At dawn in Western Hungary, 14-year-old Hunor and his family bring their greyhound dogs to clear wildlife from ZalaZONE, one of Europe’s most advanced autonomous vehicle test tracks. Their ancient knowledge quietly makes way for a militarizing future.
One of the reasons I love watching movies is that, much like books, they serve as windows into other times and different places. Productions from around the world offer valuable insights into the history and culture of their respective countries. And just like literature, cinema can help us understand the present by showing us the past.
The movie opens with an empty house, cameras pan around from the perspective of what viewers are confused about at first, but turns out to be a spirit living in the home.
Perhaps the most amazing and groundbreaking quality about The Birdcage is how removed it is from both illness and insensitivity. Whereas films preceding it were often somber stories about the tribulations of being gay in a conservatively straight world, Nichols and screenwriter Elaine May expose the fallacies of conservatism as traditional values are thrown into a more open-minded space. They don’t care how far the community has fallen so much as how high they can rebuild themselves.
With such a raw look at the 15th century, it seems that Disney was really trying to step outside of its element with this motion picture.
In The Women and the Murderer, directors Mona Achache and Patricia Tourancheau center women—the very demographic true crime is designed to appeal to.
This is not McDonald’s. This is something different.
