Jasmim Talks Cinema

Jasmim's Choice 2003 Best Film: Winner: Lost in Translation A Tale of Two Sisters American Splendor Dogville Elephant Good Bye Lenin! Kill Bill: Vol.1 Memories of Murder Oldboy Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring The Barbarian Invasions The Dreamers The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King The Return 21 Grams Best Director: Winner: Sofia Coppola, Lost in Translation Kim Jee-Woon, A Tale of Two Sisters Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Distant Lars Von Trier, Dogville Gus Van Sant, Elephant Quentin Tarantino, Kill Bill: Vol.1 Peter Weir, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World Bong Joon-ho, Memories of Murder Park Chan-Wook, Oldboy Kim Ki-Duk, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring Denys Arcand, The Barbarian Invasions Bernardo Bertolucci, The Dreamers Peter Jackson, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Andrey Zvyagintsev, The Return Alejandro G. Iñárritu, 21 Grams Best Actor: Winners: Bill Mu...

My coverage of the Lisbon&Sintra Film Festival: Last week I went to the Lisbon&Sintra Film Festival (Leffest), which took place between the 16th and the 25th. I watched 8 films and 1 short that I absolutely loved. Here are the reviews I wrote and posted on my Instagram and Facebook accounts with some minor changes and additions. Day 1 - Psychogenic Fugue (directed by Sandro Miller)/Inland Empire (directed by David Lynch)  On the night of the 16th of November, I had the most Lynchian experience in my entire life. Everything in the way the festival organized the event of the opening of the festival's retrospective of Lynch's work (Waiting for Mr. Lunch) just felt so brilliantly out of a Lynch movie (in a good way). Everything started with Chrysta Bell singing live the song "Polish Poem" from Inland Empire. Everything about her performance just felt like something out of a David Lynch movie, which means Leffest did an amazing job. Then we were gr...

Damien Chazelle - The Reality of Dreams   He may only be 33 years old, with only four feature films under his belt, but he has already established himself as one of the most talented directors of our generation. He was referred to as "the Millenial Auteur" by The Hollywood Reporter , and rightfully so. He has already had two films nominated for Best Picture in the Academy Awards (and, hopefully, a third one this year), having already won one Oscar for Best Directing, becoming the youngest director to ever win such recognition. He is definitely already an auteur, and, in this article, I'll be exploring what connects his films. More specifically, I'll be talking about Whiplash , La La Land , and First Man  (I haven't seen Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench  yet, so I can't talk about it). I want to explore what do they have in common in terms of themes, messages, and techniques, and, through that, establish what may be called the "style" of Damien C...

Eighth Grade - Growing Up in the Digital Era "Hey! It's Kayla, back with another video!"  How does technology affect us? How does, more specifically, social media affect the way kids nowadays grow up? How does this unrestrained exposure affect us? This is what this film is about. Eighth Grade is the first film I have seen that deals with issues faced by teenagers nowadays in a mature way, without any condescendence or patronization. Bo Burnham deals with the issues that cause so much anxiety and suffering to modern teens in a very humane, understanding and moving way - mostly because the anxieties of being a professional performer and the anxieties felt by teenagers today are almost identical. This is one of the best written and most refreshing films of the year and it's the film that we needed at this moment with such misunderstandings between generations. This film is a perfect portrayal of what it is to grow up in this digital era.  In this film, we follow...

Jasmim's Choice 2004 Best Film: Winner: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Bad Education Before Sunset Downfall Head-On Howl's Moving Castle Kill Bill Vol.2 Primer Sideways The Aviator The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou The Motorcycle Diaries The Sea Inside Vera Drake 2046 Best Director: Winner: Richard Linklater, Before Sunset Pedro Almodóvar, Bad Education Oliver Hirschbiegel, Downfall Michel Gondry, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Fatih Akin, Head-On Yimou Zhang, House of Flying Daggers Hayao Miyasaki, Howl's Moving Castle Quentin Tarantino, Kill Bill: Vol.2 Shane Carruth, Primer Alexander Payne, Sideways Martin Scorsese, The Aviator Wes Anderson, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou Alejandro Amenábar, The Sea Inside Mike Leigh, Vera Drake Wong Kar-Wai, 2046 Best Actor: Winners: Gael García Bernal, Bad Education; Javier Bardem, The Sea Inside Ethan Hawke, Before Sunset Bruno Ganz, Downfa...

Ashore - Moments of Silence, Moments of Noise  Our lives are made up of two types of moments: moments of noise - when we are with family an friends - and moments of silence - when we are with our inner selves. In Ashore  we are invited to analyze this in the life of a common fisherman. With a humanistic eye, Leonor Teles shows us a glimpse of this man's and his family's life. This film is a portrait of a fisherman and the family that brings him ashore. This film is a portrait of the division between life in solitude and life in coexistence.  In this documentary, we follow Albertino Lobo, a fisherman who lives in Vila Franca de Xira, a town near Lisbon. We follow his routine as he goes fishing in the river Tagus as well as his family life. For one hour and twenty minutes, we are voyeuristic guests in this man's life. We see him as he looks into the distance in his fishing boat, and we hear the conversations around the dinner table. Leonor Teles brilliantly places th...