurred in Bulgaria shortly after the fall of communism (1990) was the basis of the Bulgarian/Greece Co -operation scenario. « Triumph » (Triumf, 2024) Personally, he tells me absolutely nothing, because his cinematic « rebellion » looks even more … extraterrestrial. For one and a half hours we look at a forest in which something seems to indicate the existence of aliens, and the army with the help of a medium is trying to understand what has happened. And we of course with him. If, with this weird event, directors Christina Groseva and Petar Valchanov intended to talk about the chaos that prevailed not only in Bulgaria but in all the countries that had just escaped the martyrdom of the communist regime, but I am sorry. All that comes out is a tiring repetition of « junior » events about managing this situation that could well be condensed in a short film (starring Maria Bakalova, who has been pursuing an international career for years).

Old art of sieve

Finally, there is Jason Stitham, that is ‘A mere man’ (A Simple Man, USA, 2025), or another adventure where it makes the lamps to render justice (here’s a « da » to bad Russians and other scorpions of society). Years in Kourbetti doing about the same thing, Stitham knows very well how to « sell » himself: Action, action and again action with the same stupid and insulting, mentally distressed and absolutely certain in whatever he does. Director David Eger offers a well -made b movie – a variant of « kidnapping » with Liam Nyson.

Opera in the background …

Removing from cinematic directing for some time (his last very good film « Letters from the Past », 2015), Canadian director Athom Egoyan, on his return, ‘Seven veils’ (Seven Veils, Canada / Finland / USA, 2023), in essence he does what he did in all his famous films, especially in the 1990s (« The Adjuster », « Exams », « Sweet Destiny »): It takes an event around him and builds various stories around him. Here, the fact is the problematic uploading of an Oscar Wilde theatrical performance – opera of « Salome », who has taken over a young director (Amanda Shaifrid), who is as decisive, so uncertain. It is very likely that Wilde’s « Salome » will say about the lust of patriarchy that has hurt the woman for centuries, but this is not « equated » with the subconscious of sexual harassment that at some point comes to the light of her filmmaker, who shows her about her. He is also cheating with Skype, the strict German lyric singer of the play played by John the Baptist (Michael Kupfer-Randeki) but also the female faces involved in production (Rebecca Lydard, Vinesa Antoine). The (often boring) problems of uploading a difficult theatrical performance are that distract our attention here than something else, probably deeper, which is only in the mind of Egogian and not on the screen.