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Live, love, music; “PLAYING WITH FIRE” | Documentary review

With the documentary “Playing with Fire: Jeannette Sorrell and the Mysteries of Conducting” Oscar-winning director Allan Miller explores the career of a woman who bleeds with a complete love of music and works to bring the vibrancy and stories of classical music to life.
When she was young Jeannette Sorrell was told by the Juilliard School and The Cleveland Orchestra that no orchestra would hire more >
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Change at the top, some firsts, Rohrwacher, Moretti and Bellocchio and expectations | Cannes
CANNES, FRANCE - Some firsts at the Cannes Festival which starts today, an Italian contingent in the competition slate and what I look forward to the most this year. At the helm ... more >

The paths to justice are manifold. Reimagining prison sentencing with “THE RECALL: REFRAMED” dir. by Rebecca Richman Cohen | TALK
When Brock Turner was handed down a sentence of just six months in prison for a sexual assault case that occurred on the Stanford University campus in 2015, a collective outrage at ... more >

“I GOT A MONSTER”; documentary filmmaker Kevin Abrams on dissecting on film one of the American East Coast’s most egregious police corruption scandals | TALK
When Kevin Abrams started work on his documentary “I Got a Monster” in 2018, he was determined that retelling the story of Baltimore’s corrupt Gun Trace Task Force not traffic in ... more >
THE WEEK IN REVIEW

Live, love, music; “PLAYING WITH FIRE” | Documentary review
With the documentary “Playing with Fire: Jeannette Sorrell and the Mysteries of Conducting” Oscar-winning director Allan Miller explores the career of a woman who bleeds with a complete love ... more >

“THE POT-AU-FEU” | Cannes
In mid-19th century France, Eugénie has worked for twenty years alongside the famous gastronome Dodin. She’s an expert at preparing French dishes, poring over the writings of Antonin Carême, ... more >

When the private chaos of a relationship becomes public matter; “ANATOMY OF A FALL” | Cannes
My other favorite this year along with “The zone of interest” is “Anatomy of a fall” (“Anatomie d’une chute”), directed by Justine Triet. It’s a courtroom drama around a writer's sudden ... more >

The Wes Anderson-directed “ASTEROID CITY” makes landing | Cannes
“Asteroid City” is a visual feat of a movie with little in the way of substance, in fact, this might be the most contrived Wes Anderson film I've watched. Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Liev ... more >

Jessica Hausner comes to Cannes with “CLUB ZERO”; tuck in | Cannes
Jessica Hausner takes concepts such as workaholism or dieting and makes them into extremes. In her 2019 film “Little Joe” a scientist became so engrossed in cultivating her indoor plants ... more >

Revolution, jihad and family ties in “FOUR DAUGHTERS” | Cannes
In 2015 two of Olfa Hamrouni’s four daughters left home to join the Islamic State in Libya. Tunisia was becoming known as the leading exporter of jihadists then. “They were eaten by the ... more >

Jonathan Glazer’s “THE ZONE OF INTEREST” | Cannes
English filmmaker Jonathan Glazer (“Sexy Beast”; “Under the Skin”) was in Cannes this year for the first time with “The Zone of Interest,” a stunning new film about the Auschwitz ... more >

Sean Penn and Tye Sheridan as two paramedics in the eye of the storm in “BLACK FLIES” | Cannes
In “Black Flies” the full-frontal reality of two nighttime paramedics grabs you at the throat and doesn’t let go. The new Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire film is an infernal ride of double-shifts and ... more >