“Sunshine? What the heck is that?”

If these are your thoughts as you view the above movie poster, you wouldn’t be alone. For some inexplicable reason, this glorious science fiction thriller, from director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, Millions) has, despite its title, been almost completely kept in the dark…at least here in the United States. I recall seeing a trailer once many, many months ago and was thus suprised to see it suddenly released this past weekend with no fanfare. This type of studio behavior generally signals that a load of trash is about to be released on an unsuspecting audience. With Sunshine, however, nothing could be further from the truth.

Continue reading Sunshine →

Love is a many splendored thing…as is this delightful film about love, and the city of love.

Paris Je T’aime (Paris, I love you) is a grand concept. Take 20 directors and give them each five minutes worth of film time to direct a postcard of love to Paris. To further establish that this is indeed a love story to the city, each segment would be set in one of the twenty arrondissement municipals (municipal boroughs) into which the city is divided. Arrange these together with an overall framing sequence and voila!, romance is born.

It sounds deceptively simple, does it not? I would guess that it was anything but. One indication of that fact would be that two of the filmed sequences had to be left out of the final film as writer/director Emmanuel Benbihy and director Frédéric Auburtin could not integrate them into the final product to their satisfaction.

Thus, what one ends up with is 18 stories directed by 18 separate directors, including a cast that is fascinatingly diverse, that demonstrate the ecstasy and the agony of love while giving an honest look at the city which is the very personification of romance. And what a remarkable result!

Continue reading Paris, Je T’aime →