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![]() A Separation fascinates both as an absorbing domestic drama and a lens into contemporary Iran. That compelling combination has made it a worldwide sensation, the odds-on favorite to win Best Foreign Language Film at the upcoming Oscars. It presents two families drawn together by domestic n…
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Bergman in Paris? No. Hatami in Teh...
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![]() The legendary chef behind a Michelin Three Star sushi restaurant gets profiled in Jiro Dreams of Sushi. Indeed, Jiro Ono does dream of sushi, and has for most of his 85 years. Unfortunately his BioDoc is too subtle for its own good, even given its zen subject. It also focuses as much on Ji…
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Jiro's Dreamy Sushi
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![]() The Intouchables clearly plays better in its native France than to we Americans. There it is a cultural sensation that bridges the divide between an immigrant underclass and wealthy patricians, the former living in bleak suburban projects, the latter in central Paris. Featuring big French sta…
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"You're going to buy that?!"
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![]() Goodbye Barcelona. Russian Dolls sends the Euro dudes and dudettes from The Spanish Apartment to London, Paris and St. Petersburg, with a side trip for clubbing in Moscow. Fairly steady sexual tension and plenty of mildly amusing romantic hijinks make it an entertaining trip, one that’s set…
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A lesbian becomes a dude's best friend
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![]() How to make a pleasant French sex comedy? Drop half a dozen attractive young singles into one apartment, ideally in a mildly exotic city. Occasionally drop in a boyfriend or girlfriend from back home and mix in a lonely wife living nearby. Voilà! L’Auberge Espagnole, a European hit that w…
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A lesbian teaches a guy to seduce a girl
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![]() A pre-sexual revolution Italian trifle, Matrimonio All’Italiana packs a considerevole punch 50 years on. Consider Sophia Loren – in her prime. Screen sirens come no hotter or more joyous. Marcel…
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Sophia Loren's Filumena, fully grown
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![]() The good news about Rust and Bone is that it’s not about an orca trainer’s accident. It’s about her recovery. In any case, hers is only half the story, the rest being about an oafish stud with a small child in tow. What happens to father and son is tougher to take than what happens to her – …
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Communing Mammals: Human and Orca
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![]() So big it came down to YES or NO. A national referendum on authoritarian rule, YES or NO? NO won, a shock to Chile, many Latinos and the world. Turns out that pop was the way to nail the weasel. The weasel was General Augusto Pinochet, the strongman who had fixed the economy but crushed diss…
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Selling Liberation Like Toothpaste
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![]() Precious few movies about life in communist countries have made an impact in America. Barbara should be one of them. It’s a compelling drama – and a sexy one – about a glamorous doctor torn between two men and the different lives they represent. It’s also an insightful lens into the grim reali…
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Every Move Watched
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![]() French musical sensation Serge Gainsbourg explains himself in this surreal biopic. Largely unknown here in America, Gainsbourg was a cross between Dylan, Sinatra and Leonard Cohen in France. The women he squired – including Brigitte Bardot during her superstar heyday – comprise a good part of h…
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Musician's Beauty: Gainsbourg & Bardot
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